From 'Public Enemy No. 1' to 'Birdman,' these 5 Alcatraz inmates had Kansas ties

Yahoo

28-05-2025

"Public Enemy No. 1" Alvin Karpis grew up in Topeka.
George "Machine Gun" Kelly committed his best-known crime in Oklahoma and died in Kansas.
Robert Stroud, the 'Birdman of Alcatraz," started on his way to becoming a respected ornithologist when he picked up three baby birds that had fallen from their nest at a Kansas prison where he was an inmate.
Karpis, Kelly and Stroud are among men with Kansas connections who served time at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, which was considered escape-proof as it housed inmates from 1934 to 1963 on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.
Alcatraz was back in the news this month when President Donald Trump said on X that he was directing the Federal Bureau of Prisons to rebuild and reopen a prison to house hardened criminals on that island.
"We will no longer be held hostage to criminals, thugs, and Judges that are afraid to do their job and allow us to remove criminals, who came into our Country illegally," he said.
Following are five men with Kansas connections who were each imprisoned on "The Rock."
Alvin Karpis was designated by the FBI in 1934 as "Public Enemy No. 1." After being captured in 1936, he spent about 25 years at Alcatraz.
Karpis was born in 1907 in Canada, and moved with his family to Topeka as a small child.
He attended the former Branner School in a building that still stands at SE 3rd and Branner Street.
Karpis at one time was the marbles champion of Topeka, according to The Topeka Daily Capital.
He was known by the nickname of "Creepy," according to fbi.gov, which said he was "the brains" of the 1930s Barker-Karpis gang of criminals.
The gang robbed banks and trains, and brought in large ransoms from the separate kidnappings in 1933 of Milwaukee brewer William Hamm and in 1934 of St. Paul, Minnesota, banker Edward Bremer, whose father was a friend of President Franklin Roosevelt.
The FBI linked the gang to the killings of 10 people, the New York Times reported.
Law enforcement officers shot and killed three members of the gang in January 1935, a month in which Karpis narrowly escaped after a shootout in Atlantic City, N.J.
Federal agents then captured Karpis in May 1936 in New Orleans. He was sentenced to life in prison for Bremer's kidnapping.
Karpis served time from August 1936 to April 1962 at Alcatraz, except for six months spent in 1958 at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, according to alcatrazhistory.com.
Karpis then served in the penitentiary at McNeil Island, Washington, where he taught guitar lessons to a young Charles Manson, said the FBI's Facebook page.
Karpis was paroled in 1969, with one condition of his parole being his deportation to Canada, the New York Times reported.
He moved in 1973 to Spain, where he died in 1979.
Probably Alcatraz's most famous inmate was Robert Stroud, the so-called "Birdman of Alcatraz," according to the federal Bureau of Prisons website.
Stroud actually became a respected ornithologist while serving as an inmate at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas, and wasn't allowed to keep any birds at Alcatraz after he was transferred there in 1942, that site said.
It said Stroud "was not the grandfatherly person" portrayed by actor Burt Lancaster in "The Birdman of Alcatraz," a largely fictionalized biographical film about Stroud put out in 1962.
Stroud was born in 1890 in Seattle and went to prison for manslaughter linked to a gunshot homicide committed in 1909 in Juneau, Alaska.
He was initially sent to the federal penitentiary at McNeil Island, Washington, then transferred in 1915 to Leavenworth, said the website of the Alaska Historical Society.
"In 1916, he murdered a Leavenworth guard, was convicted of first-degree murder, and received a death sentence," said the federal Bureau of Prisons website. "His mother pleaded for his life, and in 1920, President Woodrow Wilson commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment."
Stroud found three baby sparrows that had fallen out of a nest as he was walking in the prison exercise yard at Leavenworth and took them back to his cell to care for them, said the Missouri State University website.
"He was then allowed to raise and study other birds, mainly canaries, to learn about their diseases, remedies, breeding, and care," that site said. "Though he only had a grade school education, he began taking university extension courses, learned to use a microscope and a microteme, and read Spanish and German scientific journals."
In the early 1930s, Stroud wrote a treatise on canary diseases, which was smuggled out of the prison and published in 1933, the Missouri State University website said.
"He also wrote a book titled 'Stroud's Digest on the Diseases of Birds,' which was published in 1943," it said.
But contraband items were often found hidden in Stroud's bird cages, and prison officials discovered that equipment he had requested for scientific studies had actually been used to construct a still to make "home brew," the Bureau of Prisons website said.
Stroud was consequently transferred in 1942 to Alcatraz, where he was not allowed to keep birds.
Stroud successfully sought to protect other inmates during a deadly 1946 escape attempt known as the "Battle of Alcatraz," in which a group of inmates — which didn't include Stroud — took guards hostage and tried to gain control of a cellhouse.
Stroud was transferred in 1959 from Alcatraz to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, where he died on Nov. 21, 1963.
Theodore Cole and fellow inmate Ralph Roe on a foggy day in December 1937 filed through the flat iron bars of a window of the building where they worked at Alcatraz, then broke the window glass and slipped out.
They made their way to San Francisco Bay with plans to swim for freedom. Their bodies were never found.
"This attempt occurred during a bad storm and the Bay's currents were especially fast and strong," said the federal Bureau of Prisons website. "Most people believe Roe and Cole were swept out to sea. Officially, they are listed missing and presumed dead."
Cole was born in 1913 in Pittsburg, Kansas, according to the Alcatraz Island History Facebook page.
"Originally incarcerated in Oklahoma for bank robbery and kidnapping, Cole was known as a high escape risk, leading to his transfer first to Leavenworth Penitentiary and eventually to Alcatraz Island in 1935," it said.
Roe and Cole are among five Alcatraz inmates listed as missing and presumed drowned.
The others are Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin, who made a well-known escape attempt in June 1962.
Wichita native John R. Bayless tried to escape alone from Alcatraz in September 1941 while serving on garbage detail.
"He gave up shortly after entering the cold water of San Francisco Bay," said the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
Bayless, born in 1915 in Wichita, became an inmate at Alcatraz in 1938 after being convicted of bank robbery, according to the website for Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.
About a year after his 1941 escape attempt, Bayless leaped a railing and dashed for a door while appearing at a federal hearing in a San Francisco courtroom, said alcatrazhistory.com.
"A deputy marshal grabbed him and foiled his second attempt," it said.
The website for Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy said Bayless subsequently:
Was transferred in 1950 to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, then paroled in 1951.
Robbed another bank, was convicted and was returned in 1952 to Alcatraz, where he remained until it closed in 1963.
Was transferred in 1963 to the penitentiary at McNeill Island, Washington, where he tried unsuccessfully to escape.
Was paroled in 1973 and spent the rest of his life in and out of prison until he died while on parole in 1981.
George R. Kelly was an inmate for 17 years at Alcatraz before he was transferred to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas, where he died of a heart attack.
Kelly was born in 1897 in Tennessee, according to fbi.gov, which said he attended public schools before working as a salesman and then a bootlegger.
His year of birth is given as 1895 at wikipedia.com and alcatrazhistory.com.
Kelly in 1927 married Kathryn Thorne, who bought him a machine gun and gave him the nickname "Machine Gun," according to fbi.gov. He subsequently robbed some banks, that site said.
George Kelly — carrying his trademark Tommy gun — and a man with a pistol in July 1933 abducted oil tycoon Charles Urschel, one of the wealthiest men in Oklahoma, for ransom from his Oklahoma City mansion. They blindfolded him and took him to a rural Texas ranch.
Urschel was held for nine days before the ransom was paid and he was released.
Urschel gave investigators a detailed statement sharing information about "every movement and action taken by himself, the kidnappers, and those with whom they came in contact during his period of captivity," said fbi.gov.
Investigators identified the ranch and those involved in the kidnapping plot.
George and Kathryn Kelly were among several people captured and convicted of crimes linked to the abduction.
The Kellys were sentenced in October 1933 to life imprisonment.
George Kelly initially was imprisoned at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, according to alcatrazhistory.com.
"Kelly was arrogant towards prison officials, and bragged to the press that he would escape, break out his wife and they would spend Christmas together," it said. "It was decided that these threats should be taken seriously and in August of 1934, Kelly along with his accomplices Albert Bates and Harvey Bailey, were transferred from Leavenworth by train to Alcatraz. Arriving on Sept. 4, 1934, they would be among the first groups of prisoners."
Kelly remained until 1951 at Alcatraz, then was transferred back to Leavenworth, where he died in 1954.
Kathryn Kelly was imprisoned at Cincinnati, Ohio, where she served until she was released in 1958. She died in 1985, according to fbi.gov.
Contact Tim Hrenchir at [e-mail] or 785-213-5934.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: These 5 men with Kansas connections were inmates at Alcatraz