Paul Federal Courts Building (now Landmark Center). Karpis initially pleaded not guilty. But as the case was called for trial, "Thomas J. Newman, attorney for Karpis, told the court his client, one of the actual kidnappers of Hamm, desired to plead guilty." Two weeks later, Karpis offered "through his attorney, Thomas Newman, to plead guilty to the Bremer conspiracy" if kidnapping charges were dropped; the court accepted the offer. Imprisonment Sentenced to life imprisonment, Karpis was incarcerated at the then recently constructed Alcatraz federal penitentiary from August 1936 to April 1962. For six months in 1958, he was transferred to the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, but was then returned to Alcatraz. His main job at Alcatraz was working in the bakery. He was far from a model prisoner, frequently fighting with other inmates. Karpis served the longest sentence of any prisoner at Alcatraz: 26 years. In April 1962, with Alcatraz in the process of being closed, he was transferred to McNeil Island Penitentiary in Washington state. While at McNeil, Karpis met a young Charles Manson. Karpis wrote about Manson in his autobiography with Robert Livesey (1980): After Manson had become proficient on the guitar, he asked Karpis for help in getting a job playing in Las Vegas, as Karpis had contacts with nightclub and casino owners there. Manson told him he would be bigger than The Beatles, but Karpis decided to leave Manson on his own regarding his music career. Later years Karpis was released on parole in 1969 and deported to Canada, although he initially had difficulty obtaining Canadian passport credentials, having had his fingerprints removed by underworld physician Joseph Moran in 1934. He settled in Montreal. He wrote his first memoirs in 1971, while another memoir book was published in 1980, one year after his death. During his first book tour across Canada for Public Enemy Number One for McClelland & Stewart (published in the United States as The Alvin Karpis Story), Karpis, looking more like an accountant than a gangster, still showed a dry sense of humor. In Edmonton, Alberta, while shuffling Karpis between various interviews with the media, M&S book rep Ruth Bertelsen made a stop at her bank. Asking Karpis if he wanted to come in with her, Karpis replied, "No, dear. You take care of the vault. I'll drive." He became a mentor to her young son until the sociopathy of some of his advice