One of the last living Alcatraz prisoners opens up about life behind bars and Trump plans to reopen it
Bill Baker was only 23 when he was handcuffed, shackled, and thrown on the back of a boat headed for Alcatraz, the infamous federal penitentiary reserved for the worst of the worst in the country.
Back then, he was known only as Inmate No. 1259. Today, at 91 years old, he’s ready to discuss his time on “The Rock.”
Baker’s story began on a cold and foggy morning in January 1957. He wore a standard-issue shirt and pants three sizes too big for his frame.
“I was scared s***less,” he told the Washington Examiner.
Born in Kentucky during the Great Depression, Baker spent most of his life in and out of federal prison for cashing bad checks. He got criminally good at escaping, so he was sent to the one place no one had escaped from to finish the final three years of his sentence.
