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On the rock : twenty-five years in Alcatraz : the prison story of Alvin Karpis as told to Robert Livesey
Book by Alvin Karpis, Robert Livesey
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
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July 7, 2019
I'm guessing that if American high school students were given a quiz on famous figures of the past, less than 1% would know who Alvin Karpis was. Hell, twenty years ago I gave a guest lecture at a local college and mentioned Hubert Humphrey and no student in the class knew who he was. (I'll include links for those of you reading this living outside the United States and possibly not knowing who ANY of the people are). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_...
Anyhow, at one time, circa the early to mid-1930's, Alvin Karpis was a notorious criminal and the "brains" behind the Barker-Karpis gang. The gang specialized in bank robberies and kidnapping rich people to collect lucrative ransoms.
You see, the 1930's was a period of what the sociologists call "anomie" in America--a crazy period where conventional rules were scoffed at. Ruffians of all sorts formed criminal gangs and traveled around robbing banks, killing lawmen and terrorizing law-abiding citizens. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomie
There existed a federal crime-fighting agency, however, called the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) to hunt down and apprehend these scofflaws, dead or alive, preferably dead!
Here things get kind of murky. The US was experiencing what was called "The Great Depression." This began on October 29, 1929 when the US market crashed. I'm not too familiar with the dismal science of economics, but have it on good authority that this financial crisis was instigated by a cabal of shape-shifting reptilian "humanoids" that control the world's political and economic systems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_D...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Wor...
Whatever the actual cause of this financial calamity, the early 1930's saw a proliferation of roving criminal gangs. Some have argued that the depression fueled the rise of such gangs, though this is debatable since financial recessions and depressions come and go, but criminality has always existed.
This was certainly the case in the life of Alvin "Creepy" Karpis. Some people are to the manor born and some people are born to rob the manors, or kidnap their occupants, or both! Karpis appears to have been a natural-born criminal, allegedly beginning his criminal apprenticeship at the ripe old age of ten, associating with burglars and bootleggers and selling guns and pornography.
Karpis might have been a blip on some microfiche in university libraries, studied only by the twisted deviants interested in 1920's-1930's American criminality. He was saved from obscurity by the incessant quest of one man--J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover will be well-known to most North Americans of a certain age. He was the first director of a US crime-fighting/publicity agency that became known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI. Hoover concocted a sort of "hit list" of the worst miscreants and called them, "Public Enemy Number One," the equivalent today of being number one on the FBI's 10-most wanted list. This list served not only to give the Bureau publicity, but also alerted the public and local law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for these "Public Enemies" and their gangs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edga...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal...
The "Public Enemies" list likewise helped Hoover keep his job and secure plenty of funding for his agency. It was typically not easy to shut down a criminal gang. Generally the thieves drove much faster cars than law enforcement personnel, and had plenty of hiding places. Some of the "Public Enemies" had public sympathy due to the Great Depression causing many banks to close down, resulting in thousands of depositors losing their life savings.
Alvin Karpis was the fourth and final "Public Enemy Number One." He was also the only one to be taken alive, as the others were killed in gun battles with the FBI. The shelf-life of criminal gangs in the 1930's was not long and Karpis's spree of kidnappings and bank robberies lasted only five years, though by outlaw standards this was an impressive run. Since Karpis was considered the "brains" of the Karpis-Barker gang, during bank robberies he worked the job of "the outside man," the robber in charge of dealing with unwanted intruders such as police and unwanted "escapees" from the robberies--essentially the lookout man to run interference and assure the crime goes smoothly. A skilled outside man also was important for a successful getaway. Karpis was also respected in the criminal underworld for having his fingerprints removed. He had hired a doctor sympathetic to gangsters to inject his fingertips with cocaine and then cut off enough skin that the fingerprints never grew back.
Because of his Public Enemy Number 1 status, along with a streak of alleged and proven crimes, Karpis was sentenced to life in prison and sent to the new Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay. This prison housed the nation's worst offenders and was thought to be escape-proof due to its location in rough waters with a violent undertow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatra...
Karpis spent more time in Alcatraz Penitentiary than any other prisoner, over 25 years. His account of his imprisonment is useful mainly because, if read carefully, it serves as a template for budding criminologists studying criminal sociopaths. Karpis was an unregenerate career criminal who was responsible for damaging many peoples' lives and was reported to have murdered 14-16 individuals during various robberies and shoot-outs. One of his biggest fears while in Alcatraz was being indicted by the state of Missouri for the killing of the sheriff of the small city of West Plains. Karpis was most likely guilty of this murder, though in his book he never confesses to ANY murders since murder is a crime with no statute of limitations in the United States (to my knowledge). Karpis was quite skilled in telling about his life without giving away many details of his criminal activities. He does admit to getting drunk many times in prison and to aiding in a few failed escapes. He is beaten up a few times, but at 128 pounds (58 kg) he relies much more on brains than brawn to work his will on the powers that be, both officials and inmates.
Prisons and jails have hierarchies based on various factors. Karpis was an aristocrat of the criminal underworld and tended to associate with a handful of other well-known gangsters of his era. He and his peers tended to look down on the "common criminal" and Karpis generally feels that 90% of all prisoners in any prison are just losers, unskilled at crime and unfit for society. He throws in a few interesting tidbits in this bio--a prison meeting with Al Capone, before paresis fried his brain, to update "Scarface" on underworld happenings on the outside. He also recounts a meeting with future President Harry Truman in a Kansas City speakeasy where they supposedly had a heated discussion about politics. Another interesting encounter comes much later at the federal prison at McNeil Island, Washington where he teaches a young Charles Manson how to play guitar. Karpis had several encounters with Robert Stroud, the so-called "Birdman of Alcatraz," and reports Stroud was a despicable human who often expressed desires to eat the children of correction officers he disliked. Some of you might recall that Stroud was played in the movie of his life by Burt Lancaster as a studious and kindly figure--ah the illusion of celluloid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdman...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL0cG... ("Celluloid Heroes" w/Lyrics- The Kinks)
Karpis also manages to get in a few digs at J. Edgar Hoover, alluding to the rumors that later swirled about the FBI Director's alleged homosexuality, cross-dressing and racial heritage.
What is more notable, though, is Karpis's total lack of remorse for all the atrocities he committed. He only mentions a few in passing while relating some prosaic story of his Alcatraz life. A close reading shows that Karpis is mainly concerned with his own self-interests and cares little about the feelings of others, be they past victims of his criminality or close family members he has disappointed or most of his partners in crime.
Here's Karpis, for example, on hearing of his mother's death:
"When people you hurt are alive you don't think of making amends. Her death shakes me up because she had always been good to me in spite of everything--unlike my father with whom I always argued. I was always generous with money and treated her well but she didn't need my money, I would have made her much happier if I had stayed out of trouble.
Now it's too late, she's dead, there is no way to make amends; if I dwell on the matter it can only lead to depression."
What's significant about these words is that by the time Karpis voiced them, he'd had about twenty years to make amends, to the extent this was possible. Additionally, he consciously makes a decision NOT to dwell on his mother's death, a time when most people ARE depressed. His reaction is pretty typical of what you'd expect from a sociopath, a person with no conscience and usually feigned human emotions--though Karpis did not even bother to feign them.
Overall, the book has value for a psychology student studying personality disorders, or anyone interested in the American criminal gangs of the Depression Era. This excludes the mafia, of course, since J. Edgar Hoover denied the mafia existed. If you're not a budding psychologist or gangster buff, you might consider this a dull read. You can find better accounts of life in prison reading Edward Bunker, Eddie Little and Red Hog (Dannie Martin).
Karpis was finally released from Alcatraz in 1962, shortly before its closing, and released from Federal Prison in 1969. He was deported to Canada, the country of his birth, after some hassles about Canada not wishing to take a man who had no fingerprints. He gave up criminal life (far as we know, and probably due more to old age than propensity) and settled in Spain on the Costa del Sol where he lived out the remainder of his life enjoying the sun and chatting in English with various tourists. Stay tuned for the sequel, 'My eternity in the Christian Hell. as told to Beelzebub.’
Anyhow, at one time, circa the early to mid-1930's, Alvin Karpis was a notorious criminal and the "brains" behind the Barker-Karpis gang. The gang specialized in bank robberies and kidnapping rich people to collect lucrative ransoms.
You see, the 1930's was a period of what the sociologists call "anomie" in America--a crazy period where conventional rules were scoffed at. Ruffians of all sorts formed criminal gangs and traveled around robbing banks, killing lawmen and terrorizing law-abiding citizens. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomie
There existed a federal crime-fighting agency, however, called the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) to hunt down and apprehend these scofflaws, dead or alive, preferably dead!
Here things get kind of murky. The US was experiencing what was called "The Great Depression." This began on October 29, 1929 when the US market crashed. I'm not too familiar with the dismal science of economics, but have it on good authority that this financial crisis was instigated by a cabal of shape-shifting reptilian "humanoids" that control the world's political and economic systems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_D...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Wor...
Whatever the actual cause of this financial calamity, the early 1930's saw a proliferation of roving criminal gangs. Some have argued that the depression fueled the rise of such gangs, though this is debatable since financial recessions and depressions come and go, but criminality has always existed.
This was certainly the case in the life of Alvin "Creepy" Karpis. Some people are to the manor born and some people are born to rob the manors, or kidnap their occupants, or both! Karpis appears to have been a natural-born criminal, allegedly beginning his criminal apprenticeship at the ripe old age of ten, associating with burglars and bootleggers and selling guns and pornography.
Karpis might have been a blip on some microfiche in university libraries, studied only by the twisted deviants interested in 1920's-1930's American criminality. He was saved from obscurity by the incessant quest of one man--J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover will be well-known to most North Americans of a certain age. He was the first director of a US crime-fighting/publicity agency that became known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI. Hoover concocted a sort of "hit list" of the worst miscreants and called them, "Public Enemy Number One," the equivalent today of being number one on the FBI's 10-most wanted list. This list served not only to give the Bureau publicity, but also alerted the public and local law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for these "Public Enemies" and their gangs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edga...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal...
The "Public Enemies" list likewise helped Hoover keep his job and secure plenty of funding for his agency. It was typically not easy to shut down a criminal gang. Generally the thieves drove much faster cars than law enforcement personnel, and had plenty of hiding places. Some of the "Public Enemies" had public sympathy due to the Great Depression causing many banks to close down, resulting in thousands of depositors losing their life savings.
Alvin Karpis was the fourth and final "Public Enemy Number One." He was also the only one to be taken alive, as the others were killed in gun battles with the FBI. The shelf-life of criminal gangs in the 1930's was not long and Karpis's spree of kidnappings and bank robberies lasted only five years, though by outlaw standards this was an impressive run. Since Karpis was considered the "brains" of the Karpis-Barker gang, during bank robberies he worked the job of "the outside man," the robber in charge of dealing with unwanted intruders such as police and unwanted "escapees" from the robberies--essentially the lookout man to run interference and assure the crime goes smoothly. A skilled outside man also was important for a successful getaway. Karpis was also respected in the criminal underworld for having his fingerprints removed. He had hired a doctor sympathetic to gangsters to inject his fingertips with cocaine and then cut off enough skin that the fingerprints never grew back.
Because of his Public Enemy Number 1 status, along with a streak of alleged and proven crimes, Karpis was sentenced to life in prison and sent to the new Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay. This prison housed the nation's worst offenders and was thought to be escape-proof due to its location in rough waters with a violent undertow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatra...
Karpis spent more time in Alcatraz Penitentiary than any other prisoner, over 25 years. His account of his imprisonment is useful mainly because, if read carefully, it serves as a template for budding criminologists studying criminal sociopaths. Karpis was an unregenerate career criminal who was responsible for damaging many peoples' lives and was reported to have murdered 14-16 individuals during various robberies and shoot-outs. One of his biggest fears while in Alcatraz was being indicted by the state of Missouri for the killing of the sheriff of the small city of West Plains. Karpis was most likely guilty of this murder, though in his book he never confesses to ANY murders since murder is a crime with no statute of limitations in the United States (to my knowledge). Karpis was quite skilled in telling about his life without giving away many details of his criminal activities. He does admit to getting drunk many times in prison and to aiding in a few failed escapes. He is beaten up a few times, but at 128 pounds (58 kg) he relies much more on brains than brawn to work his will on the powers that be, both officials and inmates.
Prisons and jails have hierarchies based on various factors. Karpis was an aristocrat of the criminal underworld and tended to associate with a handful of other well-known gangsters of his era. He and his peers tended to look down on the "common criminal" and Karpis generally feels that 90% of all prisoners in any prison are just losers, unskilled at crime and unfit for society. He throws in a few interesting tidbits in this bio--a prison meeting with Al Capone, before paresis fried his brain, to update "Scarface" on underworld happenings on the outside. He also recounts a meeting with future President Harry Truman in a Kansas City speakeasy where they supposedly had a heated discussion about politics. Another interesting encounter comes much later at the federal prison at McNeil Island, Washington where he teaches a young Charles Manson how to play guitar. Karpis had several encounters with Robert Stroud, the so-called "Birdman of Alcatraz," and reports Stroud was a despicable human who often expressed desires to eat the children of correction officers he disliked. Some of you might recall that Stroud was played in the movie of his life by Burt Lancaster as a studious and kindly figure--ah the illusion of celluloid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdman...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL0cG... ("Celluloid Heroes" w/Lyrics- The Kinks)
Karpis also manages to get in a few digs at J. Edgar Hoover, alluding to the rumors that later swirled about the FBI Director's alleged homosexuality, cross-dressing and racial heritage.
What is more notable, though, is Karpis's total lack of remorse for all the atrocities he committed. He only mentions a few in passing while relating some prosaic story of his Alcatraz life. A close reading shows that Karpis is mainly concerned with his own self-interests and cares little about the feelings of others, be they past victims of his criminality or close family members he has disappointed or most of his partners in crime.
Here's Karpis, for example, on hearing of his mother's death:
"When people you hurt are alive you don't think of making amends. Her death shakes me up because she had always been good to me in spite of everything--unlike my father with whom I always argued. I was always generous with money and treated her well but she didn't need my money, I would have made her much happier if I had stayed out of trouble.
Now it's too late, she's dead, there is no way to make amends; if I dwell on the matter it can only lead to depression."
What's significant about these words is that by the time Karpis voiced them, he'd had about twenty years to make amends, to the extent this was possible. Additionally, he consciously makes a decision NOT to dwell on his mother's death, a time when most people ARE depressed. His reaction is pretty typical of what you'd expect from a sociopath, a person with no conscience and usually feigned human emotions--though Karpis did not even bother to feign them.
Overall, the book has value for a psychology student studying personality disorders, or anyone interested in the American criminal gangs of the Depression Era. This excludes the mafia, of course, since J. Edgar Hoover denied the mafia existed. If you're not a budding psychologist or gangster buff, you might consider this a dull read. You can find better accounts of life in prison reading Edward Bunker, Eddie Little and Red Hog (Dannie Martin).
Karpis was finally released from Alcatraz in 1962, shortly before its closing, and released from Federal Prison in 1969. He was deported to Canada, the country of his birth, after some hassles about Canada not wishing to take a man who had no fingerprints. He gave up criminal life (far as we know, and probably due more to old age than propensity) and settled in Spain on the Costa del Sol where he lived out the remainder of his life enjoying the sun and chatting in English with various tourists. Stay tuned for the sequel, 'My eternity in the Christian Hell. as told to Beelzebub.’
July 6, 2012
If you were pulled in by Public Enemies - which I think is one of the best pieces of non-fiction I've read - the next step is to learn about Alvin Karpis. Karpis, who was given decent coverage in Burrough's book, easily beats out Dillinger in terms of reading material. He was the only public enemy of the era to escape a FBI massacre and he ended up doing 25 years at Alcatraz. There, he met the Birdman, watched Al Copone slowly die of syphilis, aided in the only successful prisoner escape and taught a creepy kid named Charlie Manson how to play the guitar.
You can't read about these guys' lives without getting the sense that so much of what we know about history is ridiculously skewed towards what's relatable and 'feels good.' It's difficult to wrap your head around the fact that in the middle of the 20th century the only way the government could keep people from escaping from prison was to put them on a rocky island in the middle of the ocean. Or that the United States was such a small and crazy place that a bank robber like Alvin Karpis would have played poker in Missouri with a backwoods Senator named Harry Truman. And though this all seems like it happened a long time ago, you have to remember that Karpis served his time, lived for a decade on the outside off the proceeds of his bestselling book and didn't die until 1979.
You can't read about these guys' lives without getting the sense that so much of what we know about history is ridiculously skewed towards what's relatable and 'feels good.' It's difficult to wrap your head around the fact that in the middle of the 20th century the only way the government could keep people from escaping from prison was to put them on a rocky island in the middle of the ocean. Or that the United States was such a small and crazy place that a bank robber like Alvin Karpis would have played poker in Missouri with a backwoods Senator named Harry Truman. And though this all seems like it happened a long time ago, you have to remember that Karpis served his time, lived for a decade on the outside off the proceeds of his bestselling book and didn't die until 1979.
March 5, 2025
A very interesting book if you are interested in the bank robbery spree in the 1930's. Alvin Karpis was the king of bank robberies but ends up being arrested in New Orleans.Because he was designated "Public Enemy #1" by Hoover and the FBI he is sent to Alcatraz. There he is considered to be a "celebrity" by many prisoners and he has a few old friends there as well. He must adjust from being free and always having lots of cash on hand {never less than $10,000 he claims} to being just another convict in the most brutal prison in the U.S. He meets Al Capone and works in almost every industry in the prison. He never apologizes for his crimes and never gives in to the guards or Wardens. A good book for those interested in how the criminal mind works,
February 15, 2021
I read this book before I visited Alcatraz East Crime museum, here in Tennessee. I would love to take a tour of the actual Alcatraz Island. Reading about the experiences of Alvin Karpis while incarcerated on Alcatraz was very moving. I cannot imagine living in a place like that. I realize these people were criminals of some variant or another, but these conditions seemed really inhumane. Karpis was an interesting figure. I believe I watched something about him on a documentary once. It wasn't the best book I read, but it was an okay book.
July 19, 2016
Read it in the months following a visit to Alcatraz.
Includes lots of anecdotes about life in prison and about some of the most famous criminals of the 20th century.
Of course, you'll also read about how mean the system is to poor convicts and I'll let you decide on how reliable Karpis is on that particular subject ...
Not a Pulitzer winning book by far but entertaining enough.
Includes lots of anecdotes about life in prison and about some of the most famous criminals of the 20th century.
Of course, you'll also read about how mean the system is to poor convicts and I'll let you decide on how reliable Karpis is on that particular subject ...
Not a Pulitzer winning book by far but entertaining enough.
February 15, 2018
Labai įdomi knyga apie vieną garsiausių nusikaltėlių Amerikos istorijoje , taip pat turintį ryšių su Lietuva .
Autorius labai gerai perteikia Alvino charakterį , kalėjimo žargoną , piešia labai tikrovišką atmosferą ir veikėjų išgyvenimus . Gausybė faktų ir istorijų , bei įvairių įvykių praskleidžia Alkatrazo kalėjimo uždangą , o kadangi knygų apie tokius sustiprinto režimo kalėjimus nėra daug , tai suteikia mums , paprastiems skaitytojams , galimybę įsivaizduoti kaip viskas ten vyko tuo metu .
Knygoje nepateikiama jokių akivaizdžių Alvio žiaurumo įrodymų , neaprašinėjami jo įvykdyti nusikaltimai ( tik trumpas supažindinimas pradžioje ir keli faktai vėliau ) , viskas vyksta įkalinimo metu , jis piešiamas kaip stipraus charakterio , užsispyręs ir besilaikantis savųjų nusistatymų . Iš istorijos ir trumpų užuominų aišku , kad jis nesigailėjo savo nusikaltimų ir keista , bet skaitant aš nepajutau jam jokios neapykantos , bandžiau suprasti jo gyvenimo būdą , jo nepasmerkdama . Tai pavyko būtent dėl autoriaus meistriškumo , kuris viską pateikia taip , kad kiekvienas skaitantis galėtų laisvai apsispręsti .
Istorija apie pašalintus pirštų antspaudus šokiravo . Ta scena tiktų kokiam siaubo filmui , koks užsispyręs turėjo būti Alvis , siekdamas savo tikslo .
Rekomenduoju paskaityti visiems kas domisi kriminalinio pasaulio atstovų biografijomis , kam patiko Daktaro , M. Areimos , L.Carcateros knygos .
Autorius labai gerai perteikia Alvino charakterį , kalėjimo žargoną , piešia labai tikrovišką atmosferą ir veikėjų išgyvenimus . Gausybė faktų ir istorijų , bei įvairių įvykių praskleidžia Alkatrazo kalėjimo uždangą , o kadangi knygų apie tokius sustiprinto režimo kalėjimus nėra daug , tai suteikia mums , paprastiems skaitytojams , galimybę įsivaizduoti kaip viskas ten vyko tuo metu .
Knygoje nepateikiama jokių akivaizdžių Alvio žiaurumo įrodymų , neaprašinėjami jo įvykdyti nusikaltimai ( tik trumpas supažindinimas pradžioje ir keli faktai vėliau ) , viskas vyksta įkalinimo metu , jis piešiamas kaip stipraus charakterio , užsispyręs ir besilaikantis savųjų nusistatymų . Iš istorijos ir trumpų užuominų aišku , kad jis nesigailėjo savo nusikaltimų ir keista , bet skaitant aš nepajutau jam jokios neapykantos , bandžiau suprasti jo gyvenimo būdą , jo nepasmerkdama . Tai pavyko būtent dėl autoriaus meistriškumo , kuris viską pateikia taip , kad kiekvienas skaitantis galėtų laisvai apsispręsti .
Istorija apie pašalintus pirštų antspaudus šokiravo . Ta scena tiktų kokiam siaubo filmui , koks užsispyręs turėjo būti Alvis , siekdamas savo tikslo .
Rekomenduoju paskaityti visiems kas domisi kriminalinio pasaulio atstovų biografijomis , kam patiko Daktaro , M. Areimos , L.Carcateros knygos .
June 6, 2020
Knyga sakyčiau 50/50, bet paliko labiau neigiamą įspūdį, galbūt todėl, jog lyginau ją su prieš tai skaityta apie drugelį. Skaitėsi gan sunkiai, herojaus charakteris atsiskleidė labiau į knygos pabaigą, o pradžioje kėlė net neigiamas emocijas nes buvo panašus į nuolat nepatenkinta ir besiskundzianti, išlepusi vyrą .,, Nekenčiu beskones kruopų košės be pieno ir cukraus,, ,, esame isprausti į keleto pėdų erdvę , jokio prasiblaskymo." iškart kilo klausimas tai ko po velnių tu tikiesi, ne kurorte gi esi. Visa knyga kažkaip sukasi ne tik apie pagrindinį herojų, bet ir apie kitus žmones. Asmeniškai man knygos pradžioje priberta per daug vardų, aprašomi kiti kaliniai, kas nepasirodė reikalinga, tik klaidino, buvo sunku susekti apie ką gi iš jų eina kalba. Datų žymos ypač knygos pradžioje dažnai blaškė. Knygoje herojus vaizduojamas kaip legenda, visų kalinių gerbiamas nors iki pat knygos pabaigos asmeniškai man neatsiskleidė nei kuo jis buvo toks garsus nei kodėl yra taip gerbiamas.
Apibendrinant, knyga silpnoka, pritrūko galbūt asmeninių išgyvenimų, apmastymo, o ne tik įvykių aprašymo.
Apibendrinant, knyga silpnoka, pritrūko galbūt asmeninių išgyvenimų, apmastymo, o ne tik įvykių aprašymo.
May 18, 2023
Knygoje minima daug vardų, pavardžių ir pravardžių, kurie skaitant toliau maišosi ir nebesusigaudai: ar tai kaliniai, ar tvarkos sergėtojai.
Tai istorija apie išskirtinį kalėjimą, jo griežtus darbuotojus ir sistemą; apie žūtbūtinį laisvės troškimą ir mirtis šioje išskirtinėje saloje; bei apie lietuviško kraujo nusikaltėlį, pasinaikinusį pirštų atspaudus - Albiną Karpavičių (Alviną "Rėjų" Karpį).
P.S. kadangi man patinka nusikaltėlių biografijų istorijos, tad ir ši įdomi knyga buvo ne išimtis. Knyga įtraukianti ir tikrai nenuobodi.
Tai istorija apie išskirtinį kalėjimą, jo griežtus darbuotojus ir sistemą; apie žūtbūtinį laisvės troškimą ir mirtis šioje išskirtinėje saloje; bei apie lietuviško kraujo nusikaltėlį, pasinaikinusį pirštų atspaudus - Albiną Karpavičių (Alviną "Rėjų" Karpį).
P.S. kadangi man patinka nusikaltėlių biografijų istorijos, tad ir ši įdomi knyga buvo ne išimtis. Knyga įtraukianti ir tikrai nenuobodi.
May 16, 2025
A fascinating, insightful look at prison life. Alvin Karpis describes daily life at Alcatraz and Leavenworth prisons where all depended on the whims of the warden in charge. Warden Edwin Swope, a cruel and sadistic man, probably would not have ordered extra copies had he been alive to read “On the Rock”.
October 2, 2021
The problem this book has is that there's no through narrative. It's basically a sequence of events as remembered. But there's little to anything tying it all together. If I had to summarize the ending it would be, "I was there a long time. And I did not like it."
December 19, 2018
Probably much more entertaining for people who know any/some/a few of the criminals/crimes Karpis committed over the years. As a study of Alcatraz, it's mostly stuff you'd assume/know.
November 4, 2019
Read in 2004
June 6, 2008
Growing up in San Jose, its hard not to take an active interest in the many historical landmarks and monuments that litter the Bay Area. Alcatraz was one such place, and this bigraphical work details life on the inside for the man who spent the most amount of time there. Escape attempts and famous inmates are described in detail as is the depravity of these inmates and guards. Full of lurid descriptions of day to day life in a notorious prison, this book is actually quite entertaining though gruesome to the core.
October 3, 2016
Entertaining, though much of what Karpis said is likely exaggerated, made up or glorified. Nevertheless, a good read from a long-time Alcatraz con.
July 24, 2016
interesting and rarely boring. you have to respect karpis's character, even though he's an unrepentant criminal.
August 5, 2008
Hard won memoir material, good read
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