SKU: 10479030305

Alcatraz: A History of the Penitentiary Years

Sale price$38.21 Regular price$42.46
Save 10%

Pay in installments of $10.62 with ShopPay, AfterPay and Klarna

Shipping Estimate
USA
  • USA
  • CAN

Ships within 48 hours · Estimated delivery Jul 18 - Jul 23

Promo Codes Available:

For Your Every Summer RSVP, with Code: SUMMER15

Description

Alcatraz: A History of the Penitentiary YearsALCATRAZ the name alone said it all It was meant to send a shudder down the spines of the nation's most incorrigible criminals. It stripped Al Capone of his power. It tamed "Machine Gun" Kelly into a model of decorum. It took the birds away from the Birdman of Alcatraz. When prisoners boarded the boat for Alcatraz, they knew that they had reached the end of the line. Not only was this the toughest of all Federal penitentiaries, but it was also said to

ALCATRAZ - the name alone said it all... It was meant to send a shudder down the spines of the nation's most incorrigible criminals. It stripped Al Capone of his power. It tamed "Machine Gun" Kelly into a model of decorum. It took the birds away from the Birdman of Alcatraz.

When prisoners boarded the boat for Alcatraz, they knew that they had reached the end of the line. Not only was this the toughest of all Federal penitentiaries, but it was also said to be virtually escape-proof. The island was a natural fortress, separated from the mainland by a narrow strait of freezing water and deadly currents. This prison was the U.S. government's drastic answer to the lawlessness unleashed under Prohibition, which continued throughout the "Roaring Twenties" and into the teeth of the Great Depression. Alcatraz, with its damp cold and austere isolation, its rigid discipline and strict rule of silence, was as tough as the criminals that were sent there, and by the time the prison closed down in 1963, "the Rock" had indisputably done its job.

Alcatraz - A History of the Penitentiary Years has sustained as a staple reference for staff members on Alcatraz and remains one of the most comprehensive references chronicling the history. This mammoth reference navigates the island's history through rarely seen documents, interviews and hundreds of pages of historic photographs. Author interviews range from men such as legendary FBI fugitive James "Whitey' Bulger; Dale Stamphill, a principle in the 1938 escape with Doc Barker and Henry Young; to Atom Spy Morton Sobell, the codefendant of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Michael Esslinger thoroughly details the prominent events, inmates, and life inside the most infamous prison in American History. His research included hundreds of hours examining actual Alcatraz inmate case files (including rare original documents from Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, and over a hundred others) exploring the prison grounds from the rooftop to the waterfront to help retrace events, escape routes, in addition to conducting various interviews with former inmates & guards. Esslinger interviewed a variety of principle figures, comprised of both convicts and officers who were either involved, on-duty, or on Alcatraz during nearly escape attempt. Interviews included prisoners and officers that covered each era of operations at Alcatraz from the early military period in the late 1920's, through the federal years, 1934 to 1963.

His study has resulted in detailed accounts of all the recorded escape attempts including the Battle of Alcatraz. A detailed account of the 1962 escape of Frank Morris and the Anglin Brothers provides rare insight extracted through photos, and over 1,700 pages of FBI and Bureau of Prisons investigative notes.

Detailed narratives of Alcatraz's most notable inmates who include Robert Stroud (Birdman of Alcatraz), Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, Frank Morris, the Anglin Brothers, Doc Barker, Joe Cretzer, Bernard Coy, Miran Thompson, Sam Shockley, and many-many others. Alcatraz: The History of the Penitentiary Years, is a comprehensive reference on the history of Alcatraz and contains one of the most comprehensive archives of inmate and prison life photographs (over 1,000).

WARNING: This book contains graphic depictions of extreme crime and violence and may not be suitable for all readers.



Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Ocean View Publishing
Published: 11/22/2016
ISBN: 9780970461469
Pages: 610
Weight: 3.72lbs
Size: 11.00h x 8.50w x 1.31d
Shipping Notes
  • Free Standard Shipping on $100+ Orders to the USA.
  • Except Preorder products are shipped in 48 hours.
  • Delivery to the USA:
  1. Standard Shipping : 3-10 business days
  • If time is of the essence, please consider selecting expedited delivery for faster service.
Exchange/Return Notes
  • We offer a 30-day return/exchange service after receiving.
  • Final sale items are not eligible for returns or exchanges.
  • To process your return/exchange, please contact us at [email protected]
  • Please click here for more details>>> Return & Exchange Policy
SKU: 10479030305

Discover Niche Categories That Outsell

Top-Converting Item to Boost Your Average Order

4.1 ★★★★★
Based on 8 reviews
Sort
Highest Rating
Newest First
Oldest First
Product Reviews
S
Verified Purchase
Sergii Bondar
Carnegie, US
★★★★★ 5
Good motor oil
Style: High Mileage 150K, Size: 5 qt (Pack of 1), Configuration: 5W-20
The engine oil meets the stated requirements.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2026
K
Verified Purchase
Kerns
Los Angeles, US
★★★★★ 5
Definitely buying again.
Style: High Mileage 150K, Size: 5 qt (Pack of 1), Configuration: 5W-20
In MY experience, this has been fantastic, spouses car is a 200k+ mileage Kia shortage, which I mean, it’s always burned oil, even the manual said normal operation can burn 1qt per 1,000 miles. Either way, i was adding oil a lot. At least 2 quarts a month or more. After running this oil, I have only added 1.5 quarts in over 2 months. Results obviously not typical, but in my experience, this stuff works. I also use the restore and protect Valvoline on my car, with great results. Scoped it after a few full oil changes and engine looks clean. Great value for what it potentially will do.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2026
J
Verified Purchase
JORGE E. NAVARRO
Los Angeles, US
★★★★★ 4
Kitties love it:
Style: High Mileage 150K, Size: 5 qt (Pack of 1), Configuration: 5W-30
Great product:
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2026
T
Verified Purchase
Tascha F.
Boise, US
★★★★★ 5
Engaging, though-provoking sweep that will provide you with regarding this time period
Format: Hardcover
Alan Taylor is a writer who excels at contextualizing the complexity of history by creating a sort of ancestral snapshot of each person and event and placing them on a family tree, showing both their relationships to one another and to their time. This approach increases readers’ abilities to build those understandings on their own in other readings, about other times. That’s cool. In this book, he upends a more static understanding of North and South and provides a kaleidoscope of complexity with regards to individuals and social groups from regions both within and outside of our borders. In this book, Alan Taylor displays his unique brilliance at making legible the complex interplay of extremely diverse international, national, and factional agendas, political aspirations, people’s attachment to their political and social worldviews, economic aspirations, their bluster, their denial, and their honest – if not always successful – efforts. Quoting from a mind-bogglingly large reading list of academic sources, newspapers, diaries, and other historical documents, he brings people back to life in such a way that you could mentally animate what role these historical figures would play today on the world stage or even in a more intimate setting of your own office politics. He makes the complexity and uncertainty decipherable so that we can think about it, argue about it, and explore it just as we would events with which we are familiar today. A true love of history and our understanding of humanity at present are not served by infatuation with imagined, polished heroes but by complex accounts and considerations of character, influences, dreams, successes, and failures that reveal how these elements are the common denominators in all lives and across all times. Taylor does this superbly for figures North, South, enslaved, free, freed Blacks, embittered whites, Mexican, Spanish, Canadian, British, French, and Indigenous. He juxtaposes Maximilian’s wife, Carlota, sister of Leopold II, who placed faith in herself and in her husband to transform Mexico through better monarchy, with the far more egalitarian Benito Juárez, who ultimately subordinated the lives of the indigenous people in capitulating to a rising oligarchy of American investors who could rebuild Mexico. Both Carlota and Juarez are driven to varying degrees of madness by the results of their efforts. We see members of the former Confederacy who rue their violent support for the perverse and cruel institution of slavery once the war is over, alongside others who will stop at nothing to bring back the old order. And we see Northerners, who in wartime decried slavery with a furious ardor, eventually languishing in their duty to their fellows after the war was over. There are warriors for justice, warriors for oppression, realists, capitulators, power brokers, and pawns. Even the best, who are not depleted of passionate intensity for doing right, must contend with an ecosystem of others’ dreams and aspirations, which all too often run afoul of the righteous. In the end, we may be judged by others and by ourselves for what we’ve wished for: either peace and fairness or war and acquisition at any price. The book serves as a reminder to plant the right seeds and dream the right dreams…for everybody’s children. Because when the harshest frost melts away, something new will grow.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2024
A
Verified Purchase
Amazon Customer
Whiting, US
★★★★★ 5
Carefully Researched Gives Insight To 19Th Century Occurances of: American, Canada, and Mexico!
Format: Hardcover
This book is a treasure as it covers not only the American Civil War but what intricate details are behind it and more, in addition covers the same eras for the Dominion of Canada, and French take over of Mexico along with the factors leading to "Cinco De Mayo," and more. As an avid reader of American History also as a amature historian this book is carefully detailed and gives insight to the racial and political beliefs at the life and times of the 19Th. Century. It deserves a place on your bookshelf and/or library. In these contemporary times, I am still more than pleased the the border frontiers between the Republic of Canada and United States of America remain the: "Longest Undefended Borders" in the entire globe.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2025

recommand products