User talk:Jim Quillen

Daring criminal and hardened Alcatraz con
Jim Quillen (September 16, 1919, San Francisco, California – October 6th, 1998, Vacaville, California) was an armed robber, burglar, kidnapper and prison escape artist who served ten years and one day at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. He was involved in two escape attempts at Alcatraz, including the infamous Battle of Alcatraz. Later he became a reformed and respected member of society and a devout church going Christian. Through nearly 20 years of incarceration Jim Quillen learned that faith in God, family and freedom were the most desirable objectives to be reached in life.

Early Life

Jim Quillen grew up in a broken home in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1920's without any stability or parental guidance. In the 1920s, when Jim Quillen is still a little boy, his unstable mother tried to kill her husband and her children (Jim and his sister Kate) by gassing them while they sleep. The children end up in various foster homes and soon Jim begins his early life of crime with a local gang before entering and escaping from numerous youth offender institutions and a number of federal prisons.

United States Marine Corps

By 18, Jim is in a prison for young men, from which he escapes and is caught. He tries to go straight with a suggestion by his parole officer. Jim joins the Marines and excels in basic training, but he gets kicked out for his criminal record and as he signed up under a false name during World War 2.

Hitchhiking his way home from the Marine Corps base, he gets picked up by a pair of criminals from the East Coast. They get caught in a string of hold ups in Los Angeles and Jim is sent to San Quentin.

Criminal Career

Quillen was an armed robber who was in and out of prison from a very young age. He first escaped from a prison labor camp and finally went on a multi-state crime spree, from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to Provo Utah and finally getting caught in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with his co-escapee Jack Pepper.

He was first sentenced to hard time for holding up a liquor outlet store in Los Angeles, serving it in San Quentin State Penitentiary. After arriving in San Quentin his father disowns him and tells Jim that he is not his real father. Jim escapes from San Quentin with his friend Jack Pepper. They go on a crime spree in LA, robbing rich boutiques and living by night like a Hollywood producer. The LA Times puts their faces on the front cover "wanted dead or alive" and with the FBI on their tail, the fugitives are forced to flee across the four states. Jim, Jack and Renaldo flee to Las Vegas, Salt Lake City where Renaldo gives himself up to the FBI. Jim and Jack kidnap two men where they continue on to Cheyenne Wyoming being chased by the FBI before finally being ambushed and arrested. He finally gets incarcerated as "Number 586" on Alcatraz for 45 years as the youngest ever inmate in the fastest federal trail in US history.

Alcatraz Prison

Upon his recapture by the FBI, Quillen was sentenced to 45 years for armed robbery, kidnapping and transporting stolen firearms across state lines. He began serving his sentence at McNeil Island in May, 1941 but only three months later the Bureau of Prisons transferred him and Pepper to Alcatraz. At the time, the 21-year-old Quillen was the youngest inmate at Alcatraz by several years.

At Alcatraz, Quillen attempted to escape again by chiseling his way out of a steam-pipe tunnel. He subsequently spent a maximum of 19 days in ALCATRAZ's "Black Hole" and years in the notorious ‘D Block’ wing, reserved for the most dangerous of Alcatraz’s inmates, where he was under lockdown almost every hour of the day.

Quillen was also involved in the Battle of Alcatraz, when inmate Sam Shockley opened his D Block cell during the breakout attempt and together they tried to escape along with the conceivers of the plot, Joe Cretzer, Bernard Coy, Marvin Hubbard, Miran Thompson and Clarence Carnes. The conceivers all died.

Jim is cleared of any crime in the Battle of Alcatraz. He decides to choose another path in life. He befriends the Alcatraz priest and Jesus Christ. The priest reconnects him with his family who forgive him and help he see the new light. He is given a responsible job in the Alcatraz hospital and thrives under the nurturing of the priest. Even Warden Johnson begins to see a new Jim Quillen.

After ten years and one day in Alcatraz, Quillen was transferred back to San Quentin Prison where he served out the rest of his sentence. On November 26, 1958, Quillen earned early release through good behavior and efforts at self-improvement, serving 17 years and 5 months of his 45 year sentence. He was 39 years old.

Later Life

Jim went on to become a family man and chief x-ray technician at Rideout Memorial Hospital in Marysville, California. In 1979 Quillen received a presidential pardon from Jimmy Carter. He was an inspirational speaker and mentor to troubled youth around the United States teaching thousands of inner city kids that "crime does not pay". After retirement became a tour guide at Alcatraz Island. He also wrote the successful autobiographical novel: Alcatraz From Inside: The Hard Years 1942-1952, published in 1991 by the Golden Gate National Parks Association.

Jim wrote the autobiography so as his life would act as a deterrent to anyone considering any criminal activity. He lived with and alongside such notorious criminals as Alvin Karpis, Machine Gun Kelley, Robert (The Birdman of Alcatraz) Stroud and Mickey Cohen. Along with these criminals and seven more that ended their life in the gas chamber Jim states in his autobiography that they all agreed that their ultimate price they paid was too high for any amount of criminal monetary gain.

He married Leone Marie Quillen and had one daughter Lori.

Jim Quillen (talk) 15:08, 3 August 2011 (UTC)

Jim Quillen (talk) 17:27, 5 August 2011 (UTC)

Jim Quillen (talk) 17:29, 5 August 2011 (UTC)