Pretty Boy Floyd

Come listen all you folks song fans

Who sing of Charley Floyd.

Listen of the life he led

And please don't get annoyed.

First of all, mes amis (as they would say in Sallisaw, Oklahoma), Charley¹ did not - that's not, not, NOT! - ride into the town of Shawnee with his wife beside him in a wagon where a deputy sheriff approached them in a manner rather rude using vulgar words of language which his wife she overheard and Charley grabbed a log chain and the deputy grabbed a gun and in the fight that followed he laid that deputy down.

Nope. Even as a kid Charley had long been suspected of pilfering. But the first provable case wasn't until he was nine years old. In Sallisaw, young Charley would often drop into the store of James H. Harkrider just to look around. James, though, noticed that boxes of cookies and cakes had been disappearing. So he began to mark the boxes when he restocked the shelves.

Sure enough, after one of Charley's visits, James noticed one of the boxes was gone and so he called a local policeman. They quickly caught Charley with the marked box red-handed - or rather cookie handed. After the policeman gave Charley a talking to, they let him go.

Charley usually hung out with a group of kids known for their not always nice pranks. There's the story that at a camp meeting - the old time outdoor revivals - the moms had put their babies in the bassinets in the cars and wagons while they listened to the sermon. For a lark Charley and his buddies swapped the babies, a switch that wasn't noticed until the women got home. In a day without telephones or E-mail, it took some time to sort things out.

The problem with this account - and it serves as a warning to those interested in learning about Charley's life and times - is that "switching-the-babies-at-the-camp-meeting" is an old folk tale from a number rural areas. The story involving Charley is particularly dubious since it only came to light decades later when Charley was dead, gone, and famous and after one of the other miscreants - quote - "confessed" - unquote.

Even if the baby-swapping story is true, it's easy to write off these early misdemeanors as kids just being kids (that is, unless you're one of the moms from Sallisaw). Charley could work hard. Like a lot of the kids, he would go out on the harvest, and when they got older they'd even travel to nearby states. When he was fourteen Charley went on one of these trips and when he returned the family noticed changes in his personality. It was hard to put their fingers on it, but he just wasn't the same Choc.

Certainly Charley seemed less patient with his slow rise to affluence and began looking for short cuts. But nothing really happened until he was eighteen.

On June 22, 1922, some money went missing from a store in Akins. Akins is a small community about five miles northeast of Sallisaw and was where the Floyd's had their farm.

Historians have disagreed on the exact amount that was purloined. Some say it was $350 in pennies. But that haul would have weighed over 75 pounds and would have been hard to cart off.

The other number you hear is $3.50 in pennies, nickels, and dimes. Although this is a more reasonable amount, it seems a bit low for the brouhaha it caused.

Of course, there wouldn't have been anywhere near the brouhaha it caused except that the store also happened to be the local post office. The coins were from selling stamps, and so the theft, whether $3.50 or $350, was a federal crime.

The police forces in small Oklahoma towns might be only one or two men or even less (which is also true today). So when serious crimes had to be investigated the town fathers might turn to private investigators like the Pinkerton Detective Agency out of Chicago. In those days the Pinkertons commonly investigated serious crimes rather than providing security and background checks or chasing down missing persons and adulterous husbands like many PI's do today. If the miscreants were found the detectives would then summon proper law officers to make the arrests. Supposedly that's what happened here.

With the reputation of Charley and his buddies being what it was, it wasn't hard for the Pinkertons to pin them as suspects. Some accounts have Charley going to trial and being acquitted. But others have his dad, Walter, convincing everyone that Charley was at home the night of the burglary. Whatever it was, Charley got off.

We see the problem. Even in scholarly works about Charley you read stuff like "There was a report that ...", "One report was ...", "There were several reports that ...", "There was a story about ...", "According to ...", "Rumor had it that ...", "... was reported to be ...", "... was thought to be ...", "... was supposed to have ..." So if you're looking just for the facts about the Life and Times of Pretty Boy Floyd, you have to do a lot of looking.

But what we do know is that Charles Arthur Floyd was born February 3, 1904, in - no, not Oklahoma - but in Adairsville, Georgia. Walter was a farmer, and Charley's mom, Mamie, a hardworking farmer's wife. Charley was the fourth kid out of seven, and when he was six the family pulled up stakes and settled in Oklahoma on the farm near Akins.

Akins is in the region known as the Cookson Hills. This is where the Ozark Plateau of Arkansas spills across the border into eastern Oklahoma. The land isn't really how most people picture the Ozarks. Rather than steep hills and deep hollers, the terrain is gently rolling and has good farming.

After Charley was acquitted of the post office heist, it looked like he might have learned his lesson. On June 28, 1924, just a few days after he was cleared, he married Ruby Hardgraves the daughter of a local farmer. Their son, John Dempsey Floyd, was born (wink, wink) six months later.

It would be nice for Charley to have settled down, raised a family, and become a respected citizen of eastern Oklahoma. Alas, as we know, that didn't happen.

Far from his criminal activities resulting from the hardships of the Great Depression, we see that Charley began his wayward life during the prosperous and Roaring Twenties. But whether it was the added pressure from having a family or he just liked what seemed to be the easy pickings of a little larceny, Charley soon graduated from the small time burglaries for a few bucks into really serious crimes. He and his accomplices - Charley never worked alone - began holding up, not banks which held the mortgages of the local farmers, but filling stations and grocery stores. Despite the risks, as far as Charley was concerned, crime was paying well enough.

It was in the town, St. Louis,

Charley thought he'd have a hoot.

He's rob a Kroger grocery store

And make off with the loot.

His luck ran out in 1925. Charley and two friends, Joseph Hlavaty and Fred Hilderbrand, drove a stolen car to St. Louis. They began robbing stores of the Kroger chain picking up their usual haul of a few hundred bucks per job. But at one store the bank had just dropped off the payroll². Charley and the others came in and took away over $10,000. Then they hopped a train³ back to Oklahoma, fully satisfied with their efforts.

Charley spent the dough on fancy duds

And booze and high class gals.

But the cops that knew he was poor

And so were all his pals.

One rule for crooks is you never throw ill-gotten cash around where you live. Soon the local police noticed Charley and his buddies were driving new cars and wearing expensive clothes. They were picked up for questioning but explained they had just worked hard at the harvest.

At Choc's home they found the cash

They traced to Kroger's bank.

The cops had known they smelled a rat

And now it really stank.

Unfortunately what Charley couldn't explain was why some of the bills from the harvest were bundled in packets labeled the Tower Grove Bank of St. Louis. This, of course, was who handled the Kroger payroll.

Here we get the most likely story of how Charley got the sobriquet "Pretty Boy". During the investigation the Kroger payroll manager had said "The fellow who carried the gun was a mere boy - a pretty boy with apple cheeks". So the cops started talking about "Pretty Boy"⁴. Although Charley hated the monicker, it was a heck of a lot better than "Apple Cheeks" Floyd.

Charley went before the judge,

With alibis rather sparse.

So in Jeffers City pen

He landed on his arse.

A jury quickly convicted all three men of armed robbery and sentenced them to five years in the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. On December 18, 1925, Charley started serving his time.

Although it had its faults, Jeff City was by no means the worst prison in the country. Blanche Barrow of the "Bonnie and Clyde" gang found that she was treated fairly and even kindly and that there was an emphasis on rehabilitation. Nor did Charley suffer extreme abuse such as you would find in the more notorious penitentiaries. In 2004 the prison shut down and is now - like many other famous but no-longer-used prisons - a tourist attraction⁵.

Charley was seen as a cooperative and intelligent prisoner, who did his assigned jobs well. He was certainly no troublemaker, but was quiet and kept to himself.

That doesn't mean he was a model prisoner, and once he was caught with narcotics. But even this infraction landed him no more than the surprisingly lenient penalty of 60 days deducted from his "good time" sentence reduction⁶. Later he lost another 60 days good time for hitting a guard. Again this seems quite lenient considering that in the infamous "Devil's Island" in French Guiana, striking a guard would get you the death penalty⁷.

Charley was released on March 7, 1929 after a bit over three years. But he couldn't just go back to Oklahoma and pick up his life as if nothing had happened. Three months earlier, Ruby had filed divorce proceedings. Charley, no doubt feeling remorseful, didn't argue and Ruby kept custody of Jackie.

With no family to support and now a convicted felon, Charley headed toward Kansas City. The town was largely run by the Thomas Pendergast political machine, which some like to point out was the organization that helped future President Harry Truman kick off his political career.

In KC the line between lawmaker and lawbreaker was fine and fuzzy and a number of Tom's associates were involved in, well, unusual activities. Among the gentlemen of non-standard occupations was John Lazia who helped keep the town well stocked in liquor.

Of course, from 1918 to 1933 manufacturing, transporting, and selling booze was illegal. But generous tips to the local gendarmerie helped insure a smoothly running business. Although Kansas City wasn't quite like St. Paul, Saratoga, or Hot Springs - cities which for all practical purposes had seceded from the Union - it was a cozy town for criminals. You just had to make sure you weren't chintzy and greased the right palms.

For some reason, though, Charley didn't quite get it. He was constantly harassed by the police. Usually it was just being hauled to the station house and being questioned for some suspicious activity. If there weren't enough suspicious activities around, the cops would charge him with vagrancy.

Although Charley was usually released in a few hours, it kept up day after day and he was convinced he was being targeted simply for being an ex-con. The truth is if he had just had forked over a few bucks here and there he probably would have been left alone.

Then in November Charley's dad, Walter, was killed during an argument with a local man named Jim Mills. There had been a dispute at Mills's store about who owned a pile of wood. After Walter walked out, Mills followed behind and shot him.

Charley returned to Oklahoma for his dad's funeral and attended the trial. Mills claimed Walter had pulled a knife and he thought Walter was leaving to get a gun. He pled self defense, and the jury agreed. Then after his acquittal, Mills disappeared. Few people had any doubt what had happened.

At this point, some accounts maintain Charley returned to Kansas City where he was hired as a "torpedo" by the Kansas City mob. One of his alleged assignments was to get rid of Burt Haycock, one of Kansas City's best (and most honest) detectives, and Burt was soon ambushed from a moving car. Fortunately, Burt wasn't injured and he identified Charley as the shooter.

With Kansas City now too hot for comfort, Charley began expanding his interests east and settled in Akron, Ohio, along with James Bradley and Nathan King, two of the ex-cons he knew from Jeff City. A couple of others filled out the gang. To cover his tracks, Charley began going by the name Frank Mitchell, and in early 1930, the gang began robbing banks around Toledo.

The group was rather loose and didn't always operate together. On March 8, 1930, James and Nathan were waiting in a car for a couple of - ah - "lady friends" to show up. One of the girls was well known to the police and after they climbed in, James made some rather careless maneuvers and crashed into another car.

Patrolman Harland Manes was walking by on his beat and ran up to investigate. Then for some reason, James pulled his gun and shot Harland. He sped off but not before getting wounded himself.

Harland was taken to the hospital where it was clear he wouldn't live. Naturally a massive manhunt was launched. The two ladies had jumped from the car and caught a cab. But the driver was able to give the police enough information to track them down. During the search the police found a phone number that led them to the gang's hideout.

James was found wounded and bleeding in his room. After peeking under the bed, one of the officers reached down and pulled "Frank Mitchell" out into the open.

At first Charley gave his alias and said he was just a young and foolish kid and this was his first involvement with bad company. The police almost believed him until further investigation revealed that the young nineteen year old baby-faced Frank Mitchell was really the twenty-six year old ex-con Charles Arthur "Pretty Boyd" Floyd.

Then came the day that circumstance

Made poor Charley shiver.

That's when a tough Ohio judge

Sent him up the river.

The gang was suspected of multiple bank robberies and everyone was identified with enough certainty to garner convictions. That included Charley and he was sentenced to fifteen years in the Ohio State Penitentiary at Columbus.

On the road to the Ohio pen

Charley's lot looked mighty bleak.

But don't you ever trust a con

Not even to take a leak.

But Charley had no intention of going gently into that good hoosegow. He first attempted an escape at the local jail but was immediately nabbed. Then while on the train in route to Columbus and with only ten miles to go, he said he had to take a welcome break.

Because of the cramped accommodation Charley was allowed into the convenience by himself. But although the door was left open it only took a moment of inattention for the guard to notice the window had been smashed and Charley was gone.

Charley knew for big time crooks

A reckon would arrive.

So he swore there was no man

To take him while alive.

From then on and until 1934, Charley's itinerary is uncertain, confused, and often hypothetical. What is certain is that he continued as a bank robber and operated with a number of partners.

Their modus was for one of the gang to stay in the car and keep the engine running. Charley and the others would enter the bank and order everyone to put up their hands. They'd then grab whatever cash they could. For their getaway they'd take a couple of hostages and sometimes make them climb onto the running boards as human shields. None of the hostages were ever harmed and would be released as soon as Charley saw they had shaken any pursuit.

It may not have been that every crime in Oklahoma was added to Charley's name, but a heck of a lot 'em were. Each year Oklahoma had anywhere from thirty to sixty bank robberies and there's no way Charley could have been been guilty of them all. On November 7, 1932, two banks were held up - one in Marlow and the other in Henryetta - and Charley was identified as being at both. The trouble is Marlow is 125 miles southwest of Henryetta and the banks were robbed about 15 minutes apart. Charley could drive fast, yes, but not that fast⁸.

Not every crime but quite a few

Were charged to that outlaw.

But one we're sure that he pulled off

Was the bank at Sallisaw.

One of Charley's robberies where the identification is pretty much certain was on November 1, 1932. Charley had decided to take a trip back home to Sallisaw and why not rob the bank while he was there?

Charley found a new partner in George Birdwell, an Oklahoma native who thought bank robbing would pay better than dirt farming. With former minor league shortstop Aussie Elliot driving, Charley and George entered the bank at 11:30 a. m. A number of the customers knew Charley personally so there's no chance of mistaken identity. Charley and George took the assistant cashier hostage and as usual released him once they were in the clear.

Not long after he began robbing banks, Charley got back in touch with Ruby. From then on he would spend extended time with her and Jackie, although he didn't neglect his other girlfriends (to Ruby's chagrin). Jackie remembered a kind and loving father who brought him gifts and took time to play with him. Ruby, we should point out, has been described as "feisty" and was not particularly cooperative when law officers stopped by to ask about Charley's whereabouts.

Years later one of Charley's nephews discounted that his uncle was a later day Robin Hood, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. Charley would certainly stop at farms while on the run and he was polite and yes, he would pay the farmers for their troubles. Although the honorarium wasn't a thousand dollar bill left underneath his napkin, it could be $20 to $50, goodly sums in the 1930's Depression.

On the other hand when Charley was hiding on a farmstead, he allowed no one to leave, and so was holding everyone in hostage - in polite hostage, yes, but hostage nevertheless. Instead of protecting a benefactor of the poor and the weak, the farmers' reticence in cooperating with the police was mostly just fear.

Nor is there any indication that during the robberies he would tear up farm mortgages. Besides the fact that there is nothing in the reports of any such activity, if you're robbing a bank, you just don't have the time. Certainly Charley never paid a farmer's mortgage and saved their little home.

Charley said to everyone

'Twas from the rich he took.

Then came the day he blew it all

And was just another crook.

Nevertheless there is truth that the poorer citizens harbored some admiration for Charlie. True, he may not have reallocated his loot to the poor, but he was quick to point out that he only took from the monied men. Still for many any remnant of Charley as a semi-Robin Hood came to an end on April 9, 1932.

Ervin A. Kelly - "Erv" to his many friends - was a former sheriff of Macintosh County and had been hired as a special agent to help apprehend Charley. Erv had a successful career in nabbing dangerous criminals. Usually accompanied by his pet chow, he knew the country and he brought the men in alive.

With eight deputies along, Erv had staked out Ruby's home in Tulsa and when she went out on April 8, he and another officer followed her to a farm about ten miles to the south. They were sure Ruby was off to meet Charley and planned to be there when he showed up.

Well-armed with rifles, shotguns, and even a Tommy gun, Erv and the other blocked off the farm's venues of entrance and egress and waited. By two-thirty the next morning they had almost decided Charley was going to be a no-show when a car drove up going rather fast particularly since the lights were doused.

The car stopped at the gate. Here - yes - there are different accounts as to what happened. One is that, Erv, armed with the Tommy gun and determined to take Charley alive, stepped up and ordered the men to surrender. Another is that the car turned on its lights, revealing Erv and two others.

But what is not in dispute is that bullets spat from the car and hit Erv in the legs, arm, and the side. He managed to fire a burst from the Tommy gun as the car sped backwards and turned around to make its getaway. Erv died almost at once.

Here there's not much doubt - at least to historians - that Charley was one of the men in the car. After all, a car with armed men showing up after midnight where Ruby happened to be and who resisted arrest with deadly force could have held no one else. The other occupant was presumably George Birdwell although Charley would later say he never knew the man.

Erv was a well-respected lawman, both by his fellow professionals and the citizens. Charley no longer seemed an adventurous figure thumbing his nose at the big bankers and the government. Instead he was a common criminal and a brutal killer.

Ruby scarcely helped his standing. When a reporter told Ruby that Charley had killed Erv, she shrugged it off.

"Well," she said, "that's fine. Was anyone else hurt?"

"No, no one," the reporter replied.

"Too bad," Ruby flipped. She claimed she had never made plans to meet Charley.

In one movie we see "Pretty Boy" expressing remorse to his younger brother about the lawmen he had killed. They were just doing their jobs, he said. So he steered his kid brother away from joining his life of crime.

That's Pretty Boy talking. But what about Charley Floyd?

Charley would sometimes talk to reporters. And regarding Erv Kelly's death he simply said, "There was only one thing to do. It was either him or me. So I let him have it."

We see we should never confuse Pretty Boy Floyd of Legend and Charley Floyd of Oklahoma.

The gang spoke of their next big job,

With a whoop and a holy moly!

"There's just one thing that we can do."

"That's rob the bank at Boley!"

Looking for new funds, George suggested that the gang rob the bank at Boley about fifty miles west of Sallisaw. This was an Oklahoma community founded by African-Americans and had become largely self-sufficient and prosperous. But Charley, although at first agreeable, was concerned because George had begun hitting the bottle. Then later Charley's friends warned him away from Boley as being too dangerous.

This warning was borne out when George, C. C. Patterson, and John Glass (but sans Charley) drove into Boley and walked into the Farmers and Merchants Bank. George demanded the money in the safe, not knowing that, yes, there was money there, but also a loaded rifle.

Nor did the gang know that it was the start of hunting season and that several men were purchasing rifles and ammunition in a nearby store. Given that virtually everyone else in the buildings and homes along the road had guns at the ready, the town was not a favorable environment for would-be bank robbers.

So George was most surprised when he received not the loot from the vault but a slug from a Winchester. He stumbled outside before he collapsed.

C. C. and John fled the bank only to see a group of armed men coming their way. C. C. fell to their bullets but John managed to speed off in the car. But he had only driven a few yards before he was hit from all sides. When the car finally rolled to a stop, he was dead.

With the gang dead and gone, Charley recruited a young man named Adam Richetti as his partner. Only twenty-three years old, Adam had earlier been charged with bank robbery but had jumped bond. With gaunt features, a beak-like nose, a bad temper, a tendency to drink alcohol early and often, and a talent for drawing, Adam became the last of Charley's partners.

For the next several months, Charley, Adam, and a gang of rather loosely-defined membership continued to rob banks. Which holdups can be actually attributed to the "Pretty Boy Floyd Gang" is questionable but that they were active is not to be denied.

Complicating the matter was that other robbers were now walking into banks and announcing that everyone was being honored by a visit from Pretty Boy Floyd. Even more problematical is that sometimes an authentic robbery by Pretty Boy Floyd didn't even have Pretty Boy Floyd! Instead Charley would devise the plans but the actual robbing would be left to Adam and the others. They would divide the dough and give Charley a percentage. One newspaper called these robberies, "Floydless hold-ups".

Charley was being accused of robberies from California to Mississippi to New York. But it's thought much of the time he stuck to Oklahoma and branched to nearby states as well. Oklahoma agents had redoubled their efforts to catch Charley but he remained elusive as ever.

If Charley thought he saw a cop.

He acted quick and fast.

He'd blast 'em with a Tommy gun

With no questions asked.

We've seen that if Charley felt the least bit threatened he would shoot. But otherwise he could be amiable enough even to the lawmen. On June 16, 1933, Charley and Adam stopped for car repairs in Bolivar, Missouri where Adam's brother, Joe, lived. The owner of the garage recognized Charley and already knew Adam.

As the men were talking, in walked Jack Killingsworth, the county sheriff. At this point, Charley and Adam pulled out their guns and ordered everyone in the garage to stand next to the wall while the car was fixed. Charley and Adam then took Jack hostage, and after a rather harrowing chase by other lawmen, released him unharmed and on congenial terms.

Charley drove through old Mizzou.

While things were getting hot.

At Kansas City we now ask,

Was he there or was he not?

The greatest controversy of Charlie's career began in a town sort of far, far away and not that long, long ago. In fact the day that Charley and Adam arrived in Bolivar, federal agents arrested Frank Nash in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Frank, a former hotel employee turned bank robber, was one of the most wanted men in America. He had spent time in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester but was later sent to Leavenworth. He escaped in 1930 and had been on the lam ever since. He also liked to help his friends. Since one example of his assistance was engineering another escape from Leavenworth, Frank was sought by the Feds.

As was common for criminals who needed a rest, Frank headed toward Hot Springs where the local authorities would leave vacationing underworld figures alone. Of course, that was also one of the first places federal agents would look for a fugitive big shot, but you can't have everything.

Frank was arrested in a local cigar store without incident by Special Agents Frank Smith and Joseph Lackey, together with the police chief of McAlester, Oklahoma, Orin 'Otto' Reed. Frank was then driven to Fort Smith where they took the night train to Kansas City. Arrival time was 7:15 the next morning.

Word got out that Frank had been arrested. Soon - again as the story goes - four of Kansas city's top mobsters, Richard Galatas, Herbert Farmer, Louis "Doc" Stacci, and Frank Mulloy, decided to free Frank. For the operational level these men picked Vernon Miller, a former sheriff turned dangerous criminal, and Verne recruited Charley Floyd and Adam Richetti to help. Charley armed himself with a Tommy gun and with Vern and Adam set out on the rescue mission.

To pick up Frank the Bureau of Investigation dispatched Agent Raymond Caffrey with a car together with two (honest) Kansas City detectives, William Grooms and Frank Hermanson. As the securely handcuffed Frank was led out of the front door of Union Station, no one saw anything amiss.

Frank started to get in the back of the car, but Joseph told him to get in the front. Raymond walked to the driver's side while the other two agents and Otto climbed into the back. This arrangement was almost certainly a diversionary tactic since anyone planning a rescue would assume the prisoner would be in the rear seat sandwiched between two agents.

At this point some witnesses say two armed men ran up to the car; others said it was six. Even the agents weren't sure if it was three or four.

One of the gunmen ordered everyone to put up their hands. Instead, at least one of the agents pulled his pistol and fired, hitting one of the assailants in the shoulder.

Suddenly the car was riddled by machine gun fire plus a blast from a shotgun. Raymond Caffrey was hit and died a few hours later. Chief Reed was also killed as were both of the Kansas City detectives. James Lackey was wounded. Almost miraculously Frank Smith escaped unhurt. All in all four law officers were dead.

And Frank? Well, the central figure designated for the rescue was killed at once.

Word soon got out that the FBI had identified the villains. It was Verne, Charley, and Adam. Charley, they said, had been the one to be wounded in the shoulder.

Then Tom Higgins, the head of the Kansas City detective division, received a card postmarked June 21:

Dear Sirs:

I - Charles Floyd - want it made known that I did not participate in the massacre of officers at Kansas City.

Charles Floyd

Officially the FBI has never wavered from their stand that Verne, Charley, and Adam were the killers. The reading of the official accounts is definite and leaves no room for dispute.

But later authors have found the evidence, like so much about Charley, subject to obfusticational interpretations. Of course, none of Charley's family and friends thought he was involved in any way. And to his dying day - literally - Adam denied that he had anything to do with the killings.

Nor was the opinion of the authorities unanimous and even some federal agents didn't believe Charley was involved. Both Jack Killingsworth, who was the sheriff that Charley had kidnapped and released, and Tom Higgins, Kansas City's top detective, thought Charley was innocent. The Kansas City Massacre was just not the way Charley operated.

On the other hand surviving agents said they recognized Charley. A receptionist said she had even spoken to Pretty Boy but he had simply walked away.

On the other hand, it has to be remembered that the agents couldn't agree on how many men had been in the attack. Nor at first could they agree who was there. One eyewitness said he saw Harvey Bailey, an associate of George Barnes (who is better known as "Machine Gun" Kelly) actually wielding the Tommy gun. And one witness at first did not identify Charley and only later decided he was there.

Regardless who was there, the big shots that planned Frank's rescue could not have been pleased. It was a botched job if ever there was one and the killing of four law officers put the screws on the Kansas City underworld that no amount of payoffs or bribes could relieve. A possible indication of the upper tier mob displeasure, five months later Verne's beaten, strangled, and mutilated body was found along a road in Detroit.

Whether what followed was related to the bungled rescue or not, the next year Kansas City bootlegger John Lazia was ambushed in true gangland style. He survived for a short time and he never revealed if he knew his attackers. But the FBI carried out ballistic tests on the bullets and said that the Tommy guns that killed John were those used in the Kansas City Massacre. Of course, all this proved - assuming the tests were accurate - was there was a link with the KC mob.

For the crooks fallout from the Massacre got even worse. Congress immediately passed legislation that authorized the Bureau of Investigation agents to make arrests and also to carry personal sidearms at all times. And the government redoubled the efforts to rid the country of the Depression Era bandits.

On May 23, 1934, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were killed in Louisiana by a posse led by tough Frank Hamer. The next to fall was John Dillinger on June 22. That left Lester Gillis - "Baby Face Nelson" - as Public Enemy #1 and he didn't survive the year either⁹.

Dillinger had been killed outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago by a group of federal officers led by Special Agent in Charge Melvin Purvis. Melvin, a physically slight man with an incongruously deep and booming voice, immediately rose to national prominence. With Dillinger gone, Charley soon edged Baby Face from the Public Enemy #1 spot, and Melvin became one of the principal agents charged with his apprehension.

What surprises many a fledgling historian who digs in the FBI files about the Depression Era gangsters is how piddly the charges were. Although a gangster might have ten killings on his rap sheet, murders were almost always state crimes. At this early date, there just weren't that many federal laws to break.

As a result the Federal charges pending against Charley were surprisingly light. One was conspiracy to help free a prisoner - which carried a two year sentence - and the other was for transporting a stolen automobile across state lines - again two years. In fact, when the four gangsters who were the alleged "brains" behind the Massacre - Richard Galatas, Herbert Farmer, Doc Stacci, and Frank Mulloy - were put on trial, that's all that they could be nabbed for.

The efforts to catch Charley led to little actual progress and government documents reveal the strategy - and the frustration - of the upper echelons. The top man of what in a year would be dubbed the Federal Bureau of Investigation was John Edgar Hoover and he was getting fed up with the never ending search for Charley. So he decided to get tough on crime.

In a phone call to an agent, Edgar elaborated his philosophy:

.. we are going to kill [Floyd] if we catch him...

...if he wants to come in and surrender then he had better do that immediately or he will be killed.

Edgar reiterated these instructions in letters and memoranda:

... it would be very important for Floyd to surrender, because if he does not, he will surely be killed.

...orders are out to kill Floyd on sight ...

... if he doesn't surrender in a short time he will no doubt be killed by our men.

... if we once catch up with him, we won't take any chance of his surrendering.

Similar sentiments were written by some of the agents themselves and one agreed with Edgar that if they "knocked off" Charley it would be "a fine thing".

Now friends of Edgar will say that he was not issuing instructions, but simply stating the reality dictated by Charley himself swearing no one would take him alive. But the memos about "orders" and not taking any chance of Charley surrendering belie such benign interpretation. Probably because Edgar himself knew that his memos might cause him censure, he added a little ambiguity when he wrote on June 1934:

... of course we desired [sic] to take Floyd alive to gather information on the Kansas City Massacre."

For those who think officers should have no restrictions when apprehending criminals, they should remember that such shoot-'em'-up orders can be dangerous to the agents as well. If a machine gun toting fugitive is confronted and believes orders have been issued for his summary execution, he's not likely to say "Ah, shucks!" and throw up his hands.

In any case, the orders certainly did not put a high priority on taking Charley alive. In fact some of the rewards for delivering up a dead Charley were larger than those for Charley alive.

OK. Was Charley at the Kansas City Massacre? Well, you could write a book about it (and people have). So with a warning that many of the points are debatable here's a quick summary of at least some of the pros and cons of the opinions.

The Kansas City Massacre and Pretty Boy Floyd (Did He Or Didn't He?)
Point	Counter Point
The weapons used at the Kansas City Massacre were exactly the type preferred by Pretty Boy Floyd.	The weapons were typical for many Depression Era gangsters.
Pretty Boy Floyd was part of the Kansas City mob from way back and was promised a large payment for his help.	Charley's connection with Kansas City was tenuous and he had no motivation to help free Nash. He had other ways to raise money.
The surviving agents were well acquainted with Charley and easily recognized him.	The daughter of the Kansas City manager, Mary McElroy, was present at Union Station and saw the Massacre clearly. She denied either Floyd or Richetti were present. With Mary was her bodyguard, James Audett, and he also confirmed neither man was there.
Mary McElroy never made this claim. The story emerged only in 1954 in the "memoirs" of "Blackie" Audett who was a hardened con trying to make a buck with a book. The idea that either he or Mary were present at the Kansas City Massacre is patently absurd.	Just because James Audett was connected with the Kansas City underworld does not mean his testimony should be totally disregarded.
Fingerprints proved both Charley and Adam were with Verne Miller the night before the Massacre.	The fingerprint evidence was a single latent print of Adam taken from a beer bottle. Not only is finding only one print on a bottle suspicious in itself, but the print in evidence was suspiciously clear and did not appear to have been lifted from a rounded surface. Most suspiciously the bottle was found in a basement in a pile of bottles that were described as "dusty". How much dust could a bottle accumulate in a day or two?
Accusations of fabricating evidence is a standard ploy when solid evidence is presented. The fingerprint evidence was from the top criminal laboratory in the world using state of the art methods and not from some fly-by night basement lab.	In the 1930's the Bureau of Investigation laboratory was just being established and the test methods, including fingerprint identification, were just being developed. But even in the 21st century questions arose about the reliability of forensic tests when the National Academy of Science found that except for DNA analysis no method could reliably connect the evidence with any individual - and that included fingerprints. It should also be remembered that even the FBI laboratory has not been free of scandal. Ultimately agents had to admit that they had sometimes slanted interpretations in favor of the prosecution and had even experimented with faking fingerprints.
Charley was easily able to get to Kansas City before the Massacre. He had abandoned a stolen car in Deepwater, Missouri, on July 16, north of Bolivar, Missouri, where he was last seen. If he could drive 50 miles north from Bolivar to Deepwater during the day, he could have driven the further 70 miles to Kansas City during the night.	This itinerary would have Charley driving in the early morning hours of July 16 to be in Bolivar by daylight, kidnapping a sheriff, evading tight pursuit, driving 50 miles to Deepwater, abandoning the car, stealing another, driving 70 miles to Kansas City, making the contacts with the mob, finalizing the plans, and with more than 24 hours without sleep by 7:15 a. m. on July 17 still be in shape to take part in an attack on a large group armed federal agents and other law officers.
Ballistic tests in the FBI laboratory proved Pretty Boy Floyd and Adam Richetti were present.	The tests proved no such thing. Instead an independent and experienced analyst found that the federal agent was killed by a shotgun carried by one of the officers. The contradictory evidence was so conclusive and such an embarrassment to J. Edgar Hoover that he laid down an ironclad policy never to have FBI evidence analyzed by independent laboratories.
Taking the totality of the evidence, it is indisputable that Pretty Boy Floyd took part in the Kansas City Massacre.	Taking the totality of the evidence, it is impossible that Pretty Boy Floyd took part in the Kansas City Massacre.
Only bleeding heart liberal apologists for the underworld think Pretty Boy Floyd was innocent.	Only the most rabid country-right-or-wrong rigidists who are opposed to the principles of America's Founding Fathers think Pretty Boy was guilty.
Charley did it, jerk!	No, he didn't, bonehead!
G'wan, your mudder's callin'!	Ah, your fadder's mustache!

OK. So what is the definitive and conclusive answer? WAS Charley at Kansas City?

Well, maybe he was and maybe he wasn't.

Charley's haunts were now too hot

And it was time to blow.

So he sped up to north New York

To stay in Buffalo.

With a massive manhunt on his tail, Charley knew it was time to "git". So he and Adam and two lady friends (neither was Ruby) headed to New York. There they rented a place in Buffalo which was the last place anyone would think to look.

Although some of their neighbors wondered about the couples who rarely went out, didn't answer the door, and with men who disappeared for weeks at a time (the girls said their "husbands" worked at night, were on business trips, or something), they were pretty much left alone. But after a year their funds began to run low and they decided to head back to Oklahoma.

From New York down to Bill Penn's land,

Charley drove on through.

At the Buckeye State he soon got stuck.

Now what was he to do?

On October 20, Charley, Adam, and the girls were about 30 miles past Pittsburgh and had just crossed over to Ohio when a fog made travel difficult. Charley was going too fast as usual and skidded out and smacked into a telephone pole. The girls went out to look for help and Charley and Adam stayed in the car.

Although they didn't know it, they were a few miles north of East Liverpool, Ohio, a town set on the banks of the Ohio River. But sitting in the car got boring, and Charley and Adam decided to lounge around on the hillside. Of course that also meant it was easier for the locals to spot them and before long a farmer reported the presence of two strange men to Chief of Police John Fultz. John and two other officers headed out to see what was going on.

As usual when seeing men in uniform, Charley shot first. The officers returned the fire and as Charley split into the woods, Adam gave up. He gave false names but no one believed him. Instead Chief Fultz deduced (correctly) that the fish that got away was none other than Pretty Boy Floyd.

Chief Fultz quickly reported that he had spotted Pretty Boy Floyd. Agents from Chicago to New York swooped down, some even going so far as to use the ultimate mode of transportation the airplane. Melvin Purvis flew in and took charge¹⁰.

Charley knew he had to get out of the area and he commandeered a car and driver. When they ran out of gas he flagged down another. The new driver suspected something was screwy and he knew something was screwy when they came on a police roadblock and his passenger told him to turn around and drive away. Knowing escape by car was impossible, Charley headed out on foot.

Charley took to the trees and timbers

Just like the song did say

Not to live a life of shame,

But just to get away.

For two days, Charley wandered through the woods. He lived off fruit from the farmers' orchards, and he had no idea what to do or really where he was.

While on the run, Charley asked for meals.

He asked now for another

From a lady on a farm

Who was waiting for her brother.

Early on October 22, Charley came upon a farmhouse owned by Ellen Conkle. Ellen was a 41 year-old widow, and her brother, Stewart Dykes and his wife, Florence, were supposed to arrive shortly.

Charley told Ellen that he had been on a hunting trip and had gotten lost. That made no sense to her since Charley was well dressed in a coat and tie¹¹. She was nervous but the stranger seemed nice enough.

Could she give him a meal? She asked what he'd like and he said some meat. He'd been living off apples for two days.

Charley stayed outside on the back porch. When he finished eating he offered to pay. Ellen tried to refuse but Charley insisted and handed her a dollar.

The meal he said was mighty fine

Fit for the greatest king.

Then up the drive he saw some cars

And the trouble they did bring.

Stewart and Florence finally showed up. Although Florence was even more nervous than Ellen about the stranger in the suit covered with dirt, grass stains, and Spanish needles, Stewart agreed to drive him to a nearby town. But as they were about to leave, two cars filled with men arrived. Charley knew at once who they were.

Other residents had seen the stranger wandering around the fields. One was Robert Robinson who had a farm not far from Ellen's. He had told the local constable, Clyde Birch, about a stranger who had stopped at his house and asked for directions to Youngstown. Soon the information was passed on to Melvin who sped to the area.

Seeing he couldn't escape down the road, Charley immediately told Stewart to drive around to the back of the house. There he jumped from the car and according to some accounts scurried underneath a corn crib. Maybe the agents would think he had gotten away.

No man would take him while alive

Was what he always swore.

And when the smoke had cleared away

Charley was no more.

Instead they saw Charley's legs and told him to come out. But Charley bolted for the woods, running in a zig-zag pattern de rigueur when being chased by men who are shooting at you. He fell after running maybe a hundred yards and well before reaching the trees¹².

Although you may read that Charley was riddled with bullets - early reports said he was hit fifteen times - actually it was only three, certainly no more than four. When Melvin walked up he asked the man on the ground if his name was Pretty Boy Floyd. The man corrected him. It was Charley Floyd.

Later when it became more permissive to speak frankly, some of the officers reported that on further questioning, Charley was rather surly and used "vulgar words of language in a manner rather rude". He even dropped the F-bomb.

Melvin didn't hang around when they carried Charley to the porch. He went to phone Edgar and didn't even bother calling an ambulance. When he returned, Charley was dead.

A brief coroner's inquiry was held - a very brief inquiry. The finding was Charley's death was due to lawful action of the federal agents and local law officers and was justified.

This, then, is the official story.

The autopsy showed something most strange. The agents at Kansas City had said Charley had been hit in the shoulder. And although the pathologist detailed various abrasions, contusions, and even a tattoo, he said nothing about a recent shoulder wound. Well, the FBI said, it must have healed.

The manner in which Charley, Bonnie and Clyde, and John Dillinger met their ends was coming under more and more criticism. Even contemporary commentators said the officers were serving as judge, jury, and executioners and were descending to the levels of the gangsters themselves. Besides, the cavalier shoot-first tactics were not only dangerous for the suspects but for others as well. It wasn't forgotten that a number of innocent by-standers had been wounded and one was killed in the attempts to arrest Dillinger.

Years later - many years later and when Melvin was dead - Chester Smith, one of the local police officers who been at the Conkle farm, said Charley had not been seriously wounded when he fell. Then Melvin came up and ordered him executed with a Tommy gun.

Naturally the other officers denied any such thing. And in general the historical consensus is to reject the charge.

For one thing, Officer Smith had changed his story. He first said it was he who brought Pretty Boy down. And it wasn't until 1970 that he told of the summary execution.

Another point of contention is that Smith claimed that Pretty Boy was laying on his back and the Tommy gun blast was to his chest. But this doesn't fit with the findings of the autopsy. There was a total of six wounds but the report specifically states that it wasn't possible to identify specific entrance and exit wounds since they had been sutured by the embalmer. But their locations fit better with one wound on the forearm and the others caused by entrance and exit wounds of two bullets hitting the side. Only a single shotgun pellet was recovered so we're probably talking about three or at most four actual gunshot wounds on a leading subject. Photographs of Charley after he was killed are not the best quality but they clearly are not of someone blasted by a Tommy gun either. Although a bullet wound was evident on Charley's left side his chest appears unscathed.

None of Charley' s family could afford the trip to Ohio or the $127 needed to pay the freight charge for Charley' s return. But the townspeople chipped in and Charley's body was put in a pine box and sent to Sallisaw. Although the train arrived at two in the morning, a large crowd was on hand.

The funeral was supposed to be private but an estimated 30,000 people showed up. They weren't there to pay respects but to gawk. People sat down with picnic baskets in the cemetery and the crowd was so large that tombstones were damaged and overturned. Charley's mother, who lived until 1978, was thoroughly disgusted.

From then on Mamie was reluctant to talk with anyone, certainly not reporters. It took some persuading to get her to speak with the producers of the largely sympathetic 1974 TV movie The Story of Pretty Boy Floyd starring Martin Sheen ("President Josiah Bartlet" in The West Wing) and Kim Darby ("Mattie Ross" in the first True Grit starring John Wayne).

We have to admit it. The Story of Pretty Boy Floyd is pretty hokey. For some reason the movies always seem to get the gist of the story sort of correct but can't resist revising history for dramatic effect. In a more recent film we see Pretty Boy bolt from the farmhouse and run away over a near-treeless prairie looking for the world like western Oklahoma rather than well-wooded eastern Ohio. The agents - including a tall husky mustachioed Melvin Purvis - line up like a firing squad and on Melvin's order of "Ready! Aim! Fire" blow Pretty Boy down. Naturally Pretty Boy falls with appropriate gymnastics expected in today's Hollywood shoot-'em-ups. Before he dies Pretty Boy swore he had nothing to do with the Kansas City Massacre.

In yet another film Melvin and the other agents pursue Pretty Boy through the woods (!) and when they break out into an orchard (!!) Charley fires back with his Tommy gun (!!!). But a single shot from Melvin blows a massive hole clean through Pretty Boy, who while lying face up on the ground with the explosive exit wound in evidence, asks who Melvin is.

The Conkle Farm is no longer extant and the land is now part of Ohio's Beaver Creek State Park. In fact the site of the farm is now the park's - get this - "Pretty Boy Floyd Area". You can actually drive to - or at least near - the place that Charley met his end.

The roadside Pretty Boy Floyd Historical Marker is seven and a half miles along the road north of East Liverpool. From the downtown area find St. Claire Avenue going north. In about four miles you'll come into the small town of Calcutta. While you're in Calcutta, St. Claire will become Springvale Avenue (County Highway 428). So in about another three and a half miles you'll come to a cleared area with a side road that loops to the left. The Pretty Boy Floyd Historical Marker is at your left. You can also come south from Youngstown.

The world remembers Charley Floyd

Although he did do wrong

Because of movies, shows, and books

And because of a catchy song.

We said the movies play a bit loose. But if we're handing out an award for the stretchin' of the facts, that goes hands down to "The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd". As catchy as the song is, there's little in the narration that's factual. It's also a quite difficult song, not from a technical standpoint, but because few performers can sing it and not make it sound like unintended satire. One was Cisco Houston. Another is Joan Baez.

But content aside and through no fault of its on, "The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd" has also been responsible for the most massive dissemination of misinformation in the history of American culture. Once Joan's recording was played in an English class at the University of Oklahoma. After making some rather sardonic comments about the Robin Hood imagery, the rather stiff instructor mentioned that the singer was Joan Baez and the song was written by Pete Seeger

Ha? (To quote Shakespeare.)

Pete Seeger?

Yes, to this day there's a group of OU Alumni who believe "The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd" was written by Pete Seeger.

Now Pete wrote some great songs and he was one of the best musicians to come out of the 20th century folk song movement. But he did not - that's not! not! NOT! - write "The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd"!

IT WAS

WOODY GUTHRIE

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!!

Yep. If Charley was alive, he'd be turning over in his grave¹³.

×

Footnote

Fortunately there is no longer any reason that the authorship of this popular song should not be known by every American citizen. After all, a bonus question as posed to a contestant on Hollywood Squares was: "Woody Guthrie wrote a ballad about Pretty Boy Floyd, John Dillinger, or Baby Face Nelson?"

The contestant said "John Dillinger".

If Pretty Boy were alive ...

Close Footnote

Pete was great ... but Woody wrote the song¹⁴.