John Dekker

John Dekker grew up on Chicago's hardscrabble south side during the Great Depression. As a teenager desperate to raise $1000 to bail his father out of jail, he successfully robbed the corner grocery. It was the first heist in a dramatic crime spree that would take him across the country and ultimately condemn him to Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, the most fearsome prison in America, where he became known as inmate #1076. Released from The Rock in 1958, he survives to this day and has attended numerous Alcatraz reunion events on the island. As far as anyone knows, Dekker retired from crime long ago; but he's kept a wicked sense of humor. In recent years he has worked as a coin dealer, starred in the documentary Alcatraz Reunion, and attended many Alcatraz alumni events.

In his rollicking and humorous autobiography, The Ghost of Alcatraz, John Dekker gives us the inside story on a life of crime and punishment…and the harrowing years he spent locked up on Alcatraz Island.