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San Francisco Chronicle
3 days ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
An old ex-con recalls his days at Alcatraz. His biggest complaint: ‘Boredom'
There are only two people left in the world who really know what it was like to be a prisoner on Alcatraz, the legendary island in San Francisco Bay. One is Charlie Hopkins, who lives in Florida. The other is William Baker, who lives in Toledo, Ohio, and is spending the summer in San Francisco. Hopkins, a kidnapper and robber who spent three years on Alcatraz, is 93. Baker, a counterfeiter and escape artist, spent four. Baker is 92. 'As far as I know, we are the last two Alcatraz prisoners still around,' Baker says. Hopkins was interviewed on BBC in May at his home in Florida. I had lunch with Baker last week at Sam's Grill on Bush Street. Baker is spending a lot of the time these days on Alcatraz, where he appears at the bookstore on the island. He's there to sign his book — 'Alcatraz #1259,' the story of his life, which is mostly a story of 30 years behind bars. 'I guess you might say I'm a career criminal,' he writes. He's also a rarity: a survivor, a convict who managed to make crime pay. When he arrived at Alcatraz in the winter of 1957, he was a 23-year-old tough guy — 'a bad boy' with a reputation as a troublemaker, a jailhouse rioter, someone who was always trying to escape. He nearly got away more than once. Almost, not quite. 'You could see freedom,' he said of one near escape. At Alcatraz he got a job making gloves. But he learned another trade as well. This one was counterfeiting payroll checks, which he learned from Courtney Taylor, a convict who was the master of the trade. After Alcatraz, Baker spent years working with payroll checks. He made a good living, too. 'I'm the best counterfeit check casher there is,' he wrote. But technology and computers tripped him up, and he spent his post-Alcatraz years in other prisons. But then he turned to another trade he learned in prisons. He became a writer. 'I did always want to write,' he told me over lunch. He took creative writing courses at a South Dakota prison and began to write short stories. One of his stories, 'The Old Man and the Tree,' won first place in a nationwide prison writing contest. When his prison days were over and he was paroled in 2011, he wrote 'Alcatraz #1259' and sent it to the Park Service to have it approved for sale. Marcus Koenen, the supervising ranger at the time, liked it. There are lots of Alcatraz books, but Baker's has the ring of an insider, the reality of prison life. The book is a good read and a bestseller, too. Baker published it himself, and the Golden Gate Conservancy, a park service partner, handles sales. Baker is on hand three days a week to sign autographs and pose for pictures. He's living history, the Alcatraz legend in person. His book has done well. He's sold thousands of copies. 'We sold 302 on Memorial Day alone,' he said. 'Not bad.' 'I do this trip because I need the money,' he said. 'I've got a wife and a house and a dog to support. I'd sell my book on the street if I had to.' Baker is a bit gaunt. He wears thick glasses, and his hand trembles a bit. But he still has a bit of that tough kid who first landed on the Rock years ago. To celebrate a San Francisco lunch, he bought a brand new Stetson Stratoliner hat, the kind Howard Hughes liked. A new coat, too. But never mind the new clothes. We talked prison. What was the worst thing about Alcatraz? 'The boredom,' Baker said, 'Being locked up with nothing to do. The routine. Every day was the same. Not having freedom. But a writer can't write about boredom. So I wrote about people.' He wrote about Robert Stroud, the Birdman. Baker didn't know him; Stroud was in solitary. But he'd see him. Stroud was a prison hero but something else, a presence. He describes an encounter: 'What I saw in that brief moment was a dark cell with a gray shadow of a man peering out at me with bright white eyes streaked with the coal fires of hell.' Baker knew Roland Simcox, who was quiet, polite and 'a cold-blooded killer' who fatally stabbed another inmate. 'He killed him in the shower room in cold blood with a guard looking straight at him,' Baker recalled. That one stuck in Baker's memory. 'The guard threw a roll of toilet paper at him and yelled, 'Hey, break it up.'' Escape? 'Everybody talked about it all the time,' Baker said, 'but they didn't do it.' One friend of Baker's who did try was Aaron Burgett, who was involved in a prison liquor escapade and played baseball in the yard. One day on garbage detail Burgett and Clyde Johnson, another prisoner, overpowered a guard and jumped in the bay. They'd made flotation devices, but they weren't good enough. Johnson was caught and Burgett drowned. 'They found his body but his soul was long gone,' Baker wrote. Alcatraz is in the news these days. President Donald Trump is thinking of turning the island back into a prison. Is that possible? Thirty years as a prisoner made Baker guarded about prison policy. 'I don't know,' he said. 'It would be very expensive. It's crumbling, too. The last escapers used a spoon to get away. And they never came back. Besides, they already have a high-tech maximum security prison in Colorado.' They call it the Alcatraz of the Rockies and Baker described it in detail, the cells, the security, the exercise yard built like a pit where all an inmate can see is the sky. Nothing else.
Business Journals
20-05-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
Small businesses need tech, mentorship and community to scale for success, say local business leaders
Old dog. New tricks. That was the story Sam's Grill owner Peter Quartaroli shared at a May 8 panel and networking event co-hosted by Comcast Business and the SF Chamber of Commerce at Yes SF Headquarters, a coworking and event space for sustainable innovators in Downtown San Francisco, in recognition of National Small Business Week. Sam's Grill was indisputably the old dog in the room. The beloved Downtown institution has been in operation for 158 years, making it the third-oldest restaurant in San Francisco and the fifth oldest in the country. 'I think we're here to speak to that old-school level,' Quartaroli, a film and television actor and producer who splits his time between San Francisco and Los Angeles, told an audience of small business leaders and champions gathered for the event, entitled 'Scaling for Success: How to Take Your Small Business to the Next Level.' 'Technology is relatively new to us,' he remarked. Quartaroli began working at Sam's in the 1990s and purchased the restaurant in 2014. He reported that Sam's came from 'a spot of utter chaos.' 'We've managed to go for over 100 years relying on chaos,' he acknowledged. 'But now we have a point-of-sale system. We have televisions and a sports bar that provide a source of entertainment. We have phones we actually answer sometimes.' Quartaroli reported that robust business internet, phone and TV, powered by Comcast Business, became indispensable during the period of rapid growth that began when Quartaroli took the reins. In 2014, the restaurant opened a patio in the adjacent alley. And last fall, Sam's Tavern opened next door as a sports bar counterpart to the original seafood grill known as a power lunch destination for San Franciscans. 'It was nice to simplify,' Quartaroli said. "That's one of the things that Comcast did. It provided the simpler path — because we're old dogs in the game, and sometimes it's hard to teach us new tricks.' Comcast Business' Benny Teran affirmed the importance of technology for small businesses to succeed in San Francisco. 'San Francisco is one of the most competitive markets in the food industry,' said Teran, who oversees small and medium-sized business sales for Comcast in California. 'The restaurants that I've seen stick around are the ones that actually leverage technology and try to automate things to help them grow and be sustainable.' Teran also spoke to trends he sees in small business technology needs. 'When I go out to restaurants, the first thing my kids want is the Wi-Fi password,' he said. 'The strategy in SF is to be accepting of new technology so that you can make your customers happy and more welcome.' Teran emphasized the importance of scalability in choosing a connectivity vendor. 'I've been in this segment for 10 years, and some companies start with one to 10 employees and grow into thousands of employees,' he said. 'The good thing is Comcast business has grown to a point where we can give you a solution as you grow. We can be there with you along on your journey to help you get to where you want to get.' He pointed to Comcast's global secure networking solutions, which combine connectivity, cybersecurity and networking to help make digital interactions around the world fast, easy and secure, as an example. 'We're doing our best to make sure we're here to provide what you need to help you grow,' he said. Joining Teran and Quartaroli for the panel conversation was Sharon Miller, CEO of Renaissance Entrepreneur Center, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that supports diverse entrepreneurs in the Bay Area through professional training, expert consulting, access to capital and a vibrant support network. Renaissance partners with corporate sponsors like Comcast to offer skill-building workshops on technology, marketing, finance and other in-demand business skillsets, as well as networking events like the small business week event. The majority of Renaissances programs are free; the remainder available at very low costs. 'If it's a cost that you can't handle, we will work with you,' Miller said. 'We're not going to make that a barrier to entry for anyone.' In her comments, Miller stressed the importance of peer advice for small business success. 'There's so many different products out there that it's really important to get some sound advice regarding which products are going to be the best for you,' Miller said. Quartaroli concurred. 'We have to listen to our partners that we are dealing not only for growth, but also for our everyday affairs, and continue to listen,' he said. 'That's something that has served us well and it's something that serves the community well. We may be different than the place down the street, but I love that place down the street. That's part of the fabric of what makes Downtown and how we all serve a community.' 'There's nothing wrong in asking for help,' Teran agreed. Comcast is proud to celebrate Small Business Month through networking and learning events like 'Scaling for Success.' We support small businesses year-round with robust internet, networking, cybersecurity, TV, voice and other technology solutions that scale with your business. To learn about our solutions and special offers exclusively for Small Business Month, visit our website. Aaron Welch is a freelance writer.
