A Chilly August Visit To Alcatraz Island, S.F.

ALCATRAZ ISLAND, SAN FRANCISCO — That is a dateline I have long yearned to write, to satisfy my lifelong fascination with this desolate island in the San Francisco Bay, a little more than a mile offshore. As a kid, I devoured books and movies about Alcatraz, a rocky island developed in the mid-19th century as a fort, then a military prison, and finally a federal prison for the worst of the worst — Al Capone, aka Scarface; Bumpy Johnson (played brilliantly by Longview native Forest Whitaker in the recent series Godfather of Harlem); George “Machine Gun” Kelly; and Alvin “Creepy” Karpis,...

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