HOLLYWOOD BLVD.

"The Big Train" to Alcatraz

The Miami News, Sept. 29, 1961
Untouchables Program Draws FCC Censure
WASHINGTON (AP)--The Federal Communications Commission said yesterday the American Broadcasting Co. was "clearly derelict" in not labeling as fiction several episodes in "The Untouchables" television programs of last Jan. 5 and Jan. 12. The shows depicted federal prison guards as aiding gangster Al Capone in an escape attempt during his transfer from Atlanta to Alcatraz by train. James V. Bennett, director of the Bureau of Prisons, complained that the shows defamed bureau employees and undermined their morale. In a letter to ABC, the commission said: "..Since we are in view that the manner in which the programs were presented created the impressions that the events portrayed were based on historical fact, we conclude that the American Broadcasting Co. was clearly derelict when it did not inform the viewing public by clear announcements in the programs of the degree to which the programs were fictionalized.

The Milwaukee Journal, July 6, 1962
"Untouchables" Train Guard Lawsuit
ATLANTA--A Georgia appeals court ruled Thursday that a person could be damaged by an unflattering exposure through motion pictures or television, paving the way for trial of a $200,000 damage suit based on the television program, "The Untouchables."
The suit was brought by Edward T. Simpson, retired guard of the bureau of prisons, against American Broadcasting-Paramount Theaters, Inc., and the Crosley Broadcasting Co. of Atlanta.
Simpson claimed that he was damaged by an "Untouchables" episode in which a fictional guard was shown accepting a $1,000 bribe from Al Capone. Simpson said he was a guard on the train that transferred Capone to Alcatraz in 1934.
The fictional guard aboard the train was shown passing information about the train's switching plans on a piece of paper hidden inside a library book which was slipped to Capone as a prelude to an escape attempt. No such attempt was made.
Defense attorneys sought to block the trial on grounds that a television show was neither in written language, defined as libel, nor in spoken language, defined in slander.
The appellate ruling held that there was a third category--a visual presentation.
The judges held that a person could be damaged in a television show even though it did not fall into traditional meanings. The ruling upheld a lower court, which said the case could go to trial.

St. Joseph Gazette, Jan 13, 1961
Network Ignores Warning
NEW YORK (AP)--"The Untouchables" appeared as scheduled Thursday night on the American Broadcasting Co, despite a warning from the director of the United States bureau of prisons. The taped program was interrupted briefly at the end for an announcement that nothing in the show was intended to reflect on the integrity of the bureau.

The bureau's director, James V. Bennett, had wired ten ABC television stations that his organization would oppose renewal of their broadcasting licenses if they showed the second installment of a program called "The Big Train." All ten showed the program anyway.

It was a dramatization of an abortive attempt by mobsters in 1934 to free Al Capone from a transcontinental train transferring him with other prisoners from Atlanta to Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay. A prison guard was in cahoots with Capone in the show.

Spokesman-Review, Jan 12, 1961
Prison Chief Wants Show Withheld
WASHINGTON (AP)--The director of the federal bureau of prisons has asked the American Broadcasting company to withhold the second installment of a television program about Al Capone's transfer to Alcatraz prison. There was no immediate comment from ABC headquarters in New York.

James V. Bennett's complaint was based on the first episode of a two-part program entitled "The Big Train." It depicts incidents during the train transfer of the late Chicago mobster from Atlanta penitentiary to Alcatraz. "The utterly fantastic portrayal of the circumstances of the transfer of Capone and the establishment of Alcatraz are unworthy enough of your system," Bennett said, "but also to picture honorable and courageous officers as venal, and a public institution like the Atlanta penitentiary as toadying to a character like Capone, is an unforgiveable public disservice."

Last Man to Leave Alcatraz

Pittsburgh Press, March 21, 1963
No. 1576--Doing Ten Years for Armed Robbery
By MARY ELLEN LEARY, Scripps-Howard Staff Writer
ALCATRAZ ISLAND--The entrance at "The Rock" is used to being locked shut. They had to prop the doors apart with a fire extinguisher and a cigaret-butt sandbox. Through here yesterday under a brooding sky, 27 men shuffled out in leg irons to take a boat and a plane to other prisons. Their going closed for all time this maximum security prison. Over past weeks, its 260 convicts have been sent to other prisons. Yesterday, with 26 chained comrades, the last man left.

He was No. 1576--lean, blonde and younger looking than his 29 years--Krank (Frank) C. Weatherman, serving 10 years for armed robbery. He, however, isn't a Federal prisoner; he's doing Alaskan time but was too tough for the Anchorage prison and was shifted to Alcatraz.

It was quite a status thing, being last. Many prisoners vied for the honor, Warden Olin J. Blackwell said. But Mr. Blackwell was systematic: Last man in, last man out. About the departure itself, there was an air of ceremony. It centered on the departing prisoners; not on individuals, but on the group, all awesomely alike in fresh starched denims, white socks, shined shoes and precise prison haircuts.