However, he escaped while enroute from Parris Island to the Portsmouth Naval Prison in Kittery, Maine,[7] and by 1922 had changed his name to Edward LaRue and was running a downtown lunch counter in Burlington, Iowa.

[10] In February 1930, Doll, still using the alias Eddie LaRue, was arrested in Galesburg, Iowa, and taken to Peoria, Illinois, where he was charged with stealing and transporting an automobile across state lines, a violation of the federal law popularly known as the Dyer Act.

[11] According to the article, authorities also suspected LaRue (officials claimed that "Doll" was the alias) of leading a gang that had stolen from several area post offices.

Other criminal activities Doll confessed to in a week-long, 1934 interview with FBI officials included dealings with Chicago crime boss Al Capone, membership in the College Kidnappers gang, the 1930 Lincoln National Bank robbery, other bank robberies in Texas, Mississippi and Washington State, and the January 1932 kidnapping of Howard Woolverton.

Doris, meanwhile, threatened with a charge of harboring a fugitive, convinced the FBI she had no knowledge of her husband's crimes and was released after a few days in custody.

[7] Immediately upon completing his term for car theft in 1940, Doll was transported to Massachusetts to stand trial for the 1933 robbery of the Crocker National Bank in Turners Falls.