DOSSIE LYNCH 

Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe both served time at Leavenworth Federal Prison before transferring to Alcatraz in 1935,  yet the two didn't stay there long.  On December 16, 1937, at 12:50 p.m., a routine headcount showed all prisoners accounted for. At the next count, at 1:30 p.m., the two men were gone. They had cut two iron bars and three heavy glass panes of a window in the tire shop. Once through the window, they cut through a gate with the stolen wrench and then dropped about 15 feet to the icy bay area waters.  A bad storm brought a dense fog that blanketed the Bay area and caused the Bay's currents to be especially fast and strong, most assuming the two men had swept out to sea.

 The investigation revealed that they may have been aided by a small boat and taken to a designated spot on the Marin County shore. They first made known their safety, several weeks after their escape, through the girlfriend of a notorious gangster.  Cole confided in another inmate that if he and Roe made it, a postcard would be sent with the message "business was good in ____," using whatever month the postcard was sent. FBI investigation reports reveal that several months after the escape, a woman sent a postcard to the prison with the message "business was good in July."  

It's not difficult to understanding the reason why, despite compelling physical evidence and convincing reported sightings of the two, officials continued to maintain that they had drowned and the records remain as "missing and presumed dead."   The San Francisco bay area was experiencing significant economic growth following the Great Depression of the early 30's. The Bay Bridge was completed less than a year before the escape, and the Golden Gate bridge was nearing completion, opening 4 months after the escape. To ease safety concerns about living within sight of a prison that housed the nation's worst offenders, it was necessary for the public to believe that the prison was escape-proof. The political pressure and desire to maintain his own reputation likely made it very easy for the Warden to maintain this stance.

The book goes on to say that Dossie, known as the “Blond Bandit of the Ozarks" hung around Sallisaw, Oklahoma, the hometown of gangster Charles 'Pretty Boy' Floyd, and the neighboring community of Vain, where her cousins, the Bradshaws lived. Carl Janaway was arrested while visiting Dossie in Clarksville, after his accomplice Blackfoot, “a mean, Indian-looking guy with a scar on his face," took the car that was used in an earlier robbery, and went out drinking. The vehicle was recognized by lawmen, and the two were arrested. Carl claims in the book that Dossie, by herself, robbed the Bank of Paris, Arkansas for $30,000 while Carl was in jail. He learned of it through the papers. While Carl was incarcerated in Tucker Prison, Dossie reportedly left him for another man.      https://oklahoman.com/article/2222648/former-outlaw-now-lives-quietly.

At the time of the Alcatraz escape, Carl Janaway was imprisoned there for charges related to kidnapping and violations of the Dyer act. And so was a relative, William Lynch, and Dossie's close friend, Pretty Boy Floyd. Carl Janaway states that Dossie had offered to break him out of Alcatraz with Ted Cole, but Carl declined his ex-wife's offer because he did not want to be on the run anymore. Carl remained at Alcatraz, later being charged to take care of Al Capone as his neurosyphilis symptoms progressed. 

 The details in Carl's book can be substantiated by other sources, such as public records, passport records, news reports, and FBI investigation notes; so there appears to be truth to these claims.  Carl died in 1997 and the FBI files related to the escape were not published until 2014, yet Carl knew details about the escape others had not. Carl stated that that Dossie had picked Roe and Cole up in a boat registered to Greg Alton, which authorities later found, registered to him and burned on the shore (confirmed in the FBI files).  When questioned by the FBI, Alton explained that he burned his 18-foot sloop, a combination motorized and sailboat, after it carried him out to sea for five days, saying, “It darned near killed me twice, so I decided to run it up on the mud-flats and get rid of it.”  This type of vessel would be ideal to use, having the option use a motor, or cut it if silence is needed. Was he really carried out to sea for five days, or was he waiting for something or someone? 

Investigation reports reveal that on the day of the escape,  there were multiple other craft had approached very close to the 200-yeard deadline set by the prison. Warden Johnson said "these boats were observed flirting dangerously near the buoy's surrounding the island and marking the line beyond which no unauthorized vessel is permitted to approach. Boats defying the deadline are fired upon."  Perhaps the 'multiple boats' observed increased the chances of finding the escapees while aslo serving as a distraction, the heaviest fog recorded in years provided concealment, and timed at high tide, covering the jagged, rocky, landing with several feet of water was just a coincidence..... or a perfectly planned escape?

NEWS RELATED TO THE ESCAPE:

Alcatraz Hunt Brings Arrest         

 San Francisco Chronicle,  25 December 1937,  page 6. 

Federal agents were closeted for hours at Sacramento yesterday with a man identified as Glenn Alton, 26, in connection with their search for Ralph Roe and Theodore Cole, escaped Alcatraz Island convicts. He was released after being questioned at some length. Alton was removed from a bus and taken to police headquarters on the basis of a story told by two boys at Rodeo, Contra Costa county.  The youths reported they had seen Alton spray gasoline upon a launch at the bay shore near Rodeo and then apply a torch. The launch was destroyed. Alton explained that he burned his 18-foot sloop after it carried him out to sea for five days, saying, “It darned near killed me twice, so I decided to run it up on the mud-flats and get rid of it.” Questioning of Alton, the Federal agents reported, was undertaken to learn whether the launch may have played a part in the convicts’ escape.     From <https://www.sfgenealogy.org/sf/history/sfoealc6.htm>

First Successful Break

All criminals know Alcatraz as “The Rock.” No one ever had escaped from the island since the department of justice took it over in 1934 and began congregating the worst men of its prisons there, behind high, rocky walls a mile and a half out in the bay. Whether Ralph Roe, 29, and Theodore Cole, 23, from Oklahoma made it safely to shore was problematic. Warden James A. Johnston said it was highly improbable that they could swim through the treacherous currents and that unless a boat picked them up, they probably drowned. They broke a lock on a high wire fence, leaped to a rock ledge, and reached the water yesterday afternoon when the fog was so thick that guards could not even see the coast guard boats that approached to within a few yards of the island in response to calls by radio.  One Known as Killer Cole was known in Oklahoma as a desperate and slippery fellow, an escape artist who tried three times to break jail at Oklahoma City, once by hiding in a garbage can. He was a killer. Little was known of either man’s swimming prowess, but Sheriff Stanley Rogers at Oklahoma City said “Cole was like a greased pig and I wouldn't be surprised at anything he could do.” Warden Johnston said the two convicts were counted in the lineup at 1 p. m. yesterday. “At 1:30 p. m. they were gone,” he said. It was hours before news of the break was released, but, meantime, the federal government started its search with a vengeance.

Escape Was Timed

It was announced later that the two men broke two panes of a window out into the work yard, jimmied the lock on the mesh wire fence, and leaped to the rock ledge. It was high tide at the time and the men possibly could have dived into the water. At ebb tide, they would have struck bare jagged rocks at the base of the island. With the tide in, the rocks were covered with several feet of water, enough to sustain a diver from the ledge. Obviously, the escape was perfectly timed to coincide with dense fog and a high running tide.

  Whether they had an outside accomplice with a boat was merely a guess.  Warden Johnson did not believe that " any man alive could live in such water, certainly, he could not swim against such a current. I will not say that I believe the men were picked up in a small boat, because; I have no reason to believe that they had help. But it is possible they were picked up by some craft.”  By the time the search was well I underway, the tide was moving, out at the rate of seven knots, Coast Guard boats, whose race to the island was the first indication to outsiders that something was wrong at the prison, kept up a constant radio communication I with Johnston and with each other in secret code. One boat carrying newspaper cameramen approached the island and was fired on by prison guards. Another cameraman who went out in a police boat was turned back by coastguardsmen. Throughout the night the search of the bay continued, with boats proceeding at half speed, fog horns blaring continually and searchlights piercing the thick haze, Lighthouse keepers were warned to watch for any suspicious boat and report it. The nearest point of the mainland to Alcatraz is Fisherman’s Wharf is a mile and a half away. In other directions, the land is two to 10 miles from the island. The tide ebbed last night toward the Golden Gate, about seven miles west of the island and if the fugitives were swimming, and were caught in the current, they would have drifted that way.