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Alcatraz warden's notebook page with the identification photograph of James C. Lucas holding a card numbered 224, above typed commitment details and a red note on a 1938 murder verdict.
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Alcatraz warden's notebook page for James C. Lucas, No. 224

Bureau of Prisons notebook page with the identification photograph of James C. Lucas, No. 224, received at Alcatraz from Leavenworth on 24 January 1935 under a sentence for national bank robbery and the Dyer Act (Northern District of Texas); a note records a 1938 federal first-degree murder verdict and life sentence. A copy is stored here.

Date
1935-01-24
Kind
photograph
Source
National Archives Catalog
Retrieved
2026-10-12
NAID
236734998
Rights
A Bureau of Prisons record, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. Series "Warden's Notebook Pages" (NAID 296686), Records of the Bureau of Prisons (Record Group 129), National Archives at San Francisco. The National Archives catalog marks the item "Use Restriction: Unrestricted." The series note says that some information on the pages is incorrect when compared with the fuller inmate files, and that clippings in the series may be copyrighted; this page is a prison form. The copy stored here is a downsample of the first digitized image.

The National Archives catalog titles this page “LUCAS, JAMES CRITTENTON “TEX” - Alcatraz Number 224 - Warden’s Notebook.” It is a Bureau of Prisons notebook form with an identification photograph at the upper right; the placard in the photograph reads 224. It belongs to the series Warden’s Notebook Pages (NAID 296686).

The typed entries, as printed: name “James C. Lucas,” No. 224, received 1-24-35 from Leavenworth, age 22, date of birth 6/11/12. Offense “Nat’l Bank Robbery, Dyer Act,” dated Nov. 5, 1934; sentence “30 years” with “(2) LIFE” added; district sentenced “N/Texas - Abilene.” A stamp at the top reads “TRANSFERRED TO LEAVENWORTH MAR 25 1950.” A red note records that a federal grand jury returned an indictment on June 7, 1938 charging first-degree murder, and that on November 26, 1938 a jury returned a verdict of murder in the first degree and he received a new sentence of life imprisonment. The note does not name the victim. The first page does not mention Capone. The “Reason for Transfer” box is staff opinion and is not repeated.

Catalog data, labelled as such: offense “NATIONAL BANK ROBBERY & DYER ACT; MURDER, FIRST DE” (truncated in the catalog); received at Alcatraz 01/24/1935 from US Penitentiary, Leavenworth; transferred 03/25/1950 to US Penitentiary, Leavenworth; the remark reads “ATT ESC 05-23-38 (GUARD KILLED); ATTACKED CAPONE”; birth date 06/11/1912; death date 11/28/1998 at Sacramento, California. Other federal records speak to those remarks. The Bureau of Prisons says that on 23 May 1938 three prisoners, Lucas among them, attacked a correctional officer in the woodworking shop, that the officer died, and that Lucas received a life sentence for the murder (BOP Alcatraz history). The National Park Service says that on 23 June 1936 Lucas attacked Capone in the shower room (NPS); an FBI report on that incident is in the Capone Vault file.

itemAlcatraz warden's notebook page for Alphonse Capone, No. 85Bureau of Prisons form with Capone's Alcatraz identification photograph, holding a card numbered 85. It records his receipt from Atlanta on Aug. 22, 1934, his tax sentence, parole denied in 1935, and his transfer to Terminal Island in January 1939.itemNational Archives list of former Alcatraz inmates: Capone, register 85The National Archives at San Francisco lists Alphonse Capone, called Scarface on the list, among former inmates of the U.S. Penitentiary, Alcatraz, register number 85.itemAlcatraz (Federal Bureau of Prisons history page)The Bureau of Prisons' history page on Alcatraz names Al Capone among the well-known criminals who did time there, and says most of its prisoners were not well-known gangsters.item"The Man Who Tried to Kill Al Capone" (National Park Service, Alcatraz Island)National Park Service article on Alcatraz inmate James "Tex" Lucas. It states that on June 23, 1936 Lucas attacked Capone in the shower room and that Capone suffered a minor chest wound and superficial cuts to his hands.itemFBI report on the 23 June 1936 assault on Capone at Alcatraz (serial 62-39128-45)A San Francisco FBI report states that inmate James C. Lucas stabbed Capone in the back with a blade of barber shears at Alcatraz on 23 June 1936, that the wound was superficial, and that the U.S. Attorney declined prosecution as a prison administrative matter.