Alcatraz_ A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years - Michael Esslinger [144]
Within only a few months of his release, Bayless met and married an attractive young girl named Gwendolyn, and the two quickly moved into a furnished apartment. However, his wife soon grew suspicious that her new husband didn’t work, yet somehow always seemed to have money. He would leave with friends for long periods during the day and return without volunteering any information about his activities. He finally told his young bride excitedly that he had inherited money and that they would receive the entire sum the following month. She too was excited, and was now starting to adjust into her new life.
On October 29, 1937 the couple decided to drive to Wichita, Kansas with John’s seventeen-year-old friend Orville Sims and his wife Orletta, so that Gwendolyn could visit her mother. When John tired during the drive, Orville took over the wheel, and began driving erratically. Orville lost control and the car rolled over numerous times before plunging violently into a ditch. John and Gwendolyn, who were riding in the backseat, found themselves pinned underneath the wreckage. They were finally able to free themselves and hurried to the nearest hospital. Gwendolyn had suffered serious injuries including a fractured vertebra in her neck and a broken femur in her right leg. John walked away with only a minor back injury and a few stitches in his left hand. Gwendolyn would need to remain in the hospital for several weeks, so Bayless decided to rent a car and head back home to get some money.
A local newspaper, The Wichita Eagle, ran a story on the accident and this helped to alert law enforcement officials to the location of Bayless and his partner in crime. After meeting with Gwendolyn, police decided to raid the Bayless apartment, where they found bank diagrams and other items that linked John to a series of crimes. At the same time that agents were raiding the apartment, Sims and Bayless were in Mansfield, Missouri, casing a bank. Dressed in dark blue overalls, each with a watch chain dangling from his pocket, the men drew guns on two female employees at the downtown Merchants Bank. They locked the two women in the bank vault, and made off with all of the cash from their tills.
When news of the bank robbery was broadcast over police radios, the agents headed to Sim’s residence, where they found both men asleep. On awaking, Bayless made a comment that would be entered into his arrest report: “Lucky you caught me asleep copper, or I’d have blasted you.” In early 1938, several FBI agents and United States Marshals, all armed, escorted the young men to the courtroom. Bayless and Sims stood before Judge Albert L. Reeves in the Federal Court of Kansas City, pleading guilty to two Federal Grand Jury indictments for robbery of an FDIC bank using force, violence and deadly weapons. They were sentenced to serve twenty years for the first count, and twenty-five years for the second. Bayless would arrive at Leavenworth on February 1, 1938, and he was transferred to Alcatraz on November 29, 1938, as inmate #AZ-466.
The official transfer order for John Bayless to be sent to Alcatraz in 1936.
At Alcatraz, Bayless was considered a low-maintenance inmate who rarely sought trouble. He was a loner, and spent most of his time during recreation periods by himself. On September 15, 1941, Bayless was assigned to the garbage detail, which was generally considered a choice assignment by the inmates. This work detail permitted Bayless to collect garbage and debris from all over the island, under limited supervision. On this day at the end of his shift, Bayless made a spontaneous decision