HAUNTED PLACES / CALIFORNIA
ALCATRAZ ISLAND,
SAN FRANCISCO.
Alcatraz Island was a fort, a military prison and, from 1934 to 1963, the federal penitentiary that held Al Capone. This page covers its history, its ghost stories, its television visits, and what a visit allows today.
The history
In 1775 the Spanish officer Juan Manuel de Ayala charted San Francisco Bay and wrote "de los alcatraces", island of the pelicans, on his map; the name later settled on this rock. It was reserved for military use in 1850 and fortified through that decade. The lighthouse began service in 1854, the first on the Pacific coast, and by 1861 it was a Civil War fort whose guns were never fired in anger.
Soldiers convicted of crimes were held on the island from 1859, and in 1907 it became the Pacific Branch, U.S. Military Prison. The concrete cellhouse was finished in 1912. The Army handed the island to the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 1933, and on August 11, 1934 the first 137 federal prisoners arrived from Leavenworth.
Over 29 years about 1,576 men passed through, roughly 260 at a time, among them Capone, Robert Stroud and George Kelly. D Block, the Treatment Unit, held men in isolation on three tiers; its last six cells, 9 through 14, were the dark punishment cells known as the hole. The hospital sat above the dining hall.
Thirty-six men made 14 escape attempts: 23 were caught, six were shot dead, two drowned and five were never found. On May 2, 1946 six inmates seized weapons from the gun gallery; when the siege ended on May 4, officers William Miller and Harold Stites were dead, and Bernard Coy, Joseph Cretzer and Marvin Hubbard lay dead in a utility corridor off C Block. Sam Shockley and Miran Thompson were later executed at San Quentin. In June 1962 Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin left through widened vents and were never found.
The prison closed on March 21, 1963: it cost about three times as much to run as other federal prisons, and salt air was eating the concrete. From November 20, 1969 to June 11, 1971 Indians of All Tribes occupied the island; a fire during those 19 months destroyed the warden's house and other buildings, and the protest helped end the federal policy of terminating tribes. Alcatraz joined Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1972, opened to the public in 1973, and now draws more than a million visitors a year.
What people report
The San Francisco Chronicle has noted that former guards and visitors alike describe cries, noises they could not place and a sudden chill. The park does not promote any of it; when a reporter on a 2011 night tour asked a staff member in the hospital hallway about ghosts, the answer was no.
Collections of Alcatraz ghost stories point to the same spots. D Block comes first, above all cells 12 and 14, where visitors describe a cold that does not match the rest of the block; one often-repeated story, never found in the prison's records, tells of an inmate in the 1940s who died in a strip cell after a night of shouting. The utility corridor where Coy, Cretzer and Hubbard died is said to give up clanging and footsteps, visitors on night tours describe voices in the hospital, and banjo music, tied in the stories to Al Capone, is reported in the shower room.
Those who have slept there report less. In 2009 a Chronicle writer joined 20 volunteers given a night in D Block as thanks for repairing the cell-door mechanisms. Nobody saw anything; "I heard noises," one volunteer said, "or was it just me?" The island is loud after dark, with wind, foghorns, gulls and sea lions.
Accounts of hauntings here are folklore and entertainment, not verified events.
On television
Alcatraz was filmed for Ghost Hunters in 2010, as the season 6 opener, and for Ghost Adventures in 2013, in season 8; both episodes are titled "Alcatraz". In 2022 Watcher's Ghost Files visited in its first season, in the episode "The Ghostly Prisoners of Alcatraz": Watch the Ghost Files visit on Watcher's official channel.
Visiting and running your own session
Alcatraz is a National Park Service site in Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and the only way onto it is the Alcatraz City Cruises ferry from Pier 33, the park's sole authorized provider. Tickets are for a set departure and sell out weeks ahead in summer and around holidays; the island is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. A visit runs two to three hours, and on a day ticket you may stay until the last boat. The Night Tour runs Tuesday through Saturday: the ferry circles the island with narration, docents give talks and close a row of cell doors, and the hospital is open while some daytime areas are shut; check the park's site and the ferry site for the schedule.
The park's rules are plain: food and drink stay on the dock, bottled water excepted; no pets apart from service animals; smoking only in a marked section of the dock; take nothing, and cross no fence or barricade. Personal photography is part of every tour and the park sets no rule against a phone in hand, but there are no public overnight stays, ghost tours or private investigations: the park states that special use permits are not currently being issued for the island and that special events are not permitted while the public is there. Two officers and three prisoners died here in 1946, others died in the water, and men lost years in these cells; keep your voice low and leave every door as you found it.
If you run a session, do it on the Night Tour. The lower tier of D Block empties when a talk starts elsewhere, and the hospital corridor is quiet between groups; set the phone on a bunk or the concrete floor, a step back from the audio-tour players and the crowd, and let it sit.
Try a session there
Open Spooky Box, set the phone down and run a spirit box session in the quiet of D Block. The phone's sensors decide the moment and chance decides the word, and every word shows its reason. Record the session as audio or video and replay it from any word.
Read next
- Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia: another closed prison, its cellblocks open to visitors.
- Winchester Mystery House, San Jose: an hour south, the house Sarah Winchester kept building.
- Taking a phone on a ghost hunt: what its sensors can and cannot measure, and how to run a session.
- The Spooky Box home page, and every place on this site.
Sources
- Frequently Asked Questions, National Park Service: the park's answers on tickets, the evening program and the rules.
- Alcatraz Night Tour, Alcatraz City Cruises: the concessioner's Night Tour page.
- Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, Wikipedia: the prison years, the cellhouse, the escapes and the 1946 battle.
- Night in Alcatraz' D Block a haunting experience, San Francisco Chronicle, 2009: a volunteer work party's night in D Block.
Questions
Is Alcatraz Island really haunted?
Nobody has shown that it is. Former guards, park staff and visitors have described cries, cold spots and odd sounds in D Block, the hospital and the corridor where three men died in 1946; those accounts are reports and folklore, not verified events. The park runs history tours, not ghost tours.
Can you stay overnight on Alcatraz or book a ghost hunt there?
No. Visitors leave on the last ferry, the park sells no overnight stays or paranormal investigations, and special use permits for the island are not being issued at present. The Night Tour, Tuesday through Saturday, is the only way inside the cellhouse after dark.
How do you get to Alcatraz Island?
Only by the Alcatraz City Cruises ferry from Pier 33, the park's sole authorized provider. Tickets are for a set departure, sell out weeks ahead in summer and around holidays, and include the cellhouse audio tour. Allow two to three hours and wear closed shoes.
Spooky Box is paranormal entertainment. It uses device sensor activity and a word engine to create atmospheric sessions. Generated words and sensor readings do not establish the presence of spirits or verified communication.