Wanted Poster for Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, Who Escaped from Prison After Dodging the Draft
- Single 9 ¼ x 12 inch sheet
- United States , 1920
United States, 1920. Single 9 ¼ x 12 inch sheet. Some marginal damage, else near fine.. Offered here is a wanted poster for the “Flashy and dramatic” Grover Cleveland Bergdoll following his escape from a military prison in 1920. Bergdoll (1893–1966) was a wealthy Philadelphian socialite, amateur racecar driver, and Wright Brothers-trained aviator. In 1917, he failed to report for military service and disappeared from public life. After his capture in 1920—he was hiding inside the Bergdoll Mansion all along—he was stripped of his citizenship and remanded to Castle Williams on Governors Island in New York City.
Not long into his five-year sentence, Bergdoll convinced military authorities to release him so that he could retrieve a stash of gold he claimed to have buried in Maryland. Back at his family’s mansion on the way to the supposed hoard, he slipped his guards and fled to Canada and then Germany. Despite several foiled kidnapping attempts, Bergdoll remained in Germany until 1939, when he returned to the United States—preceded by a wife and five children, who arrived in the US in 1935 and pled for clemency for him. Though public opinion on the Great War had shifted, Bergdoll was still reviled as a coward and a traitor. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Not long into his five-year sentence, Bergdoll convinced military authorities to release him so that he could retrieve a stash of gold he claimed to have buried in Maryland. Back at his family’s mansion on the way to the supposed hoard, he slipped his guards and fled to Canada and then Germany. Despite several foiled kidnapping attempts, Bergdoll remained in Germany until 1939, when he returned to the United States—preceded by a wife and five children, who arrived in the US in 1935 and pled for clemency for him. Though public opinion on the Great War had shifted, Bergdoll was still reviled as a coward and a traitor. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.