Ghosts of Alcatraz: San Francisco, CA

There are many tales of the famous Alcatraz prison, from Al Capone to Machine Gun Kelly and the famous escape that Hollywood films have re-enacted over the years. But what some may not know are the strange ghostly accounts that have been occurring all over the prison. One tale I wanted to investigate was the ghost of Al Capone.

As the story goes, Capone's health was failing due to illness, yet he played the banjo for the prison band. Due to Capone's deteriorating mental state and to avoid fights out at the prison yard. He was given permission to practice in the shower room. An Alcatraz park ranger recalls hearing the distinct sound of music playing in the shower room. It sounded like a banjo. He had no other explanation for this, but many familiar with the history of Alcatraz do.

I headed for the showers and surprisingly enough, it is the first room I entered for the Alcatraz tour. Now the room is much larger than expected with a winding path around the showers to the awaiting tour guides. The audio is tough to navigate due to the acoustics of the room, so recording would unfortunately capture every voice and noise possible. The tour was about to start, I set up a digital recorder and tried to capture the music first hand.