Charles Arthur " Pretty Boy " Floyd (February 3, 1904 - October 22, 1934) was an American bank robber. He operated in the Midwest and West South Central States, and his criminal exploits gained extensive press coverage in the 1930s. Like several other prominent criminals of the time, he was pursued and killed by a group led by Melvin Purvis. Historians have speculated on who the officer is at the event, local or FBI: accounts known to document that local officers Robert "Pete" Pyle and George Curran were present in their fatal shootings as well as on embalming. Floyd continues to be a familiar figure in American popular culture, sometimes regarded as famous, but also at other times seen as a tragic figure, partly the victims of the hard times of the Great Depression in the United States.
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Charles Arthur Floyd was born in Bartow County, Georgia, in 1904. His family moved to Akins, Oklahoma in 1911, and he grew up there. As a young man, he spends a lot of time in Kansas, Arkansas, and nearby Missouri.
Maps Pretty Boy Floyd
Life crime
Floyd was first arrested at the age of 18 after stealing $ 3.50 coins from the local post office. Three years later he was arrested for a salary robbery on September 16, 1925 at St. Louis, Missouri and was sentenced to five years in prison. He served three and a half years before being released on parole.
When released, Floyd swears that he will never see the inside of another prison. Going into partnership with more established criminals in the underworld of Kansas City, he conducted a series of bank robberies over the next few years; during this period he earned the nickname "Pretty Boy." The nickname was given to him by Orville Drake, because when he worked in the oil field he would wear a white shirt and long clothes to work on. The guys on the rig started calling him "Pretty Boy" which later turned into "Pretty Boy Floyd." According to one account, when a payroll master targeted in a robbery described three perpetrators to the police, he referred to Floyd as "a mere boy - a beautiful boy with an apple cheek." Like his contemporary Baby Nelson face, Floyd hates his nickname.
In 1929, Floyd was sought in many cases. On March 9, he was arrested in Kansas City under investigation, and again on May 6 to vandalize and be suspected of robbery on the highway, but he was released the following day. Two days later, he was arrested in Pueblo, Colorado, and accused of vandalizing. He was fined $ 50.00 and sentenced to 60 days in prison.
Floyd, under the alias "Frank Mitchell," was arrested in Akron, Ohio, on March 8, 1930, accused of investigating the killing of an Akron police officer who was killed in a robbery that night. The next law followed with Floyd in Toledo, Ohio, where he was arrested on suspicion on May 20, 1930. He was convicted of Ohio Ohio Bank Robbery and was sentenced on November 24, 1930, to 12-15 years in Ohio state prison. , but he ran away.
Floyd is a suspect in the deaths of the Kansas City brothers Wally and Boll Ash, who are rum runners. They were found dead in a burning car on March 25, 1931. A month later on April 23, members of his gang killed Patrolman R. H. Castner from Bowling Green, Ohio. On July 22, Floyd kills federal agent Curtis C. Burke in Kansas City, Missouri.
In 1932, former sheriff Erv Kelley of McIntosh County, Oklahoma, was killed while attempting to capture Floyd on 7 April. In November of that year, three members of Floyd's gang attempted to rob Farmers and Merchant Banks in Boley, Oklahoma. Although his life was full of crime, Floyd was viewed positively by the general public. When he robbed the bank, he allegedly damaged the mortgage documents, but this was never confirmed and possibly a myth. He is often protected by Oklahoma locals, who call him "Robin Hood of the Cookson Hills".
Kansas City Massacre
Floyd and Adam Richetti became the main suspects on June 17, 1933, a firefight known as the "Kansas City massacre" that resulted in the deaths of four law enforcement officers. Although J. Edgar Hoover used the incident as ammunition to further empower the FBI to pursue Floyd, historians were divided on whether he was involved or not. Another more likely suspect was a member of the gang of Sol Weismann, who resembled Floyd. Floyd firmly denies his involvement in this failure (apparently a failed attempt to free bank robber Frank Nash, who is in police custody).
The clash was an attack by Vernon Miller and a henchman against robbers escorting Frank "Jelly" robber to a car parked at Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri. Two Kansas City, Missouri, officers, Detective William Grooms and Patrolman Grant Schroder, McAlester, Oklahoma Otto Reed's Chief of Police, and FBI Special Agent Ray Caffrey were killed. Nash was also killed while he was sitting in the car, shot in the head by his potential rescuer. Two other Kansas City police officers survived by slumping forward in the backseat and pretending to be dead. When gunmen checked the car, another officer responded from the station and fired at them, forcing them to flee. Miller was found dead on November 27, 1933 outside Detroit, Michigan, being beaten and strangled.
Floyd and Richetti are thought to have become Miller's accomplices. Factors that weighed on them included their presence in Kansas City at the time, the identification of eyewitnesses (which had been contested), Richetti's fingerprints were said to have been rediscovered from beer bottles in Miller's hideout, a bottom-world account that named Floyd and Richetti as armed men , and Hoover's firm advocacy for their mistakes. Fellow bank robber Alvin Karpis, a Floyd acquaintance, claims that Floyd claimed to be involved with him. On the other side of this problem, the bandits who allegedly had Floyd should have been injured by a shot to the shoulder in the attack, and Floyd's body showed no signs of this injury when examined later. The underworld accounts that identify Floyd and Richetti as murderers offset by the same underlying world account can not reliably proclaim innocence or identify others. The Floyd family argues that while Floyd acknowledged many other crimes, he vehemently rejected his involvement in this, as did Richetti. It has also been argued that this crime would be inconsistent with Floyd's other criminal acts, as he is not known as a rented gun or (especially) a hit man.
Shortly after the attack, Kansas City police received a postcard dated June 30, 1933, from Springfield, Missouri, which read: "Respectfully - I - Charles Floyd - I want to know that I did not participate in the Kansas City police massacre. The police department believes the records are genuine. Floyd has also reportedly denied involvement in the massacre of FBI agents who have wounded him fatally. In addition, a recent book on massacre attributes at least several murders with friendly shots by a lawyer unfamiliar with his weapon, based on a ballistic test.
Death
On July 23, 1934, after the death of John Dillinger, "Pretty Boy" Floyd was named Public Enemy. On October 22, 1934 Floyd was shot in a cornfield behind a house on Sprucevale Road between Beaver Creek State Park in East Liverpool, Ohio, while being chased by local law enforcement officers and FBI agents led by Melvin Purvis. Different accounts about who shot him and the way he was killed.
Having escaped from the ambush by FBI agents and other law enforcement agencies several times after the Kansas City Massacre, Floyd suffered bad luck. On October 18, 1934, he and Richetti left Buffalo, New York, and their vehicle slid into a telephone pole in a thick fog. No one was hurt, but the car was disabled. Afraid they would be recognized, Floyd and Richetti sent two female friends to get a tow truck; they planned for the women to accompany the tow truck driver to town and fix the vehicle, while the two men waited by the side of the road.
After dawn on October 19, motorcyclist Joe Fryman and his son-in-law walked by, watching two men in suits by the side of the road. Feeling suspicious, he told Wellsville, Ohio, Chief Constable John H. Fultz. Three officers, including Fultz, were investigated. When Richetti saw the lawmen, he fled to the forest, chased by two officers, while Fultz went towards Floyd. Floyd immediately withdrew his gun and fired, and he and Fultz fought each other in a shootout, in which Fultz was injured in the leg. After wounding Fultz, Floyd fled into the woods. Two other officers sought the help of a local retired police officer Chester K. Smith, who had been a sniper during World War I, and then arrested Richetti. Floyd remained on the run, living off fruit, traveling on foot, and quickly getting tired.
There are at least three accounts of the following events: provided by the FBI, one by another in the area, and one by local law enforcement. The accounts agreed that, after getting some food in the local pool hall owned by his friend Charles Joy, Floyd rode in an East Liverpool neighborhood on October 22, 1934. He was found by a team of lawyers, at which point he broke. from the vehicle and flee to the trees. The local retired clerk Chester Smith fired first, hitting Floyd on his right arm, dropping him to the ground. At this point, all three accounts are different; FBI agents then tried to claim all credits, denying local law enforcement even present at the shootings. According to local police reports, Floyd regained his footing and kept running, at which point the entire team opened fire, dropping it to the ground. Floyd died of his injuries not long after.
According to the FBI, four FBI agents, led by Purvis, and four members of the East Liverpool Police Department, headed by Chief Hugh McDermott, were looking for areas south of Clarkson, Ohio, in two separate cars. They see a car moving from behind the corn bed, and then move back. Floyd then got out of the car and took a.45 caliber pistol, and the FBI agents opened fire. Floyd reportedly said: "I'm done, you hit me twice."
Years later, Chester Smith, Liverpool Police Captain and retired Liverpool sharpshooter, described a different occurrence in a 1979 interview for TIME magazine. Smith, who is credited with firing Floyd first, declares that he deliberately injures, but does not kill, Floyd. He added: "I know Purvis can not hit him, so I dropped him with two shots from my.32 Winchester rifle." According to Smith's report, after being injured, Floyd fell and did not regain his footing. Smith then disarmed Floyd's weapon. At that point, Purvis ran and ordered: "Withdraw from that man, I want to talk to him." Purvis asked Floyd for a moment, and after receiving a curse, the reply ordered Herman's agent "Ed" Hollis to "fire him." Hollis then shot Floyd at close range with a sub-machine gun, killing him. The interviewer asked if there was any responsibility by the FBI, and Smith replied: "Of course, because they did not want to come out that he had been killed that way."
FBI Agent Winfred E. Hopton refuted Chester Smith's claim in a letter to editors of TIME , published in the November 19, 1979, edition in response to a Time article exploding the Myth G -Man. "He stated that he was one of four FBI agents present when Floyd was killed, on a farm a few miles from East Liverpool, Ohio.According to Hopton, a member of the Liverpool East Police department arrived only after Floyd had been seriously injured and claimed that four agents face Floyd, Floyd fires at them, and two out of four kill Floyd almost instantly.Additionally, while Smith's account says that Herman Hollis shot Floyd who was wounded on Purvis's orders, Hopton claims that Hollis is absent.Hopton also said Floyd's body was hauled back to East Liverpool in Hopton's private car.
Floyd's body was embalmed and briefly viewed at Sturgis Funeral Home in East Liverpool, Ohio, before being sent to Oklahoma. Floyd's body was placed in public in Sallisaw, Oklahoma. His funeral was attended by between 20,000 and 40,000 people and remains the largest cemetery in Oklahoma history. He is buried in Akins, Oklahoma.
Legacy
Music
"Pretty Boy Floyd"
In March 1939, five years after Floyd's death, Woody Guthrie, a native of Oklahoma, wrote a protest song that romanticized Floyd's life, called "Pretty Boy Floyd." This song has a "come-all-you" ballad opening with lines:
If you will gather around me, children, a story I will tell the Site ' About Pretty Boy Floyd, an Outlaw, Oklahoma knows her well .
The lyrics tell Floyd's generosity to the poor, and contain famous lines that compare the bankers' seizure with criminals:
Like through the world you are through, you will meet some cute men ;
Some will rob you with six pistols, and some with pens . And because all the days of your life you are traveling, yes, because all your life you are roaming ,
You will never see a criminal drive a family out of their house .
This song has been performed by many countries and folk musicians and has been recorded many times:
- Ramblin 'Jack Elliott (on Woody Guthrie's Blues 1955 album )
- Bob Dylan (at Smithsonian's 1988 Folkways: A Vision Shared (A Tribute to Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly) album).
- The Byrds (on their Sweetheart of the Rodeo album)
- Joan Baez on her 1962 album In Concert
- Melanie on her album Madrugada.
- Moriarty (on their 2013 album Fugitive)
- Guthrie's Son, Arlo Guthrie (on her Valuable Valuable partner with Pete Seeger)
- Ghost Mice (on their separate EP with Defiance, Ohio)
- The Duhks (on their album Your Daughters & Your Sons )
- Christy Moore (on her album 'Live in Dublin with Donal Lunny)
- Wall of Voodoo (on CD and cassette of their 1988 live album The Ugly Americans in Australia )
- James Taylor (at The Cities' Sampler Vol 4: Keepsakes (1992))
Floyd is also mentioned in other popular music, including
- "Messages", rap by Grandmaster Flash and Five Furious
- "Gentlemen of the Road", a song by Devils Brigade on their self-titled 2000 album
- "Will They Make Us Break the Law Again" a song by James Talley who bemoans about the economic conditions and adds, "I think I see why Pretty Boy Floyd does the things he does." Also recorded by Hazel Dickens.
"Avenging Annie"
The protagonist of Andy Pratt's 1973 song "Avenging Annie" sings his relationship with "Floyd", a "sensitive criminal" who is a killer and a thief, which causes him to have the phrase "Avenger from Oklahoma" added to his name. Pratt said that he wrote the song after listening to Woody Guthrie "The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd".
Band
- Pretty Boy Floyd (American band) the most famous glam metal band for their 1989 debut album Boyz Skin With Electric Toyz
- Pretty Boy Floyd (Canadian band) hard rock band from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- A Bullet for Pretty Boy, a metalcore band
Literature
In John Steinbeck's 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath, Ma Joad's character refers several times to Pretty Boy Floyd as a youth driven to the tragic fate of social injustice and the Great Depression:
"I know Purty Boy Floyd, I know his ma, they are good people He is full of hell, of course, like a fine child... He does bad things and 'they hurt', caught. 'I' hurt him, so he was angry, and the bad thing he did was crazy, and 'they hurt' again And soon he got angry, they shot him like a policeman and 'he shot back, and then he ran like a coyote,' he a-snappin 'an' a-snarlin ', which means lobo, and he's mad He's not a man or a man anymore, he's just a crazy fool, but people who know he does not hurt He's not angry with them drop it and kill 'im no matter what they say it's on paper how bad he is - that's it. "
Pretty Boy Floyd, the fictional story of Floyd's life by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana was published in 1995. (ISBN: 0671891650)
Comics
Dick Tracy's most famous enemy, Flattop Jones, has much in common with Pretty Boy Floyd. Flattop claims to be a freelancer of "Crookston Hills" (a parody of Cookson Hills in Oklahoma), and the comic strip references Flattop's involvement in "Kansas City Massacre."
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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