The Entire Story of Fort Leavenworth Prison — America's Biggest Federal Fortress

The Entire Story of Leavenworth — America's Biggest Federal Fortress and the Gangsters Buried Inside It In 1897, federal prisoners were marched out of the old military stockade at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and forced to build their own prison. They quarried limestone, fired bricks, and raised forty-foot walls they would never be allowed to leave. When the silver dome finally rose over the Kansas plains, the United States had its first federal penitentiary. They called it the Big Top. Over the next century, Leavenworth held some of the most dangerous criminals in American history. Machine Gun Kelly. Bugs Moran. Robert Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz, who killed a guard in the Leavenworth mess hall before he ever set foot on the island. Carl Panzram, the serial killer who demanded his own hanging and cursed the executioner for being too slow. In this video, we tell the complete story of Leavenworth from its origins under the Three Prisons Act of 1891 to its present-day status as the oldest facility in the federal prison system. The 1910 locomotive escape. The 1931 breakout where seven inmates took the warden hostage and three killed themselves rather than go back. The gangster era that filled the cellhouses with Prohibition bootleggers and Depression-era bank robbers. The deaths of Machine Gun Kelly on his 59th birthday and Bugs Moran in the prison hospital wing. And the restricted prison cemetery where men like Panzram and Moran still lie in unmarked graves, their headstones stamped with nothing but a number. 🔔 Subscribe for more deep dives into the forgotten institutions of America's carceral past. New videos every week. 🎧 Listen to Solitary Redemption on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/YOURSHOWID 📚 REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING Federal Bureau of Investigation — "The Five-Decade Fugitive Chase" (Frank Grigware case) https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/the-... United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth — Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_... List of Inmates at USP Leavenworth — Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of... City of Leavenworth, Kansas — United States Federal Penitentiary (Wayside Tour) https://www.leavenworthks.gov/visitor... SAGE Encyclopedia of Prisons & Correctional Facilities — "Leavenworth, U.S. Penitentiary" https://sk.sagepub.com/ency/edvol/pri... Sara M. Benson, "The Prison of Democracy: Race, Leavenworth, and the Culture of Law" (University of California Press, 2019) Pete Earley, "The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison" (Bantam Books, 1992) Kenneth M. LaMaster, "U.S. Penitentiary Leavenworth" (Arcadia Publishing, 2008) Kenneth M. LaMaster, "Leavenworth Seven: The Deadly 1931 Prison Break" (2017) United States Penitentiary Cemetery, Leavenworth — Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/6... Gangland Wire — "The Leavenworth 7" https://ganglandwire.com/the-leavenwo... #Leavenworth #FederalPrison #PrisonHistory #TrueCrime #MachineGunKelly #BugsMoran #CarlPanzram #RobertStroud #BirdmanOfAlcatraz #AmericanHistory #BigHouse #PrisonDocumentary #SolitaryRedemption #ForgottenPrisons #USHistory