Mabel Lillian Ulness AKA Mae Stockdale: The Houdini of Tehachapi Prison

Mae Stockdale was born as Mabel Lillian Ulness on 21 Nov 1899 in Walcott, North Dakota, to Martin Oleson Ulness (1869-1951) & Christine Julianna Jacobson (1877-1914).

She married Tom Millard Stockdale by the 1920's. They are living in Nevada, CA. In the 1920 census.




Inmate: #56388 San Quentin Prison
Rec: 10 July 1934
Crime: Robbery 1st Degree
Term: 1-Life







Arrested 6 May 1934 Stockton Jail for robbery, gave her name as Jane Doe Lewis.


She and her husband were divorced by the time she committed this crime with James B O'Neal a habitual criminal. She had a 9 year old daughter Avis Yvonne Stockdale (1921-2015).

Here's a couple newspaper clippings on their crime. James B O'Neal and Mae hopped into a taxi cab in Sacramento and James held a knife to the driver who was Carl Morlath, and made him drive to Stockton, CA. They threw him out of the cab and drove off with it getting caught later that day.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47117869/mae-stockdale/


https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47121404/james-b-oneal/




After her lock up in San Quentin, she was transferred to the new women's prison, Tehachapi Prison in Kern County, CA. She got there and they hadn't even distributed her prison grab before she had escaped through a bathroom window.

Escape #1 newspaper article:

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47118523/mae-stockdale/

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47117766/mae-stockdale/

She then asks to paroled



https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47117824/mae-stockdale/


Escape #2 Newspaper article: 

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47117180/mae-stockdale/



Escape #3 Newspaper article:



https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47117733/mae-stockdale/

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47117191/mae-stockdale/

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47117651/mae-stockdale/


After her 3rd attempt to escape they send her to a asylum for evaluation.






                   1935                                                



After all this things are quiet for Mae and then in 1938 she shows up in the papers again for escape #4.




James B. O'Neal



Inmate: #19244 Folsom Prison
Rec: 26 July 1934
Crime: Robbery 1st Degree
Term: Life
Paroled: 27 Nov 1946
He is married

Previous convictions:



Inmate: #13069 Folsom Prison
Rec: 19 Apr 1924
Crime: Robbery 2nd Degree
Age: 48

Prior convictions:

Inmate: #513 Montana State Prison 
Crime: Murder

Inmate: #1519 Nevada State Prison

James was born 10 May 1876 in Montgomery, AL he died 30 Nov 1948, he was a Miner in 1934 and a rancher in 1924. I didn't find any other information on him.

I didn't find out when Mae was released from prison but she did go back to Grass Valley, CA, where she lived a long life with her daughter and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She played the guitar and harmonica. She sewed and made hats.

Mae died at age 92 on 2 Sep 1992



She was from North Dakota, my home state, a beautiful and friendly place. I am happy the rest of her days were filled with love and freedom. I am sure you all thinking the same thing I am, why was she with him?



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