Henri Theodore Young was a convicted bank robber and murderer who, while serving one of a series of prison terms, attempted a 1939 escape from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary with four other inmates. During the escape attempt two inmates were shot, and one died of his wounds. All surviving were quickly recaptured. Two, Young and Rufus McCain, received sentences of solitary confinement and served them at Alcatraz for a period of three years. 11 days after re-entering the Alcatraz general prison population, Young murdered fellow escapee McCain. No apparent motive was ever disclosed. Young's defense put Alcatraz and the penal system on trial, leading to questions about how the prison was run. In 1948, Young was transferred from Alcatraz to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, Springfield, Missouri. He was later transferred to Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla upon completion of his federal sentence to begin a life sentence for the 1933 murder conviction. Young "jumped parole" in 1972 after release from Walla Walla, with his stated whereabouts reported as "unknown". Were he still alive in, he would be years old. Young is perhaps best known in relation to the fictionalized character of the same name appearing in the 1995 filmMurder in the First, in which he was portrayed by Kevin Bacon. The story of Henri Young is also the subject of the song "Behind the Eyes of Henri Young" featured on the 2017 album Dragonfly, by Australian singer Kasey Chambers.
Life
Young was born in Kansas City, Missouri on June 20, 1911. He became a bank robber and was known for aggressively taking hostages. In 1933, he was convicted of murder. After spending time in prisons in Washington state and Montana, he was sent to the federal prison on Alcatraz Island. On the night of January 13, 1939, Young, with prisoners Rufus McCain, Arthur Barker, Dale Stamphill, and William Martin, attempted to escape. Martin, Young, and McCain surrendered, while Barker and Stamphill refused to surrender and were subsequently shot. Barker eventually died from his injuries. At his trial for McCain's murder, Young and his attorney argued that the harsh system at Alcatraz had brutalized and dehumanized him. According to the San Francisco Examiner, "Emphasis which repeatedly laid on the fact that Young was in isolation or solitary confinement for more than three years—and that he drove his knife into McCain's abdomen just eleven days after release from such confinement, made it clear that the defense hopes to show not only that Young was 'punch drunk' but that the punches were administered by the Alcatraz 'system'." Describing conditions in solitary confinement, Young stated: In 1954 Young was transferred to the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla to begin a life sentence for the murder conviction in 1933. He was released from Washington State Penitentiary in 1972, at age 61; he "jumped parole and, according to Washington State authorities, his whereabouts are unknown." Thus, there are no further records from Young.
The film Murder in the First inaccurately presents Young as being arrested for stealing $5 in order to feed himself and his younger sister. It also inaccurately depicts that he was tortured after his escape attempt, that he killed McCain in the cafeteria immediately after his return to the general population, and that he was found dead in his prison cell in 1942 just before his appeal with the word "victory" on the wall. As noted above, Young had a prior murder conviction before arriving at Alcatraz.
