Letters From Alcatraz - Michael Esslinger [166]
* * *
By any standard, Cretzer did not adjust well to life on the Rock, and he frequently found himself at odds with the administration. Less than one year after their arrival, Cretzer and Kyle participated in a failed escape attempt while working in the Mat Shop. Cretzer was sentenced to “permanent segregation,” and the few privileges he had been allotted were completely revoked. On September 19, 1943, now thirty-two years old and still residing in D Block, Cretzer incited a disturbance after an air vent fan failed. He was again stripped of all privileges and forced to serve additional time in segregation.
On April 11, 1944 Cretzer was allowed to spend some time in the recreation yard, when he was assaulted by the now famous inmate Henri Young, whose tale would later be portrayed in the Hollywood motion picture Murder in the First. The two convicts engaged in a bitter fistfight, which was broken up before anyone could be proclaimed the victor. Cretzer would again find himself isolated (in cell #D-19), in a complete lockdown status with all of his privileges rescinded. It was under these circumstances that Cretzer came to know Bernie Coy, who visited his cell in his role as the library orderly. Through this interaction they would build a close relationship and the two friends would later conspire in the 1946 escape attempt.
On May 26, 1944, at thirty-three years of age, Cretzer wrote a letter to Warden Johnston pleading that he be allowed to start work again. This indicated to the administration that after spending three years in segregation, Cretzer was ready to be integrated back into the general prison population. The letter stated in part, “You may rest assured that, considering the time spent in lock-up, I will not become involved in any future mischief. Wherever Mr. Miller wishes to work me will be okay. I will feel very much obligated to you, and will show my appreciation by conducting myself in a favorable manner.” The Warden took this letter to be sincere, and recommended Cretzer for release from segregation and assignment to a work detail. Cretzer would be transferred to cell #152 in B Block.
Letters from Cretzer pleading with the Warden to be moved out of isolation and back into the general prison population. His commitment to staying out of mischief would prove to be short-lived.
While Cretzer was imprisoned at Alcatraz, his wife Edna made frequent visits to the island and she often wrote kind letters to Warden Johnston, sometimes offering her help in persuading “Dutch” to behave through her “letters and visits.” Johnston was usually accommodating in this regard and in February of 1945 he allowed Edna to see both her brother Arnold and her husband Joseph in back-to-back visits. His trust, however, was obviously misplaced. Cretzer had no intention of living up to the promises made in his letter.
Marvin Franklin Hubbard
Marvin Franklin Hubbard
Another accomplice in the 1946 escape attempt was Marvin Franklin Hubbard. Marv (as he was called by fellow inmates) carried the reputation of a ruthless gunman and he had earned his transfer to Alcatraz through a series of brutal escape attempts at other prisons. He was given a work assignment in the kitchen, and he became a good friend of Arnold Kyle. Like Kyle, Hubbard had also fallen prey to the Great Depression. Born August 13, 1912 to a farming family in Boaz, Alabama, he was the third of five siblings. His father died when he was only three years old, and he would be forced to drop out of school in 1918 after completing only the first grade. Hubbard worked on the family farm throughout his childhood, and assumed the tough responsibility of helping to provide income to support his family. At ten years of age, Hubbard ran away to live with Willie Wiggins, a relative of his stepfather, who taught the young Marvin the skill of masonry.
A letter written by Hubbard’s wife to the Warden at the Atlanta Penitentiary on October 17, 1942 provides more insight into his personal