Alcatraz warden's notebook page for Miran Edgar Thompson, No. 729
Bureau of Prisons notebook page with the identification photograph of Miran Edgar Thompson, No. 729-AZ, received at Alcatraz from Leavenworth on 15 October 1945 under a life sentence for kidnapping and violation of the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act (Northern District of Texas, Amarillo); a handwritten header records execution in the San Quentin gas chamber on 12-3-48. A copy is stored here.
- Date
- 1945-10-15
- Kind
- photograph
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- NAID
- 236736293
- 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 “THOMPSON, MIRAN EDGAR - Alcatraz Number 729 - 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 729”. It belongs to the series Warden’s Notebook Pages (NAID 296686).
The typed entries, as printed: name “Miran Edgar Thompson,” No. “729-AZ,” received Oct. 15, 1945 from Leavenworth, age 28, date of birth Dec. 16, 1917. Offense “Kidnaping and N. M. V. T. Act”; date of sentence May 29, 1945; sentence “Life,” with “99 Yrs.” struck through; district sentenced “N-Texas-Amarillo.” Three detainers are listed, including a Texas life term for the murder of a police officer, as the form prints it. 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 at San Quentin 12-3-48.” The note under the partners heading records the 11-20-46 murder trial, a first-degree verdict without recommendation on Dec. 21, 1946, a death sentence the same day, receipt at San Quentin on 12-27-46, and an appeal. The “Reason for Transfer” box and the escape and criminal-history entries are staff text and are not repeated.
Catalog data, labelled as such: offense “KIDNAPPING, NMVTA & MURDER (FIRST DEGREE)”; received at Alcatraz 10/15/1945 from US Penitentiary, Leavenworth; transferred 11/20/1946 to State Prison, San Quentin, California; remark “EXECUTED AT SAN QUENTIN”; birth date 12/16/1917; death date 12/03/1948 at San Quentin. The Bureau of Prisons names Thompson among the six prisoners in the “Battle of Alcatraz” (BOP Alcatraz history).
