Many Americans are familiar with the story of Alcatraz as told by movies and television, detective novels, and comic books. Few realize that most of these depictions are either exaggerated or false. Inmates were not tortured or in continual lockdown, cellblocks were not filthy, and executions did not take place on the island. Motion pictures have produced some extreme myths and misrepresentations. The movie Escape From Alcatraz, features a scene in which the inmate cut off his own fingers because the warden didn't like his portrait that the inmate was painting. The warden suspended the inmate's painting privileges. The inmate retaliated by cutting his own fingers off. This event never happened, even though the film claimed to be based on actual events. Murder in the First claimed to be inspired by a true story. Inmate Henri Young, according to the film, had never committed a serious crime before going to Alcatraz, was kept in a dark dungeon and tortured for years, killed a fellow inmate in an unknowing daze, and finally committed suicide. In fact, the real Young was a murderer, hostage-taker, and bank-robber with a long criminal record before going to Alcatraz. He was confined to a regular cell, not a dungeon, for attempting to escape. Young planned and murdered a fellow inmate in cold blood. He served time at two other prisons over the next 25 years before skipping parole, and disappearing forever. The movie also suggests that Young was mistreated by the warden. In reality, the warden at Alcatraz when Young was there was one of the top prison reformers of his time. The lurid tales about Alcatraz are fabrications. It is difficult for well-documented historical facts to compete with fiction and film fantasies.