This is an IHeart podcast.

And we continue with our American stories.

And up next comes a man who's simply known as the History Guy.

Today, the History Guy shares the story about an escape attempt in the infamous Alcatraz

Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco, California that led to a standoff.

The penitentiary, the inmates called the Rock,

was supposed to be escape-proof,

but that did not keep some prisoners from trying.

We're telling this story because on this day in 1963,

Alcatraz closed after 29 years of operation.

Here's the history guy with the story of the 1946 Battle of Alcatraz.

Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, built on an island in San Francisco Bay, was open in 1934

to house America's most dangerous criminals. Built literally on an island surrounded by shark-infested waters, the prison

was considered to be escape-proof, but that didn't keep the prisoners from attempting to escape

from the infamous prison that was most awfully called simply the rock. There were 14 escape attempts

in the 29 years that the prison was in operation, and among those,

one was particularly notable both for its daring and for its violence.

The 1946 Battle of Alcatraz deserves to be remembered.

46-year-old Bernard Barney Coy had been convicted by a federal jury for robbing the Bank of New Haven,

Kentucky in March of 1937. He and a cousin held a bank teller at gunpoint with a sought

off shotgun, made off with $2,175. Sentenced to 25 years, he was transferred from Atlanta

to Alcatraz in 1938. Nonetheless, Coy had, by 1946, earned the position of

...