Shockley had been transferred to Alcatraz from Leavenworth in September of 1938, and he spent the majority of his imprisonment in segregation. He had suffered emotionally throughout his childhood growing up in rural Oklahoma, and eking an existence under conditions of severe poverty. He was forced to leave school and work on the family farm before completing the elementary grades, which limited his education to basic reading and writing. He developed no trade skills and was often involved in petty crimes. It was also documented that while serving out a sentence in a state reformatory, Sam was badly beaten by a fellow inmate and suffered a severe head injury. One year later he would receive another head injury, this time inflicted by a correctional officer. His family remained very supportive, securing an attorney named E.W. Schenk, who endeavored to attain clemency for Sam, but the effort was ultimately unsuccessful.
On March 14, 1938, Shockley and an accomplice named Edward Leroy Johnston burglarized a farmhouse near Pauls Valley, a city in Garvin County, Oklahoma; stole a shotgun and devised a plan to rob the Bank of Paoli (located in the Coty of Paoli). The following day at 4:45 a.m., Shockley and Johnston stole a car from a gentleman who ironically was named Jesse James. They bound and gagged him with bailing wire and then beat him severely. After shoving a handkerchief in James’ mouth and securing it by wrapping utility tape around his head, they made off with his Chevrolet Coupe. At approximately 1:00 p.m., the two criminals entered the Paoli Bank with Shockley posing as a customer who needed to cash a labor check. Once Shockley had arrived at the teller’s window, he pulled a revolver on bank president D.F. Pendley, his wife, and the assistant cashier, demanding that they turn over all of the cash. While Shockley stood over the couple, Johnston collected $947.38 in silver and currency. The official report also stated that Shockley abused the couple verbally with vulgar profanities and death threats.
After they had bagged the cash, the couple were taken as hostages and transferred to the vehicle that had been stolen from James. The car eventually broke down and the four were forced to head into the mountains on foot. Police reports state that a young teenage farmer interceded and initiated a gun battle, thus allowing the two hostages a chance to escape. Shockley and Johnston were able to flee into the mountains and were not captured until ten days later when they were apprehended at a farm belonging to Shockley’s brother near Tom, Oklahoma. Shockley made a mad attempt to escape out the back door, but was quickly hunted down by the police. He later denied having any role in the robbery, but his accomplice Johnston readily admitted that both of them had been involved.
Shockley was committed to Leavenworth on May 16, 1938, where he was frequently reported as behaving violently toward the correctional staff. After his transfer to Alcatraz this pattern apparently continued, and he was often placed in segregation. Shockley would always be released back into the general prison population, but then he would quickly find himself in some type of mischief again, and be returned to isolation. Despite his low IQ, he occasionally devised some witty schemes. For example, in June of 1943 when Shockley was assigned to work in the kitchen detail, he stole six pounds of tenderloin steak from the freezer and managed to sneak it into the bakeshop and roast it. He wasn’t caught until after he had eaten a healthy portion. He was then sent back to solitary, placed on a restricted diet, and permanently removed from his work assignment in the kitchen. The correctional officers on Alcatraz dreaded Shockley’s outbreaks, and only one week prior to the 1946 escape attempt, he participated in a large-scale disturbance that reverberated through D Block.
On the evening of April 26 th, Robert Stroud, better known as the “Birdman of Alcatraz,” started yelling at the top of his lungs that he was suffering from severe abdominal cramps and needed immediate medical attention. The D Block Correctional Officer made an attempt to see if Dr. Roucek, the official prison physician, was still on the island. After calling around and not being able to locate the doctor, the officer informed Stroud that he would have one of the MTA’s (Medical Technical Assistant) from the prison hospital come down and examine him. Stroud protested profusely, insisting that he wanted to see a “real” doctor, and bragging that he was smarter than any of the MTA’s. The correctional officer apparently had a difficult time getting the MTA to come down to D Block. After some time had passed, with Stroud becoming progressively more vocal, the rest of the inmates started to join in, insisting that a doctor be brought in to examine him immediately. After a wait of nearly two hours, the MTA finally made his way into Stroud’s cell, which was located on the top tier in the far corner. The MTA performed a quick and superficial exam, offered Stroud a few aspirin, and prescribed rest.
Stroud continued to complain into the evening that he had been misdiagnosed, and repeatedly demanded to see a doctor. By this time Dr. Roucek had returned and he came up to examine Stroud. After performing a thorough examination, he explained to Stroud that there were no pertinent findings, and that the trouble would probably pass by morning. Soon afterward Stroud again began yelling, stating that he would die unless someone got him medical help. The other D Block inmates started rallying on his behalf. Their rebellion implied that the prison administration was cruelly leaving an inmate to suffer and this led the inmates to start vandalizing their cells. Shockley and several of the others began to destroy everything in sight. The frenzy raged throughout the cellblock as the majority of inmates threw their belongings out onto main floor from their respective tiers.
Jim Quillen was a fellow inmate who had been sentenced to serve time in D Block after a failed escape in the kitchen basement area. With the assistance of a few other inmates, Quillen had attempted to escape through a narrow tunnel housing steam pipes which were thought to lead down to the prison powerhouse. The temperatures in the tunnel were unbearably hot and when the inmates reached the end of the cellhouse, they would unfortunately find that the tunnel was sealed with a five-foot block of cement. A fellow prisoner had meanwhile revealed their plan to the administration and they were sent to serve time first in isolation and then in segregation.
Jim Quillen
Quillen would later describe some of the events that Stroud incited, such as inmates draining the water from their toilet and using bedding and other flammable items to start a fire in the bowl. Once the fire had reached a sufficient temperature, the inmate would flush the toilet and the cold water would shatter the porcelain. The sharp, heavy pieces would then be thrown out of the cells and over the tier railings, presenting a hazard to the correctional staff, and sometimes even shattering the outside windows. By the early morning hours on April 27 th, water was flooding over the upper levels, and massive pools had saturated the lower cellblock floors. The block was fogged with smoke from smoldering fires as the chilling bay breeze ripped through the cellhouse, intensifying the cold, and the inmates were left alone in their wet cells with no warm place to rest.
By daybreak the correctional staff had started to assess the damages, and they set up a desk at the end of the block to hold hearings with Warden Johnston. On the morning of April 28 ththe hearing board convened, and met with each and every inmate who had caused destruction to his cell. The board was comprised of Associate Warden E.J. Miller, Captain H.W. Weinhold, Lieutenant N.W. Morrison, Dr. Roucek, and the Warden himself. Quillen later recalled that Stroud’s cell was found completely intact with his bed nicely made, and that he was angered that Stroud had used the other inmates to get back at the administration.