March 21, 1963: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary Closes

March 21, 1963: The United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, is closed after 28 years of operation.

"Alcatraz" is a Spanish word meaning "the gannet," for the pelican-like birds that the original Spanish settlers found on the island. The Island had been home to a U.S. Army fort since 1859, and had included a military prison since 1912. As a military prison, among those housed there were conscientious objectors from serving in World War I, including Philip Grosser, who called it "America's Devil's Island," after the French island prison off the coast of French Guiana in South America.

Alcatraz opened as a civilian federal prison on August 11, 1934, with the first batch of 137 prisoners arrived at Alcatraz from the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. It was intended for prisoners who continuously caused trouble at other federal prisons. It would be a "last resort prison," to hold "the worst of the worst," who had no hope of rehabilitation. The island became adapted and used as a prison after the buildings were modernized and security increased.

Given this high security and the island's location in the cold waters and strong currents of San Francisco Bay, prison operators believed Alcatraz to be escape-proof and America's strongest prison. An escape attempt on May 2, 1946 resulted in what became known as "The Battle of Alcatraz": Six men attempted to escape, but, seeing the odds against them, three turned back. The other three were killed by U.S. Marines stationed on the island.

No one ever escaped from Alcatraz. The legend that anyone did comes from an attempt on June 11, 1962: Armed robber Frank Morris, and bank-robbing brothers John and Clarence Anglin, made their way through a ventilation shaft, slid down a kitchen vent pipe, then climbed perimeter fences lined with barbed wire, before making their way to an inflated raft. They tried to reach Angel Island, 2 miles to the north.

On June 14, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter found a paddle about 200 yards off Angel Island. Later that day, in the same area, workers on a private boat found a wallet, whose contents suggested it belonged to one of the Anglins. On June 21, shreds of cloth believed to be remnants of the raft were found on a beach near the Golden Gate Bridge. The FBI's report stated, "The individuals' personal effects were the only belongings they had, and the men would have drowned before leaving them behind." The reason people still cling to the belief that the escape was successful is that the bodies were never found. They are likely at the bottom of the Bay.

A 1959 report indicated that the facility was over 3 times more expensive to run than the average American prison. The problem was made worse by the buildings' structural deterioration from exposure to salt spray, which would require $5 million to fix. Major repairs began in 1958, but by 1961, engineers considered the prison a lost cause. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy submitted plans for a new maximum-security institution at Marion, Illinois. Alcatraz was closed on March 21, 1963, and its prisoners moved to other federal pens.

Alcatraz has been reopened as a public museum. It is one of San Francisco's major tourist attractions, operated by the National Park Service's Golden Gate National Recreation Area, attracting some 1.5 million visitors annually. Visitors arrive by boat and are given a tour of the cellhouse and island, and a slide show and audio narration with anecdotes from former inmates, guards and rangers on Alcatraz.

As of March 21, 2022, there are 2 men still alive who had been prisoners at Alcatraz: Bill Baker, age 88, convicted of check fraud; and Robert Schibline, also 88, bank robbery.

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March 21, 1963 was a Thursday. Dutch soccer player and manager Ronald Koeman was born.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. One game was played in the NBA: The Cincinnati Royals beat the Syracuse Nationals, 133-115 at the Cincinnati Gardens. Oscar Robertson was a one-man wrecking crew for the Royals, with 41 points, 15 rebounds and 12 assists, what would later be called a "triple-double." The preceding season, he had averaged a triple-double for the entire season, not that anybody kept track of such things at the time. That wouldn't be done again until Russell Westbrook did it in 2017.

And there was 1 game played in the NHL. The New York Rangers and the Boston Bruins played to a tie, 2-2 at the Boston Garden. Johnny Bucyk and Ted Green scored for Boston, Camille Henry and former Bruin Don McKenney for New York. The Bruins' Jean-Guy Gendron, a former Ranger, was given a game misconduct (meaning he was thrown out of the game) at 7:07 of the 1st period, but Hockey-Reference.com doesn't say why.