Alcatraz is famous for having housed some famous gangsters and criminals. Most of these prisoners were those considered dangerous, disobedient, escape risks and known for committing serious crimes such as murder, racketeering, smuggling etc.

Al Capone, one of the most notorious gangsters in America, was born in New York in 1899. He started his career in Brooklyn before moving to Chicago and had already been on the Bureau of Investigation's ""Most Wanted"" list by the end of the 1920s. Al Capone was indicted and convicted for income tax evasion in 1931, and found guilty on five counts. In 1932, he was initially sent to an Atlanta prison, and then finally transferred to Alcatraz in August of 1934.

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George "Machine Gun" Kelly Barnes, infamous for crimes, which included bootlegging, armed robbery and kidnapping had already been in the gangster business by 1927. In 1933, Kelly received life sentence for the kidnapping of Charles F. Urschel, a wealthy businessman and his friend Walter R. Jarrett. He was first incarcerated in Leavenworth, Kansas and was later transferred to Alcatraz in 1934 due to his constant escape threats.

Henry "Henri" Young started his career as a bank robber and committed murder in 1933, was found guilty and served time in different state prisons. In 1935 he was sent to the U.S. Penitentiary on McNeil Island in Washington State and was transferred to Alcatraz in the same year. In 1942, he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after he stabbed a fellow inmate to death. His life-story was made famous by the Warner Brothers movie, "Murder in the First".

Robert Stroud, the "birdman of Alcatraz, was first convicted of manslaughter in 1909, after he brutally shot and murdered a bartender. Stroud was transferred from McNeil Island, Washington to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas where he began to develop a keen interest in birds. He was allowed to breed them and maintain a lab. He was transferred to Alcatraz in 1942 to spend the rest of his days. The story of his life was made famous by the movie, "the birdman of Alcatraz", starring Burt Lancaster.