Roy Gardner was quick with a gun, controversial, and no prison could hold him. He had blue eyes, curly black hair, and he acted tough and he was. He was dubbed the "King of the Escape Artists", the "Gentleman Bandit", and the last of the Robin Hood type outlaws, a self described bloodless desperado. Lawmen in California knew his name just as familiar as Jesse James. Roy Gardner was a notorious train robber and the most celebrated outlaw and escape artist of his day.

Roy Gardner was born on January 5, 1886 in Trenton, Missouri to a family of farmers living in poverty. Roy's father is believed to be George W. Gardner, whose parents came from Virginia. When he was eight years of age, the family moved to Colorado Springs where his father managed an electricity plant. Roy was devoted to his studies and graduated at the top of his class in High School. Gardner enlisted in the 22nd Infantry at Fort Worth, Texas and was stationed at the Phillipine Islands, but the next year the U. S. Government listed him as a deserter. Gardner bought himself a mule wagon, and began his criminal career as a gunrunner in Mexico. He began smuggling and trading to an army of rebels trying to overthrow the Mexican government. Police caught up with Roy, and he was sentenced to death. He was tossed in a dungeon, then put in solitary confinement, reached breaking point, and then he was tortured. The next morning the Roy had disappeared. Mexican posses spread out in vain across the desert in search for the outlaw. Gardner had already escaped into Naco, Arizona away from the law.

In the summer of 1910, Gardner arrived in San Francisco where he robbed the Gillidemann Jewelry Store, and as he ran down the street, he ran smack into large Police Sgt. George McLaughlin, who wrestled Roy to the ground and handcuffed him. Gardner was sentenced to five years in San Quentin for robbery, but in 1912, Gardner saved the life of a prison guard during a violent prison riot. As a reward, Gardner was paroled and landed a job as a welder. He married a waitress in 1913, and they had a daughter born in 1917, and Roy was promoted to Superintendant of a Welding Company. Roy went to Tijuana on business, and he did some gambling and went bust, so while he was passing a post office, an idea came to him. Gardner got in the back of a mail truck and robbed the driver of $82,000 in cash and securities. A smooth job, Roy knew that the police had a suspect, so he began digging a hole to bury his loot, but a hiker summoned the police, and out of a lineup, Gardner was identified as the gunman. He was sentenced to 25 years at McNeil Island Federal Prison near Tacoma, Washington. Roy said goodbye to his wife, and got on a train with Deputy U. S. Marshals Mike Cavanaugh and Herb Haig to be transported to the prison in Washington State. Outside of Salem, Oregon on June 5, 1920, Roy peered out of the window and gasped, "My God, look at that ten point buck," the marshals looked to get a better view. Gardner drew Haig's gun from his holster and barked, "Hands Up", and then disarmed Cavanaugh. Gardner then ordered anther McNeil bound prisoner to handcuff the two officers together. Roy then stole $200 off of the officers and escaped into the wilderness. He stole vehicles, and ended up traveling as a salesman and welder from Minneapolis to Colorado. He robbed several trains and from the U. S. Mails. Gardner robbed the Southern Pacific station, then he robbed a mail truck in Centerville, Iowa, then he robbed a bank in Nevada, then he started to pick up momentum as a notorious train robber when he robbed Train No. 10, then the next morning he robbed Train No. 20, and he now had a $5,000 reward on his head. He was caught at the Porter House Hotel by Sheriff Al Locke and his posse, and then he was sent on Special Train No. 1 by U.S. Marshals Mulhall and Rinckell, but Gardner found a cleverly concealed 32.caliber pistol and instructed another prisoner to diarm the marshals, and then handcuff the two humiliated officers together, then stealing $123 of cash off of the officers. The two outlaws, Norris Pyron and Roy Gardner escaped into the wild game country of Castle Rock, Washington. Pyron was caught, but would not tell which way Gardner went. Gardner was then caught by lawman, Louis Sonny in Centralia, Washington. Gardner was this time brought to McNeil Island, but he became the first man to escape the prison on Labor Day in 1921 at a prison baseball game as the prison guards watched a fly ball. Prisoners, Gardner, Bogart, and Impyn made a run for the fence, Impyn was shot dead, Gardner was shot through his left leg, but made it over the hill and escaped, and Bogart was shot and wounded. Gardner swam the choppy waters to Fox Island, and then made it back to his outlaw ways when he reached the mainland as a famous train robber in the West. Warden John Maloney began to think differently when two more days passed and his searchers could not find a single trace of Gardner. The newspapers dubbed him, the "King of the Escape Artists". Gardner was then caught again, and sentenced to 25 years at Leavenworth Federal Prison in Kansas, and headline screamed, "GANGSTER GARDNER BRAGS, LEAVENWORTH WILL NEVER HOLD ME". Gardner tried to escape from Leavenworth, but was then transferred to Atlanta in 1925 to solitary confinement where he went insane and was placed in a mental hospital. Gardner then served out his sentence at Alcatraz Island from 1934 to 1938 as one of the first hardcases. He was inmate 110 and asked to be transferred to a prison in Arizona. He was not released from prison until 1938, and he wrote a book called, "Hellcatraz" which went on display in a San Francisco exihibit called, "Crime Doesn't Pay". Roy's wife divorced him while he was in prison, and remarried. Roy landed a job as a baker in a hotel. Roy Gardner ended his own life in a hotel room with a note explaining that men who spend more than five years in prison are doomed and that he was old and tired. He died at age 54, and police found the one time "Most Wanted" gangster in the bathroom, a suicide. Legend says that Roy Gardner buried a loot of $16,000 in an extinct volcano near Flagstaff, Arizona, and he also buried $180,000 somewhere between California and Washington. Out of all the gangsters of his era, Roy Gardner was a touchstone of his time.