McNeil’s Most Notorious Escape: Roy Gardner

It only seems fitting with the closure of McNeil Island Corrections Center set for this spring that a historical note is in order.

While its most notorious inmates were Robert Stroud, so-called "Birdman of Alcatraz,” and future mass murderer Charles Manson, there were other notables.

For the record, Stroud never even had any birds at Alcatraz, and his love of the feathered fellows started in McNeil, where he was serving time for manslaughter only to kill an inmate in 1909 and win a trip to the infamous prison in Leavenworth, Kan.

Killing a guard there landed him a trip to the famous island prison off the shores of San Francisco. And the head of the name-sake Manson family was sent to McNeil in 1960 for crossing state lines for the purpose of prostitution. He was serving a seven-year sentence and learned how to play the guitar at McNeil, a hobby that led him to Hollywood in search of a record deal … and a place in history when those plans failed as the 1960s ended.

Lost in the discussion about McNeil Island is the story of Roy Gardner, the last of the great train robbers of the 1920s. Newspapers across the West dubbed him the "Smiling Bandit," the "Mail Train Bandit" and the "King of the Escape Artists." Gardner is said to be the most hunted man in Pacific Coast history, alongside famed hijacker D.B. Cooper.

The seminal story of his criminal career is the profile "Roy Gardner, professor of escape: Famous Northwest Manhunts and Murder Mysteries" by Hollis B. Fultz. The monograph tells of the Gardner story that spanned a decade and totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Gardner found himself on his way to McNeil to serve a 25-year sentence for robbing a mail truck in 1920. He openly said, "I'll never serve it," as the sentence was announced. He was right … sort of. He would not serve it at McNeil for long.

Gardner and two drug smugglers he was shackled to grabbed a guard’s gun while the train they were riding slowed into the Portland depot. He was captured a year later and escaped the same way on his second train trip from California to Washington. He even bragged about doing it with the guards as they made fun of the fact that they were entering the Rose City. He told them he would tell them how he was going to escape this time right after he went to the restroom. A guard even escorted him in handcuffs to the bathroom, but he took the officer’s gun just like he had the previous year.

He then simply stepped off the train just north of the Columbia River.

He was recaptured and finally made it to McNeil island on June 17, 1921, mentioning to the warden that he would not be staying long as the guards handed him over to the prison.

Gardner made good on his claim when he escaped on Sept. 5, 1921. He was watching a baseball game in the prison yard. Guards were so wrapped up in the game that they didn’t notice that he and two former Fort Lewis nurses-turned-inmates escaped by clipping their way through the prison fence.

They would have all made it had the sharp-shooter in the nearby guard tower not cared about the game. He left one of the former soldiers dead and a lead round from his Springfield in Gardner’s leg. But Gardner still managed to elude capture.

"I swam from McNeill's to Fox Island that night, drifting part of the time with the tide,” Gardner later wrote about his escape. “It took me a long while to make that two and one-half miles, but the cold water felt good on my wounded leg, and I held out."

Gardner then swam from Fox Island to the mainland. Nothing was heard of Gardner’s whereabouts until someone robbed a Southern Pacific train at Maricopa, Ariz., on Nov. 3, 1921, and he was listed as the bandit. A botched robbery a week later proved that when Gardner was arrested with another 25 years added to his sentence. This time, he went to Leavenworth Penitentiary. A few prison shuffles later, and he found himself at Alcatraz.

He was released in 1939. Gardner then published his autobiography, "Hellcatraz," a sensational book about his interesting life and his other cellmates, notably Al Capone. He even tried his hands at stardom by acting in a short film called, "You Can't Beat the Rap." A 1939 movie called "I Stole A Billion" was based on his life. But the movie bombed in the box office and Gardner killed himself with cyanide gas in a small hotel room the following year. He was 56. His suicide note stated simply:

"All men who have to serve more than five years in prison are doomed, but they don't realize it .... There is a barrier between the ex-convict and society that cannot be leveled. … I am checking out simply because I am old and tired, and don't care to continue the struggle. … I hold no malice toward any human being, and I hope those whom I have wronged will forgive me for it. Good-bye."

Some $250,000 of his loot still lies hidden, some of which is rumored to be in Pierce County.