Alcatraz Island

Perhaps the most famous haunted site in the Bay Area, Alcatraz Island served as a maximum-security federal penitentiary from 1934 to 1963. This forbidding rock in San Francisco Bay housed America's most notorious criminals, including Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly, and Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz." Before becoming a prison, the site served as a Civil War-era military fortification and disciplinary barracks.

Long before Alcatraz became America's most infamous prison, the Ohlone people of the Bay Area viewed the windswept island with fear and reverence. In Miwok mythology, evil spirits were said to inhabit the rocky outcropping, and the island was used to banish tribal members who had violated sacred laws. When the Spanish arrived in 1775, they named it "Isla de los Alcatraces"—Island of the Pelicans—but the Native American belief in its malevolent energy would prove prophetic.

The island served as a military fortress beginning in 1853, then a military prison, before the federal government converted it into America's most escape-proof penitentiary in 1934. Over the next 29 years, the Rock housed the nation's most dangerous criminals: Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly, Robert Stroud, and hundreds more. During its operation, 36 men attempted 14 separate escapes—23 were recaptured, 7 were shot dead, and at least 3 drowned in the frigid, shark-patrolled waters of San Francisco Bay. Eight inmates were murdered by fellow prisoners, and five more were killed by guards. The suffering embedded itself into the very walls.

Cell 14D in D-Block's solitary confinement unit is considered the most haunted cell in any American prison. Inmates sentenced to "The Hole" were stripped naked, thrown into complete darkness, and left with only a hole in the floor for waste. The steel-lined cell is consistently measured at 20 degrees colder than surrounding cells—a phenomenon no one can explain. The most chilling legend involves an unnamed prisoner in the 1940s who was locked in 14D and immediately began screaming that something with glowing red eyes was in the cell with him. Guards dismissed his pleas as madness. By morning, he was found strangled to death, finger marks on his throat that could not have been self-inflicted. When guards conducted their daily prisoner count the following morning, they counted one too many men in the lineup. At the end of the row stood the recently strangled prisoner. As guards and inmates watched in stunned silence, the figure vanished.

The ghost of Al Capone is among the most frequently encountered spirits. Suffering from advanced syphilis that left him mentally deteriorated, Capone was too fearful of being attacked by other inmates to venture into the recreation yard. Warden Johnston granted him special permission to practice his banjo in the prison shower room during recreation hours. Capone played in an inmate band called the "Rock Islanders," with George "Machine Gun" Kelly on drums. Decades after his transfer, park rangers and visitors report hearing phantom banjo music echoing from the shower room and from Capone's former cell, B-181. One park ranger documented the experience in detail: he heard distinct banjo strumming from the empty shower room but found nothing upon investigation. Ghost hunters have recorded EVPs of what sounds like Capone's voice begging for forgiveness. Visitors frequently report cold spots and hostile presences near his cell.

The utility corridor behind Cellblock C holds the violent imprint of the Battle of Alcatraz—the bloodiest escape attempt in the prison's history. On May 2, 1946, inmate Bernard Coy initiated a prison break after weeks of starving himself to squeeze through the bars of the gun gallery. Six armed prisoners took control of the cellhouse but could not find the key to the recreation yard door. When surrender became inevitable, inmate Joseph Cretzer opened fire on nine guard hostages, killing two: Officers William A. Miller and Harold Stites. Marines dropped grenades through holes drilled in the roof, forcing the escapees into the utility corridor where Bernard Coy, Marvin Hubbard, and Joseph Cretzer were killed. Today, visitors and staff report hearing loud clanging, the sound of running footsteps, and disembodied voices echoing from behind the utility corridor door—as if the doomed escape attempt replays eternally.

Another persistent haunting centers on Abie Maldowitz, a hitman for Murder Incorporated nicknamed "The Butcher," who was murdered by another prisoner in the laundry room of Cellblock C. In 1984, night watchman Rex Norman was repeatedly awakened by the sound of a heavy steel door swinging wildly in C-Block. The disturbances became so frequent that the National Park Service invited psychic Sylvia Brown to investigate on September 10, 1984, accompanied by a CBS news crew. Brown made contact with a spirit she described as tall, bald, with small eyes. Leon Thompson, a former Alcatraz inmate present during the investigation, immediately identified the description as The Butcher. When Brown attempted to help the spirit cross over, he refused, declaring that no one would help him—choosing to remain imprisoned even in death. Guards also report black smoke billowing from the deserted laundry room, so thick it drives them out, only to disappear completely within minutes.

The ghost of an unidentified man from the 1800s makes periodic appearances. During Warden James Johnston's Christmas Eve party in the 1940s, a man in a gray Victorian suit with mutton-chop sideburns and a black-brimmed cap suddenly appeared before the startled guests. The room turned frigid, the fire in the Ben Franklin stove extinguished, and the figure vanished. Guards patrolling D-Block reported seeing the same apparition. Many believe he is Michael Mann, an Alcatraz worker who drowned on January 21, 1857, when his rowboat capsized in the fog while returning from San Francisco.

Paranormal investigators have documented extensive evidence at Alcatraz. The TAPS team from Ghost Hunters filmed their 100th episode here in 2010, capturing dark shadows, phantom footsteps, and a disembodied voice identifying itself as "Harry Brunette 3-7-4." Research confirmed that prisoner #374 was indeed Harry Brunette, a bank robber imprisoned after a 45-minute shootout with the FBI. The team declared Alcatraz haunted with both residual and intelligent hauntings. Ghost Adventures investigated in 2013, documenting similar phenomena. EMF detectors spike highest in Cell 14D and the locations of violent deaths. Thermal imaging has captured cold spots moving through the cellhouse in human-like patterns. Spirit box sessions have yielded responses including "Forever" and "Can't leave."

In 2023, a team of climate researchers who spent three weeks building a 3D erosion map of the island stayed overnight in D-Block cells. One researcher reported waking in the middle of the night to the sounds of a crowd of people in the room above—moving furniture and playing a non-existent piano. He grabbed his belongings and refused to return. Today, Alcatraz welcomes 1.4 million visitors annually. Many leave with more than photographs—countless guests report unexplained encounters, from cold touches on their shoulders to whispered voices in empty cells. The evil spirits the Ohlone people warned about centuries ago, it seems, have only grown in number.