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Hey, history buffs. If you can't get enough of the captivating stories we uncover on American Historytellers, you'll love the exclusive experience of Wondry. Dive even deeper into the past with ad free episodes, early access to new seasons, and bonus content that brings history to life like never before. Join Wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts and embark on an unparalleled journey through America's most pivotal moments. Imagine it's the morning of April 21, 1910, in the yard of Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas. You're the engineer of a train that delivers construction materials to the prison every Thursday. Lean out of the window to confirm that the flat car loaded with lumber has been uncoupled from the rest of the locomotive. But when you turn back around, put your hands up, you find four prisoners in gray uniforms entering the driver's cab. Two of them have their arms around a guard whose eyes are wide with fear. Before you can act, one of the inmates places a gun to your head. Pull the throttle wide open. What? I said pull it open. I can't do that. The gate's still closed. You point to the towering steel gate that guards the prison's outer wall. The prisoner just shakes his head and pokes you in the ribs with his revolver. Then I guess we'll see which is stronger, this gate or a few tons of trainers. Now pull the throttle open. If we rush that gate, we're going to die. Do I look like I'm here to have a discussion? Pull the throttle open. You think you can just hijack a train and bust out of here? The guards are going to start shooting at us from the tower any minute now. The prisoner nods to the guard they've taken hostage. They won't shoot as long as one of their own is on board. They won't risk killing him. Now, I won't tell you again. Pull that throttle open or put a bullet between your eyes. Okay? Okay. You reluctantly pull the throttle, and the train lurches forward, passing the prison's open inner gate. As it rushes toward the closed outer gate, you instinctively move to stop the engine, but the prisoner nudges you in the back with his revolver. Keep your hand off that throttle. You close your eyes and brace yourself as the engine slams into the steel gate. With a sound like an explosion, the gate rips free, sending a shudder down the length of the engine. And as you rush on, you're horrified by the thought that there's no stopping this runaway train. If you want to stay alive, American Historytellers is sponsored by a Truby. Lately you may have been hearing about a serious but rare heart condition called attr Cardiac Amyloidosis or attrcm. Because symptoms can be similar to other heart conditions, it may take time to be diagnosed, but learning more about AT ATR CM and a treatment called Atrubi also called Acharamatis could be important for you or a loved one. Atruby is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with ATTR CM to reduce death and hospitalization due to heart issues. In one study, people taking Auby saw an impact on their health related quality of life and 50% fewer hospitalizations due to heart issues than people who didn't take Auby, giving you more chances to do what you love with who you love. Tell your doctor if you're pregnant, plan to become pregnant or are breastfeeding and about the medications you take. The most common side effects were mild and included diarrhea and abdominal pain. If you have attrcm, talk to your cardiologist about a Truby or visit attruby.com that's a T T R U B Y.com to learn more. American Historytellers is sponsored by Autotrader, which is powered by Auto Intelligence, the hyper personalized way to buy a car. With tools that sync with your exact budget and preferences, you only see vehicles you can afford and actually want. Choose new or pre owned, narrow by style and select features like even a trailer hitch. Go ahead, get picky with it and with pricing you'll see which listings are the best deals so you can feel like you're winning the negotiation without negotiating. AutoTrader, powered by auto Intelligence makes car buying less of a process. Visit autotrader.com to find your perfect ride from Wondery. I'm Lindsey Graham and this is American Historytellers. Our history your story in April 1910, a group of prisoners hijacked a supply train and rammed it through the gates of the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Leavenworth was America's first federal penitentiary, known at the time for its harsh conditions and a rigid military style discipline. Its early years were marked by several escape attempts, but few were as bold as the attempt to break out by driving a train through the prison steel gates. One of the escapees that day was a 24 year old prisoner named Frank Grigware. He was serving a life sentence after being convicted of robbing a US Mail train. Grigware swore he was innocent and his trial had been marked by shaky evidence and tainted testimony. After he escaped the search for him and other fugitives became a high stakes manhunt that drew in gun toting farmers, the fledgling Bureau of Investigation and international authorities. This is episode three of our four part series. Daring Prison Escape Getaway Train From Leavenworth in 1906, 20 year old Frank Grigware left his home in Spokane, Washington to chase his dreams of adventure and riches in the West. Grigware had a fair complexion, an athletic build and hands marked with scars from his job as a carpenter. He made friends easily, helped along by his tendency to see the best in others. He had dropped out of school in the fourth grade, but what he lacked in education he made up for in a strong work ethic. He kept his head down, saved his money and refrained from drinking and smoking. He believed that with hard work and determination he might find fortune mining for gold and silver. He gave his mother a locket with his picture inside as a parting gift. With his friend Jack golden by his side, he boarded an eastbound train setting off on a 50 mile journey to the mountains of northern Idaho. But once in Idaho, Grigware and Goldin netted only meager profits. By the fall of 1907, they left the area and drifted south in search of new opportunities. They eventually landed in Denver, Colorado, where they fell in with a gang of men that Goldin knew through his brothers back in Washington. Grigware soon paid the price for his trusting nature. His new friends arrived in Denver in January 1909, around the same time that a train was robbed just outside the city. And the men often left Grigware and Golden for days at a time, declaring they were scouting for business opportunities. If Grigware had any suspicions about the men's involvement in railway holdups that seemed to follow wherever they traveled, he suppressed them out of loyalty to his oldest friend. Before he could distance himself, it was too late. On May 22, 1909, a group of bandits ambushed an eastbound Union Pacific train outside of Omaha, Nebraska. Holding pistols and wearing handkerchief masks over their faces, they demanded that the US Post office clerks on board open the door to the mail car. They took off with seven sacks of mail with contents worth an estimated $700. What became known as the Mud Cut Robbery was an instant news sensation. Union Pacific and the federal government offered $6,000 rewards for each suspect, or $30,000 in total, over $1 million in today's money. Witnesses on the scene said that it was too dark to make out any of the thieves. But authorities collected circumstantial evidence linking Grigware, golden and three of their friends to the crime. Within days, all five were arrested and thrown in jail. But from the start, Grigware firmly denied any wrongdoing. Imagine it's October 1909 at the county jail in Omaha, Nebraska. You're a court appointed defense attorney and you're meeting with Frank Grigware, one of your clients, in the mud cut robbery trial. A guard leads you through a dim corridor to Grigware's cell. You peer through the bars to see him perched at the end of a narrow iron bed. He stumbles to his feet as you drop your briefcase to the floor. Sit down, Frank. I've got good news. He nods and sits back down on the bed, his pale eyes brightening. Yeah, what is it? The prosecution's made an offer. A chance to cut a deal. If you plead guilty and agree to testify, you'll be looking at a reduced sentence. Maybe just 10 years. No. What do you mean, no? I mean no. I didn't rob that train. So you said no. You're not listening. I wasn't there. I didn't even hear about the robbery until the police hauled me in. How am I supposed to be a witness against the others? I don't know anything about it. Frank, listen. The police found an envelope addressed to you at the crime scene. One of those boys stole it from me. He stole all my mail. He was probably hoping I'd be sent some money from home. And a hardware clerk in Utah says he sold a gun to you and two of the others. I've never even been to Utah. Well, I admit the evidence is weak and I reckon most of their witnesses are just hoping for a piece of the reward money. But I also know that the authorities are out for blood. They're sick and tired of all these train robberies and they're determined to make an example out of you and your friends. I'm warning you. This plea deal is your best shot at avoiding spending the rest of your life behind bars. The light drains from his face. I swear to you I'm innocent. I can't just lie and say I'm pardon him something I wasn't. Look, I'm trying to save your neck here. I won't save myself by lying and damning four others. Well then, that's your funeral. You pick up your briefcase to leave. He's staring at the wall, hugging his knees to his chest. There's no guile in his boyish face. It strikes you that he might really be telling the truth. But you fear that no matter what you say at trial, he's about to go away for life. In the fall of 1909, Frank Grigware's court appointed lawyer urged him to take a plea deal and testify against the other four defendants. But Griguire refused to admit guilt to a crime he swore he did not commit. It was a high stakes decision. Mail theft was a federal crime punishable by life in Prison. On October 25, 1909, the trial for the Mud Cut robbery began in a federal district courthouse in Omaha. The prosecution called more than 80 witnesses to the stand, with many witnesses driven by the prospect of collecting the $30,000 reward. Much of the testimony was suspect. Several claimed to recognize the defendants as men who robbed the train, even though the robbery had occurred in almost complete darkness and the bandits had been masked. And witnesses could not agree on the basic question of whether four or five men had robbed the train. One witness identified Grig Ware as one of the robbers solely based on his stature and carriage. A postal worker claimed to recognize his voice despite acknowledging that he had not talked much during the robbery. And a hardware store clerk from Utah testified that he had sold a gun to Grigware and the other defendants before the robbery. But he had no invoice for the sale and there was no evidence that the gun had been used in the crime. The clerk was later convicted of perjury for false statements made in a separate robbery trial. By the time the Mud Cut robbery trial was over, one of the lead investigators was convinced that the trial was a botched affair tainted by perjured testimony. He believed that the cases against Griegweire and his friend Jack Goldin were especially weak. But it made no difference. On November 11, 1909, the jury took less than 90 minutes to reach a verdict declaring all five men guilty as charged. A week later, the judge sentenced them to life in prison. The next day they were cuffed with heavy leg irons and placed on board a prison train for the 160 mile journey south to the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. From the beginning, Leavenworth was designed to be the nation's premier Federal Penitentiary. A 22 acre city within a city modeled after the US Capitol. It had two massive cell houses, each seven stories tall and longer than a football field, linked by a central rotunda capped with a silver dome. A nine room school, the first in any penitentiary, reflected a faith in rehabilitation. The yard was lined with two long rows of factories and the facility was enclosed by a towering brick wall. Leavenworth was part of a new federal prison system Congress had recently created to address Rising crime and overcrowding in state facilities. Other prisons were planned for Atlanta, Georgia, and McNeil Island, Washington, but Leavenworth was the nation's first. Construction of such a large facility was a massive undertaking, requiring years of work, vast amounts of materials, and train tracks, and a locomotive to transport supplies inside the prison gates. After Congress authorized Leavenworth in 1895, funding was delayed for two years, prompting the Justice Department to rely on prison labor from other facilities for cost savings while they continued construction. In the meantime, with hundreds of inmates working on construction amid a constant flow of materials, Leavenworth had a major security weakness that left it vulnerable to escape attempts. An unsuccessful mass escape attempt in 1898 ended the career of Leavenworth's first warden. He was replaced by Robert W. McLaury, a former Chicago police chief who implemented a rigid system of control, undermining the original vision of Leavenworth as a place of reform and rehabilitation. He ordered guards to shoot prisoners who strayed beyond set distances, enforced silence during meals and work, and punished the possession of unissued items. Severe infractions meant beatings or time in solitary in a darkened cell known as the hole. Despite McLauri's firm hand, a second mass escape attempt occurred in November 1901, when 26 inmates working in construction overpowered their guards and escaped on foot. All were eventually recaptured. Three main conspirators had their sentences extended to life in prison for killing a guard during the escape. Security was tightened in the immediate aftermath of the breakout. McLaury had a siren installed that was audible for 10 miles, hired more staff, and planned a new 100 foot central tower equipped with signal lights and machine guns. McLaury told a visitor, leavenworth is hell, and I guess I'm the chief devil. Eight years later, in 1909, Frank Grigware arrived at the gates of McLaury's Hell. On the rainy afternoon of November 19th, a prison train rolled into Leavenworth, and Grigware was marched inside. At intake, he was stripped, searched, deloused, measured, photographed, and fingerprinted. Finally, he was escorted to a narrow and grimy cell. He would no longer be known as Frank Grigware, but by the number that adorned his gray uniform, 6768. In the days that followed, he was forced to adapt to the strict rules and monotonous routines of Leavenworth, described by one prisoner as a giant mausoleum adrift in a great sea of nothingness. He was assigned to work 8 hours per day in the prison carpentry shop. He ate meals in a massive dining hall where silence was strictly enforced and prisoners who failed to finish eating faced punishment. A 90 page rule book outlined a dizzying array of offenses. Failure to comply meant punishment from guards who worked 14 hour days for meager pay. Many took out their frustrations on the prisoners they oversaw. In December 1909, a brutal winter storm deepened the inmates misery and several men fell ill from a typhoid outbreak. After Christmas, Grigware grew weak with fever and diarrhea. When he sought treatment, he was accused of faking his illness and sent to isolation in the hole. Stripped of his wool uniform and handed a set of ragged cotton long johns, he was forced to freeze in a dark, cramped cell cell for two days. When he returned to work in the carpentry shop, his fellow prisoners quietly helped him recover. He had endured a rite of passage. Frank not only had survived, but he had earned a measure of acceptance from his fellow inmates. And he emerged from the experience with a newfound resolve to break free no matter the cost.
