Текст книги "Alcatraz: A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years "

Автор книги: Майкл Эсслингер

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ESCAPE ATTEMPT #9

Date:

July 31, 1945

Inmates:

John Giles

Location:

Dock Area

John Knight Giles

John Giles was described by Warden Johnston as a deep and quiet gentleman with a lone wolf personality and someone who was difficult to figure out. While his attempted escape is not remembered as the most famous, it certainly was known in the circles of Alcatraz as one of the most ingenious escapes ever attempted at the Rock. John Knight Giles was born in Elgin, Tennessee on February 16, 1895 to a local engineer, as the youngest of three boys. His father had migrated south from New York and his mother was from Georgia, and the couple apparently separated frequently throughout their marriage. It is documented that John’s mother suffered from mental illness and was admitted to mental institutions several times during his childhood. John attended high school in Everett, Washington, and for unknown reasons he decided to quit school at age fifteen. He took a job as a Surveyor’s Assistant in the U.S. Reclamation Service near British Columbia, where he worked for almost four years.

Giles first brush with the world of crime came in 1915, when he was given a five to ten year sentence for robbery and was incarcerated at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. It would appear that officials were lenient with Giles and he was issued a pardon in 1918, probably to allow him to enter the U.S. Army for the First World War. He failed to enlist and only months after his release he committed another robbery. In November of 1918 Giles planned what he thought would be an easy burglary, targeting an interstate bridge tender in the state of Oregon. He robbed the tender at gunpoint and then attempted a getaway. He was swiftly apprehended by Deputy Sheriff Frank W. Twombley, and during the arrest, the officer was killed. An all-points bulletin was issued on Giles, and he was quickly taken into custody.

Giles was convicted of murder, and sentenced to life in prison at the State Penitentiary in Salem, Oregon. He was considered a quiet inmate, and he took to writing short fictional stories. Records show that he was somewhat successful in selling his work, and wrote for a variety of pulp magazines. After serving several years, Giles would boast to officials that he had helped to prevent riots and other uprisings by acting as a leader among the inmates. In November of 1934, after sixteen uneventful years, Giles managed to escape from the State Penitentiary. He was later identified in connection with a theft in Redding California, but managed to elude officials for over a year, always keeping one step ahead of them. However Giles would soon participate in a crime that would finally seal his fate.

In May of 1935, Giles and six accomplices made the ill-fated decision to rob the Denver and Rio Grande Mail Train in Salt Lake City. Reports show that the gang jumped onto the train, forcing the engineer to halt the locomotive and a few of the men then climbed into the cabin and held the engineer at gunpoint. They made their way back to the locked mail car and attempted to break a window to gain access without success. The gang fired randomly into the car through its windows, then threw in a large bottle of ammonia, attempting to force out the mail clerks with the pungent fumes. Their plan failed, as one of the mail clerks who was armed with a gun returned fire and forced the gang to retreat to an awaiting truck. Law officers quickly apprehended four of the men, along with Giles. Giles was sentenced to an additional twenty-eight years for the Federal crime of attempted mail robbery.

Giles arrived at McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary on June 17, 1935. Because of his escape record and the length of his sentence, he was transferred to Alcatraz on August 28, 1935. Giles seemed to adapt well to the routines at Alcatraz, though he was described in a 1943 progress report as follows: “he mixes little with other inmates and pretty well keeps to himself, being considered by some as odd.”  Nevertheless, he was highly regarded by the correctional staff, and was generally considered to be friendly. Giles mother, who was now in her late 70’s, had moved to Los Angeles where one of his brothers was now residing so that she could be closer to her two sons. But Giles refused all visits from his mother, stating to the Warden that he didn’t want her to see him in prison. He seldom wrote to his family, and appeared to be leading a very quiet existence. His 1943 progress report states that Giles had been working as janitor at the dock and he was noted as an obedient and good worker, performing his job quietly and “without friction to others.”  What officials failed to realize was that despite his calm disposition, Giles had been plotting a very elaborate escape plan for nearly a full decade.

Over the years, Giles had devised a system of monitoring the laundry deliveries made by an Army vessel dispatched from Fort McDowell, which was located across the bay on Angel Island. When the laundry arrived, the bales would be dumped onto a panning table and searched for contraband before being sent down to the Industries. Giles would carefully wait for a safe opportunity, and then, out of sight of both correctional officers and other inmates, he would conceal a garment or other potentially useful item in his jacket, and later hide it in a canvas bag under the dock. The dock security procedures were extremely tight, but there were frequent counts and searches of the inmates before they were allowed to return to the cellhouse. When the Army launch departed, Giles was always permitted to walk to the ramp area and sweep up, which provided the perfect opportunity to pull out his hidden bag and secrete his newly acquired items. Opportunities to lift items were scarce, and the process was tedious. It would take nearly ten years before he acquired all of the materials needed for his attempt.

On the morning of July 31, 1945, Giles was prepared for his escape, now having pieced together a complete Technical Sergeant’s uniform. At 10:10 a.m. the Army vessel General Frank M. Coxe pulled up next to the Alcatraz dock, parallel to a descending ramp. The soldiers exited onto the wharf and they were quickly counted, and then permitted to begin off-loading the laundry. Giles moved down the ramp and swiftly slipped on his improvised uniform. The uniform looked as though it fit Giles well, but it had a tousled and wrinkled appearance. Armed with only a flashlight, Giles boarded the vessel through a freight hatchway located just below deck. It is believed that Giles found his way to the boat’s lavatory and waited until the Coxe departed before venturing back out into a secluded area of the boat. Sergeant-at-Arms Corporal Paul Lorinz later stated that he was tipped off by deckhand Jerry Van Soest that a soldier was wandering below deck. Lorinz investigated and found Giles standing alone in a secluded area, and he asked him “Where are you going Sergeant?”  Lorinz noted that Giles failed to look at him directly and responded by stating he was heading to “Fort McDowell.”  When questioned further by Lorinz, Giles stated that he was a line repairman who was checking cables. He then pulled out a notebook and acted as though his was making notes. Lorinz made his way back up to the deck and reported that a soldier was onboard who had failed to present a pass.

John Giles would devise one of the most clever escape plans ever conceived at Alcatraz. Over the course of several years, he worked to collect and assemble a full Army uniform out of the Army laundry that was delivered to the dock area. This photo was taken immediately following his capture back on Alcatraz.

Army vessel General Frank M. Coxe. The open hatch door shows where Giles made his entry onto the vessel.

Back at Alcatraz, Giles’ absence had already been detected after he missed the routine departure count. Associate Warden E.J. Miller was contacted, and he and Phil Bergen quickly summoned the prison launch to rendezvous with the Army vessel, which was heading toward Angel Island. Warden Johnston was already on the phone making arrangements to have Giles apprehended once the Coxe arrived at Fort McDowell. Giles was completely unaware that his short taste of freedom had ended before it even began. As the Coxe arrived at Angel Island, Lieutenant Gordon L. Kilgore approached him asking to see his passes. As Giles disembarked from the launch, Miller and Bergen approached him and without any struggle, they handcuffed him and took him aboard the Warden Johnston to head back to the island. “You really felt kind of sorry for him once you saw the look on his face” Captain of the Guards Phil Bergen would later recall ...“He really should have won some sort of an award with that uniform.”

Giles was immediately returned to the island and was placed directly into the solitary strip cell. The FBI investigated the escape and put together an inventory of the items that had been found in Giles’s possession.

Warden James A. Johnston

United States Penitentiary

Alcatraz Island

San Francisco, California

Re: John Knight Giles

Dear Warden Johnston:

Pursuant to your request the following to your request the following personal effects which were found in the possession of the above captioned subject at the time of his apprehension at Angel Island on July 31, 1945 are being listed below:

One set of prison underwear.

One pair of prison socks.

One pair of brown prison shoes.

One regulation Army tie.

One pair of regulation U.S. Army pants labeled Kane Manufacturing Company, 1/19/43.

One Khaki Army overseas cap, red bordered #K-9699.

One regulation Army shirt bearing laundry mark #P2587.

One U.S. Army field jacket, size 38 L, bearing no identification marks, with Technical Sergeant’s chevrons on sleeve.

One white pouch containing small comb.

One navy blue pouch containing two flashlight bulbs, one Texaco touring map of San Francisco and the Bay Area, one State Auto Association map of Marin County, one small taped ball containing odd change.

One navy blue pouch containing shoulder patch U.S. Army, Pacific Coast Frontier Defense Sector.

One navy blue pouch containing two glass cases, one case containing subject’s silver rimmed glasses, the other containing a white powder believed to be stomach powder.

One handkerchief, brown striped border.

One small memo book approximately three by five inches, contents blank.

One small piece of white cloth.

One U.S. Army official dog tag in the name GEORGE F. TODD, #38409746 T43.

One enlisted man’s temporary pass issued in the name of TODD dated 0730 July 31 to 0730 August 2, ’45 “to visit Bay Area”. The above described tag and pass were used by subject in an ineffectual attempt to elude detection at Fort McDowell.

One white cloth pouch containing U.S. Army dog tag in the name of ARTHUR L. WADE #34506347 T43, Army dog tag in the name of ERNEST D. BENNETT, #33573388, one broken tube Barbasol shaving cream containing $1.38 in change.

One Pall Mall cigarette package containing seven assorted shoulder patches, U.S. Army, two chevrons U.S. Army Staff Sergeant, one new U.S. Army Air Corps shoulder patch wrapped in tissue paper.

Four undated enlisted men’s temporary passes in the name of A.L. WADE, Staff Sergeant, #34506347, Hq. Btry. A 256 AAA, granting permission to visit Bay Area.

Six blank enlisted men’s passes.

Three blank temporary passes bearing the stamped signature of WILLIAM B. BURCH.

One fountain pen, gold colored.

One gray flashlight marked “USM” containing two Every-Ready batteries marked for use before June, 1944.

One small cardboard box containing blank furlough paper form #31, War Department,... G.O.

One metal Bayer Aspirin box containing sixty cents in assorted change and several strands of what appears to be human hair.

One small Colgate toothpaste tube painted green containing a brown substance believed to be glue.

One seed envelope containing unidentified white powder.

One Army tie.

One pair regulation Army socks.

One traced insignia of Pacific Coast Frontier Defense Sector.

One small cardboard box containing two wooden objects both carved in the shape of a “U” approximately one inch in length, covered with waxlike substance.

One small tin box containing piece of broken mirror.

One small medicine bottle containing ink.

One small cardboard box containing razor, fourteen cents in change, one pen point and three taped balls containing change.

One Dennison label box containing unidentified white powder, and five safety pins.

One small wooden cylinder (pencil lead holder) containing three wooden matches each tightly wrapped with small needle and tan thread.

One small bar green soap.

I should like, at this time, to express my appreciation to you for the assistance rendered Special Agents HARTLEY and CROW during the investigation of this matter.

Very truly yours,

N. J. L. PIEPER

Special Agent in Charge

Over the course of nearly ten years, Giles had acquired more than forty smuggled articles ranging from clothing to dog tags. Giles was punished harshly and he would remain in segregation for nearly three years. In 1948, he was integrated back into the general population and assigned the incinerator detail; considered one of the island’s toughest work assignments. He was eventually transferred to Leavenworth and paroled several years later. Upon his release, Giles moved to Los Angeles to live with his brother and never returned to prison. John Giles died in February of 1979 at age eighty-four.

ESCAPE ATTEMPT #10

Date:

May 2-6, 1946

Inmates:

Bernard Coy

Joseph Cretzer

Marvin Hubbard

Miran Thompson

Clarence Carnes

Sam Shockley

Location:

Main Cellhouse

THE BATTLE OF ALCATRAZ

A message scratched onto one of the flat bars of cell #23 in A Block, where several inmates were temporarily housed during the “Battle of Alcatraz.”

On May 2, 1946, six convicts embarked on one of the most violent escape attempts ever made on the Rock. Many historians rank this as the most significant event in the island’s twenty-nine-year history as a Federal penitentiary, and it was appropriately labeled by the contemporary press as the “Battle of Alcatraz.”  Of the thirty-nine convicts who attempted to escape over the years, only one successfully plotted and executed a plan to secure weapons – and they were used with deadly consequences. In the wake of the conflict, two correctional officers and three inmates lay dead from bullet wounds and several others were left seriously injured. This legendary escape attempt would remain a topic of discussion by inmates and guards alike until the prison’s closure in 1963.

THE CONSPIRATORS

Bernard Paul Coy

Bernard Paul Coy was the primary architect of one of the most ingenious escape plots ever implemented at Alcatraz. He would be the only inmate in the prison’s history to successfully secure prison firearms.

Forty-six-year-old Bernard Paul Coy was a hillbilly bank robber serving out the remainder of a twenty-five-year sentence on The Rock. Bernie was born to a hauntingly poor Kentucky hill family of one brother and four sisters, all of whom suffered the consequences of extreme poverty. By the time Bernie reached his late teens, his teeth were horribly decayed and he was afflicted with excruciatingly painful gums. It was rumored that Coy had been neglected as a child and had received frequent beatings from his father. Even in his earliest years, Coy had allegedly exhibited violent tendencies.

At sixteen years of age, Bernie decided to leave home and enlist in the U.S. Army. It was in this context that he would enter into his first battle: World War I. Coy served in the Army with great distinction until the war ended in 1918. After finishing his tour of duty, he fell in love with a woman from Wisconsin and the couple soon married. In order to maintain a steady income, Bernie reenlisted in the Army in 1920. As the war effort came to a close, Coy frequently found himself in trouble and it was during this period that he changed the direction of his life, and began moving toward his eventual destiny. In 1921, Bernie was arraigned in Chicago for abandoning his post assignment and going AWOL. He was found guilty of desertion and was sent back to Camp Taylor in Kentucky, where he served fifteen days in the military detention center. Soon afterward, he received a dishonorable discharge and therefore had to make the transition back to civilian life with few job opportunities and limited prospects.

Coy feverishly attempted to find work, in hopes of making a decent life for himself and his wife. He was a gifted craftsman and artist, and made use of his talents as a decorator and painter. However, despite his earnest attempts, the Great Depression had left him unemployed and desperate to support himself. Bernie found himself backed into a corner with few options left by which to survive. In 1923 Coy was arrested in Draper, Wisconsin, for violating liquor laws along with an assault and battery charge. He was released with time served and fined $250, which he clearly could not afford to pay in his state of unemployment. He was convicted of larceny charges in 1928 and 1930, and eventually served nearly five years in the Wisconsin State Penitentiary.

Reading Coy’s letters from the years prior to his Alcatraz escape attempt, it would be nearly impossible to predict his violent and premeditated break for freedom. His letters articulate what appear to be a true desire to reform, as is illustrated in these excerpts written to the superintendent of the prison where he was incarcerated on August 30, 1936:

I regret that this request [for release consideration] must be made under the present unfavorable conditions, rather than under circumstances relevant to the continued progress of some noble social service. Please believe me sincere in my regret, and if there is a loyalty of promise incapable of future betrayal, you may be assured, Sir, that your confidence in me, however great or small, shall never be abused. Since my incarceration, I have made a record which is the envy of everyone. Not one time have I been disobedient, or sullen, nor have I set an example which would not be commendable in the best society. I am a firm believer in discipline, and regulate my actions according to my belief. I believe I have proved myself trustworthy. I am president of the Holy Names Society here inside the prison, a Catholic society, and I know that I have acquitted my office satisfactorily every moment. I do know right from wrong, and certainly try to be well thought of by everyone I meet. The Army and the World War, at age seventeen, gave me a background upon which to build a life equally as remarkable as your own; and I may yet put the right foot first. I am not too proud to ask for help, nor too weak to win if refused. I am not guilty of any crime and have nothing of which to be ashamed. Your will is my determination, Sir, in prison or, at home. More than this no man can promise.

Only six months after composing this letter Coy was released from prison, but he was soon involved in another crime. On April 18, 1937, armed with a sawed-off shotgun, Coy robbed the National Bank of New Haven Kentucky with a friend named Delbert Lee Stiles, and a relative named Richard Coy. The three fugitives made off with just over two thousand dollars and retreated into a small cave by the Rolling Fork River. Three days after the heist, local farmers noticed smoke from their campfire and alerted officials. During the trial that followed, Coy was identified by cashier A.E. Kirkpatrick as the man who had walked up to the cage, drawn a sawed-off shotgun and held him at bay while an accomplice scooped up the money. On June 3, 1937, Bernard Paul Coy was sentenced to twenty-five years and five days in a federal penitentiary. The trio would all be sent to serve out their respective sentences at the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta.

Bernie did not adjust well to prison life and frequently found himself in isolation as punishment for engaging in altercations with other inmates. It is recorded that Coy physically attacked another inmate with a brutal implement consisting of a razor blade mounted onto a toothbrush handle and this incident would earn him his one-way ticket to Alcatraz. Bernie arrived at Alcatraz on July 31, 1937, and he got off to a rough start during his first years on the Rock. On September 21, 1937 he participated in a work strike stating: “I’m not a big shot or looking for glory, I just want to be locked up in my cell and not be bothered by anyone.” He thus received his first introduction to D Block, and was placed into segregation for one week.

On April 4, 1939 a heated dispute broke out between Bernie and fellow inmate Joe Varsalonawhile they were working in the prison kitchen. In a violent fury, Bernie hit Varsalona, knocking him to the floor. One of the guards came up from the basement, and after trying unsuccessfully to break up the fight, he summoned other correctional officers. But before the other guards could intervene, Varsalona grabbed a butcher knife and inflicted several minor stab wounds on Coy. Bernie was admitted to the prison hospital for seven days and then released back into the general prison population. His first aborted escape attempt came in December of the same year, when it was suspected that Bernie was trying to cut through a steel window-guard in the bakeshop. His actions were quickly halted and as a punitive measure he was thrown into the strip cell and placed on a restricted diet.

Joe Varsalona

It wasn’t long before Bernie found himself back in the general prison population, quietly serving out his time. He soon became what could be considered a model inmate. Despite his limited education, Bernie was a passionate reader, and was thought to be very intelligent. He also found the opportunity to reengage his passion for art. In October of 1944, Warden Johnston wrote Coy a lengthy congratulatory letter regarding a few paintings of landscapes and wartime subjects that Coy had contributed for an exhibit in Washington D.C. at the Congress for the American Prison Association. Johnston remarked that Coy’s paintings were very popular and mentioned how pleased he was to have them representing Alcatraz.

Joseph Paul Cretzer

Joseph Paul Cretzer

Joseph Paul Cretzer had vowed that he would not concede victory to Alcatraz, and despite formidable odds, he declared that he would find a way to escape the island. Cretzer was born on April 17, 1911 to deaf-mute parents in Anaconda, Montana. He was the youngest of three boys and two girls, and constantly lived under the scrutiny of his older brothers. One prison report stated that all of the siblings had been in conflict with the law and held poor reputations within the communities in which they resided. His brothers George and Donald, with whom he had the closest ties, had also served long sentences in the Colorado State Penitentiary. In prison interviews, Cretzer described that he had enjoyed a friendly relationship with his father, but other reports alleged that his father led him into crime by encouraging him to perform “sneak thefts” and burglaries at a very young age. News clippings in his inmate file showed that his father, who was sixty years old at the time of the reports, was institutionalized at the Colorado State Hospital in Pueblo.

His parents separated when Joe was very young and the mother and children took up residence with his grandmother. His mother soon remarried, which caused family friction as Joseph had difficulty getting along with his new stepfather. His first bout with crime occurred when he was only fourteen years of age. His sister would later recount that Joe was first sent to a reformatory after stealing his grandfather’s pocket watch. His grandfather referred Joe to juvenile court and he was later also tried for stealing an automobile in Pueblo. It would be a tough time for Joe and his family as his mother would die the same year from acute asthma. Joe continued engaging in petty crimes until he was sixteen, finally resulting in the courts committing him to the Colorado State Reformatory at Golden, Colorado, from which he would make three escapes. When he was formally released, Cretzer made his way via freight train to San Francisco and took-up residence with his older sister.

Reports reveal that Joe attempted to hold honest employment during this period, making license plates at the Norton Manufacturing Company in Oakland for about five months and later working at the American Can Company for about nine months. But he soon returned to the life of crime. On January 28, 1929 Cretzer, who was now seventeen, and his accomplice Floyd Willoughby, aged twenty-two, broke into a home on Park Boulevard in Oakland. The robbery attempt ended in a hail of revolver shots when Police Officer L.S. Trowbridge fired at the suspects as they attempted to flee the scene.

Despite his youth and his contrition before the court, Cretzer was deemed incorrigible and sentenced to serve one year at the Preston Reformatory Industrial School in Ione, California. He was later released, having earned “good time” credits and then moved to Portland Oregon. There he soon committed another robbery and was caught and sent to serve ninety days in the Multnomah County Jail. It was here that he first met fellow inmates and future accomplices Arnold Thomas Kyle, Jack Croft, Dick Kane, and Mickey Lynch. After all of the inmates had been released, they met again in Seattle, Washington, and committed a series of robberies together; then all of the fugitives made their way to San Francisco. Cretzer returned to Oakland, where he was soon arrested on several counts of burglary and larceny and was again sentenced to serve out his time back at Preston, along with Kyle. Their time at Preston only seemed to bond the two even more closely.

Arnold Kyle

Kyle had also served time for committing several robberies in various communities throughout California before he met Joe Cretzer. Remarkably, Kyle and Cretzer had endured similar childhoods. Kyle too was born in Montana, his parents had separated when he was only three, and as a result he and his siblings had been raised by their grandparents. He moved in briefly with his father and stepmother, but because of family friction, he soon found himself boarded in a home for orphans at only eleven years of age. At fifteen he was convicted of petty larceny and placed in the Montana State Industrial School. Kyle would later marry Joe’s sister Thelma.

Joe Cretzer’s sister Thelma would marry Arnold Kyle, as did Kyle’s sister Edna who later married Joe.

Edna Kyle ... k.a. Kay Stone Wallace)

Cretzer was unexpectedly paroled almost at the same time as Kyle, and immediately upon their release, the two young men quickly returned to their criminal habits. On the run once again, the fugitives found shelter with Arnold’s younger sister Edna Kyle who was now living in Pittsburg, California. Edna was no stranger to organized crime circles and under her alias of Kay Stone Wallace she had made her own mark in the flesh trade. Edna and Joseph soon fell in love and they became inseparable. The two were ultimately married in Flagstaff, Arizona on April 17, 1930.

The trio then continued their illegal escapades, helping to operate Edna’s house of prostitution. For several years the business continued to thrive with little interference from the police. Then on June 23, 1936, the four outlaws violently robbed the American Trust Company in Oakland, making off with over five thousand dollars in cash. However, the robbery did not go off smoothly and during their exit they engaged in a fierce gun battle with a police officer. They then moved their base of operations to Los Angeles and ran a prostitution racket at the Garden View Hotel. During the years 1936-1937 they ran the Fern Hotel in San Pedro which proved to be another lucrative prostitution venture. When their accomplice Jack Croft accidentally shot himself during a robbery, they left him behind and headed back home to Northern California.

In January of 1938, things began to sour when a nineteen-year-old Montana farm girl named Jeanne Walters was arrested in a Berkeley hotel, and relayed a compellingly torrid tale of being abused in a white slave ring. Walters told police that she had been unwillingly sold as a prostitute and she named Kay Wallace as one of the gang leaders and as the owner of the Bruno Hotel where the illicit activities usually took place. The police subsequently exposed a statewide prostitution ring and it was discovered that Kay was one of the key players. Another woman also accused Kay, stating that she was only seventeen years old when Wallace had forced her into prostitution. The investigation further revealed that Cretzer had beaten the woman severely after she withheld some of her earnings. In an FBI Report dated February 24, 1940, it is stated that Cretzer beat her so severely that he knocked out several of her teeth and left her with numerous cuts and bruises. Law enforcement officials quickly intervened, shutting down the brothel and seizing the hotel assets. Kay jumped her ten-thousand-dollar bail, and the trio then began a bank-robbing spree that would take them from Southern California up into Seattle.

It was at about this time that Cretzer and Kyle teamed up with two other professional bank robbers, John Hetzer and Jim Courey, who were well known for their “quick style” robberies. Their method was to rush in, clear out a few cash drawers, and then rush out, usually spending no more than one or two minutes inside the bank. Although the individual returns from each bank were smaller, the volume of robberies and their successful evasion of law enforcement made for a very lucrative cash flow. It was estimated that the gang robbed nearly eighty banks, taking in almost $72,000 in only a few months.  The FBI began a comprehensive investigation of the heists and suspicion soon fell on Joe Cretzer.