Alcatraz Gang

About

The Alcatraz Gang was a group of eleven American prisoners of war (POW) held separately in Hanoi, North Vietnam during the Vietnam War because of their particular resistance to their North-Vietnamese military captors. These eleven POWs were: George Thomas Coker, USN; Jeremiah Denton, USN; Harry Jenkins, USN; Sam Johnson, USAF; George McKnight, USAF; James Mulligan, USN; Howard Rutledge, USN; Robert Shumaker, USN; James Stockdale, USN; Ron Storz, USAF; and Nels Tanner, USN.

These prisoners were held in solitary confinement from 25 October 1967 to 9 December 1969 at a special facility (dubbed "Alcatraz" by Stockdale) in a courtyard behind the North Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense, about a mile away from Hỏa Lò Prison ("Hanoi Hilton"-named by Schumaker, the earliest captured prisoner among the eleven). The prisoners were shackled with legcuffs every night in 3-by-9-foot windowless concrete cells with the light on around the clock. The 11 Americans were separated because they were leaders of the prisoners' resistance. Stockdale once tried to kill himself so that the North Vietnamese could not force him to make a propaganda film, though he survived the suicide attempt. The film was never made. Of Stockdale, Coker said "He was probably the strongest, most exemplary leader of the whole North Vietnamese POW environment". Coker and McKnight were the last POWs assigned to the Alcatraz Gang, being so assigned for previous fierce resistance to their treatment and an unsuccessful escape from the Power Plant or "Dirty Bird" prison camp.