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.