I met Jim Quillen on a tour of Alcatraz in San Francisco in about 1992. I had gone on one of the self-guided tours where you are given a headset with a narrated talk of the island and can do the tour at your speed.

Jim Quillen.

I noticed a small sign when I landed on the Island that advertised that ex-prisoner Jim Quillen would be giving a talk about life as a prisoner on the rock during the day. I ensured I was at the correct place and time to listen to his story.

His story was very interesting, about his crimes, the different prisons he had been in and some of the prisoners he had been locked up with, like Robert Stroud, the birdman of Alcatraz. He left Alcatraz and was transferred to San Quentin in 1952, where he became a certified radiology technician.

Many people at the book signing asked him about the escape of Frank Morris and two brothers, Clarence and John Anglin, from Alcatraz. People asked him if he believed they had escaped. He hadn't been at Alcatraz at the same time but had tried to escape several times himself. He said he didn't know but hoped they had escaped and managed to live through the icy cold crossing of San Francisco Bay.

After the speech he gave us all, he started to meet and greet people individually and was autographing copies of his book. He asked each person to spell their names so he wouldn't make a mistake as he wrote a message to them inside the cover. When it got to my turn, he didn't ask me how to spell Morris. I could have been his son or grandson if Frank Morris had escaped and lived. As Jim handed me my autographed book, I saw him looking me up and down. I quickly leaned forward, and quietly so no one else but him could hear; I said, "Dad said to say hello and tell you he is doing fine". I then quickly turned, walked away without looking back at him, and left the building. I like to think he often wondered if I was related to the escaped Frank Morris. 

About Jim Quillen.

Jim Quillen was born in 1919 and was in trouble with the law from a young age. He was a runaway, problem child and petty thief who was jailed several times before his twentieth birthday. In August 1942, after escaping from San Quentin, he was arrested on the run and at 22 years old,  he was sentenced to 45 years at the United States Penitentiary Alcatraz Island.

He grew up never really knowing his mother, and after a prison minister tracked her down, only to discover that she had recently died and was buried in a pauper’s grave, something changed inside him. With no hope of ever getting free, he began a rigorous course toward self-improvement. His attitude changed completely, and he began working in the prison hospital, where he sought and received training as a radiology technician.

He was transferred to San Quentin in 1952, where he became a certified radiology technician. He was eventually released, and although he steered clear of crime, his personal life was a roller coaster for many years. Eventually, he met the right woman and had a daughter and grandchildren.