Clarence Carnes
Clarence Victor Carnes | |
---|---|
![]() Carnes in his prison cell | |
Born | Daisy, Oklahoma,U.S. | January 14, 1927
Died | October 3, 1988 | (aged 61)
Other names | The Choctaw Kid |
Conviction(s) | Federal First degree murder of a federal employee (18 U.S.C. §§ 253 and 452) Assault of a federal employee (18 U.S.C. § 254) Kidnapping (18 U.S.C. § 408) Oklahoma First degree murder |
Criminal penalty | Federal Life imprisonment plus 104 years Oklahoma Life imprisonment |
Clarence Victor Carnes(January 14, 1927 – October 3, 1988), known asThe Choctaw Kid,was aChoctawman best known as the youngest inmate incarcerated atAlcatrazand for his participation in the bloody escape attempt known as the "Battle of Alcatraz".
Early life
[edit]Clarence Carnes was born inDaisy, Oklahoma,the oldest of five children. He was raised in poverty, and his criminal activities began as a child, stealing candy bars from his school.[1]He was sentenced to life imprisonment at the age of 16 for the murder of a garage attendant during an attempted hold-up. In early 1945, he escaped from theGranite Reformatorywith a number of other prisoners, but was recaptured in April 1945 and sentenced to an additional 99 years for kidnapping a man, Jack Nance, while he was on the run. He was then sent toLeavenworth,but attempted to escape while in the custody of theUnited States Marshals Serviceand was transferred toAlcatrazalong with an additional five-year sentence. There, he was assessed by psychiatrist Romney M. Ritchey and found to have apsychopathic personality,and to be emotionally unstable with anI.Q.of 93.[2][3]
Alcatraz
[edit]Carnes arrived on Alcatraz on July 6, 1945. On May 2, 1946, Carnes and five other inmates participated in a failed attempt to escape from Alcatraz which turned into the bloody "Battle of Alcatraz",so-called because three inmates and two prison officers died. After the escape failed, he was tried for murder along with the two other survivors,Sam ShockleyandMiran Edgar Thompson,and was found guilty of participating in the plot. Shockley and Thompson were sentenced to death, however Carnes was not executed because he had not directly participated in the murders of the officers and was instead given a life sentence. Some corrections officers who had been taken hostage testified that he had refrained from following instructions to kill them.[4]
Carnes remained on Alcatraz until its closure in 1963, spending most of the time there in the segregation unit. He claimed that he had received a postcard fromFrank Morrisand the Anglin brothers,JohnandClarence,which read "Gone fishing", which was a code word that their escape had succeeded. No material evidence of such a postcard has been found.[citation needed]
Parole, re-incarceration, death
[edit]At the time of Carnes' convictions, the federal government still had parole. Consequently, he was paroled in 1973, at the age of 46. However, Carnes's parole was revoked twice due to parole violations and he was sent back to prison with BOP# 61805-132. He died ofAIDS-related complications[citation needed]on October 3, 1988, at theMedical Center for Federal PrisonersinSpringfield, Missouri,[5]and was buried in apaupers' grave.[6][7][8]
In 1989, Massachusettsorganized crimefigureJames J. "Whitey" Bulger,who had befriended Carnes while on Alcatraz, paid for his body to be exhumed and reburied on land in theChoctaw Nation of Oklahoma.[7]Bulger reportedly bought a lavish $4,000 bronze casket and paid for a car to transport Carnes' remains from Missouri to Oklahoma. Carnes is buried at the Billy Cemetery in Daisy, Oklahoma.[6]
In popular culture
[edit]Carnes' life was dramatized in the 1980Telepictures CorporationTV movieAlcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story.The film, which aired in two 95 minute parts, starredMichael Beckas Clarence Carnes.
The Battle of Alcatraz was dramatized in the 1987 TV movieSix Against the Rock,based on the novel by Clark Howard. While most of the characters were given the names of the real inmates (such asBernard CoyandMiran Thompson), Carnes' character was renamed Dan Durando, portrayed by Paul Sanchez.
Carnes' life was interpreted in Rolling Way the Rock, a performance piece byTim Tingle,also a Choctaw man, which premiered in 2006 at the International Symposium of Artists of Conscience inVictoria, British Columbia.[9]
On 2018, Derek Nelson portrayed Carnes in the film “Alcatraz,” which has Carnes as the central figure of the film, with interiors and exteriors shot at a prison in Brighton, England, and on Alcatraz Island, now a US National Park site.
References
[edit]- ^"Survivor Of Alcatraz Escape Attempt Dies In Prison".AP NEWS.Retrieved2021-04-16.
- ^Ritchey, Romney M. (27 July 1945)."Carnes Psychiatric Report (1945)".Archived fromthe originalon 8 June 2007.
- ^"Carnes".The Salt Lake Tribune.April 20, 1945. p. 7.Retrieved2022-04-18.
- ^"Shockley v. United States, 166 F.2d 704 (9th Cir. 1948)".Justia Law.Retrieved2022-04-18.
- ^"'Choctaw Kid' Carnes dies in prison ".Herald & Review.Decatur, Illinois.AP.October 6, 1988. p. 9.RetrievedNovember 29,2018– via newspapers.
- ^abRanalli, Ralph (19 January 1998)."Whitey paid for Alcatraz inmate's funeral Bulger didn't forget 'Rock' pal"(PDF).Boston Herald.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 13 August 2011.
- ^abMurphy, Shelley (November 29, 2018)."'Whitey' Bulger wished for 'peaceful death,' prison letters say ".The Boston Globe.RetrievedNovember 29,2018.
- ^"ExecutedToday » 1948: Sam Shockley and Miran Thompson, for the Battle of Alcatraz".Retrieved2022-04-18.
- ^"Tim Tingle | Kennedy Center".kennedy-center.org.Retrieved2021-04-16.
External links
[edit]- 1927 births
- 1988 deaths
- People from Atoka County, Oklahoma
- Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma people
- American escapees
- Inmates of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary
- American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
- American people who died in prison custody
- Prisoners who died in United States federal government detention
- Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Oklahoma
- Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States federal government
- Escapees from United States federal government detention
- Escapees from Oklahoma detention
- AIDS-related deaths in Missouri
- American people convicted of murder
- People with antisocial personality disorder
- People convicted of murder by Oklahoma
- People convicted under the Federal Kidnapping Act
- People convicted of murder by the United States federal government
- People paroled from life sentence
- 20th-century Native Americans