25 Surprising Things About Alcatraz Only The Guards Knew Alcatraz holds a very special place in the minds of the US public. It has a certain image that has been carefully fostered by Hollywood films and more recently, by tourists’ visits to the site. It has a popular-culture reputation as an island prison designed to hold the most infamous and notorious of the nation's criminals. In the mind's eye, thugs and hooligans sit behind stone walls and plot various schemes for escape. And while all of this is accurate to a certain degree, there is so much more to...