# Atlanta and Alcatraz, 1932–1939

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/capone/alcatraz/

Federal custody from the Atlanta commitment to the release of November 1939: the Alcatraz warden's notebook page for No. 85 (received 22 August 1934, parole denied 3 September 1935, Terminal Island January 1939), the Bureau's transfer memo, the 1936 stabbing report, the habeas and vacate petitions, and the conflicting release records.

Two National Archives records carry the Alcatraz part of this spoke, and they do different things. The [alphabetical list of former Alcatraz inmates](/items/nara-alcatraz-inmate-index/) at the National Archives at San Francisco prints his name and register number, 85, and nothing else: it does not give his dates on the island or his cell. The [warden's notebook page for No. 85](/items/nara-236736566-alcatraz-wardens-notebook-capone-85/) (NAID 236736566), a Bureau of Prisons form with his identification photograph, does give dates: received 22 August 1934 from Atlanta, parole "(Denied) Sept. 3, 1935," and a header reading "TRANSFERRED TO FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION, Terminal Island, JANUARY 6, 1939." No record filed in this archive gives his cell.

## Atlanta

The judgment of 24 October 1931 was followed the same day by a [commitment to Leavenworth](/items/nara-55311719-capone-commitment-leavenworth-1931/). The notebook page gives the sentence as beginning on 4 May 1932, and the FBI publishes an [arrest record captioned 4 May 1932](/items/fbi-capone-arrest-record-1932/). In October 1932 the Bureau's Birmingham office reported that the hearing on his habeas corpus petition at Atlanta had been postponed to 11 November ([letter of 21 October 1932](/items/fbi-vault-capone-p30-habeas-corpus-letter-1932/)). The court at Atlanta dismissed the petition on 25 January 1933, holding that the statute-of-limitations argument belonged at trial and on appeal; its opinion states that he "was committed to the United States penitentiary at Atlanta, Ga." ([Capone v. Aderhold, 2 F. Supp. 280](/items/courtlistener-capone-v-aderhold-2-f-supp-280/)). A [commitment to Atlanta "in lieu of Leavenworth"](/items/nara-55312091-capone-commitment-atlanta-1933/) is dated 3 June 1933 in the catalog; its pages were not read, and the difference in dates is not explained here.

In January 1933 Warden A. C. Aderhold wrote to the Bureau of Prisons that a New York Journal reproduction of the photographs and fingerprints of "Alphonse Capone, register No. 40886, an inmate of this institution" had not come from the prison's copy, and that Capone had appealed to him for protection against the use of his prison record ([letter](/items/fbi-vault-capone-p30-aderhold-fingerprint-letter-1933/)). From June 1933 the Bureau ran an inquiry into an alleged conspiracy to pass contraband in and out of the Atlanta penitentiary, opened by a [Birmingham letter of 16 June 1933](/items/fbi-vault-capone-p04-atlanta-letters-transmittal-1933/). In March 1936, after an agent had spent about three months at the prison, the Birmingham office reported that the specific accusations of an anonymous manuscript, "The Biography of Al Capone's Life in the Atlanta Penitentiary," were "very few and indefinite" ([report](/items/fbi-vault-capone-p05-biography-manuscript-examination-1936/)), and the FBI Laboratory matched its typescript to letters signed "F. Barrett" ([memorandum of 1 June 1936](/items/fbi-vault-capone-p16-laboratory-typewriter-memo-1936/)). The manuscript's claims are not treated as fact.

## The transfer, August 1934

On 21 August 1934 Hoover recorded calls about press reports that the Attorney General had said Capone was not being sent to Alcatraz: "I explained that Capone is included among those due to arrive tomorrow ... it is running ahead of schedule, and will arrive at 10:30 tomorrow morning" ([memorandum](/items/fbi-vault-capone-p31-alcatraz-transfer-memo-1934/)). Part 06 of the Vault file is a run of [wire and newspaper clippings](/items/fbi-vault-capone-p06-alcatraz-transfer-clippings-1934/) on the guarded rail journey from Atlanta; they are described, not reproduced. The notebook page records receipt on 22 August 1934, and the catalog entry for his [Alcatraz case file](/items/nara-117695842-capone-alcatraz-case-file/) gives the same date. The page's "Reason for Transfer" box reads in part: "He is a notorious criminal, being a gang leader and racketeer. He has been suspected of clandestine correspondence, while confined at USP Atlanta." The FBI's [1934 front mug shot](/items/fbi-capone-mugshot-1934/) is the photograph used on this archive's Capone pages.

## On the island

In September 1935 a Knoxville correspondent, prompted by a "Dick Tracy" cartoon, wrote to Hoover that some people thought Capone might be planning a break from Alcatraz; Hoover thanked him for his interest, and the file records no further action ([letters](/items/fbi-vault-capone-p31-alcatraz-escape-rumor-letter-1935/)). The notebook page records parole denied on 3 September 1935.

The FBI San Francisco [report of 1 July 1936](/items/fbi-vault-capone-p17-lucas-stabbing-report-1936/) states that inmate James C. Lucas stabbed Capone in the back with a single blade of barber shears at about 9:45 a.m. on 23 June 1936, that the wound was a superficial flesh wound, and that the United States Attorney declined prosecution as a prison administrative matter. The National Park Service's [article on Lucas](/items/nps-alcatraz-1936-attack-on-capone/) places the attack in the shower room and describes a minor chest wound and cuts to his hands. The two accounts differ on the wound; each is cited as it stands.

## Petitions from Alcatraz

On 12 August 1937 the District Court at Chicago [denied his petition](/items/nara-55312136-capone-memo-deny-vacate-1937/) to vacate the county-jail sentences on counts 13 and 18, and on 20 December 1937 the Seventh Circuit dismissed the appeal: "Consistency in the verdict is not necessary" ([United States v. Capone, 93 F.2d 840](/items/courtlistener-us-v-capone-93-f2d-840/)). In April 1938 a habeas corpus petition was filed at Chicago against the United States and the Alcatraz warden, James A. Johnston; the catalog says his mother, Theresa Capone, filed it ([case 39](/items/nara-401029959-capone-habeas-alcatraz-1938/)). Its pages were not read, and its outcome is not stated here.

## Terminal Island, Lewisburg and release

The records do not agree on when he left Alcatraz or when he was released. The notebook page's header says 6 January 1939. The National Archives catalog description of the same page, and of the case file, gives 01/04/1939. An FBI San Francisco [letter of 17 January 1939](/items/fbi-vault-capone-p18-terminal-island-transfer-letter-1939/) shows he had been moved to Terminal Island by then and reports, from a confidential source, that press stories of paralysis were false. On 25 October 1939 an agent interviewed him at Terminal Island and wrote that he kept losing the thread of the conversation, an observation the letter states as the agent's ([Los Angeles letter](/items/fbi-vault-capone-p18-terminal-island-interview-1939/)).

A record of a telephone call in the Director's office on [16 November 1939](/items/fbi-vault-capone-p19-lewisburg-release-call-1939/) notes a United Press reporter's word that the Department had just announced Capone's release that morning at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, to his relatives. The FBI history essay gives the same day: "On November 16, 1939, Al Capone was released after having served seven years, six months and fifteen days, and having paid all fines and back taxes." The Bureau's form replies of the 1960s say instead that he was released from Terminal Island on 19 January 1939, which is the minimum expiration date typed on the notebook page. In December 1939 the Chicago office relayed a reporter's view of what the release might mean in Chicago; those are one man's opinions ([letter](/items/fbi-vault-capone-p19-chicago-release-assessment-1939/)). The FBI publishes a [1939 mug shot](/items/fbi-capone-mugshot-1939/) without saying which institution took it.

## What is not here

His Alcatraz inmate case file, 2,688 pages, is listed in the National Archives catalog but is not online, and the Bureau of Prisons [Notorious Offender Files](/items/nara-168943273-notorious-offender-files/) that hold his file under 85-AZ, 397-CAL and 9243-NE are fully restricted. The Bureau of Prisons [history page](/items/bop-alcatraz-history/) names him among well-known prisoners and gives no dates. No record opened for this archive gives his cell number, the date he reached Atlanta, or the date he left Terminal Island for Lewisburg.