John Paul Chase
| John Paul Chase | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
December 26, 1901 San Francisco, California, United States |
| Died | October 5, 1973 (aged 71) Palo Alto, California |
| Cause of death | Cancer |
| Occupation | Bank robber, Bootlegger |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment |
| Criminal status | Paroled in 1966 |
| Conviction(s) | Murder (1935) |
John Paul Chase (December 26, 1901 – October 5, 1973) was an American bank robber and Depression-era outlaw. He was a longtime criminal associate of the Karpis-Barker Gang and most notably Baby Face Nelson who later brought him into the John Dillinger gang. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover once referred to Chase as "a rat with a patriotic-sounding name". Chase and Nelson continued to rob banks with John Dillinger until Dillinger's death in July 1934. After the death of Nelson in November 1934, Chase fled back to California where he was arrested a month later on December 27, 1934. Chase was sent to Alcatraz where he became one of the longest-serving inmates; (March 31, 1935 - September 21, 1954) .
John Paul Chase was born in San Francisco, California on December 26, 1901. He left grade school to work on a ranch and later became an assistant machinist in a railroad yard. In 1926, Chase was fired from the railroad and was hired as a chauffeur for a professional gambler in Reno, Nevada. He spent the next few years as a bootlegger in Sausalito, San Rafael and San Francisco but was not involved in major crime until his association with Baby Face Nelson in the early 1930s, possibly in March 1932. Little is known of his first meeting with Nelson, however a popular story claims Chase was the wheelman in a contract murder Nelson carried out in Reno. It is generally agreed among crime historians that Reno was the most likely place where the two first became partners, Nelson having connections in the local underworld and frequently hid out there while in Chicago and the general Midwest.
On October 23, 1933, he and Nelson robbed their first bank together in Brainerd, Minnesota escaping with $32,000. Along the way, they picked up a number of other outlaws including Charles Fisher, Tommy Carroll and Homer Van Meter. By March 1934, Nelson had joined John Dillinger's gang although Chase did not participate in their first holdup that month in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It is unclear when Chase was brought into the gang, some accounts claiming he took part in a robbery in Mason City, Iowa. He spent much of his time as a "gopher" for Nelson while the gang was in the Chicago area. Among his errands were picking up take-out meals, acquiring weapons and ammunition, and running messages between Nelson and Dillinger. His relatively minor status within the gang was possibly the reason he was not present at the shootout with the FBI when federal agents raided the Little Bohemia Lodge near Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin on April 22. In the aftermath of the Mason City robbery, Nelson and John Paul Chase fled west to Reno, where their old bosses Bill Graham and Jim McKay were fighting a federal mail fraud case. Years later, the FBI determined that, on March 22, 1934, Nelson and Chase abducted the chief witness against the pair, Roy Fritsch, and killed him. Fritsch's quartered body, while never found, was said to have been thrown down an abandoned mine shaft.
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