Only a few days after Cretzer and Kyle were sentenced for their attempted escape, a Federal Grand Jury returned an indictment charging the convicts with murder in the first degree.  Both entered pleas conceding to the charge of second-degree murder, and on October 21, 1940, they were sentenced to serve out the remaining course of their natural lives in prison. In some respects, they could consider themselves lucky. The prosecutors had fought vehemently to uphold a charge of capital murder, and had demanded death by the electric chair. But the defendants’ council successfully argued that Chitty’s death was accidental and not a case of premeditated murder, and therefore that the accused were not eligible for the death penalty. Both escaped the electric chair, but they received harsh life sentences that would ensure they would never walk free again.

In the midst of the trial both Cretzer and Kyle were transported to Alcatraz, arriving on August 27, 1940. The two men would now become residents of America’s most notorious prison. Cretzer, had grown up just across the Bay and would find serving time on the island even more difficult, as he was able to see familiar landmarks on the mainland. Now only twenty-nine years of age, he would have to adapt to the rigid structure of Alcatraz and its relentless routine, coupled with the realization that he was facing a dark and dismal future.

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By any standard, Cretzer did not adjust well to life on the Rock, and he frequently found himself at odds with the administration. Less than one year after their arrival, Cretzer and Kyle participated in a failed escape attempt while working in the Mat Shop. Cretzer was sentenced to “permanent segregation,” and the few privileges he had been allotted were completely revoked. On September 19, 1943, now thirty-two years old and still residing in D Block, Cretzer incited a disturbance after an air vent fan failed. He was again stripped of all privileges and forced to serve additional time in segregation.

On April 11, 1944 Cretzer was allowed to spend some time in the recreation yard, when he was assaulted by the now famous inmate Henri Young, whose tale would later be portrayed in the Hollywood motion picture Murder in the First. The two convicts engaged in a bitter fistfight, which was broken up before anyone could be proclaimed the victor. Cretzer would again find himself isolated (in cell #D-19), in a complete lockdown status with all of his privileges rescinded. It was under these circumstances that Cretzer came to know Bernie Coy, who visited his cell in his role as the library orderly. Through this interaction they would build a close relationship and the two friends would later conspire in the 1946 escape attempt.

On May 26, 1944, at thirty-three years of age, Cretzer wrote a letter to Warden Johnston pleading that he be allowed to start work again. This indicated to the administration that after spending three years in segregation, Cretzer was ready to be integrated back into the general prison population. The letter stated in part, “You may rest assured that, considering the time spent in lock-up, I will not become involved in any future mischief. Wherever Mr. Miller wishes to work me will be okay. I will feel very much obligated to you, and will show my appreciation by conducting myself in a favorable manner.”  The Warden took this letter to be sincere, and recommended Cretzer for release from segregation and assignment to a work detail. Cretzer would be transferred to cell #152 in B Block.

Letters from Cretzer pleading with the Warden to be moved out of isolation and back into the general prison population. His commitment to staying out of mischief would prove to be short-lived.

While Cretzer was imprisoned at Alcatraz, his wife Edna made frequent visits to the island and she often wrote kind letters to Warden Johnston, sometimes offering her help in persuading “Dutch” to behave through her “letters and visits.”  Johnston was usually accommodating in this regard and in February of 1945 he allowed Edna to see both her brother Arnold and her husband Joseph in back-to-back visits. His trust, however, was obviously misplaced. Cretzer had no intention of living up to the promises made in his letter.

Marvin Franklin Hubbard

Marvin Franklin Hubbard

Another accomplice in the 1946 escape attempt was Marvin Franklin Hubbard. Marv (as he was called by fellow inmates) carried the reputation of a ruthless gunman and he had earned his transfer to Alcatraz through a series of brutal escape attempts at other prisons. He was given a work assignment in the kitchen, and he became a good friend of Arnold Kyle. Like Kyle, Hubbard had also fallen prey to the Great Depression. Born August 13, 1912 to a farming family in Boaz, Alabama, he was the third of five siblings. His father died when he was only three years old, and he would be forced to drop out of school in 1918 after completing only the first grade. Hubbard worked on the family farm throughout his childhood, and assumed the tough responsibility of helping to provide income to support his family. At ten years of age, Hubbard ran away to live with Willie Wiggins, a relative of his stepfather, who taught the young Marvin the skill of masonry.

A letter written by Hubbard’s wife to the Warden at the Atlanta Penitentiary on October 17, 1942 provides more insight into his personal history and upbringing. Herein are some excerpts from the letter:

Dear Warden,

In answer to your letter received this week, I hardly know where to begin, I did not know where my husband was at, at this present time until I received your letter, it came as a quite a surprise, or rather a shock, as we had not been corresponding lately, I’m afraid I don’t know very much of anything that would be of help to you, but will give you my best.

We were married at my mother’s home in Dekalb County, on January 8, 1928. Neither of us were previously married, this being for the only marriage for either of us. We only have one child.... My husband’s attitude towards me and the child, were very fine at times, he didn’t ever mistreat us in no-way except staying away from us for so much of his time, that he could have been with us, the harm he done was more of his own self than any-one else, only heartbreaks and sorrows, I had a fair share of that at an early age, my life has been filled with disappointments and heart aches. My husband has taken the responsibility of his family serious at times, and other times, he would leave us for a long time, as much as five or six months at a time, during this time he would never give us any support.

He was born and raised in Alabama, in Boaz, Route #3, we have lived out there part of our time together as well as here in Georgia.  As far as where we have lived for the past five years is rather hard to explain, he spent a large portion of it in Kilby Prison as you no doubt already know, and the other part just here and yonder. His occupation has mostly been a bricklayer since I have known him, he does beautiful brickwork. Although he had farmed some during times when that trade was dull. His greatest handicap during these years, have been having no education, he was raised by a dear old mother who was left a widow with five children to raise, she did the best she could but could not educate the children. My husband’s difficulties he has faced in recent years, I think depends on him getting started with the wrong kind of characters at a early age, which gives him the wrong opinion of life, before life was hardly started for him. Before he got started with the bad characters he was very kind and generous hearted, made good friends with all of whom he met, was well thought of in the community which he lived.