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…