Has anyone really escaped from the infamous Alcatraz Jail

Q. What's its history

A. Alcatraz was built as a super-prison as the federal government's response to crime in post-Prohibition America. It was the idea of attorney-general Homer Cummings and prisons boss Sanford Bates and initially intended for big criminals including kidnappers and racketeers. It was to be built in a remote spot and Alaska was originally considered. Then Alcatraz, formerly an Army jail, was suggested, and a warden, James A Johnston, appointed. Alcatraz, which opened in 1934, had an amazingly tough regime.

Q. So there were plenty of famous criminals

A. Not that many, actually. Of the 1,545 men to serve time on the island, only a few were household names.

Q. Such as

A. Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly and Robert Franklin Stroud.

Q. Stroud

A. I'll get back to him later. Al Capone was moved to the island- known as the Rock - in August, 1934. He had been serving his time in Atlanta, where the rest of his crime family had taken an hotel, so they could take constant orders from him about running his organisation back in Chicago. At Alcatraz, Capone was assigned menial jobs and kept away from his old crime contacts. He had syphilis, though, and spent most of his time in the Alcatraz hospital before being transferred in January 1939.

George 'Machine Gun' Kelly also arrived in 1934. This former bootlegger found a new career in bank-robbing and later went into the kidnapping business. He served 17 years there before transfer and died shortly after being paroled in 1954. And then, of course, there was Robert Stroud.

Q. Who was he

A. The man made notorious by the film as the Birdman of Alcatraz.

Q. What did he do

A. He was jailed for 12 years for manslaughter in 1909 and started his term at McNeil Island, but, after violent incidents, was transferred to Leavenworth after three years. There, he attacked and killed a prison officer in front of 2,000 other inmates. Stroud was sentenced to death but this was commuted to life, in solitary confinement.

Q. But where does the birdman come in

A. Stroud kept birds and studied avian diseases. He became expert and communicated with bird breeders and fanciers around the world. But this was forbidden and Stroud was packed up and moved out in the middle of the night to Alcatraz in 1942. There, he was allowed to mix with other inmates until a new warden, Ed Swope, arrived. He ordered Stroud back into solitary. There he stayed until 1959 when ill-health permitted a transfer to a prison hospital in Missouri, where he died four years later.

Q. So the birdman bit is misleading

A. Yes. The film should probably be called The Ex-Birdman of Alcatraz.

Q. And the prison is still open

A. Yes, but only to tourists. Alcatraz was massively expensive to run and the regime was at odds with the emerging prison policy of rehabilitation. It closed on 21 March, 1963. A total of 1,545 inmates served time there and the prison had 336 cells. Eight convicts were murdered by other inmates, there were five suicides, and 15 others died from illness.

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By Steve Cunningham