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John Paul Scott (January 3, 1927[1] – February 22, 1987[2]) was an American criminal who is noted as the only escapee from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary known to have reached the San Francisco shore by swimming. He was recaptured almost immediately.
John Paul Scott | |
|---|---|
 John Paul Scott, Alcatraz prisoner #1403, 4/1/1959 | |
| Born | January 3, 1927 |
| Died | February 22, 1987 (aged 60) |
| Known for | The only known inmate to successfully escape from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary (recaptured) |
| Criminal status | Deceased in custody |
| Criminal charge | Bank robbery, possession of unregistered firearms |
| Penalty | 30 years in prison |
![[icon]](#/media/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2015) |
Scott was born in Springfield, Kentucky. He was convicted of bank robbery and the possession of unregistered firearms in Lexington, Kentucky, and sentenced to thirty years in prison.[1][2]
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Scott was sent to Alcatraz Island in 1959 and given prisoner number #AZ 1403. On the evening of December 16, 1962, the 35-year-old tried to escape from the island, together with 31-year-old Darl Lee Parker (inmate #1413-AZ), a convicted bank robber and hijacker who was sentenced to 50 years. While working on culinary duty in a storage room below the kitchen, the two bent the bars of a window in the latrine of the cell block, climbed down a rope, and made it to the water. They then attempted to float to the San Francisco shore, a distance of 1.4 miles. For that purpose, they made water wings from stolen rubber gloves which they blew up. The escape was noticed at 5:47 a.m.[3] Parker had to give up after a short time because he had broken his ankle during the escape. He was recaptured twenty minutes after the escape was discovered, on the rock formation Little Alcatraz, which lies 100 yards from Alcatraz Island.
Although the Coast Guard was searching the bay, they failed to find Scott. At 7:40 a.m., the Presidio Military Police got a call from one of four teenagers who had found an unconscious man at Fort Point beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. That man proved to be John Paul Scott, suffering from hypothermia and exhaustion. Apparently he had been carried by the ebbing tide to this location, approximately 3 miles from Alcatraz. After recovering in the Letterman General Hospital, he was immediately returned to Alcatraz.
It had seemed impossible to escape from Alcatraz by swimming.[4] The seasonal water temperature in the Bay is about 53 °F (12 °C) in December[5] and the current can exceed 6 knots.[6] Citing these facts, as well as razor-sharp rocks and occasional visits from great white sharks, prison officers had discouraged most escape attempts. When Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin had escaped and disappeared half a year earlier, prison officials had said that they had likely drowned (although the FBI just listed them as missing). Scott's escape shook this line of reasoning. For the first time it was proved that a prisoner could escape (if only temporarily) by swimming.[7][8]
Closure of Alcatraz
Alcatraz Prison was closed on 21 March 1963,[9] resulting in the moving of all of its inmates to other facilities. This closure was predominantly due to the expensive operational costs of the facility and structural problems, but was hastened by the escape of John Paul Scott and others.
Later life
After the closing of Alcatraz 3 months after his 1962 escape attempt, Scott was first transferred to Leavenworth and later to a prison in Marion, Illinois, where he made another escape attempt. From there he spent several years at the Oak Park Heights prison in Minnesota. He died in February 1987 in the Federal Correctional Institution, Tallahassee, Florida.
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