GRAFTON, Ohio—It’s Valentine’s Day, but for one inmate, it’s also his birthday. At age 81, he’s one of the oldest men imprisoned in Ohio.

Frank Sprenz is known to be studious and soft-spoken, but he’s also a reputed bank robber, car thief, and killer.

On Sept. 25, 1995, he instigated the murders of two women. Kay Westfall, 36, and Jessica Bittner, 15, perished in a house fire that was purposely set by two of Sprenz's henchmen.

Westfall and her roommate Jackie Wright worked as prostitutes at his massage parlor. Wright began keeping records which worried Sprenz who in turn paid two men $300 to set their house ablaze.

Wright escaped the fire, but Westfall and Bittner were trapped inside. Sprenz was convicted of two counts of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated burglary, and sentenced to 35-75 years.

His criminal career began when he began stealing cars while in the Army during the post-WWII years.

In April 1958, the Akron-native led a five-man jailbreak from an Ohio jail, and subsequently landed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List in Sept.

He was dubbed the “Flying Bank Bandit,” in 1959, after he robbed a Hamilton bank, drove a stolen car to the airport, commandeered a small plane, and flew away. “I did enjoy being up in the air, the feeling of it,” he stated.

After being arrested in Mexico, he was handed a 25-year term.

He was directly committed to Alcatraz on June 25, 1959. Inmate number 1414-AZ, served nearly four years on the island, and was on the last chain out when the prison closed in 1963.

He was released in 1971, but remained in trouble throughout the decade. 

Sprenz has been incarcerated in Grafton Correctional Institution since his 1996 conviction. “I have also written an unpublished novel about my time on Alcatraz,” he said.

He has a parole hearing in Sept. 2012.

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