Thank you for visiting SNEWPapers!
Sign up free
Imperial Valley Press
El Centro, Imperial County, California
What is this article about?
Roy Gardner reveals a 1934 Alcatraz plot by inmates Albert Bates and Tom Underwood to kidnap Secretary Harold L. Ickes for their release, seeking $10,000 from Al Capone, who refused the scheme.
Merged-components note: Image and teaser caption on page 1 merged with full Alcatraz kidnap plot story on page 3, as indicated by text reference.
Clippings
1 of 2
OCR Quality
Full Text
Roy Gardner, above, once notorious southwestern train robber and escape artist. Wednesday told of a plot hatched at Alcatraz prison in 1934, when he was imprisoned there, to kidnap Secretary of Interior Harold L. Ickes so two convicts could gain freedom as his ransom. (Story on Page Three.)
Alcatraz Plot to Kidnap Ickes Told By Roy Gardner Following Release
SAN FRANCISCO, June 29. (UP)-A plot to kidnap Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes was disclosed today by Roy Gardner, notorious train robber recently released from Leavenworth penitentiary.
Here to begin work on a job as moving picture salesman.
The plotters were Albert Bates, Denver desperado serving a life sentence for the kidnaping of Charles F. Urschel of Oklahoma City, and Tom Underwood, North Dakota robber.
The two men, Gardner said, approached Al Capone, former Chicago underworld leader, in Alcatraz and asked him to advance them $10,000 with which to engage outside help in the kidnaping of Ickes.
"It was their idea," said Gardner, who served 17 years in prison, "to have an outside agent kidnap Ickes and hold him until President Roosevelt signed a release for them. Capone's refusal to have anything to do with the scheme was the first incident in Alcatraz that made him unpopular.
"But Al thought Bates and Underwood were crazy. He wouldn't listen to them. Then the boys figured Capone couldn't take it any more."
What sub-type of article is it?
What themes does it cover?
What keywords are associated?
What entities or persons were involved?
Where did it happen?
Story Details
Key Persons
Location
Alcatraz Prison
Event Date
1934
Story Details
Inmates Albert Bates and Tom Underwood plotted to kidnap Secretary Harold L. Ickes using outside help funded by Al Capone, holding him until President Roosevelt released them; Capone refused, deeming them crazy.