Henry young alcatraz trial

Amid articles which likened New Deal reforms to Soviet five year plans, which called those who voted for the Democrats fools, or which told Jews to convert to Christianity so that there would be no more "Jewish problem", Turano painted a dark picture of Alcatraz where Warden Johnston loomed as "the duly-consecrated Torquemada of the place"; where Rufus Persful chopped off part of his hand; where guards "entertained their charges with a peculiar lullaby consisting of the staccato of target practice conducted near the cell house"; and where Al Capone spent "his time singing operatic arias, in utter oblivion of the silence rule, while he childishly makes and unmakes his prison cot.

Many of Turano's tales were true , but he neglected to mention that reforms were being made. Under pressure from Washington, Johnston eased up on the rule of silence, ended the target practice, and put a stop to the use of the dungeons.

When San Francisco citizens panicked after the death of "Doc" Barker not because Barker had been killed but because he'd gotten out of the Cell House and might have made it to shore the warden persuaded the Bureau of Prisons to completely rebuild "D"-Block. By late , he'd addressed many of the concerns that had appeared in the papers. As Henri Young was removed from the Rock on February 12, , and taken to the mainland to be arraigned, Johnston must have felt at ease.

The prosecution had what seemed to be a clear case of murder in the first degree against a penniless man with no lawyer. Young grimaced and protested as news photographers took a picture of the handcuffs being removed from his wrists before he entered the court room. His eyes, The Examiner reported, widened as he beheld the mahoghany grandeur of the trial chamber.

Judge Michael J. Roche entered the room and Young snapped to attention. He listened to the reading of the indictment in complete silence. As the court clerk finished and handed him the paper, Henri thanked him and turned his attention to the judge. Roche asked Young if he had an attorney. Young indicated that he did not. He was asked if he could afford to retain one.

Young answered in the negative and then made a request which made the front pages: Categorically speaking, I have a preference in lawyers. The more youthful my lawyers are, the better. I should like to have the court appoint two youthful attornies of no established repution for verdicts or hung juries.

I want no attorney who has a reputation in San Francisco for receiving verdicts. I should like the most youthful attornies I can get. The request surprised Judge Roche, but he granted it. Roche appointed Sol Abrams and James M. MacInnis to represent Young.

Abrams and MacInnis paid a visit to the Rock on the 18th. They asked to see the files of Young and McCain. They also asked to see and photograph the Tailor Shop, where the stabbing had occurred and arranged to have Young brought to the U.

Marshall's Office in San Francisco where they could interview him at length. The court set April 15 as the day for the start of the trial and on that day, the members of the jury were selected. This task done, the dueling attornies gave their versions of the stabbing.

Abrams rebutted nearly everything Hennessy had to say. Young, he insisted, had no inkling of what he had done until he found himself sitting with Deputy Warden E. Miller, listening to questions about the slaying. Abrams' defense of Young was one of irresistable impulse.

Henri Young, he was to prove by the testimony of his witnesses, did not and could not perceive what was happening around him or what he was doing. It could not be argued, therefore, that he intended to kill Rufus McCain. It could not be said that he had committed the conscious, premeditated act of murder. McCain, Abrams said, had made homosexual advances to Young and, for this, Young had struck him.

Then, said Abrams, McCain moved in on the escape plot which Young and Barker had hatched together and, after McCain's pleas had forced the group to return twice to shore, it was McCain who first threw himself to the mercy of the guards. Young, who refused to sell out after the capture, found himself in perpetual isolation, and in this environment of sensory deprivation, brooded and brooded until McCain became, in his mind, " not a human being, but The prosecution brought Warden Johnston to the stand first, for the purpose of identifying Young and McCain's commitment papers.

Abrams, who took the witness only a few minutes after he was sworn in, kept him answering questions for most of the day. He had the warden sift through the inmates' files, noting McCain's every visit to the isolation and solitary cells. The Warden told the jury that the size of the cells were five by nine feet; that the solitary cells were unlighted; that prisoners sometimes slept in the cells with only a blanket or less; and that, in the past, men in solitary only used to receive one full meal every three days.

He had changed this, so that they received a full meal every other day and soup on the days when they did not get this meal. Johnston often claimed in interviews and before the court that nothing happened on Alcatraz that he didn't know. Abrams, however, surprised him with a question about the tipple made of milk and gasoline which went hand to hand between the cells and which Young had sometimes imbibed. Johnston confessed that he did not know this drink.

At his trial for McCain's murder in , Young and his attorney argued that the harsh system at Alcatraz had brutalized and dehumanized him. According to the San Francisco Examiner ,. Its size was approximately that of a regular cell-9 feet by 5 feet by about 7 feet high.

I could just touch the ceiling by stretching out my arm You are stripped nude and pushed into the cell. Guards take your clothes and go over them minutely for what few grains of tobacco may have fallen into the cuffs or pockets.

There is no soap. No tobacco. No toothbrush, The smell - well you can describe it only by the word 'stink. It is nauseating. After they have searched your clothing, they throw it at you. For bedding, you get two blankets, around 5 in the evening.

You have no shoes, no bed, no mattress-nothing but the four damp walls and two blankets. The walls are painted black. Once a day I got three slices of bread-no-that is an error. Some days I got four slices. Prindle and Mr. Jones were making the rounds of the cells, distibuting medicine to the inmates. When they opened the door of The Hole, Young shouted "Here's that cocksucker, let's put it on him! Prindle closed the door. When Miller asked Young about this, Young claimed that he knew nothing.

The members of the press never heard about Young's rows with the guards or, if they did, they ignored it. They pointed out a few famous prisoners and the solid doors to cells where they stuck unnamed "fellows who started yelling". Clarvoe described the Rock as "formidable", but also "light and airy": The authorities have even experimented with various pastel shades of paint on some of the cells and railings, but it doesn't disguise the hard tool steel, of which the bars are fashioned.

They're so hard they can not be cut except with special tools, and are notched in the cross-braces so they can not be turned. The method which Young and his comrades had used to break those bars had been a matter of public record since the Examiner published an interview. Bennett and Johnston were nonetheless shocked when Inside Detective advertised that its November issue would feature a story recounting the tales of abuse from Young's trial.

Director Bennett tried to get the Post Office to stop the magazine from printing the story, but learned there was nothing he could do. He asked Johnston to read the article: If World War Two granted the penitentiary relief from bad publicity. The press forgot about public enemies and turned to Fascist ones across the oceans.

Henri Young turned quiet after his September, release from solitary confinement. In February, he complained of "Dizzy spells" to Dr. Ritchey that the other inmates were annoying him and asked to be placed in Isolation. Doctor Ritchey gave the order and it was done. Two days later, guards opened the door of the Hole to see how Henri was and found him sitting in a pool of blood.

Young had broken the lens of his eyeglasses and used one of the shards to slice open a vein on the outer surface of his forearm. He lost enough blood to become nauseated and require hospitalization. For several days, Young would not speak to anyone. When he broke his silence, he complained that he had not been allowed to end it all. Ritchey wrote: He has been nervous since that time but has expressed no delusional ideas or other psychotic manifestations.

He declares that he will eventually "do a better job", as he is sure that is the only solution for his troubles. He does not appear particularly depressed in mood and is certainly not retarded.

He lacks proper insight and is unable to adjust himself to the difficult situation in which he finds himself and cannot personal blame for it. In either event, his transfer to another Institution is suggested, as he would be a special hazard in time of disaster or confusion. During the latter part of , Young was twice cited for destroying government property. On one occasion, he ripped open his mattress, spread the contents on the floor, and slept on them. On the other, he flooded his cell with water from his toilet and his sink, tore up his mattress again, and threw his clothes out of his cell.

Miller wrote: "Young stated that he did not know what he was doing. We took the mattress out of his cell and stripped cell. He offered no resistance. Henri's desparation was matched by Johnston's obstinance. For Johnston, Henri's behavior was all an act contrived to get him off of Alcatraz. For the remainder of Johnston's tenure as Warden of Alcatraz, there was nothing Young or any member of the staff could do to convince him that Young should be transferred.

The Warden was determined to keep Young in his control. Young and his lawyers had revealed that Alcatraz was not a clean, well-lighted place where prisoners were treated humanely. The trial, however, had not diluted Johnston's power.