Henri Young
Henri Theodore Young was an American convicted bank robber and murderer who, while serving one of a series of prison terms, attempted to escape from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary with four other inmates in 1939. During the escape attempt, two inmates, Dale Stamphill and Arthur "Doc" Barker, were shot, the latter fatally. All survivors were quickly recaptured. Two of the men, Young and Rufus McCain, were sentenced to solitary confinement and served the terms at Alcatraz for a period of three years. Eleven days after re-entering the Alcatraz general prison population in 1940, Young murdered McCain.
No apparent motive was ever disclosed for the murder. However, according to prisoner 325 Alvin Karpis, Young blamed McCain for the failure of the escape attempt. McCain couldn't swim and Barker refused to leave anyone behind so they began trying to hastily make a raft from driftwood. The dense fog cleared and the guards spotted them. Young's defense in the subsequent trial put the spotlight on Alcatraz and the penal system, leading to questions about how the prison was run. In 1948, Young was transferred to the United States [Medical Center for Federal Prisoners] in Springfield, Missouri. Upon completion of his federal sentence, he was transferred to Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla to begin a life sentence for a 1933 murder conviction.
After release from Walla Walla, Young "jumped parole" in 1972 and his whereabouts were reported as "unknown". He was portrayed as a fictional character of the same name in the film Murder in the First, in which he was played by actor Kevin Bacon. Young is also the subject of the song "Behind the Eyes of Henri Young", featured on the album Dragonfly, by Australian singer Kasey Chambers.
Life
Young was born in Kansas City, Missouri on June 20, 1911. Beginning a life of crime, he became a bank robber and was known for aggressively taking hostages.In 1933, Young was convicted of murder in Washington state. After serving time in prisons in Washington and Montana for other crimes, he was sent to the federal prison on Alcatraz Island. On the night of January 13, 1939, Young, with prisoners Rufus McCain, Arthur Barker, Dale Stamphill and William Martin, attempted to escape. Martin, Young and McCain surrendered, while Barker and Stamphill refused to surrender and were subsequently shot. Barker eventually died from his injuries.
At his trial for McCain's murder in 1942, Young and his attorney argued that the harsh system at Alcatraz had brutalized and dehumanized him. According to the San Francisco Examiner,
"Emphasis which repeatedly laid on the fact that Young was in isolation or solitary confinement for more than three years—and that he drove his knife into McCain's abdomen just eleven days after release from such confinement, made it clear that the defense hopes to show not only that Young was 'punch drunk' but that the punches were administered by the Alcatraz 'system'."
Describing conditions in solitary confinement, Young said:
The jury found Young, who had faced possible execution if convicted of first degree murder, guilty of a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter. The judge described Young as a "cold-blooded murderer" before imposing the maximum sentence of three years on the lesser conviction.
In 1954, Young was transferred to the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla to begin a life sentence for the 1933 murder conviction. On September 21, 1967, Young was added as #258 of the FBI [Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 1960s|FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives] list for escaping the prison. He was arrested in Kansas City, Missouri on January 9, 1968, after a citizen recognized him from an article in Inside Detective magazine. He was released from Washington State Penitentiary in 1972, at age 61. He "jumped parole and, according to Washington State authorities, his whereabouts are unknown." No further records exist on Young.
Inaccuracies within the film
The film Murder in the First has a number of inaccuracies compared to the facts of Young's life. It mistakenly presents Young as being arrested for stealing $5 in order to feed himself and his younger sister. It shows that he was tortured by officials after his escape attempt. It shows him killing McCain in the cafeteria immediately after his return to the general population, rather than later. It also showed that he was found dead in his prison cell in 1942, just before his appeal, with the word "victory" on the wall.As noted above, Young had a prior murder conviction before arriving at Alcatraz. He was transferred from Alcatraz to serve the remainder of that murder sentence later in life at a Washington state prison. He disappeared after jumping parole after being released in 1972 from Walla Walla.