Alcatraz: The True End of the Line

by Darwin Coon

Book Overview

A powerful human tale of turning tragedy to triumph. He offers rare insight to the emotional journey he personally experienced while being an inmate inside Alcatraz. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0967959225
• ISBN13: 9780967959221
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: New Desmas Press
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Very real first person story

Well I just got back from SF and of course toured the "Rock". I guess I thought I was unique in having Darwin sign my book, but in any case it was neat to meet a former inmate. The book isn't going to win any awards, but it's definitely a real story of an interesting guy, and I think it's cool that I met him.

Fascinating Read!

I too met Darwin on a recent visit to Alcatraz. I didn't know what to say to him, and as another reviewer expressed, he truly is a man of few words. I couldn't put the book down-- absolutely fascinating. I think it should be made into a movie. Too bad I don't write screenplays. :)

I totally enjoyed it!

After visiting Alcatraz and meeting Mr. Coon at the book store where he was answering questions and signing copies of his book, I immediately came home to read his story. I couldn't put it down. It was so facsinating to read about his many brushes with the law but more importantly how his life began on this path of destruction. He obviously had a very rough childhood. His life was physically, mentally and emotionally destroyed from a very young age. I am amazed he has lived through the events he documents in the book. What a fascinating story. I highly recommend it!

Review of Alcatraz by Darwin Coon

I found the book to be insightful, interesting, and a well written, entertaining read. I thank Mr. Coon for sharing his experiences, and wish him the best in the future.

Prisoner: Cell Block H

I too met Darwin E. Coon during a recent trip to Alcatraz, which was brilliant. Coon sat in a shack on the pier with a young man who claimed to be his "nephew." This nephew did all the talking and would occasionally nudge old Darwin, who sat beside looking stolid and bored, with his elbow, prompting him to answer some questions from a countless stream of fans who, right off the boat from the island prison, wanted to ask him a zillion questions. Apparently he found his way to the souvenir shack every Saturday so you can often meet him, shake his hand and get him to autograph a copy of ALCATRAZ THE TRUE END OF THE LINE. Otherwise he's sort of like Iron Eyes Cody, a man of few words. The nephew said to me, "My uncle wants to know if you want him to sign your copy of the book with his prison number." "Sure," I replied, after a glance at my companion the video artist Karla Milosevich. "That number thing would be awesome." Darwin Coon took pen from nephew and scrawled his number on the front free endpaper of my book: "#1422." We looked at it in awe. "I had no idea the numbers were so short." Darwin Coon looked at me impassively as though to say, "LIFE is short you little pipsqueak." His book is great and tells you all about the different animals kept by the Alcatraz inmates. No other book I know goes into such detail about the different pets smuggled in by prisoners. There's a great story about Sam, the fellow who found a lizard and trained it to be his pet, and every day he would walk the lizard around the prison on a gold chain, rather like the French symbolist poet Gerald de Nerval who walked around the Luxemnbourg Gardens with a pet lobster on a leash. In Sam's case the ending was tragic, for a seagull swooped down and carried off the little lizard! Another prisoner made a tiny tuxedo for his pet mouse, complete with top hat! They were like a bunch of male Beatrix Potters over there; their love of animals will warm any human hearts.