| Image | Inmate | Number/Term | Summary |
| | Arthur R. Barker ("Doc") | 1935–39 | Arthur Barker (June 4, 1899 – January 13, 1939) was the son of Ma Barker and a member of the Barker-Karpis gang along with Alcatraz prisoner 325 Alvin Karpis. In 1935, Barker was sent to Alcatraz Island on conspiracy to kidnap charges. On the night of January 13, 1939, Barker with Henri Young and Rufus McCain attempted escape from Alcatraz. Barker was shot and killed by the guards. |
| | Alphonse "Al" Gabriel Capone ("Scarface") | 1934–39 | When Al Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947) arrived on Alcatraz in 1934, prison officials made it clear that he would not be receiving any preferential treatment. While serving his time in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, Capone, a master manipulator, had continued running his rackets from behind bars by buying off guards. Capone generated major media attention while on Alcatraz, though he served just four and a half years of his sentence there before developing symptoms of tertiary syphilis and poor mental health before being transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution at Terminal Island in Los Angeles in 1938. He tried his best to seek favors from warden Johnston, but failed, and was given work in the prison performing numerous menial jobs. Capone was involved in many fights with fellow prisoners, including one with an inmate who held a blade to his throat in the prison barbershop after Capone attempted to cut the line. He was released from jail in November 1939 and lived in Miami until his death in 1947 at 48 years of age. |
| | Meyer Harris Cohen ("Mickey") | 1961–63 | Mickey Cohen (September 4, 1913 – July 29, 1976) worked for the Mafia's gambling rackets; he was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to 15 years in Alcatraz Island. He was transferred to the United States Penitentiary in Atlanta shortly before Alcatraz closed permanently on March 21, 1963. While at Atlanta, on August 14, 1963, fellow inmate Burl Estes McDonald clobbered Cohen with a lead pipe, partially paralyzing the mobster. After his release in 1972, Cohen led a quiet life with old friends. |
| | Ellsworth Raymond Johnson ("Bumpy") | 1954–63 | "Bumpy" Johnson (October 31, 1905 – July 7, 1968), referred to as the "Godfather of Harlem", was an African-American gangster, numbers operator, racketeer, and bootlegger in Harlem in the early 20th century. He was sent to Alcatraz in 1954 and was imprisoned until 1963. He was believed to have been involved in the 1962 escape attempt of Frank Morris, John and Clarence Anglin. |
| | Alvin Francis Karpavicz ("Creepy Karpis") | 1936–62 | Alvin Karpis (August 10, 1907 – August 26, 1979) was Canadian, of Lithuanian descent. He was nicknamed "Creepy" for his sinister smile and called "Ray" by his gang members. He was known for being one of the three leaders of the Ma Barker-Karpis gang in the 1930s; the other two leaders were Fred and Doc Barker of the Barker–Karpis Gang. He was the only "Public Enemy " to be taken personally by J. Edgar Hoover. There were only four "public enemies" ever given the title of "Public Enemy " by the FBI. The other three, John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Baby Face Nelson, were all killed before being captured. He also spent the longest time as a federal prisoner in Alcatraz Prison at 26 years. Karpis was credited with ten murders and six kidnappings apart from bank robbery. He was deported to Canada in 1969 and died in Spain in 1979. |
| | George Kelly Barnes ("Machine Gun Kelly") | 1934–51 | "Machine Gun Kelly" (July 18, 1895 – July 18, 1954) arrived on September 4, 1934. At Alcatraz, Kelly was constantly boasting about several robberies and murders that he had never committed. Although his boasts were said to be tiresome to other prisoners, Warden Johnston considered him a model inmate. Inmate , Harvey Bailey was his partner. Kelly was returned to Leavenworth in 1951. |
| | Rafael Cancel Miranda | 1954–60 | In July 1954, Rafael Cancel Miranda (July 18, 1930 – March 2, 2020) was sent to Alcatraz, where he served six years of his sentence. At Alcatraz he was a model prisoner, where he worked in the brush factory and served as an altar boy at Catholic services. His closest friends were fellow Puerto Ricans Emerito Vasquez and Hiram Crespo-Crespo. They spoke Spanish and watched out for each other. On the recreation yard he often played chess with "Bumpy" Johnson. He also befriended Morton Sobell; they developed a friendship that lasted up until Sobell's death in 2018. His family made trips to San Francisco to visit him, but he wasn't allowed to see his children. His wife was allowed to talk to him through a glass in the visiting room, using a phone. They were not allowed to speak in Spanish and had to speak in English. He was transferred to Leavenworth in 1960. |
| | Robert Franklin Stroud ("Birdman of Alcatraz") | 1942–59 | Robert Stroud, who was better known to the public as the Birdman of Alcatraz (January 28, 1890 – November 21, 1963), was transferred to Alcatraz in 1942. At a young age he took to pimping and was involved in a murder during a drunken brawl. After terms in McNeil Island and Leavenworth Federal Prison, where he had killed Officer Andrew Turner, he was transferred to Alcatraz, with his sentence extended. A self-taught ornithologist, he wrote several books. His Digest on the Diseases of Birds is considered a classic in ornithology. He was confined to D-Block in solitary confinement for most of his duration in Alcatraz. and after a term in the prison hospital, was transferred to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, due to seriously deteriorating health. Although he was given the name "The Birdman of Alcatraz", he was not permitted to keep birds in his prison cell at Alcatraz, as he had at Leavenworth, because it was prohibited. He died in 1963. |
