Cadle was actually somewhat better off than most. Richard Dale Cadle was born July 21, 1915 in Sheridan, Wyoming. His family was originally from Iowa, where Richard’s grandfather was a postmaster and successful attorney. A considerable block of the family had moved west around 1906. They settled in Sheridan, where Richard’s father and an uncle were clerks for the railway company. Just before World War I, the two brothers, now both with large families, resettled in Washington state. By 1920, they were living in Seattle, and were still there for the 1930 census.
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| Richard Cadle. Seattle Times (February 18, 1938). |
In late 1934, Richard married Lucille May Munday, and they had a daughter, Barbara Marie, a year later. At the time, at least ten close Cadle relatives and in-laws were listed in the Seattle City Directory. That included Richard’s grandmother, who had moved to Seattle after her husband died in 1920. He thus had a large family support group, and he and an older brother found work at the Community Garage, located about a half mile north of the King County Courthouse. Richard’s brother was an auto mechanic, while he was a “floor man.” Thus, Richard had to be there to greet customers who needed to drop their cars off before they went to work. That, unfortunately, made him a target.
The two who targeted him were James R. Lewis and Floyd O. Grable. Despite extensive research, very little is known about Lewis. He said he was born around 1911, in Oklahoma. However, his name is common enough that neither statement can be reliably verified. He also said he was in Clifton, Arizona, in 1935. The town’s economy was based almost entirely on nearby copper ore beds, so Lewis probably had a job in the mines.
Oddly enough, Grable was also working at an Arizona copper mining town in 1935. Floyd Oren Grable was born November 1, 1907 in Vallejo, California. The family was originally from Missouri, but claimed a remote homestead in Oregon, about 50 miles southwest of Pendleton, in 1891. Floyd’s father married the year before he was born, but available records do not say where. Another boy was born in Vallejo in September 1910. Sadly, Floyd’s mother mysteriously disappeared from their home on the evening of June 2, 1911 … and was never heard from again. Then, two years later, his father was killed in a train wreck about a mile north of Vallejo.
Floyd and his brother returned to live with their grandparents at the family homestead in Oregon. He enrolled at Oregon State College (now University) in 1926. The college yearbook for 1929 listed him as the Treasurer for the class that was to graduate in 1930. However, the Great Crash of 1929 ended his dream of a college education. He then enlisted in the U.S. Army and was assigned to duty in the Philippines. He returned to the U.S. in early 1932 and was discharged. After that, like so many others, he sought work where he could find it.
Thus, Floyd was in Miami, Arizona, in 1935, probably working in the copper mines there. And copper was doing well, although output was still below pre-Crash levels. Production increased the following year and the early part of 1937. Then, for reasons that are disputed even now, the U.S. suffered a recession within the Depression. That pullback wiped out the gains of the previous two years, as over a million production jobs were lost. In Arizona, copper companies laid off over a thousand workers in October alone.
There is no way to be sure that Grable or Lewis were still in Arizona when the recession hit. Nor do we know how the two met. However, they were together – and unemployed – in Mullan, Idaho, in early 1938. In February, they drove west into Washington. (It was never clear who owned the car.) They were almost totally broke. In Spokane, Floyd went off on his own and robbed a service station. He netted just $15, and ended up exchanging gunshots with the attendant as he fled. The two arrived in Seattle on February 14, but were unable to find work.
Four days later, down to perhaps ten cents between them, they desperately went on a robbery spree. Some time after midnight they held up a hotel office and then, about 3:30 in the morning, a garage attendant. They drove up to the Community Garage shortly before 5 o’clock, and asked Richard Cadle if they could use the telephone. When they entered the garage office, Grable waved his .32-caliber pistol and demanded money from the cash register. Richard handed over everything, all of $2.25.
Here, the stories diverge. Richard told police that the bandits were angry about the small take and ordered him to the back. He complied, although he feared they were going to shoot him. When he hesitated after a few steps, Grable shot him. Grable later claimed that he was just nervous and “the gun went off” accidentally. The robbers hurriedly fled. Richard, hit in the arm and stomach, staggered to the phone and called a friend at another garage two blocks down the street. The friend rushed him to the hospital, where Richard told his story to an officer before becoming incoherent from loss of blood.
Police had good descriptions of both robbers and their vehicle, and the two were soon captured. They immediately confessed and expressed the hope that the wounded man was going to be all right. But that was not to be. Despite blood transfusions from two of his brothers, Richard died the following evening.
Grable and Lewis went on trial for first degree murder on May 16. Prosecutors said they would not frame their case in terms of any specific penalty. They would leave the choice between the death penalty or life imprisonment strictly up to the jury. Since their clients had confessed, the defense sought mainly to insure that neither was sentenced to die. Thus, they emphasized how hard up and desperate the two were, something that would surely resonate with most members of the jury. They also pointed out that neither man had any known criminal record.
Newspapers gave no details of the testimony offered by criminologist Luke S. May. Police had found the death weapon in the bandit’s car, so its identity was not really in question. May probably verified that in passing, and then assessed the shooting scenarios – accidental or deliberate – based on the bullet trajectory and blood spatter evidence. The jury took about four hours to deliver the guilty verdict, and recommend life imprisonment for both.
In the summer of 1950, the state Parole Board recommended a “conditional pardon” for James Lewis. The warden noted that he had performed “outstanding service” as a trusty in the maintenance department of the prison. The governor agreed, and his decree even called it an “earned pardon.” The news report said that it was “one of the few ever granted by any governor” for someone “convicted of first degree murder.” James returned to Texas with his father, who said he planned to “establish the son in the service station business.”
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| Floyd Grable. The Beaver, OSU Yearbook, 1929. |
Significantly, Floyd Grable is listed in the 1951 City Directory for Pendleton, Oregon, as a grower for a flower nursery. It’s not mentioned in any available newspaper, but it appears that Lewis’s good behavior earned his partner in crime at least a parole. Floyd got married in 1956 and lived in Pendleton until his death in 1997.
Richard Cadle’s widow, Lucille, lived alone with their daughter until early 1942. She then married Malcolm Andresen, an inspector for the Washington state highway department. Malcolm tried to enter the Army, but was apparently turned down. Lucille and Malcom had two sons, Larry and Donald. In 1953, seventeen-year-old daughter Barbara Marie Cadle married a young man in Seattle. One wonders if the bride perhaps felt some element of sorrow that her natural father wasn’t there to give her away. Lucille died in August 1988, after a long struggle with cancer.
| References: Census records, city directory listings, and other genealogical sources were consulted extensively. Online sources included Ancestry.com and others. |
| “[Cradle-Gable-Lewis Background],” San Francisco Call, California; Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Arizona Star, Tucson, Arizona; Seattle Times, Washington (June 4, 1911) – (June 2, 1950). |
| [Cradle Murder and Trial]” Seattle Times, Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Washington (February 18, 1938) – (May 21, 1938). |
| Brian Duignan (ed.), The Great Depression, Britannica Educational Publishing, New York, New York (2013). |
| Luke S. May, Luke S. May Papers, Special Collections, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington (1969). |
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