Alcatraz Island
Alcatraz is a former prison in San Francisco Bay. Overview
The island prison of Alcatraz is a favorite tourist spot, drawing nearly a million visitors a year. A barren rock swept by old winds coming through the Golden Gate, it was believed by the local Miwok tribes to be the haven of evil spirits. First made a military prison in 1859, after extensive improvements over the decades it was transferred to the U.S. Prison Bureau in 1933. The government, deciding it needed a “super prison” for its most dangerous charges, increased security on the island then moved in such well-known criminals as Machine Gun Kelly, Alvin “Kreepy” Karpis, Robert Stroud (the “Birdman of Alcatraz”), and Al Capone. In 1946, the prison endured a riot that lasted several days and left three inmates dead. In 1963, a year after a successful escape by three inmates (it has never been learned if the escapees made it safely to the mainland), the prison was officially closed and the island abandoned.
In November, 1969, 90 Native Americans sailed from Sausalito in the pre-dawn hours to take possession of the Rock. National attention focused on them and the issue of Native American rights while government efforts to remove them from the island continually failed. Life on the cold, bleak island was hard, though, and despite donations from many concerned groups and individuals, the number of occupants dwindled. In June of 1970 a fire sprang up, destroying two historic buildings and a lighthouse dating from 1854. A year later, federal marshals moved in and escorted the few remaining protestors off the island. The island is now administered by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and can be visited by ferry during daylight hours.
Alcatraz is one of the few spots that even the Kithain of the Bay Area leave alone. While there have been a great many nightmares about the place, there have been few dreams, and Glamour is scarce there. In addition, the site is potent Haunt, attended by scores of Hierarchy wraiths who are themselves besieged by the Renegades and Heretics of San Francisco. The intangible combat between these two forces pours enough violent emotion into the waking world for the Kithain to suddenly drop into Bedlam here, just from the psychic spillover from the warring ghosts.
