Jan. 25, 1947: Al Capone Dies

Following his release from Alcatraz in 1939 at age 40, Al Capone was no longer the man he once was. Most believe it was the effects of untreated syphilis (contracted in his teens), but Capone family members insist it was mistreatment at Alcatraz that caused his mental undoing.

The "retired" Capone divided his time between the family home in Chicago (where his mother, Teresa, continued to reside) and his estate on Palm Island in Miami, FL. Over his remaining years, Capone's health and sanity continued to wane. He was often convinced that long-dead gangsters and the locked-up Bugs Moran were out to get him.

Capone suffered a stroke on January 21, 1947. Three days later, he contracted pneumonia. Finally, on January 25, at age 48, Capone suffered a fatal heart attack, surrounded by his grieving family. His devoted wife, Mae, collapsed at the scene.

Mae and their one child, Albert Francis (called "Sonny"), continued to live in Florida. Mae died at age 89 in 1986. Sonny, who was married three times and had four daughters with his first wife, eventually changed his last name to "Brown" ("Al Brown" was a frequent alias of his father). He died in 2004 at the age of 85, having lived a life the complete opposite of his infamous father.

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IN PRINT: Uncle Al Capone

Jan. 18, 1909: The Birdman of Alcatraz

In January, 1909, 18-year-old Robert Stroud had recently moved to Juneau, AK, with his 36-year-old girlfriend (according to some accounts, they were pimp and prostitute), Kitty O'Brien. While he was out the evening of the 19th to get some fish for their dinner, an old friend of his, F.K. "Charlie" Von Dahmer, took advantage of Kitty and beat her severely. Stroud grabbed a gun and went to confront Von Dahmer. After a brief struggle, Von Dahmer was dead. Stroud turned himself in and was eventually sentenced to twelve years in McNeil Island Penitentiary in Washington State, where his temper got him into more trouble. His sentence was extended by six months after he stabbed a fellow inmate.

Following a transfer to Leavenworth in Kansas, Stroud killed a guard, Andrew Turner, on March 26, 1916 (one year before he was to be released on parole) when his brother was refused a visit. He was sentenced to hang for the crime, but narrowly escaped death after his mother appealed to President Woodrow Wilson. During his stay at Leavenworth, Stroud found some injured sparrows in the prison yard. After caring for them, he began his lifelong study of birds, eventually publishing numerous articles and two books on the subject. His care for birds brought him much fame and some money for his mother (J. Edgar Hoover even purchased one of Stroud's birds), but much irritation for the prison (just imagine the filth). The prison first curtailed his privileges and tried to get rid of his birds altogether, but Stroud had learned his way around the system and wrote numerous letters to others about his "ill" treatment.

In December of 1942, he was transferred to Alcatraz, which was one of the strictest prisons in the U.S. Despite his famous moniker, Stroud was not allowed to keep birds during his time there. Instead, he wrote two books on the prison system. Stroud gained worldwide fame (and his nickname) after the publication of Thomas Gaddis' Birdman of Alcatraz in 1955, followed by the movie adaptation, starring Burt Lancaster, in 1962.

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IN PRINT: Birdman of Alcatraz: The Story of Robert Stroud

ON FILM: Birdman of Alcatraz

IN PRINT: Diseases of Canaries (by Robert Stroud)

Jan. 13, 1939: Doc Barker's Escape from Alcatraz

Arthur R. "Doc" Barker picked the wrong day to escape from Alcatraz. Attempting an escape from the newly opened (1934) federal prison, situated in the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay, wasn't a good idea to begin with. But maybe Doc didn't have a calendar handy, because the day he and four others chose to escape was Friday, the 13th.

Thanks to budget shortfalls during the Depression, the cell bars in D block (the segregation unit for unruly prisoners) were of the old military prison style and, therefore, easier to cut through. That and a scheduling oversight that left D block unguarded for nearly 90 minutes, made it ideal for an escape attempt. Using a homemade tool called a "screw jack," Barker and his fellow inmates (Henry Young, Rufus McCain, Ty Martin, and Dale Stamphill) worked on the window bars for an hour each night.

After the 3:00 a.m. count, the five men crawled out of the window into the frigid night (they should have picked a better time of year, too) and made their way down the island's steep cliffs. They stripped naked except for their socks (really?) and used their clothes to tie some driftwood and a broken chair into a raft. Guards noticed that the men were missing before they could even get in the water and immediately began a search of the island. Young, Martin, and McCain were quickly surrounded and immediately gave up. Barker and Stamphill took to the water, hoping to swim for it, but the tide kept pushing them back to the island. They were intercepted by a search boat and Guards opened fire with a .45 and a Tommy gun. Stamphill was shot in the leg and Barker in the head. He died later that afternoon in the prison hospital, despite their best (albeit limited) efforts to save him.

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IN PRINT: Alcatraz Most Wanted: Profiles of the Most Famous Prisoners on the Rock