Last Train to Alcatraz; The Autobiography of a Former Alcatraz Convict

[8], 332 pages. Illustrations. Inscribed by the author on fep. Cover has slight wear and soiling. The autobiography of Leon (Whitey) Thompson, a former Alcatraz inmate. The author recounts his experiences in prison, and later working with young offenders at the California Youth Authority. Forward by John Martin, Park Historian, Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The United States Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz was acquired by the United States Department of Justice on October 12, 1933, and the island became a federal prison in August 1934. Alcatraz was designed to hold prisoners who continuously caused trouble at other federal prisons. At 9:40 am on August 11, 1934, the first batch of 137 prisoners arrived at Alcatraz, arriving by railroad from the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas at Santa Venetia, California, before being escorted to Alcatraz, handcuffed in high security coaches and guarded by some 60 special FBI agents, U.S. Marshals and railway security officials. Most of the prisoners were notorious bank robbers and murderers. The prison initially had a staff of 155, including the first warden James A. Johnston and associate warden J. E. Shuttleworth, both considered to be "iron men". The staff were highly trained in security, but not rehabilitation. Leon "Whitey" Thompson, was an Alcatraz convict who became an author, lecturer on crime and a celebrity on the Rock. He was a tough guy of the old school, a bank robber and hardened criminal who spent 24 years in prison including four years of hard time in Alcatraz. He also turned his life around, becoming a best-selling author who spent his last free years riding motorcycles and gardening, painting and raising two wolves, among other pets, at his home in Fiddletown, an old Gold Rush town in California. Mr. Thompson did not have a friend in the world when he arrived at the prison island in 1958. He had been transferred from the federal penitentiary at McNeil Island for threatening to kill two guards. He was loaded down with 16 pounds of leg irons and shackles, and facing a 15-year sentence for multiple counts of bank robbery. He described himself as "a man filled with hate." He did not remember Alcatraz fondly. "It was a cesspool," he said in a 1994 interview with The Chronicle. He never got a single letter or a visitor in four years on the Rock. Mr. Thompson was released in 1962, but before long was back in prison -- this time San Quentin -- for violating his parole. His life started to change in San Quentin. He began corresponding with a woman named Helen Thompson, and married her three days after he was released in 1975. The marriage lasted for 30 years, the rest of his life. He could not shake his past, and, encouraged by his wife, decided to write his life story. Mr. Thompson had only a sixth-grade education, and writing did not come easily. He wrote and rewrote the book by hand nine times. No one would publish it, and the Thompsons could not find an agent. So they borrowed money and published the book themselves, took 500 copies back to Alcatraz, by then part of a national park, and set up shop in the bookstore. They sold all 500 copies in a week. The book "Last Train to Alcatraz," later retitled "Rock Hard", sold 85,000 copies. Chronicle critic Joel Selvin called it "a gritty account of life in prison, a hard knocks tale told in the language of the prison yard, articulate as a punch the midsection." Mr. Thompson became a celebrity of sorts, signing books on the island, and writing in his spare time. He continued to write. "Alcatraz Merry-Go-Round" was published by Simon and Schuster. Mr. Thompson served in the Navy in both the European theater and the Pacific during World War II. He earned four battle stars and five campaign ribbons. However, he faced a court-martial for what he described as "a minor scrape" and received a bad-conduct discharge. After his military career, he became a professional bank robber. He robbed 33 banks before the law caug.…