ESCAPE ATTEMPT #7
Date:
April 13, 1943
Inmates:
James A. Boarman
Fred Hunter
Harold Brest
Floyd G. Hamilton
Location:
Old Mat Shop
On the cold morning of April 13, 1943, a densely strewn layer of fog lay over the prison fortress. The escape attempt that was about to unfold would involve four inmates who were assigned to the old Mat Shop, employed in manufacturing cement blocks that were used to weigh down heavy submarine nets during the war. The inmates had each acquired smuggled military uniforms from the prison laundry and had stuffed them in specially made float canisters, which were smaller but nearly identical to those used during the escape of Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe in December of 1937. The four hollow one-gallon fuel containers offered perfect concealment and water protection for their clothing and a seemingly perfect float device with which to swim quietly across the bay. Their plan would also incorporate some of the more successful aspects of the 1941 escape attempt employed by Cretzer, Barkdoll, Shockley and Kyle, which ultimately ended in failure.
James A. Boarman
James A. Boarman
James Arnold Boarman, a small time bank robber from Indianapolis was only twenty-four years old at the time of this ill-fated escape attempt. Born on November 3, 1919 in Whalen, Kentucky, he was the sixth in a family of eight children. His father, who had supported the family as a carpenter, died of an accidental drowning when James was only seven-years-old. His mother, relocated the family to Indiana where they would all share residence in a small apartment. Boarman attended St. Patrick’s Catholic School in Indianapolis and dropped-out to work as a gardener at age fourteen. His mother would later state that James always had brought his earnings home and never complained about the family’s financial troubles. Despite their hardships and their dependence on welfare support, his family was close and all worked together to help and support each other.
Boarman’s bouts with crime first began when he was still very young. In May of 1936 he stole his first automobile and after being arrested and placed on probation, he stole two other cars and headed for California with two accomplices. His mother pleaded his case in court, stating that she had been hospitalized due to illness and that he had lacked proper supervision when he needed it most. The court proved unsympathetic to her pleas and on January 30, 1937, Boarman was sentenced to three years in the Federal Reformatory at El Reno, Oklahoma.
Boarman and four other inmates plotted an escape from El Reno, and carried out their plan on September 9, 1937. A special progress report chronicled the events:
After arrest, he was taken to jail in Golden, Colorado, and while there involved in several fights. Also, in a scheme to effect his escape hid under a table in the jail and tried to jump a turn-key. While an inmate at El Reno, connived with four other inmates to escape from the institution. This was frustrated, but subject admitted his participation in the scheme, which was to climb a fence, seize the physician upon his arrival at the parking area, drive away in his car and hold him as hostage.
Boarman was recommended for transfer to a more secure prison facility, and was sent to Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary on September 28, 1937. At Lewisburg he continued to assemble a record of conduct violations. The most significant of these was being found with an eight-inch dagger hidden in a magazine inside his cell. He apparently disclaimed ownership, stating that he was “just putting a handle on it.” His reports were all unfavorable, with one stating: “This inmate is a reckless, very unstable psychopath who is not material for rehabilitation. He has been making a very poor institutional adjustment and has had several disciplinary infractions of a serious nature.”
He was finally released from Lewisburg on December 15, 1939, and was immediately provided with employment by the... C.A. Radio Company. After a series of layoffs and re-hires by... C.A., he again emerged into the crime scene. He was later quoted in a progress report as saying: “When I come out of Lewisburg, I intended to go straight. I got me a job and did go straight. I lost that job, and couldn’t find another one for hell. I tried to join the Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps and didn’t get in, so I went and got me a gun and started robbin’.” His probationofficer also documented his own attempts to help Boarman enlist in the Army, but apparently the recruiters felt that his criminal conduct made him unacceptable for the armed forces.
The following report describes Boarman’s character in the eyes of the correctional system, and the reasons for his transfer to Alcatraz:
On August 12, 1940, at about 9:30 p.m., this defendant stole an automobile in Indianapolis after flourishing a gun on a salesman, which he drove to Lexington, Ky. He traded said gun for another and on the morning of August 15, returned to Indianapolis, and entered a branch of the Fletcher Trust Co., again flourishing a gun in the presence of bank employees and patrons, escaping with $12,812.00. He drove said stolen car to a point near Loogootee, Indiana, abandoned that car and stole another and hence drove it to Owensboro, Ky. After abandoning this car, he appeared at a motor sales agency and purchased a Buick car for which he paid $600 in cash, using a part of the funds stolen from the forgoing bank. In addition he purchased a rifle and an assortment of clothing and was subsequently arrested in a hotel room at Frankfort, Ky. $11,710 of the stolen funds were recovered. Defendant admitted numerous hold-ups, including filling stations, grocery stores and two ladies in a parking lot. He has previously been convicted as shown by attached... B.I. report.
Subject is apparently a confirmed offender and a vicious menace to society as indicated by the instant offense and the series of armed robberies which he committed prior to the instant bank robbery. He is a highly unstable and impulsive youth who is apparently quite proud of the fact that he committed the instant offense without the aid or advice of other persons. He is convinced, outwardly at least, that he is entirely capable of whipping the whole world and providing himself with funds even if it is necessary to resort to physical force and the aid of firearms.
Another report in his central file offered details of his violent tendencies:
Deputy Taff states that while crossing a bridge or large culvert on Highway #71, two miles north of Plat City, this prisoner suddenly tried to wreck the car by raising both feet and kicking against the back of the driver’s seat throwing the guard, who was driving at the time, against the steering wheel. The guard happened to be a man of large stature, and while thrown against the steering wheel he did not lose absolute control of the car although the incident did cause the car to leave the highway. Boarman likewise made an attempt to get the deputy’s revolver but was unsuccessful.
In view of this subjects traits in the instant offense if vicious nature, his previous institutional adjustments during confinement in the Federal Reformatory at El Reno, and the Federal Prison at Lewisburg, his present indifferent attitude and the indication that his future adjustment in confinement here or elsewhere is very definitely problematical. It is believed advisable that he be CONSIDERED FOR TRANSFER TO THE FEDERAL PRISON AT ALCATRAZ ISLAND, CALIFORNIA.
Harold M. Brest
Harold M. Brest was another inmate who would serve two separate terms at Alcatraz, under two separate register numbers.
Harold Martin Brest would be one of the few select inmates to be committed to Alcatraz twice during their lifetime. Born on January 2, 1913, Harold was the third in a family of six children, and he was reared in what was considered a good home environment in Sharon, Pennsylvania. Brest and his family suffered the loss of his mother when he was only seven years of age. His father was a skilled laborer, and struggled to raise his children in a “congenial atmosphere.” Early prison reports reflect an angry tempered individual with little restraint in his dealings with fellow inmates and correctional staff. Brest was originally sentenced in June of 1939 to serve two twenty-five-year sentences, one five-year sentence, and a life sentence for kidnapping and bank robbery.
A telegram authorizing Brest’s transfer to Alcatraz.
Brest’s criminal history is fully described in his Alcatraz inmate file:
At the age of 15, the subject first became a delinquent serving a 5-day jail term for trespassing. The following year he served a 10-day jail sentence, and in 1932 he received a one-year probation term in his hometown for larceny of auto. Again in 1933 he went to the State Prison, at Pittsburgh, PA., to serve a three to six year term for blackmail. The Parole Director of this institution advises this man while incarcerated there received a disciplinary report for being implicated with another inmate in an attack on an officer and suspected of degeneracy, and was held six months over the minimum sentence. He was paroled in 1936, and in January of 1937, less than a year later, he was sentenced to a term of life and 55 years concurrently for Kidnapping, Bank Robbery, and Dyer Act, and committed to Leavenworth Penitentiary, later being transferred to Alcatraz in March of 1937.
The circumstances of this crime are revolting and are outlined in detail in the Deputy Warden’s abstract of admission summary prepared at Leavenworth, copy of which is in the record.
Harold Martin Brest was indicted, in one count, with Harry James Logan, by the Federal Grand Jury at Erie, Pennsylvania, on September 24, 1936 for seizing, kidnapping, and carrying away one Deloria Lester Santee, for the purpose of robbing him of his money and his automobile, and by causing him to be transported by means of his automobile, by threats, by force and arms, against his will, from Sharon, Pennsylvania, to Youngstown, Ohio, on or about July 2, 1936.
On January 14, 1937, Brest and Logan were indicted by the United States Grand Jury, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, charged in four counts, first, with taking from the person and presence of P.M. Cox, Cashier, and Mrs. Mabel Simpson Brown, Assistant Cashier, L.P. Hauschild and L.W. Morgan, National Bank Examiners, on September 15, 1936, lawful money of the United States, in the sum of $5,846.50, which money belonged to and was in the care and custody of the First National Bank of Volant, Pennsylvania; second, with perpetrating the said offense by the use of dangerous weapons and devices, two revolvers or pistols; third, with the robbery of the same bank on December 18, 1936, in the sum of $3,910.36, and fourth, with the use of dangerous weapons and devices in the perpetration of this robbery, to wit, two automatic pistols.
Brest further admitted that he, with Logan, on September 10, 1936, robbed the Farmer’s State Bank of Spring Green, Plain Station, Plain, Wisconsin, where by the use of arms and threats to kill the Cashier, he obtained, a little over $300.00. Brest stated that the banker was “Scared to death, white as a sheet and almost dropped dead;” and that he, Brest, cocked his gun, ready to shoot the banker if he asserted himself, or resisted in any way; that but for the fact that Logan became uneasy, Brest stated he would more than likely have killed this banker.
In addition, thereto Brest admitted that he and Logan participated in so many robberies of drug stores, filling stations, and the like in the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, that it would be impossible for him to recall all of them. On being informed by an... B.I. Agent that he, Brest, entered the Volant National Bank but fifteen minutes prior to Pennsylvania State Policeman and that he probably would have been killed had they met there, Brest boldly said: “That all depends on who would have got the first shots in”.
On or about July 25, 1936, Logan and Brest while seated in an auto at a point near Zeeland, Michigan, they were observed by an officer, who gave chase, and caught up with them in Holland Michigan. While the officer drove up beside the car, Brest drew fourth his gun and shot the officer in the mouth. This officer, for a time, was not expected to live. However, the bullet was removed from the base of the officer’s skull and he is on the way to recovery. In conversing with the... B.I. Agent, Brest readily stated that he would shoot it out with any officer who attempted to apprehend him, and that had it not been for the fact that he was unarmed at the time of his arrest, which, incidentally, was the only time he went unarmed, in Boise, Idaho, he would have probably have shot and killed both policeman who apprehended him. During the conversation Brest at one time expressed regret that the shooting of the Police Officer did not result fatally.
Following transfer to Alcatraz, where he was sent for safer custody, he received three disciplinary reports; one on May 23, 1937 for creating confusion at the mess table; and two on September 20, 1937, for participating in a strike and refusing to go to work, and for agitating, creating a disturbance, and insolence to an officer and also for threatening an officer, agitating and causing a disturbance. On this date, after being placed in solitary, inmate told the Deputy Warden: “If I am ever turned out of solitary, I am going to kill you the first time you turn your back. I have killed men before and I would enjoy killing you.” It is clear from subject’s past criminal record and adjustment that notwithstanding his age, he is a confirmed criminal type with vicious and dangerous traits, impulsive and apparently devoid of any moral or social restraints.
Floyd Garland Hamilton
Floyd Garland Hamilton
The third accomplice in the 1943 escape attempt was one of the most famous inmates ever to inhabit a small five-by-nine-foot cell at Alcatraz. He had reached the top of the FBI’s most wanted list, and had chauffeured one of the most well known crime couples of the 1930’s, Bonnie and Clyde. His brother Raymond had been a member of the Barrow-Parker Gang and later met his death by electrocution for his role in an escape from a Huntsville prison, which had ultimately resulted in an officer’s death. Floyd and his brother Ray had grown up with Bonnie and Clyde in a small town near Dallas, Texas. Newspapers of the era characterized Floyd Hamilton as a suspect in almost every act of violence that occurred in the Dallas area during the 1930’s.
Floyd Hamilton was born on June 30, 1908 in Henrietta, Okalahoma. He was the second in a family of six children, and his parents were divorced. Records indicate that he was raised in a normal family setting, attended Sunday school, and left home at the age of nineteen to marry a young woman named Mildred Stract. During the early years of his marriage, Floyd worked as a pipe fitter in an oil refinery, but he later lost his employment when the plant closed down.
Floyd then began a crime spree that would eventually place him at the top of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. He worked as a getaway driver for Bonnie and Clyde, and later teamed up with Alcatraz alumnus Ted Huron Walters, who would himself attempt to escape from The Rock in another incident. Both men would engage in several other robberies, with targets including a Coca-Cola Bottling Company. This was the heist that would ultimately lead to Hamilton’s arrest in Dallas on August 21, 1938.
Hamilton was incarcerated at Leavenworth, and would be recommended for transfer to Alcatraz in January of 1940, after attempting to enlist a released inmate to smuggle weapons and hacksaw blades into the institution. His Leavenworth report also stated that he and a few other inmates had attempted to have a shotgun and shells fabricated in the machine shop for use in an escape. He arrived at Alcatraz several months later on June 9, 1940, as inmate #AZ-523.
Floyd Hamilton’s conduct reports from Alcatraz.
Fred Hunter
Fred Hunter
Fred Hunter, another “public enemy” and former member of the Karpis-Barker Gang, was also an accomplice to the planned escape. Hunter was serving twenty-five years for his involvement in the kidnapping of William A. Hamm Jr., the president of Hamm’s Brewing Company, and Edward G. Bremer, a prominent community leader and the President of the Commercial State Bank in Minnesota. His criminal history is covered in the chapter describing the Barker Escape of January 1939. There were rumors from Hunter that the group of inmates had been prepared for an escape attempt nearly two weeks earlier, but Boarman had allegedly insisted that they wait for the right fog conditions so that they could enter the bay without being seen.
The Escape
The Model Industries Building.
At approximately 10:00 a.m. on April 13, 194
3, conditions seemed ideal for the escape, with densely layered fog enveloping the island. It was later speculated that the inmates had cut through one of the steel-mesh window guards in the old Mat Shop during the previous weeks, hiding their work by using grease mixed with other agents to fill in the tiny sawed gaps. Custodial Officer George Smith was busy supervising the inmates who were mixing concrete. He was called to the yard gate to escort four other inmates who were reporting to their work assignments. When Smith returned only a short time later, he noticed that Hunter was the only prisoner at his position near the entrance to the Mat Shop. Officer Smith was quickly intercepted by Hamilton, who forcefully grabbed him by the arm, while Boarman stepped into his path gesturing deadly threats with a knife and hammer. When Smith resisted, he was beaten into submission by all four of the inmates and then bound and gagged.
Captain of the Guards, Henry Weinhold, known to many of the inmates as “Bullethead,” was a tough former Marine making his routine rounds. Not suspecting any trouble, he entered the Mat Shop and was quickly captured by the inmates who by were now stripped down to their underwear. Weinhold resisted and nearly managed to grasp one of Boarman’s weapons when the other inmates tackled him, dealing several painful blows using a carpenter’s hammer to his extremities. He too was incapacitated, then tightly bound and gagged and laid beside Officer Smith.
Alcatraz: A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years Page 33
