Robert Luke was assigned prisoner number AZ 1118 upon his arrival at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary on April 14th, 1954.
Surprisingly it was the smell of fresh mown grass wafting across the island from somewhere in San Francisco that spurred him to go the straight and narrow path and led to his parole from Alcatraz on April 29th 1959.
It was not until 51 years after Luke’s release from Alcatraz that he first confided to anyone other than his immediate family that he was an ex-con.
In 2011 Robert Luke published his book, Entombed on Alcatraz, a revealing book about his life on the Rock, Entombed on Alcatraz.
Until shortly before he died on October, 2, 2017, Luke returned frequently to Alcatraz Island where he has achieved a “Rock” star status, regaling visitors from around the world with recollections of his life at Alcatraz.
Travel back in time to the 2015 Alcatraz ex-con and former guard reunion with correspondent Tom Wilmer for a conversation with ex-con Robert Luke.
You are invited to subscribe to the seven-time Lowell Thomas Award-winning travel podcast, Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer, featured on the NPR Podcast Directory, Apple Podcast, and more than twenty other podcast hosting sites including iHeartRadio and Spotify
