Name: Arthur "Doc" Barker Age: 40 Inmate #: 268-AZ Crime: kidnaping of Edward G. Bremer, St. Paul banker, in 1934 Sentence: life Notes: youngest son of the infamous "Ma" Barker, and leader of the Barker-Karpis gang. Died from wounds encountered during this escape attempt.
	Name: Rufus McCain Age: 36 Inmate #: 267-AZ Crime: kidnaping bank employees in an attempted bank robbery at Idabel, Oklahoma Sentence: 99 years Notes: Bureau of Prisons: "murdered at Alcatraz on 12/3/40 by inmate Henry Young. This murder was the 'basis' for the movie 'Murder in the First' which was an almost completely fictional representation of what happened (the murder and Young's subsequent murder trial)."
	Name: William Martin Age: 25 Inmate #: 370-AZ Crime: postoffice robbery in Chicago, Illinois Sentence: 25 years Notes: Bureau of Prisons: "transferred from Alcatraz (no date available), released from [Medical Center for Federal Prisoners] MCFP Springfield in 1961."
	Name: Dale Stamphill Age: 27 Inmate #: 435-AZ Crime: kidnaping of Dr. Fred Louis Meyers after a bank robbery Sentence: life Notes: was the leader in a 33-man break from an Oklahoma reformatory in which a guard was killed. Bureau of Prisons: "transferred from Alcatraz (no date or institution available), paroled, violated parole, and recommitted (no final release information available). Still alive as of 1997."
	Name: Henri Young Age: 28 Inmate #: 244-AZ Crime: bank robbery in Lind, Washington Sentence: 20 years Notes: took part in the Alcatraz 1937 strike. He was considered a "disciplinary problem" as a former inmate at McNeil prison. Federal Bureau of Prisons: "Young remained at Alcatraz until 1948, when he was transferred to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners at Springfield, Missouri. When his Federal sentence expired in 1954, he was turned over to the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla to begin a life sentence for an earlier murder conviction. In 1972, he was released from Washington State Penitentiary, but he jumped parole and, according to Washington State authorities, his whereabouts are unknown."

Early in the foggy morning on Friday the 13th, five prisoners managed to saw and pull apart the lower bars of their individual cells, get to an outside corridor window at the southeast side of the cell block, pried open those bars, and made their way down to shore. At 4 a.m., a guard on his rounds discovered that the prisoners were missing. He notified the switchboard immediately, who in turn sounded the sirens, roused the guards, and notified the police on the mainland.

The five prisoners were at the west side of the island, half nude, and attempting to make a raft out of driftwood and their clothes. They were discovered within the hour and searchlights, guards, and Coast Guard and police boats converged upon them. They started to run in different directions. Eventually when they were found by the guards they surrended; except for Barker and Stamphill who decided to run for it, they were shot. Barker had a bullet go through his neck and ricocheted out his ear, and another in the thigh; he died from those injuries by 5 p.m. that evening. Stamphill received bullets through his upper left leg and lower right leg, and severing a major artery. All five were captured.

Although saws were assumed to have been used, they were never discovered. There was the usual investigations as to where the saws came from, why the alarms didn't properly work, and how to prevent furthur escapes. Warden James A. Johnston stated, "The prison...houses the country's most cunning and nerviest escape artists who have plenty of time to think up ways of getting out...And when they go through our first line of defenses, we have to rebuild them."

Less than two years later, in December 1940, Young had killed McCain, allegedly in self-defense. Young had explained in his trial that the animosity between had stemmed from the failed escape attempt.