Battle at Alcatraz by Ernest B. Lageson

Author:Ernest B. Lageson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Addicus Books
Published: 1999-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

13

Cliff Fish grew more and more frustrated. He still couldn’t reach anybody in the cell house by telephone. He called Besk and Levinson in the Hill and Road Towers, but they both reported that everything seemed normal. Fish advised them that he was trying to locate the associate warden and requested their help in finding him and sending him “up top.”

At his desk in the administrative office area, Lieutenant Simpson had been reviewing month-end reports. It had been several minutes since Weinhold stormed into the cell house, and Simpson was becoming concerned. “Have you heard from anybody in the cell house yet, Cliff? What’s the status back there?”

“I don’t know, Joe,” Fish replied. “Captain Weinhold went in there twenty minutes ago and hasn’t been heard from since. I can’t raise anybody on any of the cell-house phones, but the tower guards say everything looks normal. To be honest with you, I don’t know what the hell’s going on back there, but I’m getting more than a little nervous.”

Simpson grabbed his coat and hat and, calling to the mail clerk, Bob Baker, headed toward the cell house. “Come on, Bob, something’s going on in there. Let’s go help Weinhold.” Baker’s primary duty was to censor mail. He hadn’t been following the conversation but jumped up and followed Simpson to the main gate.

“I don’t think you guys ought to go in there, Joe,” Fish warned. “There’s got to be trouble back there, and I think you should wait till we know a little more about what’s going on.”

“Naw, it’s probably just a fight,” Simpson suggested. “We’re going in to help the captain. Open the gate.”

The two men headed briskly down Broadway to the west end. About halfway down the corridor, Simpson pointed to the second tier of C Block, where five or six inmates were coming downstairs from the first tier to the flats. “What’s going on?” he asked, quickening his step. Both men heard a telephone ringing somewhere in the west end of the cell house, but it went unanswered.

When Simpson and Baker arrived at Times Square, they were immediately captured. Thompson now held the rifle and Cretzer the pistol. Cretzer led while Thompson and Carnes prodded Simpson and Baker from behind with the rifle and billy club. They marched around C Block, past cells 404 and 403, and into cell 402. As they passed the D Block door, Fleish and Shockley observed the new arrivals. “Ah ha, now they’ve got the lieutenant as well,” Fleish laughed.

Seeing Baker and Simpson leave for the cell house, Carl Sundstrom decided that he, too, should do something. Before he did, though, he picked up his phone and dialed D Block. After three rings the phone was answered. Sundstrom couldn’t identify the gruff voice.

“Hello.”

“This is Sundstrom. What’s going on back there?”

No answer.

“Who is this?”

Still no answer. A moment later the phone was hung up.

Sundstrom shook his head and hung up himself. This doesn’t make sense. I wonder if there’s a fight and everyone’s just standing around watching it? No, that can’t be.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.