• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 813 0

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.

The FBI intensified their search, and began a national campaign to bring Cretzer and Kyle to justice. Joe was said to enjoy his notorious high-ranking status as a Public Enemy. Joseph Cretzer was now ranked number four on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. He and Arnold decided to leave the Bay Area, since the FBI would likely be concentrating their search efforts throughout the Northwest. Jim Courey, unable to face the prospect of spending his life in prison, committed suicide in a Los Angeles hotel room when agents sought to arrest him.

In an effort to maintain a low profile, Cretzer and Kyle made a quick journey to Chicago, hoping that they could thus escape the watchful eye of the Bureau. Kyle stayed only a short while, then continued his travels back through Denver, Colorado, and on to Wichita, Kansas. He was finally apprehended on May 19, 1939 in Minneapolis, following another robbery. Kyle would not reveal the whereabouts of his other accomplices. While in Chicago, Joe and Edna had bought and operated another hotel, this time attempting to run a legitimate business. However, they had underestimated the magnitude of the FBI’s search effort and were apprehended in late August of 1939 and extradited back to Southern California to be tried for one of their earlier bank robberies in Pasadena. The FBI reported that Edna would stand charges for harboring a fugitive, and also that she was a suspect in the shooting of a police officer in Michigan City, Indiana, which had occurred earlier that year. She would eventually be sent to Terminal Island in Southern California, where Al Capone had briefly been incarcerated after leaving Alcatraz.

During the preparations for the trial the Federal government intervened, claiming that they held ultimate jurisdiction and would elect to try both Kyle and Cretzer in Washington State before addressing the charges in Southern California. The defendants’ cases also attracted a high level of media attention, with pertinent events regularly reported to the fascinated national public. Arnold Kyle and Joseph Cretzer were put on trial for the robbery of three Seattle banks and both were convicted on February 8, 1940. Both were given twenty-five-year sentences at McNeil Island, a Northwestern Federal Penitentiary located in Puget Sound, Washington. The official conviction report would declare them guilty in the case of “National Bank Robbery.” Cretzer had already started to build his résumé for Alcatraz, when officials caught him with a handcuff key in his mouth, which he had fashioned from a belt buckle. It was noted that the key was almost an “exact duplicate” and “greater measures” would be needed to contain Cretzer in prison.

Both