Leon "Whitey" Thompson, "Last Train to Alcatraz."(1988)

I've always enjoyed the stories of men/women in desperate circumstances. When you pare away all the artifice of a social personality, what do you have left? These are the situations in which one's expressed values find their true test. Whether the story be about extreme poverty, crime, disaster or war... I believe we can access a truer part of humanity by examining people's actions in crisis. A devastating form of extended crisis is being placed within a prison. The conditions and dangers of incarceration seem to elicit the rawest behaviors from a person's core. Inmates are stripped of almost everything but their will and their word.

Over the years I've read some of the classics in the prison genre. There are several quality works written by those outside the system, including Pete Early's Hot House (Leavenworth) and Daniel Bergner's God of the Rodeo (Angola). Others were written by people with experience inside prisons. To write New Jack, Ted Conover went undercover and worked as a C.O. for a year at Sing Sing. There are plenty of works about foreign prisons- Slavomir Rawicz's Long Walk details his escape from a Siberian prison circa WWII. And there is even a handy "How To" book by Jeffrey Ian Ross (Behind Bars), which provides strategy tips in order to enhance your survival chances should you land in prison. Ultimately memoirs of actual convicts seem to have the most authenticity. From the convict's perspective, I enjoyed Jimmy Lerner's book You've Got Nothing Coming and the classic Belly of the Beast, by Jack Abbot.

I decided to continue my exploration of first-hand accounts with Leon "Whitey" Thompson's book Last Train to Alcatraz. I was pleased to find a signed copy of the work on a back shelf at Half Price Books for $3. Thompson was able to commit over 30 successful bank robberies during the 1940's, before a prospective partner-in-crime dropped a dime on him. He received a 15 year sentence, of which he spent ten years at McNeill Federal Penitentiary in Washington. Having developed an incorrigible reputation, he was eventually ensnared in a conflict with a guard. He was transferred to the most infamous prison in the federal system... "The Rock"- Alcatraz.

A large portion of the book is dedicated to describing the routines of daily life in prison, both at McNeill and Alcatraz. Whitey was generally regarded as one of the meanest inhabitants of the cell block. He participated in an extortion racket, and generally built a shell of hate around himself. He was always on the lookout to exact revenge on his fellow inmates, for any perceived slight. After his transfer to "The Rock" Whitey began to experience a slow change in his character. His legendary recalcitrance began to recede... and he developed better relations with his fellow inmates. He even softened a bit toward a couple of the guards. One of the main causes of this transformation was his discovery of painting. It's clear that Whitey would have had a hard time not extending his stay without that diversion.

In fact Thompson's release at the end of this segment in his life, along with his noble efforts in creating a post-incarceration existence for himself, are nothing short of amazing. Whitey includes a basic outline of some of the formative events of his youth... and the overall tale is quite harrowing. He was completely without family support, and left to fend for himself during the difficult years of the depression. Even his experiences in the Navy during WWII suggest that he was fated for self-destruction. The negotiation of the specific mores and interrelationships of prison life honed his character to a sharp edge, and presented significant challenges to his readjustment into society. There is obviously much more to read about Whitey Thompson. In fact, he wrote several more books throughout his lifetime. I'm aware that he made a return trip to prison after Alcatraz. But Last Train to Alcatraz gives us a full plate- with grit, horror, and ultimately... redemption.