Theodore Cole (1912–?)

Theodore Cole was an American criminal whose early life of theft and robbery escalated into a series of high-profile crimes, including kidnapping and prison escapes. Sentenced to death at age seventeen for a robbery in Oklahoma—a sentence later commuted—Cole became infamous for multiple prison escapes, culminating in his disappearance from Alcatraz in 1937, an event that remains the subject of speculation and legend.

Theodore Cole was born on April 6, 1912, in Pittsburg, Kansas, to Daniel and Esther Cole; his family later relocated to Arkansas, settling in Eureka Springs (Carroll County). In March 1929, at the age of sixteen, Cole married Marie Wynn in Alpena (Boone and Carroll Counties). He had spent much of his early teenage years committing small burglaries in homes around northwestern Arkansas, and his marriage did not curb his appetite for robbery. On the evening of August 20, 1929, Cole, Billy Wendell, and Morris Quinn entered a Dr Pepper bottling plant in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with the intent to rob it. They held up the employees at gunpoint and demanded that they open the safe, from which the men stole between $400 and $600.

Cole separated from Wendell and Quinn and continued his crime spree. He stole a car in Oklahoma and drove to Green Forest (Carroll County). Soon after the gang split up, Wendell and Quinn were arrested and positively identified as the bottling plant robbers. They confessed and named Cole as the other thief. Cole remained on the run for a couple of months before law enforcement tracked him to a house in Berryville (Carroll County). When the officers entered the house, they found him hiding under a bed, fully armed. After Cole refused to comply with orders to surrender, the policemen opened fire, giving Cole a flesh wound, which was enough to convince the fugitive to surrender. Law enforcement charged him with the auto theft and breaking into the house in Berryville. He was quickly convicted and sentenced to serve a two-year sentence at the Arkansas State Penitentiary.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma officials sought to extradite Cole to Oklahoma for the bottling factory robbery. At this time, grand larceny was a capital offence in the state of Oklahoma. Arkansas officials agreed to extradite Cole. Hoping to avoid a death sentence, Cole pled guilty to the robbery. After conviction, the seventeen-year-old was given the death penalty, with his execution date set at December 31, 1929. The sentence brought an outcry from the public, criticizing such a harsh sentence for the crime. On December 9, Governor William Judson Holloway ordered a stay of his execution. Days later, a judge from the court of appeals reduced his sentence to fifteen years in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. On April 25, 1930, Marie filed for divorce, giving the reason as “desertion.”

In 1933, Cole made his first attempt to escape prison. He cobbled together a makeshift ladder and attempted to climb the walls of the prison but was stopped by a guard who shot Cole as he was trying to escape.

On March 12, 1934, while he was an inmate at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, Cole stabbed his cellmate, Bill Prichett, twenty-seven times. On November 30, fearing he might be given the death penalty for Prichett’s murder, Cole escaped by hiding in a laundry bag. Once on the run, Cole made his way to Cushing, Oklahoma, where he hijacked a car driven by Joe Rutherford. He drove Rutherford to Springfield, Illinois, where he released his captive. Cole then made his way to Dallas, Texas, where law enforcement captured him after a foot chase over the roof of the hotel where Cole was hiding.

Now facing a federal charge under the newly enacted Federal Kidnapping Act, also known as the Lindbergh Kidnapping Law, Cole was extradited back to Oklahoma to face trial both for the escape and kidnapping charge and for the murder of his cellmate. Cole was tried for Prichett’s murder, but the jury deadlocked during deliberation, leading to a mistrial. Prosecutors, seeing no chance at conviction, decided not to retry the case and agreed to allow the federal kidnapping charges to take precedence. Cole was convicted of kidnapping, sentenced to a fifty-year term, and sent to federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, arriving on May 21, 1935.

At Leavenworth, he again attempted several unsuccessful escapes. Deeming Leavenworth not adequate to contain the escape-prone prisoner, federal officials in 1936 transferred Cole to the notorious Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco, where escape would be next to impossible.

Upon arrival at the prison, Cole reportedly remarked, “Don’t think I like it here. Doubt I’ll stay long.” And he did not. On December 16, 1937, Cole and a fellow prisoner, Ralph Roe, were working in a shop on the prison grounds. Noting the heavy fog, the prisoners cut through iron bars and shimmied down the prison gate and onto the beach, where they disappeared. They were never found by law enforcement. Prison officials eventually declared that they no doubt drowned in the San Francisco Bay, their bodies swept out into the Pacific Ocean.

Over the years, there were rumors that they were still alive, with one positing that a boat was waiting for them in the dense fog. There were reports of them escaping to South America. None of these stories ever panned out, but their lack of resolution has made for some colorful speculation over the years about one of the most notorious and enigmatic escapees of the early twentieth century.

For additional information:
Bruce, J. Campbell. Escape from Alcatraz. Berkley, California: Ten Speed Press, 2005.

“Cole Threats Are Repeated by Local Man.” Cushing Daily Citizen, January 21, 1935, p. 7.

“Escape from the Rock.” Northeast News, December 16, 2020, https://northeastnews.net/pages/escape-from-the-rock/ (accessed June 12, 2026).

Esslinger, Michael. “The December Departures from Alcatraz.” City Experiences. https://www.cityexperiences.com/blog/the-december-departures-from-alcatraz/ (accessed June 12, 2026).

“Kidnap Fugitive Held at Dallas.” Longview Daily News, January 11, 1935, pp. 1, 3.

“The Ted Cole Case Is Basis of Much Comment.” Harlow’s Weekly, December 21, 1929, p. 13.

“Ted Cole Got Crime Start Here; Draws 50-Year Term in Guthrie.” Tulsa World, May 21, 1935, p. 8.

“Ted Cole, Tulsa Killer, Makes Escape From McAlester Prison.” Tulsa World, December 1, 1934, p. 2.

“Two Alcatraz Fugitives Dead in Bay, Warden Now Believes.” Oakland Tribune, December 17, 1937, pp. 1, 2.

“Prisoner Pair Long-Termers from Oklahoma.” Enid Morning News, December 17, 1937, pp. 1, 16.

Brian David Irby
Arkansas State Archives