Joseph Paul Cretzer

Joseph Paul Cretzer
Born	Joseph Paul Cretzer (1911-04-17)April 17, 1911
Died	May 4, 1946(1946-05-04) (aged 35) Alcatraz San Francisco, CA, U.S.
Cause of death	Gunshot or suicide

Joseph Paul “Dutch” Cretzer (April 17, 1911 − May 4, 1946) was an American bank robber and prisoner at Alcatraz who participated in and was slain in the bloody "Battle of Alcatraz" which took place following a failed escape attempt between May 2 and May 4, 1946.

Criminal career

Cretzer started his criminal career at an early age and had been in and out of prison since 1927. He was married to Edna May Kyle, the sister of Arnold Kyle. On January 25, 1936, Edna Cretzer was taken into custody and charged with running a brothel in Pittsburgh, California. She quickly posted bail whilst her husband Joseph remained a fugitive. Cretzer and Kyle formed the backbone of a gang, the Cretzer-Kyle Gang, which robbed banks along the west coast. Cretzer's prowess led to him reaching public enemy no. 4 on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's most wanted list by September 1939. ^[1] Cretzer was apprehended by the FBI when they caught up to him in Chicago, Illinois on August 27. On November 7, his wife Edna pleaded guilty to harboring her husband and Cretzer himself confessed to one of the robberies in Los Angeles on January 24, 1940. Cretzer was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment and was incarcerated at McNeil's Island.

Cretzer arrested

Prison

Cretzer began serving his sentence at McNeil Island in February 1940. Cretzer reunited with his old partner and brother-in-law, Arnold Kyle. In April 1940, he and Kyle hijacked a prison lorry in an attempt to escape but were both recaptured after three days hiding in the woods.^[2] On Wednesday, June 26, 1940, Cretzer and Kyle were indicted by a federal grand jury in Tacoma, Washington for attempting to escape from the McNeil Island Penitentiary. The convicts were transported from the island to the U.S. District Court in Tacoma for arraignment on four separate occasions and each time postponed a plea. Judge Yankwich, visiting from Los Angeles, was convinced the men were making as many trips as possible, hoping for an opportunity to escape. The judge finally declared that he was not going to be a party to any more commuting and would grant no more continuances. On Saturday, July 20, Cretzer and Kyle entered pleas of not guilty and Judge Yankwich set the trial date for August 22, 1940. Tacoma attorneys Anthony M. Ursich, and William F. LeVeque were appointed to represent the defendants. A trial began in a U.S. District Court in Tacoma on Thursday, August 22, 1940. During the sentencing in the courthouse a US Marshal Artis James Chitty entered a cell to return Cretzer and Kyle back to the courtroom. Chitty entered the cell, the two men sprang to their feet and Cretzer grabbed Chitty around the waist and pulled him forward. Marshal Chitty was thrown against the cell wall and Kyle reached for Chitty’s right-hand back pocket in an attempt to snatch his revolver. A struggle ensued and all three men fell onto the floor. A penitentiary guard grabbed Kyle just as he struck Chitty in the face with his right fist. More guards rushed in and quickly subdued the prisoners. Chitty arose, berated the men and then walked into an adjoining office. Chitty while speaking to a clerk, Lillian Holtz, collapsed onto the floor and was unconscious. He was carried into his private office where two physicians pronounced him dead. Less than 10 minutes had elapsed from the time he was attacked until his death. died from a heart attack as result of a struggle with Cretzer following another failed attempt to escape. Deputy marshals escorted Cretzer and Kyle back into the courtroom and Judge Yankwich resumed the trial. When the court denied a motion for a mistrial, the two defendants withdrew their not-guilty pleas and entered pleas of guilty to the escape charge. Judge Yankwich thereupon sentenced Cretzer and Kyle to additional terms of five years, to commence at the expiration of their 25-year sentences for bank robbery. The Bureau of Prisons quietly transferred Cretzer and Kyle to the Alcatraz Island Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco Bay, a maximum security prison established in 1934 to hold violent and incorrigible prisoners.^[3]

Cretzer was sentenced to life for murder and sent to Alcatraz in August 1940. In May 21, 1941 he again attempted to escape from one of the island's workshops along with Sam Shockley, Arnold Kyle, and Lloyd Barkdoll. During the escape attempt the men held a number of guards hostage but gave up when they failed to cut through the tool-proof bars. For this escape attempt, he was sentenced by an internal tribunal to serve five years in the prison's high-security unit, called D Block, which was isolated from the rest of the prison and where prisoners were confined to their cells almost all of the time.

Battle of Alcatraz

Cretzer had only recently been let out of D Block when he became an accomplice in yet another escape plan. This plan had been hatched by the cell-house orderly Bernard Coy who offered Cretzer a place on the break in return for use of his onshore contacts. The failure of the plan led to the bloody and hopeless standoff known as the "Battle of Alcatraz" during which Cretzer, armed with a .45 automatic handgun, opened fire on a number of hostage guards held in two cells in an apparent attempt to prevent any of them giving evidence against the would-be escapees. Cretzer made no attempt to surrender and was slain by guard fire or committed suicide early on May 4 when trapped in a utility corridor.

When his "wife" came to claim Cretzer's body she identified herself as his sister and was arrested for her outstanding warrants and jumping her $10,000 bail bond on the white slavery charge. He is buried in Cypress Lawn Memorial Park.

Film depictions

Cretzer was portrayed by Telly Savalas in Alcatraz — The Whole Shocking Story (1980) and by Howard Hesseman in Six Against the Rock (1987).

Notes and references