According to relatives, their love was genuine, and in 1928 they
were married.
There was another dramatic change in Mollie’s life. She and the
Osage had fought to end the corrupt system of guardianships, and
on April 21, 1931, a court ruled that Mollie was no longer a ward of
the state: “IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND
DECREED BY THE COURT, that the said Mollie Burkhart, Osage
Allottee No. 285,...is hereby restored to competency, and the order
heretofore made adjudging her to be an incompetent person is
hereby vacated.” At forty-four, Mollie could finally spend her
money as she pleased, and was recognized as a full-fledged
American citizen.
On December 11, 1931, White was in his warden’s office when he
heard a noise. He stood and went to the door and found himself
staring into the barrel of a gun. Seven of the most dangerous
convicts—including two Al Spencer Gang members and a bandit
who was nicknamed Boxcar, because of his giant size—were
attempting to escape. The group was armed with a Winchester
rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, and six sticks of dynamite, which had
been smuggled into the prison. The convicts took White and eight
members of his staff hostage and used them as shields as they
pushed forward. Once outside the front gate, the prisoners
released the other hostages and headed out to the main road with
White—their insurance policy, as they called him. The inmates
commandeered an approaching vehicle, forced White inside, and
sped away.
White’s captors reminded him that there’d be nothing left of
him to bury if anything went wrong. Everything was going wrong.
The car slipped off the muddy road and got stuck, forcing the
prisoners to flee on foot. Soldiers from Fort Leavenworth joined