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Roy G. Gardner (January 5, 1884 - January 10, 1940) was once America's most infamous prison escapee and the most celebrated outlaw and escaped convict during the Roaring Twenties. During his criminal career, he stole over $350,000 in cash and securities. He also had a $5,000 reward for his head three times in less than a year during his sensational career. He was the most dangerous inmate in the history of Atlanta Prison and he was dubbed by the newspapers across the West Coast as the "Smiling Bandit", the "Mail Train Bandit", and the "King of the Escape Artists". He was one of the most notorious offenders of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, one of the most notorious inmates at Alcatraz and one of the most ruthless criminals in American history. Gardner is said to be the most hunted man in Pacific Coast history. While legend has it that he was the first to escape the McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary, this has been confirmed to be not true. The first escapes occurred before Gardner was even born, and, by the time of his imprisonment, several dozen inmates had made their escapes. McNeil Island, in fact, was the only Federal Penitentiary never to have a wall and was never considered a maximum security facility. Gardner was the "Most Wanted" gangster of 1921. He is now largely forgotten for his daring acts. No longer the household name that he was in 1921, he never lived as an outlaw on the Western frontier, was never a Depression Era gangster, and was never in a gang, all things that may contribute to him being largely forgotten in modern times. He was a lone bandit and his reputation and notoriety made him a touchstone of his time. ==Early life== Roy Gardner was born on January 5, 1884 in Trenton, Missouri and was raised in Colorado Springs. He was said to be attractive and charming, standing just under six feet tall, with short, curly auburn hair and blue eyes. He spent his early manhood as a drifter in the Southwest, learning the trades of farrier and miner. Supposedly, he joined the U.S. Army to escape the dangerous world of petty crime, reform school escapes, and the mining business, but he deserted in 1906 and drifted to Mexico. Gardner began his criminal profession as a gunrunner around the time of the Mexican Revolution. He smuggled and traded arms and ammunition to the Venustiano Carranza forces until he was captured by soldiers from Victoriano Huerta's army and was sentenced to death by firing squad, but, on March 29, 1909, he broke out of the Mexico City jail along with three other American prisoners after attacking the soldier guards. Gardner arrived back in the United States, where he was a prizefighter in the Southwest. He was good enough that he became a sparring partner for Heavyweight Champion J. J. Jeffries at Ben Lemond Training Camp in Reno, Nevada during the summer of 1910. Eventually, Gardner ended up in San Francisco, where he gambled all of his boxing money away, and robbed a jewelry store on Market Street. He was arrested, and spent some time in San Quentin, but he was paroled after he saved a prison guard's life during a violent riot. Gardner landed a job as an acetylene welder at the Mare Island Navy Yard, married, fathered a daughter, left the Schwa - Batcher Company in 1918 on Armistice Day and began his own welding company. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Roy Gardner (bank robber)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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