Last Train to Alcatraz by Leon (Whitey) Thompson was a book about a man"s struggle to change his whole life and basically turn right side up. Leon started out as a poor kid living in a small city. The only way he could survive was to steal food from stores. As he grew up this stealing attitude kind of "grew on him" as he started out robbing candy stores and stealing the money. As he got older though he started moving into bigger things like banks. After he robbed many banks all over the United States, he got caught. He was convicted of all his bank robbers and was sentenced to imprisonment for 20 years. He started out at minimum-security prison in Washington State, but he acted up so much that he was sent to Alcatraz, a maximum-security prison in San Francisco, California. There he learned how to be a better guy and to treat people the way they need to be treated. After he served his time in prison he was let back out into the real world. There he had to face many more problems. The world was different and he did not know how to live in it. He got a job and lived in San Francisco for many more years. Now he still lives in San Francisco with his wife, and now he volunteers at local schools and tells younger kids not to take the path that he took when he was young.

             Leon (Whitey) Thompson had to face many conflicts while he was growing up and while he was a grown man. First he had to deal with his poverty-struck family and how he could survive. The only way he figured to do that was just to steal food and things from local stores. When he did grow up, the only thing he knew how to do was steal, so it was just destined that Leon would become a bank robber. When Leon got caught and was thrown into jail, he had no idea how to act, so he just acted like his normal self, mean and ruthless. His horrible attitude landed him a new home in the worst prison ever known to man, Alcatraz. What really changed Whitey was the train ride over to Alcatraz.