Alcatraz_ A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years - Michael Esslinger [229]
Daryl Lee Parker on June 11, 1958, stated to Donald Byington, Warden, United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute, Indiana, that he would try to escape at the first opportunity he had and stated: “I am in too much trouble, having robbed four banks and I couldn’t do all that time”; the defendant’s brother, Robert Parker, who probably has more than just simple guilty knowledge of Daryl’s activities, has admitted that they have a total of $226,000,00 hidden away. Both Daryl Lee Parker and his brother Robert Parker are known to have made flights to Cuba soon after the Fort Wayne bank robbery.
Parker was charged with two counts of robbery, and was committed to the Allen County Jail in Fort Wayne. The following report describes his escape, which would prefigure his eventual break from Alcatraz:
Parker was at first confined in Cell Block “A” on the first floor of the County Jail. There he approached a fellow prisoner, who was a trustee, showed him a hundred dollar bill concealed in a package of cigarettes, and solicited his aid for escape. Parker told the trusty that a large negro man would place some hacksaw blades near a flag pole in the front yard of the jail. Parker suggested that this trusty, who had freedom to go in and out of the jail, might pick these hack saw blades up, conceal them in a magazine and deliver the magazine to Parker. Parker offered $1,000.00 to this trusty if he would smuggle these hacksaw blades into the jail. The trusty immediately reported Parker’s offer to the jail officials.
Parker was thereupon moved upstairs to the maximum-security cellblock of the County Jail, adjacent to the section where mental patients were held. Jail officials and... B.I. agents searched Parker’s cell for the $1,000.00, which he offered to pay to the trusty. Parker was even required to strip his clothing and to be examined by a physician as part of the search. Parker’s shoes were taken to a local shoemaker for examination. The shoemaker tore the heels off the shoes and discovered two packets made of black electrician’s tape, each of which packets contained five one-hundred-dollar bills. Each packet was secreted in special indentations, which had been cut out of the heel of each shoe. The shoemaker who made the examination expressed the opinion that the work had been done by a skilled shoemaker. Further investigation showed that the shoes had been taken to a shoemaker in Canton, Ohio, to have the work done. The packets of money were already made up for insertion under the heel in each of the shoes.
Parker managed to smuggle out of the jail, plans of the jail to certain persons to enable those persons to deliver to him the tools necessary for escape. At this time, Parker was confined in a cell to the left of which was a cell occupied by a person named [deleted entry]. Immediately to the left of this person’s cell was a cell in which there was located a bathtub for the use of prisoners. [Deleted entry] had been the trusty detailed to empty the garbage from the basement kitchen of the jail. At the time the practice of the jail had been to entrust the cook in the kitchen with the key that unlocked the barred door from the kitchen that led directly to the outside. [Deleted entry] had secured the key, had unlocked the barred rear door of the kitchen and had gone out to empty the garbage. He did not return and was later apprehended and returned to the jail cell next to the cell occupied by Parker. Parker inquired and learned from this prisoner how he had secured the key.
On a stormy night prior to Tuesday, June 10, 1958, two men scaled the wall of the County Jail with an extension ladder. One of these men carried a dark oilcloth bag tied around his neck. He was able to get onto a roof below the barred window of the jail cell used by the prisoners for bathing. He tied