Posted Monday afternoon, May 27, 2018.
Publicity card for the 1960 movie "Pretty Boy Floyd" starring John Ericson (center, with pistols drawn) making bank robbery look as easy as pie.
He liked to bake pies? What kind? Were they any good? As good as his bank robbing? Picking up our story where we left off...
In the darkness, Floyd cursed. This was the way his luck had been going for months now. Charley Floyd--no one but the newspapers called him “Pretty Boy”---was twenty-nine years old that summer evening. He was only five-feet-eight; his shoulders and upper arms were thick and powerful, his face moony and flat. He resembled a young Babe Ruth. Floyd’s eyes were gray and he kept his hair slicked back with a thin part down the left side. Up close you could smell his hair tonic, a whiff of lilac.
Of all the criminals who rose to prominence in 1933 an 1934, Floyd was the only one who was already famous, at least in Oklahoma, where he was a hero to legions of Dust Bowlers…
In the fall of 1931, Floyd began robbing country banks n his home state in earnest, earning his first mentions in Oklahoma newspapers…
.In January 1932 alone Floyd was identified as robbing banks in three separate town, only one of which he probably robbed. The Daily Oklahoman called for the mobilization of the National Guard; on January 14 insurance rates on rural Oklahoma banks were doubled, a move blamed directly on Floyd. Governor William “Alfalfa Bill” Murray announced a $1,000 reward for his capture.
Floyd shooting it out with the cops in a scene from the movie "Pretty Boy Floyd" starring John Ericson (right center)
It was a classic case of media hysteria. The hype that would shape reality that would in turn create a legend. Every morning that winter brought a story of Floyd’s exploits, a bank robbed, a supposed sighting, speculation where he might strike next. Lawmen combed eastern Oklahoma in a futile manhunt. Floyd understood the situation and made a crude bid for public support. In a letter to the governor, he demanded that the reward be withdrawn. “I have robbed no one but the monied men,” Floyd wrote, a claim guaranteed to find favor in rural Oklahoma. Floyd thus cannily positioned himself as an attacker only of “monied” interests, making the governor their defender…
Floyd’s fame grew after he survived a pair of wild shoot-outs with police in the streets of Tulsa. When Governor Murray appointed a special investigator named Erv Kelly to track him down, Floyd shot Kelly dead in a midnight firefight. But by late 1932, Floyd was growing weary of life on the run. Hiding with relatives, he attempted to “retire” by supervising a ragtag group of bank robbers led by a grimy alcoholic named Adam Richetti. But Richetti’s gang proved hapless, and by te spring of 1933, Floyd had withdrawn from bank robbing altogether, preferring to spend his days baking pies. Only when several of his relatives were arrested did Floyd decide to leave Oklahoma for a time. He arrived at Joe Hudiberg’s farmhouse that Thursday night looking for a car.
As Hudiberg walked toward his house after locking the garage, he heard a noise behind him. Something was bumping against the garage doors. As Hudiberg turned to investigate, his black Pontiac came crashing through the wooden doors. Dumbfounded, he watched as the car roared through his yard and shot onto the road. Hudiberg’s friends rant to their cars and mounted a fruitless pursuit. Far ahead of them, Pretty Boy Floyd turned north, toward Kansas City.
---from "Public Enemies" by Bryan Burrough.
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