About the book
In 1936 Alvin Karpis was arrested by the FBI in New Orleans; with Freddie Barker he had led the Karpis/Barker gang. Wanted for 14 murders that could never be proven, he was sentenced to life on a kidnapping charge and sent to Alcatraz. Written with Robert Livesey, the memoir gives his own account of the prison, including solitary confinement in the black hole and the violent deaths of inmates whose escape bids failed. He describes fellow prisoners such as Robert Stroud, the Bird-Man of Alcatraz, Doc Barker, Machine-Gun Kelly and Al Capone, along with a young Charlie Manson, whom he taught to play guitar at McNeil Island. His accounts often contradict the public myths about these criminals.
Ryan Holiday put it on his list of 24 books most people have never heard of, noting that Karpis, a Public Enemy No. 1 of John Dillinger's era, lived long enough to serve decades at Alcatraz with men like Al Capone.
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Ryan Holiday (Founder/Brass Check)
John Dillinger was played by Johnny Depp. Most people know who he was–mostly because he died in a hail of bullets. But they forget that the other Public Enemy #1 at the time was Alvin Karpis and he didn’t die. In fact, he lived up until the 1980s. Just enough time to do a couple decades at Alcatraz with guys like Al Capone. During a temporary transfer to an alternate prison, Karpis met a young weirdo named Charlie Manson and taught him how to play guitar.
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