Daring Prison Escapes | Escape from Leavenworth | 3

In 1909, a young convicted train robber named Frank Grigware began a life sentence at the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Leavenworth was the nation’s first federal penitentiary, touted as a state-of-the-art facility. But in the early 20th century, its prisoners endured bleak conditions, rigid routines, and harsh punishments. In the spring of 1910, Grigware and five fellow inmates hijacked a supply train and rammed it through the prison’s heavy iron gates. The audacious breakout set off one of the longest-running manhunts in American history. Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletter Listen to American History Tellers on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season. Unlock exclusive early access by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial today by visiting wondery.com/links/american-history-tellers/ now. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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• 0:00Lindsay Graham?

  Audible subscribers can binge new seasons of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.

• 0:24Lindsay Graham?

  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. You 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. Prisoner

• 1:08Lindsay Graham?

  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 train. 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. 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 I'll put a bullet between your eyes. Okay, okay.

• 1:44Lindsay Graham?

  You reluctantly pull the throttle, and the train rushes 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.

• 2:02Lindsay Graham?

  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.

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• 3:15Lindsay Graham?

  From Wondery, I'm Lindsay Graham, and this is American History Tellers: Our History, Your Story.

• 3:37Lindsay Graham?

  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's 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

• 4:20Lindsay Graham?

  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.

• 4:36Lindsay Graham?

  In 1906, twenty-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 fifty-mile journey to the mountains of northern Idaho.

• 5:21Lindsay Graham?

  But once in Idaho, Grigware and Golden 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 Golden 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.

• 6:05Lindsay Graham?

  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 onboard 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.

• 6:48Lindsay Graham?

  Within days, all five were arrested and thrown in jail. But from the start, Grigware firmly denied any wrongdoing.

• 6:59Lindsay Graham?

  Imagine it's October 1909 at the county jail in Obaham, Nebraska. You're a court-appointed defense attorney and you're meeting with Frank Grigware, one of your clients in the Mudcut 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. That's so you said. No, you're not listening. I wasn't there.

• 7:43Lindsay Graham?

  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 hard-word 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.

• 8:27Lindsay Graham?

  I can't just lie and say I'm part of 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.

• 8:40Lindsay Graham?

  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.

• 8:58Lindsay Graham?

  In the fall of 1909, Frank Grigwier's court-appointed lawyer urged him to take a plea deal and testify against the other four defendants. But Grigwier 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 Mudcut 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.

• 9:41Lindsay Graham?

  And witnesses could not agree on the basic question of whether four or five men had robbed the train. One witness identified Grigwier 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 Grigwier 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 Mudcut 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 Grigwier and his friend Jack Golden were especially

• 10:26Lindsay Graham?

  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 onboard a prison train for the 160-mile journey south to the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas.

• 10:49Lindsay Graham?

  From the beginning, Leavenworth was designed to be the nation's premier federal penitentiary, a 22-acre city within a city. Modeled after the U.S. Capitol, it had two massive cellhouses, 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.

• 11:31Lindsay Graham?

  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

• 12:13Lindsay Graham?

  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 McLaury'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 ten miles,

• 12:58Lindsay Graham?

  hired more staff, and planned a new one-hundred-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 nineteenth, 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,

• 13:40Lindsay Graham?

  described by one prisoner as "a giant mausoleum adrift in a great sea of nothingness." He was assigned to work eight 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 ninety-page rulebook outlined a dizzying array of offenses: failure to comply and punishment from guards who worked fourteen-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 saw treatment, he was accused of faking his illness and sent to isolation in the hole.

• 14:24Lindsay Graham?

  Stripped of his wool uniform and handed a set of ragged cotton long johns, he was forced to freeze in a dark, cramped 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'd 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.

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• 15:25Speaker 04

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• 16:11Speaker 04

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• 16:33Lindsay Graham?

  In the spring of 1910, an inmate named Arthur Hewitt carefully studied the rhythms of a supply train that carried construction materials to Leavenworth. Hewitt was a convicted horse thief who had been bent on escape ever since he arrived at Leavenworth a decade earlier. Every Thursday morning, Hewitt watched as a Union Pacific train arrived through the west gate of the prison, carrying lumber to be used in construction. It always followed the same procedure. The west gate was double-gated, and both gates were made of heavy steel bars. The outer gate opened to admit the backing train, then closed while the engine waited in a 40-foot enclosure. Once the inner gate opened, the train proceeded slowly into the prison yard. The Thursday morning train was a major weak spot in Leavenworth's security because

• 17:16Lindsay Graham?

  the track connected to a regular train line that could carry fugitives out to open country. The guards had repeatedly urged Warden Robert McClory to install a remote switch that could derail the engine. McClory agreed on the need, but he insisted that the costs were prohibitive, declaring without additional congressional funding, his hands were tied. The Thursday train was of special interest to prisoners like Arthur Hewitt, who were harboring thoughts of escape. Nine years earlier, Hewitt had led the 1901 Leavenworth breakout alongside his friend Thomas Cading, who belonged to the same horse theft ring before their imprisonment. They were joined by Bob Clark, a stocky, wild-eyed inmate missing a tooth and part of a finger, described by McClory as one of the most cold-blooded and cold-hearted criminals he'd ever known.

• 18:00Lindsay Graham?

  Hewitt, Cading, and Clark were serving life sentences for engineering the 1901 escape. The intervening years had made them no less defiant, and all three spent months at a time in solitary in the Hole. Back in 1901, they had fled Leavenworth on foot. Now Hewitt realized that the best way to break out of the prison was to hijack the Thursday morning train and drive it through the west gate. The only problem was how to seize control of the train without weapons. But in late March 1910, an idea occurred to Hewitt while he was sharing a cell with Theodore Murdock, who was well-known among the inmates for his skill as a craftsman. Murdock was serving time for counterfeiting money, and he spent his days in the Leavenworth Carpentry Shop building prison furniture.

• 18:41Lindsay Graham?

  Recognizing his bunkmate's unique set of skills, Hewitt asked Murdock if he could make three or four fake guns out of wood that looked real enough to fool the guards. Murdock, Hewitt, and Hewitt's longtime accomplices Cading and Clark would board the engine once it rolled into the yard, then hold the engineer at gunpoint to force him to drive through the closed steel gate. Murdock agreed to carve the guns in secret during his daily shift in the Carpentry Shop. Hewitt worked in the tailor shop, where he planned to steel shoe polish to paint the guns. Hewitt informed Clark of the plan and got a message to Cading, who had been in the Hole since February for refusing to work. But as Murdock got started on the prop guns, he realized that the real challenge would be keeping the escape plot secret from the guards and the other inmates.

• 19:28Lindsay Graham?

  Imagine it's early April 1910 and you're in the carpentry shop of Leavenworth Penitentiary, carefully carving a block of wood under the table. You have one eye trained on the guard supervising you. He turns his back as another guard steps into the shop to talk with him. With the guards distracted, an inmate sitting beside you, a man named Griggware, leans towards you. Hey, what are you doing? You give him a sideways glare. None of your business. Come on, I know you've been working on something. What is it? Nothing you need to know about. In a sudden movement, the inmate ducks down to steal a glance under the table. Is that what I think it is? No, it is not. It looks to me like you're carving that block of wood into the shape of a revolver. You're seeing things, kid. Yeah, well, I know a gun when I see one, even if it's fake.

• 20:12Lindsay Graham?

  But whatever you're planning, I won't in. You pause your work to consider this. You know that you would get more done if you didn't have to constantly keep an eye on the guard. But you also know that the more people that are involved, the more likely that word will get out. Long it get involved? Why? So you can flap your gums to the next guy who offers you a cigarette? It's best you pretend you never saw a thing. But I can help. I can be your lookout. How do I know you're not a rat? Oh, you can trust me, I won't say a word. You know they offered me a plea deal to testify against my friends, right? I wouldn't do it. Oh, yeah, the big Omaha train robbery. Aren't you always saying that you're innocent? I doubt you have the guts. Griggware's fist tightens around the chisel in his hand. No, I'm not afraid. This is my only way out. No judge is gonna free me, and I'll be damned before I spend the rest of my life in prison

• 20:57Lindsay Graham?

  for a crime I didn't commit. Do you have any idea what happens once that siren goes off? Those guards will open fire without even blinking. I tell you, I'd rather die trying to get out than rot away in this place. You study him. There's steel in his eyes you didn't notice before. All right, I'll talk to the others about it, see what they think. But right now, shut up before the guards catch us. Right on cue, the guard starts walking toward your workbench. You hide the fake revolver and return to your assigned task. Griggware fidgets with the chisel in his hand, his nervous energy palpable. You hope you're not making a mistake by bringing him in. For this plan to work, it's gonna take loyalty, luck, and sheer nerve.

• 21:41Lindsay Graham?

  In the carpentry shop, Frank Grigware noticed that his fellow inmate Theodore Murdock was secretly carving a block of wood into the shape of a gun. Although Murdock and Arthur Hewitt were wary of involving more men, they decided they could trust Grigware as someone who had nothing to lose, since he too was serving a life sentence. Another inmate in the carpentry shop, John Gideon, became the sixth and final member of the escape crew. Grigware and Gideon served as lookouts, allowing Murdock to work without constantly watching for the guards. On April 16, 1910, Hewitt's friend Thomas Kating was released from the hole after promising to return to work in the tailor shop and obey the rules. On Wednesday, April 20, Murdock completed three extremely detailed recreations of Colt revolvers.

• 22:25Lindsay Graham?

  He had smuggled the wooden guns to his cell in the loose folds of his oversized uniform for sanding and touch-ups, painting the barrels steel gray and the stocks a rich walnut. Now that everything was in place, the six conspirators agreed that they would wait no longer. They resolved to make their escape the following morning when the Thursday supply train arrived. At 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 21, Grigware and his three co-conspirators in the carpentry shop watched as a Union Pacific locomotive backed through the prison's west gate. At the sound of the lumber cars uncoupling from the engine, Gideon brandished one of the fake guns, and the guard manning the carpentry shop dropped to his knees. Grigware grabbed a hatchet, and the four of them rushed out of the shop and sprinted 20 yards to the train.

• 23:08Lindsay Graham?

  When they ran into another guard, Gideon forced him into the cab at gunpoint. In the tailor shop, Hewitt and Kating met more resistance. When they pulled out their fake guns, a ricky guard struck Kating with his nightstick, knocking him to the floor. But Hewitt managed to overpower the guard, and he hauled Kating to his feet and dragged him off to the train. Out in the yard, other guards watched helplessly, paralyzed by fear. They knew that a guard had lost his life in the 1901 breakout, and they had no intention of meeting the same end. Inside the locomotive cab, Gideon pressed his fake gun to the head of engineer Charles Curtin, ordering him to open the throttle and ram the west gate. Fearing for his life, Curtin did as he was told. Grigware looked back to see Hewitt and Cading jump on board just as the train took off.

• 23:53Lindsay Graham?

  The engine barreled forward and slammed into the outer gate with a deafening crash. The gate broke open, the steel bars warping from the force of the train. The engine rushed on, gathering speed as it left Leavenworth behind. A guard standing in the west tower aimed his rifle but didn't shoot, unable to differentiate the escapees from Curtin or the guard they had taken hostage. As the train accelerated, Grigware relished his first breaths of fresh air in months. The landscape surrounding the prison was a patchwork of pastures, plowed fields and tidy farms enclosed by fences. Through its heart ran Salt Creek, a stream lined by cattails and cottonwood and pine trees. But when the train approached the creek two and a half miles west of Leavenworth, Curtin

• 24:35Lindsay Graham?

  announced that the railroad bridge was under construction and could not hold the train's weight. When the sight of a pile driver confirmed the truth of his words, the fugitives reluctantly ordered him to stop the train at the edge of the water. Their freedom had proved all too fleeting. The fugitives could hear the prison sirens blaring two and a half miles away. They had planned to barrel on into the open countryside, traveling faster than any automobiles that tried to follow them, but now they had no choice but to make a run for it on foot. They ordered Curtin to kill the engine by dousing the coals with water to slow down its return to the prison and give them a head start. Four of the fugitives stripped Curtin of his clothes. After dividing their loot, they ran south on instinct. It was the same direction they had run during the 1901 escape.

• 25:19Lindsay Graham?

  But Grigware took a different tack, grabbing Curtin's dinner pail and sprinting off alone into the northern stretches of the Salt Creek Valley, which were more wooded than the southern ones. Murdock chased after him briefly, but Grigware was faster. He zigzagged through the woods until he found a hidden depression in the earth. Clutching the dinner pail, he buried himself beneath a pile of leaves and branches and lay motionless, his heart pounding. All the while, sirens wailed in the distance, a constant pressing reminder that a massive manhunt was already underway.

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• 26:54Speaker 06

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• 27:31Lindsay Graham?

  Within thirty minutes after the breakout from Leavenworth Penitentiary, Ward and Robert McLaurie had formed a posse of fifty guards to track down the fugitives. Engineer Charles Curtin returned the train to the prison, then took the guards back to the spot at Salt Creek, where the inmates had fled. Meanwhile, residents within a ten-mile radius of the penitentiary responded to the sirens by gathering their rifles and locking their doors. Over the next few hours, Arthur Hewitt, Thomas Kating, Bob Clark, and John Gideon, the four fugitives who had fled south, were quickly recaptured. They were promptly returned to Leavenworth and sent to the hole. Only Frank Grigware and Theodore Murdock, who had carved the guns, remained at large. The next morning, Friday, April 22, McLaury faced a throng of reporters.

• 28:16Lindsay Graham?

  He blamed the breakout on Congress's failure to fund better infrastructure and distributed "Wanted" posters for Grigware and Murdock, and he added a $200 bonus to the usual $50 bounty with a stern warning: "Take no chances. Get the drop on them first, they are both bad men." The roar drew scores of armed farmers into the Salt Creek Valley. Murdock could hear men looking for him while he lay hidden in a clump of bushes. By Saturday morning, the guards were exhausted. They had been searching for Murdock and Grigware for two days and two nights straight without relief. Fearing the men were long gone, McLaury called off the search and sent the guards home. Little did he know, Murdock was only two miles away from where he had jumped off the train. And that afternoon, the temperature dropped to 35 degrees Fahrenheit with snow flurries

• 29:01Lindsay Graham?

  and wind speeds of 40 miles per hour. Murdock was soaked, freezing, and starving when a farm boy spotted him, saw the number on his collar, and ran home to alert the authorities. In Murdock's desperate hunger, he was almost relieved to be recaptured. When he returned to Leavenworth, he told the guards that the prison looked like heaven. Murdock's capture revived hopes that Grigware would soon be found. For more than two days, he remained in a hollow near Salt Creek, pulling leaves and fallen branches over him to stay hidden. He only ventured above ground for water, and the food he stole from the train engineer helped him avoid the hunger that had plagued Murdock. It was only after his food ran out on Saturday evening that he finally emerged and began moving northwest along the train tracks, using the woods as cover.

• 29:45Lindsay Graham?

  The next morning, he came upon a farmhouse. Hungry and exhausted, he knocked on the door, and a middle-aged woman welcomed him inside. If she suspected that he was a fugitive, she said nothing. She fed him, clothed him, and directed him to a hobo encampment at a water tower beside some nearby train tracks. He traveled to the encampment that afternoon. When a freight train stopped to take on water, Grigware hopped aboard one of the boxcars. He would later recall: "I did not know where I was going. I didn't care, for even yet I had no plan, just a desire to stay at liberty." The train traveled north. When it approached Minneapolis, Minnesota, Grigware jumped off and disappeared into the city. He knew that if he wanted to remain free, he could

• 30:26Lindsay Graham?

  no longer go by the name Frank Grigware. That life was over. He took on a new name, Jim Fahey. While Jim Fahey began a new life, the search for Frank Grigware widened. In August 1910, the Bureau of Investigation, the precursor to the FBI, took over the case. For years, agents pursued a variety of leads that took them across the country. Rumors spread that Grigware was living as a railroad switchman, a traveling salesman, a Catholic priest, and a criminal in Mexico. Every lead resulted in a dead end. Meanwhile, Grigware's family faced constant government surveillance, especially his mother Jenny. In 1913, Woodrow Wilson's presidency brought changes to Leavenworth. Thomas Kating wrote

• 31:07Lindsay Graham?

  several letters to the president complaining of mistreatment. Wilson was far more receptive to allegations of abuse than his predecessors. Amid increased scrutiny, Warden McLaury resigned and his cronies were ousted. A few months later, Wilson commuted the sentences of Kating, Arthur Hewitt, and Bob Clark. They would go free a year later. Wilson would also commute Theodore Murdock's sentence due to health issues caused by McLaury's abuse. Then in August 1913, postal investigators submitted a report to Wilson highlighting flaws in the Mudcut robbery trial of 1909, including possible perjury. Wilson pardoned Grigware's childhood friend Jack Golden, making it likely that Grigware too would have been pardoned had he remained in custody.

• 31:51Lindsay Graham?

  As the years went on, the search for Frank Grigware ebbed and flowed, but his wanted poster continued to grace the walls of courthouses and post offices across the country. In 1928, 18 years after his escape, the Bureau of Investigation quietly reopened the case in hopes of scoring a publicity coup.

• 32:12Lindsay Graham?

  Imagine it's Thanksgiving morning in 1928, and you're at home in Spokane, Washington. You open your front door to find a young, clean-cut man wearing a gray suit and dark tie. You immediately recognize him as yet another agent with the Bureau of Investigation, come to ask after your son Frank. He tips his hat and flashes a shiny brass badge. Morning, ma'am. I was hoping to ask you a few questions. It won't take too much of your time. I've got nothing but time. Come on in. He walks past you and takes a seat on your sofa. You sit down in the chair opposite him and fidget with a locket around your neck. I know you've been watching me for the past weeks, sitting in that car across the road. You're making the neighbors nervous. He studies a framed family photograph on the table beside him, ignoring your comment. Have you received any word from your son?

• 32:57Lindsay Graham?

  Not a whisper, and that's the truth. Any calls? No. What about letters? No, none. You struggle to maintain your composure. You know it's men like him that put Frank in jail in the first place. What about you? Have you heard anything from him? No, ma'am, but we thought he might send word, given the holiday. Given the holiday? Well, I certainly don't expect to hear from him because of that. I spent Thanksgiving alone for many years now. What about his friends? What about them? Well, surely you must have made contact with someone. You're wasting your time. I believe my son's dead. I have a gut feeling about it. If you were alive, you would have sent word by now. You wouldn't have just cut off all contact with his own mother. The agent's expression softens. He stands and drops a card on the table. Well, Happy Thanksgiving, ma'am.

• 33:42Lindsay Graham?

  Call if you hear anything. I'll show myself out. As he walks out the door, you stare at the old family photograph, taken in happier times. Over the years, the agents have changed, but the questions stay the same. And with each visit, you lose a little more hope of ever seeing Frank again. As much as you hate to admit it, you know they're chasing a ghost.

• 34:07Lindsay Graham?

  By 1928, Frank Grigware had been missing for 18 years, longer than any other federal fugitive of this time. His mother Jenny had come to accept that her son was dead. One federal agent wrote, "If he is still alive and in the United States, most likely he would be very careful to lead a quiet, law-abiding life in order to avoid any possibility of being arrested and later identified." In reality, Grigware was living his life as naturalized Canadian citizen James Fahey. After a few months in Minneapolis, he had moved to northern Alberta, where he started over. He ran a confectionery store, built homes, was an active member of his church, and even served as mayor of his small town. He married and had three children. His family and friends were oblivious to his past.

• 34:50Lindsay Graham?

  In 1929, the Bureau learned of a credible sighting of Grigware a decade earlier in Edmonton, Canada. Agents sent his photo and prison fingerprints to the Royal Mounted Canadian Police, but the trail went cold, and they closed the case once more in 1933. But just three months later, Grigware was caught poaching in Canada. Local police fingerprinted him and sent the prints to the Royal Mounted Canadian Police. A clerk matched the fingerprints to the prints sent by US authorities years earlier. After 24 years on the run, Grigware had at last been found. His capture was a massive media story in both the United States and Canada. But while US authorities demanded his extradition, the Canadian press and public rallied behind him.

• 35:34Lindsay Graham?

  Some argued that he deserved mercy for turning his life around, others said that he had never been guilty in the first place. Petitions flooded Washington, and the US dropped the extradition request. Soon after he was found, Grigware's mother Jenny traveled to the town of Jasper, Canada to surprise her long-lost son. After nearly three decades apart, it was an emotional reunion for both. Her hair had turned white, but she was still wearing the small locket with Frank's picture inside that he had given her when he left home 28 years earlier. In the 1950s, Grigware's niece asked the Justice Department whether Grigware could return to the US to visit the rest of his family, but her request was denied as he had never been officially pardoned. He never returned to America. The FBI continued monitoring

• 36:17Lindsay Graham?

  him until finally closing the case in 1965. He lived out the rest of his life in peace and anonymity, dying in 1977 at the age of 91. Leavenworth endured long after Grigware and five fellow inmates fled its gates on a westbound train. For the next century, it remained America's largest maximum-security prison, helping to shape modern incarceration. The story of its most elusive fugitive lives on, raising questions about justice, reinvention, and the price of freedom when systems fail.

• 36:49Lindsay Graham?

  From Wondery, this is episode three of our four-part series, Daring Prison Escapes from American History Tellers. On the next episode, as World War II rages in Europe, the United States houses hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war in camps around the country. At one camp in Arizona, a group of captured German naval officers hatch a plan to flee, but they're unprepared to traverse the harsh southwestern desert.

• 37:15Lindsay Graham?

  American History Tellers is only possible because of listeners like you, so thank you. And don't miss an episode. Be sure to follow American History Tellers on Audible or wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge new seasons of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts. And to find out more about me, including my other podcasts, my live show, the history tours I'm arranging, and all sorts of other things, go to historyishuman.com. That's historyishuman.com.

• 37:52Lindsay Graham?

  If you'd like to learn more about this story, we recommend Leavenworth Train: A Fugitive's Search for Justice in the Vanishing West by Joe Jackson. American History Tellers is hosted, edited, and produced by me, Lindsay Graham, for airship. Audio editing by Mohamed Shazib. Sound design by Molly Bock. Supervising sound designer Matthew Filler. Music by Lindsey Graham. This episode is written by Ellie Stanton. Edited by Dorian Marina. Produced by Alita Rozansky. Managing producer Desi Blalock. Senior managing producer Callum Pluse. Senior producer Andy Herman. Executive producers Jenny Lauer Beckman, Marshall Louie, and Aaron O'Flaherty for Wondery.

• 38:36Speaker 07

  For decades, two legendary brands fought for the hearts of American bikers, Indian Motorcycle and Harley-Davidson. The battle looked a lot like Coke versus Pepsi or Ford versus Chevy, but tastes changed and Indian didn't adapt fast enough. The icon all but died. Then came the Con Men, the Dreamers, a string of spectacular failures that kept Indian in the grave, until one company finally got it right. This is the story of an improbable revival and the reignition of an old rivalry. Hey, I'm David Brown, the host of the podcast Business Wars, and every season we bring you the true stories behind the companies that shape our world. Indian's new owners are going all in, but an existential crisis looms. Can Indian and Harley recruit enough younger riders to survive?

• 39:19Speaker 07

  Make sure to follow Business Wars wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes of Business Wars early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.