1960s Timeline

Nov. 21, 1963 - Robert Stroud (pictured in 1938), the convicted murderer who became known as the “Birdman of Alcatraz,” died in his sleep...

Aug. 24, 1963 - Richard Honeck, 84 years old, has been in prison longer than many men expect to live. Honeck (left in 1899 and right this...

Apr. 23, 1963 - Four hardened criminals, two of them convicted murderers, escaped today from the maximum-security section of the nation’s...

Dec. 17, 1962 - The myth of Alcatraz was shredded today as investigators tried to discover how a convict escaped and then survived the...

July 3, 1962 - Alcatraz, the Federal prison on an island in San Francisco Bay, will begin closing next year. James V. Bennett (pictured),...

July 2, 1962 - Time seems to be running out for Alcatraz Prison, the place where time stands still. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy...

June 17, 1962 - One result of the prison break last Monday at Alcatraz has been the renewal of the Justice Department’s interest in...

June 17, 1962 - The finding of a plastic bag containing personal effects has strengthened the belief that three convicts who fled...

June 13, 1962 - Three convicts who dug escape hatches with spoons through cell walls on Alcatraz Island were aided by the erosion and...

June 12, 1962 - The search for three escaped Alcatraz convicts — Frank L. Morris (left) and brothers John (right) and Clarence Anglin...

🚨June 12, 1962 - Three Alcatraz convicts used spoons to dig and cut their way out of the island penitentiary in San Francisco Bay early...

Jan. 28, 1962 - Alvin “Creepy” Karpis (pictured in 1936), once listed as United States Public Enemy No. 1, is seeking a deportation...

Jan. 6, 1962 - In Georgia’s Reidsville Prison, a 15-year-old Negro boy, Preston Cobb Jr., is under sentence of death for killing a...