Ray Renard
In 1923, Ray Renard was sent to prison after being arrested 138 times for mail theft, burglary, purse snatching, freight theft, payroll theft, bank robbery, and shoplifting. In 1925, he relayed his life story to journalists to better understand the causes of his life of crime.
Renard's Early Life
Ray Renard began criminal activity at an early age. His father died when he was nine, leaving his mother to care for him and his three younger sisters. At the age of 13, he began working in the peters Shoe Factory in St. Louis, Missouri, giving all his earnings to his mother. One day, while working in the factory, a factory inspector approached him and said he was too young to work, forcing him to leave his only means of financial security.
By 14, he had landed a job as a terminal messenger boy, determined to keep helping his family. he stayed in the position for two years then moved to driving a coal wagon, where he met Ernest Miller, a young cook. According to Renard, meeting Miller was his undoing, and his life of crime was to begin at the ripe age of 16.
Early Career of Crime
Miller had asked Renard to go fishing. While traveling to the location, Renard committed his first crime. Together, the two boys snatched a woman's purse while traveling on a streetcar. Over the next few weeks, Miller slowly introduced Renard to the life of petty crime.
As time went on, Renard joined the Egan Rats gang under William "Dint" Colbeck and engaged in dirtier crimes. Each time he was arrested, he was never phased, and would immediately be on to the next way of making easy money upon release. Until he was 20 years old, Renard was heavily involved in the Egan gang, until their demise in 1923. On April 2, 1923, the gang embarked on one of their greatest thefts, a mail truck containing $2 million worth of cash, bonds, and money orders.
The Mail theft to End it All
The plan went awry and resulted in a major shootout. Ten people overall would be arrested and put on trial for the robbery. All the Egan gang members that were arrested refused to speak, except for one, Ray Renard. He stood trial and confessed to the mail robbery and named those involved. In the end, he would serve seven years in federal prison, and many of his fellow gang members were convicted due to his accounts.
He spoke the following year while serving time to explain how he ended up with 138 convictions by the age of 20. Renard was pardoned by Calvin Coolidge and moved to Hollywood to open a tire shop. When the crime wave hit the big screens, he sold his business and became a "crime technician" for motion pictures, where he spent the remainder of his career.
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