Carolina Watchman

Alcatraz Island, located in San Francisco Bay, is the spot where Uncle Sam proposes to house desperate gangsters, kidnappers and racketeers, thus eliminating outside aid in prison breaks and riots. The prison now located there, (above), is being taken over from the War Department and foremost among the first 400 to 600 bad men to be confined there are "Machinegun" George Kelly, left; Albert Bates and Harvey Bailey, right, leaders in the Urschel kidnaping, for which all received life sentences.
Devil's Island
Created For U.
S. Convicts

Seventy-five prisoners in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary with records of desperate careers will be removed to the Alcatraz Military Prison, high on a rocky island in San Francisco Bay, it was announced in Washington by Attorney General Cummings.

The isolated island has been selected by the Attorney General as the spot where the country's toughest killers, kidnapers and racketeers will be confined when they are convicted in federal courts.

The same number of men from Leavenworth and other federal prisons will be removed to Alcatraz within 30 days, under plans to create there an American "Devil's Island" for desperadoes, men of the dangerous stripe of "Machine Gun" Kelly and Harvey Bailey.

Attorney General Cummings explained in Washington that the Department of Justice had obtained from the War Department permission to use Alcatraz Prison for federal prisoners with records of ruthless violence.

The small island a precipitous rock situated in a lonely stretch of the bay, is considered escape-proof. Alcatraz is more than a mile from shore and federal officials say no one has ever mastered the swift currents that surround it.

Formerly used as a disciplinary barracks for army prisoners, Alcatraz has buildings that will house 600 and a shoe factory.

One purpose of isolating the vicious and irredeemable type of criminal, Mr. Cummings said, is to keep their evil influence from extending to other prisoners receptive to rehabilitation.

There will be little chance of outside help at Alcatraz, with its turbulent waters as sentries.

It is expected that Bailey and Kelly will be among the first sent to the American "Devil's Island."

The Attorney General made his announcement before the National Anti-Crime Conference.