Escaped from Alcatraz?

Well today entailed the big rock in the Bay otherwise known as Alcatraz. A very interesting 4hrs spent touring, listening and understanding more about this attraction. This is an image of Benny, our tour guide, outside of the prison blocks. We were taken around cells, the warden's house, the recreation ground and the ruins which now house a magnitude of different wildlife. Some facts we learnt are listed below

• Alcatraz is 1.5 miles from the mainland and attracts 5,000 visitors per DAY. At $30 a ticket the San Francisco national park is doing rather well for itself...
• It was first built as a military base to protect the City from ships coming in filled with guys on the gold rush hunt.
• It was then a military prison from the late 1850s until 1934 when it became a federal prison.
• Three films, including Clint Eastwoods 'escape from Alcatraz' have been made about it.
• Al Capone was one of its most notorious prisoners and was delivered there, by train, directly from Atlanta without getting off. Tax evasion was the reason he was imprisoned on the rock not because of his other heinous crimes.
• Although Capone is the most well known prisoner he was one that did not try and escape. Over the 29yrs the federal prison operated 36 men were involved in 14 different escapes. 23 were caught, 6 were killed during their escape and 2 drowned.
• However.... being one of the hardest prisons to escape from due to its location and perilous seas 3 are understood to have evaded recapture. Devising a master plan (similar to that in the Shawshank Redemption) they got off the Island but have never been found. Conspiracies and myths surround this place and many believe they made it to South America. Benny, our tour guide, believes they died swimming to the main land.
• There were 4 wardens over the period it was a federal prison and their families lived on the Island. Their children had to catch a boat to the mainland to go to school each day. it would be fair to say they lived in the safest neighbourhood as each prisoner had 3 officers to look after them....
• Alcatraz was shut as an operating prison in 1963 due to spiralling operating costs. There were no sewage works (it was dumped into the bay...) and 250,000 gallons of water had to be delivered from the mainland each week.
• In the shop , after the tour, one of the inmates - Bill Baker, 75, convicted of fraud and an active criminal up until only a few years ago, was present signing his book. He was being glorified by everyone. Really not convinced about that was the right thing to do at all
• Lady A got scared on the choppy waters on the way over....

I have another 150 photos and videos and yet again probably chose the wrong one....