Charles Arthur Floyd was born in a poor family in Folsom, Georgia in Bartow County on February 3, 1904. When he was about ten years old they moved to Cookson Hills of Oklahoma but they didn't earn much there. Floyd married Wilma Hargrove at the age of 17. Floyd did his frist known crime at the age of 18 by a robbery of $350 in pennies from a local post office. After being put in prison several times he vowed that he would never go to prison again. in the Kansas City underworld, he committed a series of bank robberies over the next several years; it was during this period that he earned the nickname "Pretty Boy." It was a name given him by a madam, Beulah Baird Ash, in a brothel and he hated it.
In December 12, 1931 two banks were robbed in one day and bank insurance rates doubled. He was a Public Enemy No. 1 with a $23,000 dollar dead or alive reward on his head. On October 1934 Pretty Boy Floyd was in Ohio where the FBI agents were looking for him. He knocked on the Conkle farm door posing as a lost hunter and had asked for a ride to the bus line. They took mercy on him and gave him dinner. He gave them money for his meal.
When he was about to take off to the bus station he saw that there were police looking for him so he jumped from the car and was hiding in the corn crib. A local police Chester Smith recognized Floyd and shot him near East Liverpool , Ohio. Floyd didn't die right after the shot but according to the FBI, he died cursing his killers till the end and his final words were "I am Charles Arthur Floyd!" Floyd had $120 in his pockets when he died on October 22, 1934.
Floyd was not 100% bad guy... He was a folk hero to the people of Oklahoma who perceived him as a "Sagebrush Robin Hood", stealing from the rich banks to help the poor eat by buying them groceries and tearing up their mortgages during the robberies. He helped the poor alot. However, some said that he bribed them just to keep him safe from the police. Here's what his son Jack Floyd said about him:
"He was a fun guy to be around. He was like a regular father. He always had some puppies or other presents for me. What I knew about him didn't keep me from loving him."
Here's what Floyd said to his mother:
"Right here is where you can put me. I expect to go down soon with lead in me. Maybe the sooner the better. Bury me deep. "
Floyd's body was placed on public display in Sallisaw, Oklahoma where he wanted. His funeral was attended by between twenty and forty thousand people, and remains the largest funeral in Oklahoma history. He was buried in Akins, Oklahoma.
Movies have been made to tell stories about Pretty Boy Floyd and he was mentioned in the novel The Grapes of Wrath which I saw it already that the mother of the Joad children says that she knew Floyd's mother and is afraid that her son Tom might become bitter and violent like Floyd.
Five years after Floyd's death, Woody Guthrie wrote a ballad romanticizing his life of crime.
If you'll gather 'round me, children
A story I will tell
'Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw,
Oklahoma knew him well.
It was in the town of Shawnee
A Saturday afternoon,
His wife beside him in his wagon
As into town they rode.
There a deputy sheriff approached him
In a manner rather rude,
Vulgar words of anger,
An' his wife she overheard.
Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain,
And the deputy grabbed his gun;
And the deputy grabbed his gun;
In the fight that followed
He laid that deputy down.
Then he took to the trees and timber
To live a life of shame;
Every crime in Oklahoma
Was added to his name.
But a many a starving farmer
The same old story told
How the outlaw paid their mortgage
And saved their little homes.
Others tell you 'bout a stranger
That come to beg a meal,
Underneath his napkin
Left a thousand dollar bill.
It was in Oklahoma City,
It was on a Christmas Day,
There was a whole car load of groceries
Come with a note to say:
Well, you say that I'm an outlaw,
You say that I'm a thief.
Here's a Christmas dinner
For the families on relief.
Yes, as through this world
I've wanderedI've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.
And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.
---------------------@-------------------
I kinda like his life story but not sure if he really wanted to help the poor or to bribe them. He was good looking too that he deserved the name of Pretty Boy Floyd. I think to be the American's Public Enemy No.1 in the 1930s was totally cool! He killed only 10 men in years so he must have been some kinda kind man too. Take a look at the song. I think the song is pretty much of saying good things about him that no matter what he did he still helped people especially the poor. I like the way his son expressed his feelings to him too - very nice. You see, his funeral was like he was some kinda hero or super star. Lots of people attended as everyone wanted to see Pretty Boy Floyd.
You see, to be a person of the great history you don't only have to be good guys. Bad guys rock too! As a matter of fact, I'm not saying that you should do bad things but all I mean is that good parts of you stand out and stay in the hearts of people!
