ALCATRAZ HISTORY - Prisoner: Alvin "Creepy" Karpis (#325- AZ)

©2002 RJ Best

ALCATRAZ HISTORY

Alvin "Creepy" Karpis (#325- AZ)

Born Alvin Karpawicz on August 10, 1907, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis spent more time on Alcatraz than any other inmate – over 26 years. His flamboyant robbery style incurred the wrath of FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, who despised Karpis so much that he arrested him himself. He was the fourth and last man to become Public Enemy Number One in 1934.

Karpis's life of crime seemed to begin after a doctor told him to take an extended vacation because he had a leakage of the heart. Alvin then went to live with his sister, Mrs. Bert Grooms, in Topeka, Kansas and it was there that he began an active criminal career, which eventually lead him to Ma Barker in Thayer, Missouri.

A burglary got him a ten-year sentence at the State Industrial Reformatory at Hutchinson, Kansas in 1924. Karpis escaped, sought refuge at his parents' home in Chicago, and was protected by their silence until he moved on to Kansas City, Missouri, where he stole a car and was sent back to the Reformatory as punishment for escaping. In May 1930, he was transferred to Kansas State Penitentiary at Lansing, Kansas, where he made the acquaintance of Fred Barker. When Karpis was released in 1931, he and Barker met up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and began a long career of bank robbery, theft, and murder. Over time, he became part of the infamous Ma Barker gang, killing law enforcement officials as well as law-abiding citizens who got in his way.

Even after the Barkers were apprehended in 1935, Karpis eluded capture for another 15 months, eventually taken into custody in New Orleans in May 1936. He was 28 years old. Three months later, Karpis found himself the newest resident of Alcatraz island. He arrived just after the prison opened and left just before closed in 1962.

His time on The Rock was spent mostly in the prison bakery – when he wasn't fighting with other inmates, participating in strikes, or creating disturbances. By all accounts, he was an excellent baker (he'd worked in bakeries a bit before he opted for crime as a career). He was transferred to McNeil Island in April 1962, where he spent another seven years. While at McNeil, he taught a young inmate named Charlie Manson how to play guitar.

In 1969, the federal prison system released him and deported him to his native Canada, where he spent the next ten years writing a book about his experience on Alcatraz. Karpis committed suicide shortly after he moved to Spain in 1979 so he never saw the publication of his book in 1980.

Karpis's conduct report:
http://www.notfrisco2.com/alcatraz/bios/karpis/cond325A.html

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