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.