Why is Alcatraz used so much?

Question

This Place comes out in Movies, Books, Music...etc.

Answer 1

First of all it held several very historical mobsters. There are many mysteries that surround the place as well like ghost stories.

Answer 2

Alcatraz as a subject and a place is used so much in books, movies, and other media because it is seen as a prison that is impossible to escape from.
On top of that, it has a long and eventful history. The island was first used for a light house in 1853 when gold was discovered in California in 1848.
It also had a military installation built in 1850, which later became a military prison. It was used during the first world war to imprison Americans who objected to the war. It didn't become a federal prison until 1933.

The main reason you mostly hear about the island and prison is because of the escape attempts, and the stories which are true, and also which have been made up for our entertainment. Although it was only operational as a federal prison for twenty-nine years, it has enough stories to keep you reading and watching for a very long time. This, and it's spot as a modern land mark in San Francisco make it a good subject for creative and historic media.

Answer 3

alcatraz is used so much because it was world's most powerful prison. it held basically every dangerous criminal and mobster that the world could not handle.

even al capone himself said "it seems alcatraz has got me licked" simply because it was deemed impossible to break out of the place until this group of people did it. it is presumed that they drowned in the ocean around the island but their bodies were never found

Answer 4

My feelings for Alcatraz are a little different than the general publics', the aura from our occupation in 1969 has shaped my life immensely.

Answer 5

Alcatraz Island offers a close-up look at the infamous federal penitentiary long off-limits to the public (and despised by inmates), and the historic 18 month occupation by Indians of All Tribes. Rich in cultural history.

rich history of Alcatraz during the penitentiary years and many of the inmates who called "the Rock" home. From the mid 1930's until the mid 1960's, Alcatraz was America's premier maximum-security prison, the final stop for the nation's most incorrigible inmates. Today, Alcatraz is a place of contradictions, with a grim past and an enduring future as one of San Francisco's most prominent landmarks and tourist attractions.

Robert Stroud, who was better known to the public as the "Birdman of Alcatraz," was probably the most famous inmate ever to reside on Alcatraz. In 1909 he brutally murdered a bartender who had allegedly failed to pay a prostitute for whom Stroud was pimping in Alaska.

George "Machine Gun" Kelly is probably considered one of the most famous "gangsters" from the prohibition era. At Alcatraz, Kelly was constantly boasting about several robberies and murders that he had never committed. Although this was said to be an apparent point of frustration for several fellow prisoners, Warden Johnson considered him a model inmate.

Al Capone still remains one of the most notable residents of "the Rock."

Murder in the First claims that Young was a teenage orphan who was sentenced to Alcatraz for stealing $5 from a grocery store in order to feed his starving sister, and that he "never harmed or attempted to harm anyone" before entering Alcatraz. The true story is that he was a bank robber who had taken and brutalized a hostage on at least one occasion and committed murder in 1933--some 3 years before being incarcerated at Alcatraz. He had served time in State prisons in Montana and Washington before entering Federal prison for the first time in 1935 at the U.S. Penitentiary on McNeil Island, Washington (which is now a State prison).

There were, however, prisoners who decided not to wait for a transfer to another prison. Over the 29 years (1934-1963) that the Federal prison operated, 36 men (including two who tried to escape twice) were involved in 14 separate escape attempts. Twenty-three were caught, six were shot and killed during their escape, and two drowned. Two of the men who were caught were later executed in the gas chamber at the California State Prison at San Quentin for their role in the death of a correctional officer during the famous May 2-4, 1946, "Battle of Alcatraz" escape attempt.

Whether or not anyone succeeded in escaping from Alcatraz depends on the definition of "successful escape." Is it getting out of the cellhouse, reaching the water, making it to land, or reaching land and not getting caught? Officially, no one ever succeeded in escaping from Alcatraz, although to this day there are five prisoners listed as "missing and presumed drowned."

Answer 6

Beats me, it's just a big ugly eyesore in the middle of a beautiful bay.

By in answer, because it's avaialble, it's empty, and it's in a large metropolitain area to make life easier for the movie crews.