Alcatraz Justice

Author Ernest Lageson, son of the former Alcatraz prison guard and author of Battle At Alcatraz, has written a great follow up of the May 2, 1946, attempted breakout focusing on the trial of Miran Thompson, Sam Shockley, and Clarence Carnes. These three inmates were survivors of the six inmates involved in the attempted 1946 breakout in which two prison officers died, one from friendly fire from outside and one shot in a holding cell by an inmate. It appears the officer who died by inmate fire would have lived if he had been attended to sooner. Instead officers from other prisons and the U.S. marines were brought in to subdue the three men who were subsequently killed in the prison. Parts of the trial can be tedious reading as different witnesses give their versions as to what happened, but I imagine this is necessary in covering the trial. Judge Louis Goodman appeared to be prejudiced against the defense in his rulings making it difficult for the defendants' attorneys to try the case. I thought William Sullivan, the attorney for Sam Shockley, made a great summation in defense of his client's life by pointing out the deplorable conditions Sam Shockley had to endure at the prison which further diminished the eight-year-old mentality of this man. On the other hand Shockley did encourage inmate Joseph Cretzer to shoot the guards which were secluded in a prison cell. Both Shockley and inmate Miran Thompson were executed in December of 1948, two years after the trial. Inmate Joseph Carnes was spared his life for saving the lives of several prison guards by not carrying out Cretzer's order to finish off the guards in the holding cell. I would suggest you first read Battle at Alcatraz first, and then follow up with this book, Alcatraz Justice. Both are riveting reads.