# Alcatraz warden's notebook page for Sam Richard Shockley, No. 462

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/nara-236735583-sam-shockley-alcatraz-1938/

Bureau of Prisons notebook page with the identification photograph of Sam Richard Shockley, No. 462, received at Alcatraz from Leavenworth on 23 September 1938 under a life sentence for bank robbery and kidnapping (Eastern District of Oklahoma); a handwritten header records execution in the San Quentin gas chamber on 12-3-48. A copy is stored here.

The National Archives catalog titles this page "SHOCKLEY, SAMUEL RICHARD - Alcatraz Number 462 - 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 "U.S. Penitentiary Alcatraz 462". It belongs to the series Warden's Notebook Pages (NAID 296686).

The typed entries, as printed: name "SAM RICHARD SHOCKLEY," No. 462, received 9-23-38 from "LEAVENWORTH," age 29, date of birth 1-12-09. Offense "BANK ROBBERY & KIDNAPPING"; date of sentence May 21, 1938; sentence "LIFE"; district sentenced "E/OKLA., - Muskogee." A red line at the top reads "Note Below To Court, San Francisco, 11-20-46," and a handwritten line reads "Executed in Gas chamber 12-3-48 at San Quentin." The note under the detainers records that on 11-20-46 he went on trial for murder in the U.S. District Court at San Francisco as a result of the prison break of 5-2-46, "at which time two officers were killed (and 3 inmates)"; that on Dec. 21, 1946 a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder without recommendation; that he was sentenced to death the same day; that he was received at San Quentin on 12-27-46; and that he appealed. The "Reason for Transfer" box and the account of the bank robbery are staff text and are not repeated.

Catalog data, labelled as such: offense "BANK ROBBERY & KIDNAPPING; MURDER, FIRST DEGREE"; received at Alcatraz 09/23/1938; transferred 11/20/1946; birth date 01/12/1910; death date 12/03/1948 at San Quentin. The page prints 1-12-09 and the catalog 1910; this archive records both. The Bureau of Prisons says Shockley and Thompson received the death penalty and were executed in the San Quentin gas chamber in December 1948 ([BOP Alcatraz history](/items/bop-alcatraz-history/)).

## Sources

- National Archives Catalog: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/236735583
- National Archives series: Warden's Notebook Pages (NAID 296686): https://catalog.archives.gov/id/296686