Clarence Carnes

Clarence Victor Carnes
Carnes in his prison cell
Born	(1927-01-14)January 14, 1927 Daisy, Oklahoma,U.S.
Died	October 3, 1988(1988-10-03)(aged 61) MCFP Springfield,Springfield, Missouri,U.S.
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

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.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.

Alcatraz

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.

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.

Parole, re-incarceration, death

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 complicationson October 3, 1988, at theMedical Center for Federal PrisonersinSpringfield, Missouri,and was buried in apaupers' grave.

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.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.

In popular culture

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.

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.

External links

• Clarence CarnesatFind a Grave