Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-11-13
DOLLIE GARDNER
to Face Long Terms

NE great siren on McNeirs Island
cut loose with a strident scream.
H. There was a crackle Of rife fire
from the guards in the towers OF the
grimmest prison fortress in the United
States. There were the signals to the out
side world that Roy Gardner was "out
again"
Gardner was known to the prison OH
Gals as the most slippery prisoner they
ever had put handouts on. He boosted
that no leg irons had been invented that
could hold him. that no prison could keep
him.
Twice in his criminal career Gardner
had escaped from the shrewdest men the
Government could set to guard him on
the way to his prison. Twice he 5oked
with the man hunters on whom he turned
the tables and made prisoners in his place.
And twice he laughed when he was re-
captured. He thought his escapes were
good Jokes on the officials. He thought his
captures WSIe BOOu JOhOo oli
So Gardner came to be the most closely
watched prisoner in Uncle Sans most
closely guarded jail--guarded not by stone
walls and steel bars and armed guards
alone, but by the very conspiracy OF
natural forces. Set on a desolate isle in
Puget Sound with wide stretch OF
water running at mill race speed be-
tween island and mainland, 1t Is a prison
which makes the escape of Monte Cristo
from the island fortress of Chateau diff
sound like recreation to pass away lazy
afternoon.
Quiet for First Six Weeks,
But Watch Is Maintained
Gardner had been in prison for six
weeks. He had settled down to the routine.
He wrote letters to his wife and told her
he was being treated Sine" He spoke
pathetically of the day, fifty years distant,
when he would be released to reJoin her
and their little girl, Jean. The prison
officials were almost convinced, but they
kept a close watch on Gardner just the
same.
Close as their watch was, 1t was not half
so close as Gardner's watch on the guards.
He waited for them to relax their vigi.
lance for just an instant. An instant was
all that Gardner ever asked. He made
no secret Of 1t.
On Labor Day the prisoners turned out
to watch a baseball game between two
scratch teams from the prison. They
were in the prison yard, cut off from lib
erty by high barbed wire fence with
towers at the corners in which sat watch
full men with loaded rifles and orders to
shoot to kill. The game went on and the
guards became interested in the play.
Suddenly a shout went up. One of the
convicts had struck the ball terrific wal
Top and was doing a Babe Ruth" run.
ming for dear life. There was yell from
the "bleachers" and for a moment every
eye was turned on the runner.
Break for Liberty Rouses
Other Convicts to a Dash
The next instant three other men were
:unning-running toward the fence for life
and liberty. Gardner was In the lead. He
whipped out a pair Of wire cutters and
snapped through the strands Of the barbed
wire. AS he leaped through the gap the
guards in the towers began shooting. Bull.
lets were whistling around the three fugi-
tives. Two of them faltered for a frac-
ton of second. A fraction of second is
long time when a man is lodging bullets.
They went down; one dead, the other
wounded Gardner kept on going. He
ran so fast the Disguised guards said
afterward, that It seemed impossible that
a bullet could catch up with him.
Everett Impyn and Lowardus Bogart,
two former soldiers serving life sentences
for vicious crimes committed while in the
army, were the men who made the dash
with Gardner and who fell.
The break by Gardner and the sight of
the gap in the barbed wire fence turned
the $50 convicts in the prison yard into
wild animals frantic for liberty. There
was a howl from $50 threats and the con-
victs started for the fence Guards sprang
into their nath menacino tbep, with riRao