The citizens of San Francisco were not at all overjoyed to have a federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island. Throughout October 1933, the San Francisco Chronicle listed group after group who opposed the scheme. Chief of Police William J. Quinn, the Police Commission, and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors spoke out against a federal prison for gangsters on the island. An editorial in the Chronicle argued that Alcatraz was too close to the city to be a summer resort for bad men. Professional gangsters, it said, would have outside friends who would help them escape. It recounted that over the years 17 military prisoners had successfully escaped by swimming or by stealing boats and another six had gotten away by one ruse or another. The Federation of Women's Clubs joined...