WEBVTT - How Did Pretty Boy Floyd Become Public Enemy No. 1?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren

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<v Speaker 1>Vogelbaum here. Up until June seventeenth of nineteen thirty three,

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<v Speaker 1>Pretty Boy Floyd led a relatively unremarkable life in and

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<v Speaker 1>out of jail as a Midwestern hoodlum. He was robbing

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<v Speaker 1>banks and payrolls, stealing cars, and murdering rival thugs, all

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<v Speaker 1>while escaping police custody by jumping from trains and hiding

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<v Speaker 1>out in the Trustee Cooks and Hills of Oklahoma. But

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<v Speaker 1>on that particular June day in Kansas City, his humdrum

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<v Speaker 1>career took a spectacular turn for the worse. At least

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<v Speaker 1>that's what Jay Edgar Hoover's Bureau of Investigation decided. And

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<v Speaker 1>in those bad old days, you really didn't want to

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<v Speaker 1>antagonize the organization soon to become the FBI. It'd be

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<v Speaker 1>renamed in nineteen thirty five. According to the FBI, events

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<v Speaker 1>unfolded as follows. On October ninetheteenth of nineteen thirty a

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<v Speaker 1>murderous crook named Frank Nash was in the United States

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<v Speaker 1>Penitentiary at Levenworth, Kansas, serving his third long term sentence

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<v Speaker 1>after being pardoned twice before when he escaped. Less than

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<v Speaker 1>a year later, Nash managed to help seven other prisoners

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<v Speaker 1>bust out of Levenworth as well. In the meantime, the

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<v Speaker 1>Bureau of Investigation mounted a giant man hunt that spanned

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<v Speaker 1>the continent. They finally tracked down Nash in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

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<v Speaker 1>It was then just a simple matter of getting there

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<v Speaker 1>fellon back to Kansas via train, but some of Nash's

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<v Speaker 1>buddies got wind of the transport and cooked up a

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<v Speaker 1>scheme to free him when the train showed up. The

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<v Speaker 1>story goes that Floyd and his sidekick, one Adam Ritchetti

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<v Speaker 1>happened to drive into Kansas City the day before the

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<v Speaker 1>train was due. They met up with Nash's pals and

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<v Speaker 1>offered to help with their scheme to free him. When

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<v Speaker 1>Nash arrived, seven agents and officers escorted him to a

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<v Speaker 1>waiting vehicle. They were getting seated inside when from out

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<v Speaker 1>of nowhere, gunmen opened fire on them. Only one of

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<v Speaker 1>the officials escaped unscathed, but two were badly injured, and

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<v Speaker 1>everyone else, including Nash, the very person the crooks were

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<v Speaker 1>trying to free, was shot dead. The gunmen fled, and

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<v Speaker 1>Floyd and Richetti were identified as they ran. Pretty Boy Floyd,

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<v Speaker 1>who made a habit of boasting about his crimes, maintained

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<v Speaker 1>to the very end of his life that he had

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<v Speaker 1>nothing to do with what became known as the Kansas

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<v Speaker 1>City massacre. But that didn't matter. JEdgar Hoover had already

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<v Speaker 1>eliminated John Dillinger, whom he had previously dubbed Public Enemy

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<v Speaker 1>Number one, and now he turned his sights on pretty

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<v Speaker 1>Boy Floyd. Charles Arthur Floyd was born in Georgia on

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<v Speaker 1>February third of nineteen oh four, and his family moved

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<v Speaker 1>to Hanson, Oklahoma, in nineteen eleven, an area that had

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<v Speaker 1>been just a few years earlier part of the Cherokee Nation.

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<v Speaker 1>The family settled down on the edge of the Cooks

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<v Speaker 1>and Hills, a territory of thick scrubby brush which had

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<v Speaker 1>served to hide many famous outlas laws of the decades,

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<v Speaker 1>as it would Floyd himself in later years. A But

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<v Speaker 1>if proximity to this law breaking heritage inspired Floyd's subsequent career,

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<v Speaker 1>he showed no signs of deviance in his early life.

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<v Speaker 1>On the contrary, he was known as a kid who

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<v Speaker 1>loved his mother, looked up to his father, protected his

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<v Speaker 1>siblings and helped out around the farm, and although the

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<v Speaker 1>Floyds worked hard, it was difficult to spraate more than

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<v Speaker 1>a meager living from their acreage. At the age of fourteen,

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<v Speaker 1>Floyd went off to work as a harvest hand on

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<v Speaker 1>larger farms, and there he met other traveling workers who

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<v Speaker 1>exposed him to a rougher, tougher mode of existence. When

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<v Speaker 1>he returned home, his family felt he had changed. There

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<v Speaker 1>seems to be no agreement as to how Floyd acquired

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<v Speaker 1>his nicknames. Some say it was applied in his teenage

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<v Speaker 1>years due to his carefully tended pompadour, Others that he

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<v Speaker 1>earned it by working in the oil fields in a

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<v Speaker 1>white dress shirt. Floyd himself allegedly hated the name and

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<v Speaker 1>preferred to by Chalk, which was a reference to his

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<v Speaker 1>passion for a local Oklahoma beer called Choctaw. On May

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<v Speaker 1>sixteenth of nineteen twenty two, Floyd was arrested for the

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<v Speaker 1>first time. The crime was the theft of three dollars

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<v Speaker 1>and fifty cents in dimes, nichols, and pennies from a

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<v Speaker 1>local post office. Although he was later acquitted due to

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<v Speaker 1>a lack of witnesses. It was the beginning of a

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<v Speaker 1>long hostile relationship with the law. In the months that

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<v Speaker 1>followed the Kansas City massacre, the Bureau mounted a giant

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<v Speaker 1>man hunt for its new public Enemy number one. Floyd

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<v Speaker 1>was doing a decent job of laying low in evading

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<v Speaker 1>police ambushes until he and Richetti wrecked a car in

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<v Speaker 1>rural Ohio on October twentieth of nineteen thirty four. Their

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<v Speaker 1>two lady companions drove the car to the nearest town

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<v Speaker 1>for repairs while Floyd and Richetti reclined on the side

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<v Speaker 1>of the road to wait. A passing motorists spotted Floyd

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<v Speaker 1>and Richetti in suits, snapping next to their guns and

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<v Speaker 1>reported their incongruous appearance to the local police chief, who

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<v Speaker 1>went to have a look. But when the police chief

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<v Speaker 1>showed up with his team and approached the two men,

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<v Speaker 1>the gangsters opened fire. Floyd scrambled up the embankment and

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<v Speaker 1>managed to flee in a hail of police bullets, but

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<v Speaker 1>Richetti was out gunned before he could escape. Once Richetti

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<v Speaker 1>was identified, the police realized that the escapee was none

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<v Speaker 1>other than the Bureau's Public Enemy Number one. By that evening,

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<v Speaker 1>famed FBI agent Melvin Purvis who had been instrumental in

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<v Speaker 1>capturing Dillinger, arrived with his team. In the meantime, Floyd

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<v Speaker 1>had flagged down a passing car, which then ran out

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<v Speaker 1>of gas. Floyd, with that driver in tow, commandeered a

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<v Speaker 1>second car and its driver, but when the three men

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<v Speaker 1>encountered a roadblock, Floyd ordered the car turned around and

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<v Speaker 1>they fled, Pursued by the police. At a critical juncture,

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<v Speaker 1>Floyd jumped from the car and escaped into the woods,

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<v Speaker 1>firing behind him as he ran. He wandered the woods

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<v Speaker 1>for nearly forty eight hours until he stumbled across a

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<v Speaker 1>farmhouse inhabited by a widow named Ellen Conkle. Claiming to

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<v Speaker 1>be a lost Floyd managed to get an excellent hot

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<v Speaker 1>meal from Conkle, but it was to be his last.

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<v Speaker 1>A local farmer had spotted Floyd and phoned the cops.

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<v Speaker 1>When they showed up, Floyd ran across a field of

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<v Speaker 1>corn stubble, heading for the tree line, but nine officials

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<v Speaker 1>opened fire. Floyd fell wounded. The officials caught up and

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<v Speaker 1>Purvis questioned him about the Kansas City massacre, but Floyd

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<v Speaker 1>refused to talk, and in just minutes he was dead.

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<v Speaker 1>Floyd's funeral was massive. More than twenty thousand people showed

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<v Speaker 1>up to pay their respects or gawk, as the case

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<v Speaker 1>may be. In the years after his death, the legend

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<v Speaker 1>of pretty Boy Floyd continued to grow. Like many outlaws,

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<v Speaker 1>he developed a reputation as a robin hood of sorts

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<v Speaker 1>who would destroy mortgage documents whenever he robbed a bank, and,

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<v Speaker 1>as is the case with most other alleged robin hoods,

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<v Speaker 1>this generosity has never been proven, but that hasn't diminished

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<v Speaker 1>his fame nor his reputation. Today's episode is based on

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<v Speaker 1>the article how pretty Boy Floyd became the FBI's Public

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<v Speaker 1>Enemy Number One on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by a

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<v Speaker 1>Scene Quran. Brain Stuff It's production of iHeartRadio in partnership

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<v Speaker 1>with how Stuffworks dot Com, and it is produced by

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<v Speaker 1>Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the

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