Roy Gardner (bank robber)

Roy G. Gardner (January 5, 1884 - January 10, 1940) was an American criminal active during the 1920s. He stole a total of more than $350,000 in cash and securities and several times escaped from custody. He is said to have been the most hunted man in Pacific Coast history, having had a $5,000 reward for his head three times in less than a year, and newspapers in the West referred to him as the "Smiling Bandit", the "Mail Train Bandit", and the "King of the Escape Artists".

Roy Gardner was born on January 5, 1884, in Trenton, Missouri, and was raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was said to be attractive and charming, standing just under six feet tall, with short, curly auburn hair and blue eyes. He spent his early manhood as a drifter in the Southwest, learning the trades of farrier and miner. Supposedly he joined the U.S. Army but deserted in 1906 and drifted to Mexico.

Gardner began his criminal profession as a gunrunner around the time of the Mexican Revolution. He smuggled and traded arms and ammunition to the Venustiano Carranza forces until he was captured by soldiers from Victoriano Huerta's army and was sentenced to death by firing squad; however, on March 29, 1909, he broke out of the Mexico City jail along with three other American prisoners after attacking the soldier guards. Back in the United States, Gardner became a prizefighter in the Southwest. He was good enough that he became a sparring partner for Heavyweight Champion J. J. Jeffries at Ben Lemond Training Camp in Reno, Nevada, during the summer of 1910.

Eventually, Gardner ended up in San Francisco, where he gambled all of his boxing money away and then robbed a jewelry store on Market Street. He was arrested and spent some time in San Quentin, but was paroled after he saved a prison guard's life during a riot. He then landed a job as an acetylene welder at the Mare Island Navy Yard, married, fathered a daughter, and on Armistice Day in 1918 left and began his own welding company.

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