Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe
| Theodore "Ted" Cole | |
|---|---|
Theodore "Ted" Cole
|
|
| Born |
April 6, 1913 Pittsburg, Kansas |
| Disappeared | December 16, 1937 |
| Status | Unknown |
| Ralph Roe | |
|---|---|
Ralph Roe
|
|
| Born | February 5, 1906 |
| Disappeared | December 16, 1937 |
| Status | Unknown |
Theodore "Ted" Cole (April 6, 1913) and Ralph Roe (February 5, 1906) took part in the second documented escape attempt from Alcatraz, in 1937. Although officials were quick to conclude they perished in the attempt, their remains were never found and their fate remains unknown, making the incident the first to shatter Alcatraz's reputation as an "escape-proof" prison.
Cole and Roe, both convicted bank robbers (Cole went into Alcatraz for kidnapping also) in Oklahoma, had been caught during earlier, independent escape attempts from that state's McAlester Prison. Judged to be escape risks, they were both incarcerated in high-security Leavenworth Prison, then transferred to higher-security Alcatraz in 1936. They were given jobs working in the prison's Mat Shop, a facility at the northernmost point of the island, where discarded automobile tires were cut up and converted into rubber mats for the U.S. Navy.
Roe, an Oklahoma bank robber, was originally captured after a shootout with local police and FBI agents in Shawnee, Oklahoma on December 30, 1933. This same gun battle claimed the life of Roe's partner, Wilbur Underhill. Cole had been given a death sentence by means of an electric chair for his role in the robbery of a bottling works plant in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
On December 16, 1937, a dense fog swept through the San Francisco Bay, impeding marine traffic and reducing visibility on Alcatraz Island. Cole and Roe were working in a tire repair shop. A routine headcount at 12:50 p.m. showed all prisoners accounted for. At the next count, at 1:30 p.m., the two men were gone. Two iron bars and three heavy glass panes of a window in the shop had a hole 8 3⁄4 inches (22 cm) high and 18 inches (46 cm) long. Once through the window, they slipped down to the gate of a high wire fence, concealed by the fog. With a wrench taken from the tire shop, they forced the gate lock and dropped twenty feet to a beach. Their trail vanished at that point.
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Wikipedia