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C
James "Oklahoma Jack" Clark
- A Depression-era outlaw and bank robber, he was a protégé of bank robber
Hermann "Baron" Lamm and participated in the gang's final robbery against
the Citizens State Bank in Clinton, Indiana on December 16, 1930. The gang
escaped with $15,567 in cash, but Clark and others were tracked down by a
posse at Sidell,
Illinois. In the ultimate gun battled that ensued, Lamm
and two other gang members were killed. Clark and fellow gang member,
Walter Dietrich, Clark were arrested by authorities and extradited
to Indiana. They were both sentenced to the state prison at Michigan City,
Indiana on bank robbery charges. While there, they met
John Dillinger,
Harry Pierpont, Charles Makley and Homer Van Meter. Clark and Dietrich
were among ten prisoners who escaped using pistols smuggled into the
prison by a recently paroled John
Dillinger on September 22, 1933. Just
two days later; however, Clark was recaptured at Hammond, Indiana and
returned to prison where he remained for the rest of his life.
 Joseph Paul Cretzer (1911-1946) - A bank robber, Cretzer was sent to prison at
Alcatraz
where he participated and was killed in the bloody "Battle of Alcatraz."
Born on April 17, 1911 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he grew up to start his
criminal career at an early age and went to prison for the first time in
1927. He got involved in more crime with his wife's husband, Arnold Kyle,
and the two formed the Cretzer-Kyle Gang which robbed a number of banks
along the west coast. By 1939, he was listed as the
FBI's 4th most wanted man. He was captured in
Chicago,
Illinois and
sentenced to 25 years in prison. He and Kyle both began serving time at
McNeil Island in
Washington in
February, 1940. Just two months later, the pair escaped, but were
recaptured just three days later. The two were sentenced in Tacoma,
Washington to
another five years for the escape attempt. When the sentence was handed
down, they tried to escape again and killed a U.s. Marshal in the process.
They were then sent to
Alcatraz,
where they again tried to escape in May, 1941, along with fellow prisoners
Sam Shockley and Lloyd Barkdoll. His last escape attempt resulted in the
"Battle of Alcatraz" in which he was killed on May 4, 1946.
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