The man who guarded the Rock
George DeVincenzi spent seven years guarding some of America’s most dangerous criminals.
George DeVincenzi spent seven years guarding some of America’s most dangerous criminals, said John O’Connor in the Financial Times. The former Navy engineer started working as a jail guard at Alcatraz in 1950, when he was 24 years old. “I arrived at 9 a.m., and by 9:30 a.m. I had witnessed my first murder,” he says. “It was in the barbershop, and one inmate, Freddy Lee Thomas, was giving another—his lover—a haircut. All of a sudden Thomas went after the other guy with a pair of shears. He got him in the heart and lungs. That was my introduction to Alcatraz. They went to electric clippers after that.” DeVincenzi soon discovered that the jail’s most infamous residents were among its best behaved. “I knew ‘the Birdman of Alcatraz,’ Robert Stroud, very well. He was a psychopath and a murderer, but I used to play checkers with him through the cell bars. He was very good, I don’t think I ever beat him. George ‘Machine Gun’ Kelly, the kidnapper, was [also] a model prisoner.” DeVincenzi left the Rock in 1957 for a better job, and now gives tours of the island prison. “An ex-convict named Robert ‘Cold Blue’ Luke works with me sometimes,” he says. “He was at Alcatraz for bank robbery while I was a guard. Now we’re pretty good friends.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Mountainhead: Jesse Armstrong's tech bro satire sparkles with 'weapons-grade zingers'
The Week Recommends The Succession creator's first feature film lacks the hit TV show's 'dramatic richness' – but makes for a horribly gripping watch
-
Seeing Each Other: Portraits of Artists – a 'riveting' exhibition
The Week Recommends Pallant House exhibition offers fascinating instances of painterly reciprocity
-
Geoff Dyer shares his favourite books on war
The Week Recommends Out of Sheer Rage author chooses works by Martha Gellhorn, Michael Herr and Dexter Filkins