Joseph Cretzer

Joseph 'Dutch' Cretzer was a notorious criminal once considered public enemy no. 5 by the FBI. That's the kind of career trajectory that lands you in Alcatraz.

Fiction

In 1935, Cretzer was considered public enemy no. 5 by the FBI. He was eventually incarcerated in Alcatraz, where his prisoner number was 548.

In 1946, Cretzer led a mutiny against the guards alongside Coy, Thompson, and Carnes. Objectives of their escape plan included freeing Hubbard and Shockley from their cells, as well as bargaining hostages for their freedom – though the two warders they had hostage were killed in the struggle.

The prison authorities called in troops as reinforcements for the siege, with a warden telling them to blow up the whole wing of the prison if necessary. After three days of being holed up, the mutineers' bolthole was breached by the troops. Cretzer refused the opportunity to drop his gun, and was shot and killed by a warder. The Truth About Alcatraz!

Notes

• In real life, it was Bernard Coy, not Joseph Cretzer, who was the real ringleader of the Battle of Alcatraz. The group had taken hostages only as a last resort after a failed escape attempt, and eight out of nine of them were still alive once the battle ended.