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| Celebrated Alcatraz Officer Dies at 97 |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 07/15/2002 |
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Philip Bergen, an officer at Alcatraz who helped foil 14 escape attempts, including one in which inmates took guards hostage, has died. He was 97. Bergen led the effort to retake 'the Rock' from six inmates who had taken nine guards hostage. At the end of the three-day siege in May 1946, three inmates and two guards were dead, but Bergen was credited with preventing more violence and saving the lives of other officers and inmates. In his 16 years on Alcatraz, there were 14 escape attempts involving 39 inmates. None was believed to be successful - 26 inmates were recaptured, seven were shot to death and six presumably drowned in the cold San Francisco Bay waters. Bergen was promoted to assistant warden at La Tuna Penitentiary in Texas and left in 1955, before Alcatraz was closed in 1963. Throughout his life, Bergen said maximum-security prisons like Alcatraz should handle difficult prisoners. He said inmates were controlled through loss of privileges, restrictive diets and isolation, and denied allegations that they were abused. Bergen died June 14 in a hospice in Sun City, Ariz. of natural causes. He is survived by two daughters, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. |
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