The Guns of Alcatraz

[@americansubgunner6053]

San Quinton had 1917 browning belt fed guns. Sing-Sing prison in New York had four Colt 1924 belt fed weapons…I know this as I have one of the Sing-Sing guns.

[@stephenknutson1343]

I did the tour there in August ‘08. And it was quite cool. Not a pleasant place. There was a former inmate telling stories and selling his book.

[@samcuratolo3885]

was his first name Whitey

[@dmowzoon]

I took the tour several years ago, which was conducted by a park Ranger since Alcatraz is now an official national park or whatever. Anyway, one of the things he said that was interesting was that Alcatraz had to have all the food and water brought in for the prisoners, and that the prisoners were very well-fed, with the thinking being that they would get fat and lazy and wouldn’t have the energy to try to escape.

[@1boortzfan]

Great video, thanks.

[@Paladin1873]

In the late 1950s the original state penitentiary in Deer Lodge, MT was the scene of a shootout between armed prisoners with hostages and the National Guard. The latter used a 3.5" bazooka to blast away chunks of the guard tower to distract the prisoners while guards rushed up the stairs to free the hostages. The old prison is now a museum and the bazooka is on display inside it.

[@1975grandprix]

Al Karpis' book is an interesting read. He tells about his time at Alcatraz how bad it really could get. I think he wrote about The Battle of Alcatraz when the military came to restore order.

[@flaco5581]

I've got a tear gas gun or brass billy club that takes ear gas cartridges. that was used by the federal system back in the day. no way they would be authorized today with the required conscience of the institutions.

[@scenicdriveways6708]

That's very interesting. I wouldn't have guessed that .22lr would have been used on Alcatraz.

[@jonathanstiles6072]

I don't doubt that it was a miserable place to live, but my understanding of the place was that it was one the few if not the only prisons in America at the time with hot showers. Not for the sake of providing creature comforts, but to keep inmates from acclimating to cold water.

[@pointyshineygreentip8718]

Very interesting. Bring back capital punishment

[@nothim7321]

Originally, it was actually harbor defenses for San Francisco, then became a military prison, then a fed penitentiary, just to be pedantic. So the real guns of Alcatraz would have been cannons...

[@garyreadler4886]

Thanks for the video, have not received my magazine yet but the preview is great. It was much different times back then, interesting story about the train depot and solution to the problem. It worked just fine.