Gustave Francis Kindt was born abt. 1836 in Belgium. aka Isidore Marechal, French Gus, Frenchy.
This photo was taken May 1885 while he was doing one may terms in Sing Sing prison.
His first known crime was in 7 July 1869 He robbed the watch-case manufactory of Wheeler & Parsons, in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was sentenced to ten years. He continued several times to get clemency by filling out paperwork and was denied.
He had a wife named Eugenia and one child, a daughter named Rosalie. Gus was a widow by the 1880 census.
Here are his clemency applications:
He escaped twice from Sing Sing prison once was 1872 and once before that.
I found the following newspaper articles:
This newspaper is from 1872
1892 he was convicted of fraud in Pennsylvania
1900 he was again arrested for safecracking at age 70.
Gus was also incarcerated in a Canadian prison for 3 years for robbing a jewelry store he got away with $20,000.
Here is link for a longer article and a photo of him.
Gus invented a locking mechanism for prisons so all the doors could lock at the same time, he told the warden and Governor in Sing Sing he would hand over the patent if he got clemency, they refused. He did however get it patented. Who better than a safecracker to make a locking system for prison doors, ingenious.
Here is a video from YouTube on the History of Sing Sing Prison
Gus died 13 Nov 1910 in Philadelphia, PA.
I have no idea what happened to his daughter Rosalie, in one of his prison records it was stated his parents were living, but it did not say where they were, perhaps they raised her.
Here is my link for the podcast on Gus
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