Mathew (uncle Matty) Capone Miami 1967
Here is how Johnny Chase described one of the most incredible escapes in history: This is an exact copy of a letter that he sent to a “Sister Pat”. He wrote this on April 27, 1970. The copy I have is in his own handwriting. I got it from Father Joseph M. Clark’s personal achieves with permission.
“From January 1934 to August 1934, Warden James A. Johnston made frequent trips to other prisons in the United States, both Federal, and State penitentiaries, studying the procedures of these prisons.
From his personal study and observations of these State and Federal prisons, he and his staff selected rules and regulation the deemed most suitable for Alcatraz.
Among those rules selected was the “Silent System” in force at the time at ‘Stillwater Penitentiary” in Minnesota.
The Silent System as it was enforced at Alcatraz, seemed to be the nucleus of all the unrest, trouble, and violence that happened on Alcatraz.
Each man upon entering Alcatraz was given a number and from the moment he received his number his identity was lost. He became that number. He was addressed by that number. He answered to that number. All papers concerning him were identified by that number. His mail, clothes, shoes, cell, place of work, were located through that number. It was a number he would remember to the day of his death.
The silent system forbade the inmate to talk while in the cell, cell house, dining room, or wherever the inmates came to gather, while in the main buildings, like shower rooms, clothing room, sick call, or court call.
After a new inmate was in Alcatraz a few days he became somewhat proficient in sign language. Most every one communicated with their hands.
Alcatraz was populated with convicts from other Federal prisons. These convicts were those who were trouble-makers in the other prisons, or men who had tried to escape, and those who did escape and later got caught.
When Warden Johnston toured the other Penitentiaries, he also went through the files on all those inmates already selected to go to Alcatraz, when it officially opens.
Due to the fact that Alcatraz was to be populated with escape artists, Warden Johnston also saw to it that many of these men, whose record, and files also revealed that they were informers, were to be the first men to go to Alcatraz.
His, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons purpose was to have these men while at Alcatraz, to point out the “weak-spots” as they recognized them. And to become informers on those convicts contemplating escape, either by word, or by actions.
Among these informers sent to Alcatraz was Roy Gardener, number 110, an escape artist par excellence, turned informer. He arrived among the very first to be sent to Alcatraz on Sept. 2nd 1934.
Roy Gardener was notorious for his many escapes. He escaped from U. S. Marshall’s, from trains, from penitentiaries. These escapes made by Gardener in the 1920’s are legend, colorful, and daring.
Roy Gardener would be taken from his cell, while all the other inmates were locked up. (All cells in Alcatraz were single cells, that is; one man to a cell) and interrogated as to what the other convicts were talking about in relation to the Security of the Island, escapes and so forth.
Roy Gardener would sometimes be taken outside the cell house and out upon the cat-walks where he would point out to the officials possible escape routes.
These would be promptly reinforced, barb-wired, or completely concreted as the condition demanded. One of the routes he caused to be sealed up with concrete was the tunnel containing pipe lines to the dock area. Another was the windows over the power-house. Here he suggested a tower be erected to control any possible approach by way of the laundry roof.
The convict population of Alcatraz at this time was unaware of these trips by Gardener, or of Gardener to be the informer he was until most of the avenues of escape were sealed off. Then, those men who knew the true Gardener were beginning to be transferred to Alcatraz.
Most of Gardener’s stooling and informing became known when a guard was reprimanded by the Warden for disobeying a suggestion put to him by Roy Gardener.
Gardener actually man-handled this guard. The guard made out a “shot” (disciplinary report) on Gardener and presented it to his superiors for processing.
Instead of Gardener being punished, the Warden called the guard in “on the carpet” removed him from the supervision of Gardener and the other man in the mat shop, and given another duty in the front office where he rarely came into contact with the inmates. But this guard did expose what Gardener, and others were doing, to some of the inmates.
Meanwhile the convicts were beginning to tighten up. Becoming wary. Talking only to those few fellow inmates they knew before coming to Alcatraz. And on occasion with a few other inmates with whom it was almost necessary in order to gain information pertinent to their schemes and plots, of which there were many.
I was one of those few, who had, or was, able to gather information needed for the several plots being in the making at about the time I was in Alcatraz for a year.
I was a former rum runner, and knew the Bay Waters pretty well. On top of this I used to live in the Bay Area for many years and knew all the roads to travel. The best places to hide, and possible meeting places.
As a matter of fact I was in the rare position of being the only person knowing about three plots in formation going on at the same time, at Alcatraz!
Although some of the convicts in one plot knew personally other inmates in the other plots, each only knew the details of the plot he was considered “in” on. They being the type of men , they all were, inside or outside, jail-break, or bank robbery, they will not talk about the “caper” they are about to execute, with anyone other than those participating in that caper.
I was considered a participant in practically all 3 plots by virtue of my associates on the outside. And because of my knowledge of the Bay waters, the Bay area, and escape routes (roads) to avoid possible road-blocks,
etc.
Then again I was working in the machine shop, a place where the essentials that are needed in most any escape are either gotten, or made.
In the spring of 1937 Ralph Roe, (#260) and Ted Cole, (#258), approached me as to the feasibility of swimming ashore.
The talks at these times were limited, and a good deal of the talk was “feeling out” the other guy, as to his thoughts and knowledge of leaving the island.
These talks took place as we walked in the yard. Or as we managed to get behind one another in sick call line, bath line, or standing beside one another on a “call-out”. In general, wherever the opportunity came or presented itself, we would exchange views and thoughts pertaining to the tides, their speed, and the drift towards or away from shore. Which was the best chance to take? Should we go with the incoming tide or the out-going tide? Which way the water was traveling and when was it moving towards the ocean or in across the Bay towards Berkeley. How fast did the tide flow? How long a start would be needed? What would be needed and how would they get it?
After several meetings it was generally agreed upon that the best time would be in the winter months when the fog was thickest, like it was the previous January, even though the risk was greater, because of the cold, low tides and faster currents.
Ralph Roe worked in the shop adjoining the machine shop where I (Johnny Chase) worked. To this shop, (the mat shop) I had access. When there were repairs to be done I would manage to go accompanied by a guard. These jobs would be purposefully created at times by jamming the machines so they would break down and not perform.
When the machine or the die that cuts the segments of rubber for the mats would not perform, I and another machinist would go over with a guard and make the necessary replacements or repairs. At these times we would communicate.
Ted Cole worked on what was known as the Labor Crew. This crew, was headquartered for calls through our shop, and their guard used our shops telephone to receive calls.
Ted Cole had just come out of the “hole”. The jobs on the Labor Crew were considered heavy work and were assigned as a disciplinary measure.
Ted would always manage to have something break, or find something to be brought into the machine shop, or to the blacksmith shop, which was also in the same area and under the same supervisor as was the machine shop.
In this shop, officially called the “Blacksmith Shop” eight men worked. The officer in charge was Joe Steere. His detail was known as the “Blacksmith and mat shop detail.”
On top of the roof of the building that housed these shops, was a guards tower and “cat walk”. This guard in the tower commanded a clear view of all the shops in the work area. No convict could pass out of a shop door without first being “cleared” by the shop foreman, to the Tower Guard. This was generally done by the guard stepping outside the door and waving his arm toward the tower guard. Then, the shop foreman would beckon to the inmate to come out. He would then point his arm and finger toward the shop indicating where he was sending the convict. The tower guard usually gave the O.K. Most of the time the shop foreman, would telephone the tower guard and tell him that he was sending a man to a certain shop, then come out with the inmate and wave the clearance to the tower guard.
If a convict stepped outside one of the doors without an okay, the guard, (so we were told) would shoot to kill. Several convicts stepped outside in the two years I worked in that area. Immediately the guard would aim his rifle at the convict and bellow a command to “get back in there!
In the spring of 1937 there were several inmates preparing themselves physically for making a try at swimming off Alcatraz toward shore.
Two of these men were Ralph Roe (#260) and Theodore Cole (#258). Both of these men were from Oklahoma. Ralph was about 28 or 29 years old. He was a good athlete and kept himself physically fit. Ted Cole was about 23 years old, quick tempered with a low boiling point, and always in good shape. Ted Cole went to prison the first time when he was 17 years old. He escaped but was recaptured. While waiting in the jail at Tulsa to be returned to McAlester penitentiary he killed his cell mate.
When Cole was returned to McAlester, he again escaped. This time he kidnapped a farmer and forced him to drive him into Texas. There he was apprehended and sentenced to 50 years under the Lindbergh Kidnap law. He was brought to Alcatraz along with Ralph Roe.
Ralph Roe was also from Oklahoma, from Muskagee, Oklahoma. Ralph has been in and out of prisons since he was 20 years old. In 1934, he escaped from McAlester and robbed the Farmers Bank in Sulphur, Oklahoma. He got a large amount of money which was never recovered. He was sentenced to a federal prison for robbing a Federal Reserve System bank.
Ralph Roe and Ted Cole came to me with one of their plans to escape. They asked questions and we discussed what needed to be done to be successful.
We talked, and what evolved from these talks was a very careful plan that took months to develop. It included the confidence of one other person besides myself and Ralph and Ted. This fellows’ name was Bartlett (#239) who was the next inmate to arrive at Alcatraz after I did.
Ralph and Ted arrived in October 1935.
The tentative route of escape they finally agreed upon was through the barred windows of the Blacksmith Shop, followed by a drop down to the “cat walk” that ran alongside the building and continued around the building to the fog horn located on the northwest end of the Island. This “cat walk” was fenced in by a cyclone fence on the Bay side, the building on the Island side, and barbed wire across the top.
About 25 to 35 feet from the window they intended to go through was a gate in the fence. This gate was closed and had a chain wrapped around it, with a huge padlock holding it in place. The first plans that developed were to pass thru this gate, drop into the water, and swim out to a small island where another fog horn was located. This fog horn worked with the rise and fall of the tide. It wasn’t a fog horn so much, but it was a bell, and around this bell were bell rings suspended in such a way that every time the buoy would move the ringers would strike the bell.
Anyway, one of the ideas was to have a boat come thru the fog on an appointed day and, being guided by the fog horn, then the bell buoy, this boat would come to the small island that sits about 50 feet away from Alcatraz proper.
To get through the gate in the fence they would need something to twist the lock until it broke. A stillson wrench or a stout steel bar would easily do this.
Getting out of the Blacksmith shop would be a simple matter. We had hack-saw blades and although we could only use these blades under the eyes of the officer, we had some “planted” that the guard wasn’t aware of. The biggest obstacle was the water itself. The water was always cold. If one had to stay in it any length of time he would need to prepare for that.
To this end we had plenty of grease. The machines all needed grease for the bearings, and there were two 5 gallon cans of grease in the shop. One was for grease guns, the other for grease cups.
As we talked and discussed the escape over the weeks and months, we covered all aspects, including where to land. Then we had to have clothes ready or to break into some place like the barracks over at Fort Baker. I was familiar with the docks there, the building that housed the “stores”, and the buildings that the soldiers lived in.
All this with the different roads into and out of Marin County we discussed over, and over, time, after time with each other.
We needed money and weapons, and someone came up with the idea of using one gallon cans for water wings. This was a very good suggestion and it is the one item that makes me believe that Ralph and Ted really made it ashore, and away. Before they left, they put sharp daggers in the cans, (one for each man) and all the money that they could gather together.
They had close to $400 most of it belonging to Capone (#85).
Al Capone got into a swindle shortly before the escape plan began to develop. Capone had some money sent into the prison for him, which he divided into several batches of $500 hidden in different parts of the island where it was accessible to inmates who he trusted.