Background
He was born in Maple Lake, Minnesota in 1897.
He was born in Maple Lake, Minnesota in 1897.
He has been cited as the only warden who had worked his way up from the bottom of the ranks of the prison staff hierarchy, having worked originally as a Correctional Officer on Alcatraz from the 1930s. In May 21, 1941, Madigan was a key to quashing an escape attempt after being held hostage in the Model Industries Building, and later led to a promotion as associate warden. He was a stout, ruddy-faced, pipe-smoking, devout Irish Catholic.
Unlike his predecessors, Madigan was known for being more lenient and softer in his approach to administering the prison and was better liked by the prison staff
During his term as warden from January 1955, there was a movement underway headed by the likes of James V. Bennett to close Alcatraz and replace with a new centralized penitentiary. The decision as finalized in 1961, the year Madigan"s term ended, and Alcatraz was closed two years later.
In 1958-1959 he was involved in a legal case against John Lee.