In 1942 Jim Quillen was serving an eighteen-month sentence in San Quentin prison for armed robbery. When he escaped, he thought he was the luckiest prisoner ever---until he was caught and sentenced to forty-five years inside Alcatraz. His memoir tells the story of his time there---solitary confinement, daily encounters with "The Birdman", and what really happened during the desperate and deadly 1946 escape attempt.