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Visit Al Capone
on Alcatraz

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Weird Alcatraz facts

1. More people visit the island each day than were ever incarcerated there in Alcatraz's 29-year history as a federal penitentiary. Alcatraz
2. The first name for Alcatraz was Alcatraces which means sea bird. This later got shortened—probably because it was hard to say—to Alcatraz, which means pelican.
Early names for Alcatraz also included "the white island" because of all the bird turd deposited there. And also "the silent island" because none of the convicts were allowed to speak to each other during the early penitentiary years.
3. If you were a kid growing up on Alcatraz, you were not allowed to have a dog or a cat. The second Warden of Alcatraz, Warden Swope, defied his own rules, however, and kept his own dog on the island.
4. There were five prisoners who escaped from Alcatraz and were never found. (Two in 1937—Roe and Cole. Three in 1962—the Anglin brothers and Morris.) No one knows if they were successful in their escape or if they drowned in the Bay.
5. In 2005, a dog swam in the Alcatraz Invitational, a swim race between Alcatraz and San Francisco. The dog whose name was Jake came in 72nd—well before many of his human competitors.

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