Breaking the Rock: The Great Escape from Alcatraz - Softcover

Babyak, Jolene

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0961875232 ISBN 13: 9780961875237

Publisher: Ariel Vamp Pr, 2001

Synopsis

Investigates the 1962 escape of three prisoners from Alcatraz, paying special attention to the role played by prisoner Allen West, and speculates about whether the men survived their escape attempt.

About this title

About the Author:

Jolene Babyak has beome one of the most knowledgeable authorities on The Rock, having interviewed and viewed the files of more than 175 people associated with Alcatraz. She also lived their briefly twice as a child, during when her father worked there for nine years, and one year as associate warden.

From Library Journal:

Once the most infamous prison in the world, Alcatraz today is a tourist attraction across the bay from San Francisco. On a 22-acre battleship-shaped sandstone rock, Alcatraz defied escape attempts. Yet in 1962, there was a successful escape by three men. Babyak (The Ten Greatest Escapes) was a child at the time, living on the Rock with her father, acting warden Arthur Dollison. Combining her firsthand knowledge with newly released Alcatraz documents, she recapitulates the events surrounding the escape and speculates about what happened to the men, who were never heard from again. The mastermind, she thinks, was Allen West, a wily, longtime con who got Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin to join him. West's plans were brilliant in detail, including building a raft and leaving lifelike heads on the men's cots. Ironically, the plans were helped by Dollison's relaxing of some of the more stringent security rules and by errors made by the Alcatraz staff. In suspenseful detail, Babyak describes the course of events leading up to the fateful telephone call received by her father on the morning of June 12. West chickened out at the last minute, leaving him to say to everyone who would listen that he had "broken the Rock." Did the other three make it to safety? Babyak suspects that they did not. Yet what exactly happened remains a mystery that prison buffs can ponder. This is essential for all crime collections and, considering its lively cover, should do well in public libraries. Frances Sandiford, Green Haven Correctional Facility Lib., Stormville, NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ariel Vamp Pr
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0961875232
• ISBN 13: 9780961875237
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 276