Nevada State Prison Inmate Case Files
Ferdinand A. Bourdlais
Ferdinand Bourdlais was executed at the Nevada State Prison on April 23, 1954. He had escaped from the Wisconsin State Prison in 1948 and, in May of 1952, he and an associate decided to travel east from Los Angeles by robbing people. The duo was picked up outside San Bernardino, California on May 20 by Ward Budzien, with five other hitch hikers already in the car. Outside Las Vegas, Bourdlais informed the other hitch hikers of his intent to rob Budzien. Three hitch hikers left the vehicle, wanting no part of the robbery, but two others accompanied Bourdlais and his associate. The group drove to the outskirts of Henderson, Nevada where Bourdlais robbed and murdered Budzien, burying the body in the desert. When the five returned to Las Vegas, the three hitch hikers fled and Bourdlais was arrested. Bourdlais, a native of Marinette, Wisconsin, was twenty-seven at the time of his death.
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