James Crittenton Lucas was an American criminal who served a life sentence in Alcatraz. He is best known for being part of an attempted escape from Alcatraz Penitentiary in 1938, and for attacking Al Capone in the prison’s laundry room on June 23, 1936.


In the spring of 1938, James Lucas, Thomas R. Limerick and Rufus Franklin planned an escape from Alcatraz. Their escape plan began by incapacitating an unarmed guard supervising a work detail on the top floor. Once the supervisor was rendered unconscious, the convicts would escape through a window to the rooftop, where they would incapacitate an armed guard and leave the island via a seized police boat. They enacted their escape plan on May 23, 1938 in the prison's mat shop, where they assaulted Custodial Officer Royal Cline with hammer blows to his head. They proceeded to the roof, where an armed guard shot both Franklin and Limerick, although Lucas wasn't shot. Other guards arrived at the scene. Franklin, Limerick, and Lucas were cornered and surrendered to the guards.

Cline died of his injuries the next day, and Thomas Limerick, one of the wounded convicts, also died. Lucas and the other surviving convict, Rufus Franklin, were tried for murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. He later worked in the oil business after being released from prison as a result of a presidential commutation. He died in 1998 in Sacramento.

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Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Alcatraz escape attempt - Stabbed Al Capone in prison
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: May 23, 1938
Date of arrest: Same day
Date of birth: June 11, 1912
Victim profile: Royal Kline (custodial worker)
Method of murder: Hitting with a hammer
Location: Alcatraz Penitentiary, California, USA
Status: Sentenced to life imprisonment in 1938. Died on November 28, 1998