Roy Gardner (bank Robber) - Early Life

Early Life

Roy Gardner was born on January 5, 1884 in Trenton, Missouri and was raised in Colorado Springs. He was said to be attractive and charming, standing just under six feet tall, with short, curly auburn hair and blue eyes. He spent his early manhood as a drifter in the Southwest, learning the trades of farrier and miner. Supposedly, he joined the U.S. Army to escape the dangerous world of petty crime, reform school escapes, and the mining business, but he deserted in 1906 and drifted to Mexico.

Gardner began his criminal profession as a gunrunner around the time of the Mexican Revolution. He smuggled and traded arms and ammunition to the Venustiano Carranza forces until he was captured by soldiers from Victoriano Huerta's army and was sentenced to death by firing squad, but, on March 29, 1909, he broke out of the Mexico City jail along with three other American prisoners after attacking the soldier guards. Gardner arrived back in the United States, where he was a prizefighter in the Southwest. He was good enough that he became a sparring partner for Heavyweight Champion J. J. Jeffries at Ben Lemond Training Camp in Reno, Nevada during the summer of 1910.

Eventually, Gardner ended up in San Francisco, where he gambled all of his boxing money away, and robbed a jewelry store on Market Street. He was arrested, and spent some time in San Quentin, but he was paroled after he saved a prison guard's life during a violent riot. Gardner landed a job as an acetylene welder at the Mare Island Navy Yard, married, fathered a daughter, left the Schwa - Batcher Company in 1918 on Armistice Day and began his own welding company.