Joseph Paul Cretzer was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

  bank robber and prisoner at Alcatraz who participated in and was slain in the bloody "Battle of Alcatraz

Battle of Alcatraz

The Battle of Alcatraz, which lasted from May 2–4, 1946, was the result of an unsuccessful escape attempt at Alcatraz Island Federal Penitentiary. Two guards—William A. Miller and Harold Stites—were killed along with three of the inmates. Eleven guards and one convict were also injured...

" which took place following a failed escape attempt between May 2 and May 4, 1946.

Criminal career

Cretzer started his criminal career at an early age and had been in and out of prison since 1927. He was married to Edna May Kyle, the sister of Arnold Kyle. Crezter and Kyle formed the backbone of a gang, the Cretzer-Kyle Gang

Cretzer-Kyle Gang

The Cretzer-Kyle Gang was a Depression-era criminal group led by Joseph "Dutch" Cretzer and Arnold Thomas Kyle during the mid-to late 1930s. Largely active in the West Coast, they were one of the few groups to gain national attention outside the Midwest and also one of the last groups to be...

, which robbed banks along the west coast. Cretzer's prowess led to him reaching no. 4 on the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

's most wanted list by September 1939http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,762448-2,00.html. By then, Cretzer had relocated to Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 where he was soon arrested and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.

Prison

He began serving his sentence at McNeil Island

McNeil Island

McNeil Island is an island in western Puget Sound, located just west of Steilacoom, Washington, with a land area of 17.177 km² . It lies just north of Anderson Island. Fox Island is to the north, across Carr Inlet. To the west McNeil Island is separated from Key Peninsula by Pitt Passage. The...

 in February 1940 but in April 1940, he and Arnold Kyle broke out in a commandeered truck. Recaptured after three days., he was sentenced to an extra five years imprisonment for this escape attempt but, after the sentencing in the courthouse in Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...

 a US Marshal

United States Marshals Service

The United States Marshals Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice . The office of U.S. Marshal is the oldest federal law enforcement office in the United States; it was created by the Judiciary Act of 1789...

 died in a struggle with Cretzer following another failed attempt to escape.

Cretzer was sentenced to life for murder and sent to Alcatraz in August 1940. In May 1941 he again attempted escape from one of the island's workshops along with Sam Shockley

Sam Shockley

Richard Sam Shockley Jr. was an inmate at Alcatraz prison who participated in the Battle of Alcatraz in 1946....

, Arnold Kyle and Lloyd Barkdoll. During the escape attempt the men held a number of guards hostage, but gave up when they failed to cut through the tool-proof bars. For this escape attempt he was sentenced by an internal tribunal to serve five years in the prison's high security unit, called D Block, which was isolated from the rest of the prison and where prisoners were confined to their cells almost all of the time.

Battle of Alcatraz

Cretzer had only recently been let out of D Block when he became an accomplice in yet another escape plan. This plan had been hatched by the cell-house orderly Bernard Coy

Bernard Coy

Bernard Paul Coy was a bank robber and federal prisoner best known as the planner of a failed escape attempt from Alcatraz prison, on May 2, 1946 which turned into a bloody two day armed confrontation leaving Coy, two fellow would be escapers and two prison guards dead.Coy was a native of Kentucky...

 who offered Cretzer a place on the break in return for use of his onshore contacts. The failure of the plan led to the bloody and hopeless standoff known as the "battle of Alcatraz" during which Cretzer, armed with a .45 automatic handgun, opened fire on a number of hostage guards held in two cells in an apparent attempt to prevent any of them giving evidence against the would-be escapees. Cretzer made no attempt to surrender and was slain by guard fire or committed suicide early on May 4 when trapped in a utility corridor.

When his wife came to claim Cretzer's body she identified herself as his sister and was arrested for her outstanding warrants and jumping her $10,000 bail bond on the white slavery charge. He is buried in Cypress Lawn Memorial Park

Cypress Lawn Memorial Park

Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, established by Hamden Holmes Noble in 1892, is a cemetery located in Colma, California, a place known as the "City of the Silent". It is the final resting site for several members of the celebrated Hearst family plus other prominent citizens from the greater San...

.

Film depictions

Cretzer was portrayed by Telly Savalas

Telly Savalas

Aristotelis "Telly" Savalas was an American film and television actor and singer, whose career spanned four decades. Best known for playing the title role in the 1970s crime drama Kojak, Savalas was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Birdman of Alcatraz...

 in Alcatraz — The Whole Shocking Story (1980) and by Howard Hesseman

Howard Hesseman

Howard Hesseman is an American actor best known for playing disc jockey Johnny Fever on WKRP in Cincinnati and schoolteacher Charlie Moore on Head of the Class.-Early life:...

in Six Against the Rock (1987).