Letters From Alcatraz - Michael Esslinger [165]
At this point I saw Marshall Chitty's body raise upward, and Deputy Marshall Vargo stepping in front of me and grapping Kyle's arm and twisting same into an arm-lock. I looked to the right and back of me and saw Cretzer lying down face forward, with Captain Delmore and Lieut. Bass standing over him. Inmates Kyle and Cretzer were raised and seated back on the bench. Captain Delmore was wiping the blood dripping from a cut below Inmates Kyle's left eye. Marshall Chitty stepped into the cell and ordered the inmates taken to the washbasin in the corner of the Marshall's office so they could be washed.
The inmates were led to the washbasin; upon reaching the washbasin inmates Kyle and Cretzer had just started to wash their faces when I heard something fall to the rear of us. I looked back and saw Marshall Chitty's body lying on the floor, and Captain Delmore standing just in back of me. I nodded to Captain Delmore, I staying with the inmates and Captain Delmore going toward the Marshall's body. Captain Delmore returned immediately and ordered the inmates locked in the detention cell, which was immediately done.
In the meantime Marshall Chitty's body had been removed to the Marshall's private room and laid on a cot. Captain Delmore came out of the private room and asked me to assist him in moving Chitty's body from the cot onto the floor, so artificial respiration could be easier administered. This being done, I was about to start administering artificial respiration. I noticed the gun in Marshall Chitty's pocket. I removed same from his pocket and handed it to Deputy Marshall DeLine and told him to take care of the Marshall's gun. Captain Delmore and myself relieved each other at administering artificial respiration until the doctor pronounced Marshall Chitty dead. Captain Delmore took charge of the inmates and they were again taken to the courtroom, surrounded by Deputy Marshall's and Custodial Officers.
The inmates upon receiving their sentence were immediately rushed to the Steilacoom Dock, placed on a waiting boat, and arrived back on the island at approximately 5:45 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
C. Zukowsky, Lieutenant
The struggle ultimately contributed to Chitty suffering a fatal heart attack and both Cretzer and Kyle subsequently changed their pleas to guilty. Each was given an additional five-year sentence, to be served concurrently with their previous twenty-five-year sentences.
Only a few days after Cretzer and Kyle were sentenced for their attempted escape, a Federal Grand Jury returned an indictment charging the convicts with murder in the first degree. Both entered pleas conceding to the charge of second-degree murder, and on October 21, 1940, they were sentenced to serve out the remaining course of their natural lives in prison. In some respects, they could consider themselves lucky. The prosecutors had fought vehemently to uphold a charge of capital murder, and had demanded death by the electric chair. But the defendants’ council successfully argued that Chitty’s death was accidental and not a case of premeditated murder, and therefore that the accused were not eligible for the death penalty. Both escaped the electric chair, but they received harsh life sentences that would ensure they would never walk free again.
In the midst of the trial both Cretzer and Kyle were transported to Alcatraz, arriving on August 27, 1940. The two men would now become residents of America’s most notorious prison. Cretzer, had grown up just across the Bay and would find serving time on the island even more difficult, as he was able to see familiar landmarks on the mainland. Now only twenty-nine years of age, he would have to adapt to the rigid structure of Alcatraz and its relentless routine,