WEBVTT - Glorified 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:06.520 You're listening to American Shadows, a production of iHeartRadio and 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:18.759 Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. The mythical figure of 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:23.200 robin Hood has endured for centuries. This classic tale of 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:25.840 the anti hero who stole from the rich and gave 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:29.560 to the poor has been retold countless times in books, movies, 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:34.760 and folklore. Variations are found in multiple cultures from centuries 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:38.840 past two modern times. People have often revered the concept 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:41.960 of rising up against oppression in tyranny as a hero 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:46.680 or savior, so it's not surprising that tales of social 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:50.320 banditories sparked the imaginations of those living in the American 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:54.520 West during the eighteen hundreds. The written stories about robin 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.720 Hood date back to the fourteen hundreds, and oral tellings 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:01.840 probably stretched back a century before that. In these early tellings, 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:06.119 a corrupt abbot demands payment from a night. Robin Hood 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.040 loans the night the money, and later robs the abbot. 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:13.280 In the eighteen hundreds, in the American West, people romanticized 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:16.760 outlaws and told stories suggesting that they might be doing 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:21.560 something similar. One such example is the famous and infamous 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:25.360 Jesse James. But before the outlaw became one of America's 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:28.600 most hunted men. He and his brother served in the military, 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:32.399 fighting for the Confederate Army during the Civil War. It 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:34.880 said that Jessie and his brother Frank took part in 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:39.360 the Centralia massacre that killed twenty two Union soldiers. After 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:42.760 the war, the brothers led a gang of outlaws specializing 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:46.600 in robbing stage coaches, banks and trains. A word of 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:50.480 the notorious James Gang spread across the nation, along with 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:54.200 rumors that Jesse and Frank often robbed rich and gave 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.880 the poor. In one of the most enduring stories, the 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:01.440 James Gang rode through Missouri to a string of successful 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:05.520 and profitable robberies. They came across a farmhouse where a 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:09.280 poor and elderly widow lived alone. With the law on 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:11.880 their trail, the men asked the widow if they could 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:15.519 stay and hide for a few days. She welcomed them and, 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:19.160 in an act of kindness, shared her meager supplies and food. 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:23.960 Jesse noticed the woman seemed distracted and upset and asked 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:27.399 what was troubling her. To a surprise, she broke down 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:31.799 in tears. Aside from being recently widowed, her mortgage was 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:35.400 due and she had no money to pay The widow 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.160 explained that her lender was far from understanding or generous 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:41.560 in the matter, and she had no place to go 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:45.120 and no way to earn a living. Jesse asked the 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:47.560 woman how much she needed to pay off her mortgage. 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:51.880 She told him she needed fifteen hundred dollars. Jesse promptly 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:53.880 gave her the money and pulled her to get a 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:56.720 receipt from the debt collector when he came for the money. 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:00.880 Then he asked for the collector's description. The gang left 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:04.360 shortly after, but instead of continuing their journey, they waited 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.600 in the woods. The deck collector arrived, took the money, 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:10.359 and handed the woman receipt. When he got back on 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.280 his horse and rode away, Jesse and the gang followed. 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:16.239 They trailed the man for a while before robbing him. 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:19.680 Jesse took back the fifteen hundred dollars and the gang 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:24.240 rode away. Although this story is likely a myth, it's 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:28.600 been widely accepted by the American imagination as fact. Like 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:32.000 Robin Hood, stories about Jesse, James and his gang of 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:34.320 merry men robbing the rich and giving to the poor 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:39.480 have endured, making him seem like a noble Outlaw One. 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.920 News of Jesse's death appeared in newspapers in April of 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:47.560 eighteen forty two. Rumors swirled that he was alive and well. 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:51.520 Some believed that Jesse and fellow gang member Robert Ford 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:55.280 had plotted to kill another man resembling Jesse, which allowed 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:59.320 him time to escape. Since then, science and the marvels 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.360 of DNA have proved that the body in Jesse's grave 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:07.760 is indeed the Outlaw himself. But for many decades, Jesse's 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:10.520 legacy of being the Great robin Hood of the American 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:16.200 West lived on. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome to American Shadows. 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:29.120 When we picture the life of American outlaws, we might 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.080 think of the mid to late eighteen hundreds. We may 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:36.640 envision the open Midwestern plains, rocky outcrops, and dusty trails. 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.720 So we think of cowboys and wrestlers across Arizona Wyoming 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.679 in California. But perhaps few would think of the early 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:49.520 nineteen hundreds and Florida. Instead of dusty streets and tumbleweeds. 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:53.240 The scenery in mid eighteen fifties, Florida looked a bit different. 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:58.279 South Florida was a wilderness of sawgrass marsh and mangrove forest. 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:02.000 The mikatsuke In semin peoples shared the Everglades with a 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:06.880 host of wading birds and Florida panthers. Water flowed down 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:10.680 and across the state through the Kissimmee Basin and Lake Okeechobee, 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:16.760 eventually reaching Biscayne Bay. Alligators, crocodiles, and other animals coexisted 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:21.839 within the ecosystem. Early colonists thought the swampy, alligator infested 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.479 area was worthless. They dug out canals to drain the 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:29.880 water from what they considered potentially valuable grazing and farmland. 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:34.159 In eighteen sixty one, Florida seceded from the Union to 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:38.960 join the Confederacy of Floridians depended on cattle, citrus, and 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.640 other produce and feared that their economy would fall without 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:46.719 the enslaved labor of indigenous peoples and Africans. In the 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:51.480 coming decades, colonists dug more canals and drained more water away. 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:55.320 And while we might picture newcomers choosing to live on 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:59.800 that open farmland, some families chose to live in the Everglades, 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:04.640 and such was the life for the Ashley family. Julius Ashley, 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:08.640 known simply as Joe, his wife Leuginia, and the couple's 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:12.039 nine sons and two daughters, moved from Fort Myers to 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.680 West Palm Beach, Florida in nineteen oh four. For a 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.880 short time, Joe worked on the Flaggler Railroad and served 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:22.839 as a lawman. But Joe also made first rate moonshine, 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:26.360 which conflicted with his career, and the family settled in 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:28.799 a small town in the Everglades just north of Hobe 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:32.359 Sound to hide the business. The Ashleys carved out a 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:36.200 living distilling moonshine and living off the land. They knew 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:39.359 the Everglades as well as anyone, and used their knowledge 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:44.280 to hunt and trap animals, mostly alligators and otters. Occasionally, 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.240 the Ashley boys teamed up with their seminal neighbors for 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:51.839 hunting or fishing expeditions. A Joe's son, John, became even 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:54.479 more adept than the siblings in learning how to navigate 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:59.080 the Everglades. At times, John disappeared down hunts for days, 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:02.200 often with his friends and Desto Tiger, the son of 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:05.520 a seminole leader. The friends went off hunting one day 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:09.600 in December of nineteen eleven. Days later, John was spotted 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:14.640 in town without DeSoto. For days, no one sawed Soto. Finally, 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:18.200 on December twenty ninth, a crew dredging the New River 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:22.080 Canal near Fort Lauderdale found Soto's body. He had been 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.800 shot in the back of the head. Naturally, John became 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:29.240 the main suspect. The pair had last been seen transporting 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:33.120 Otter Pelts in John's canoe. John then sold the pelts 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:35.960 four twelve hundred dollars at a Miami trading post and 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:40.080 pocketed the entire amount. With witnesses placing the two together. 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.960 Then a strong motive for murder, Palm Beach Sheriff George 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:47.960 Baker ordered two deputies to arrest John. The men arrived 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.600 at the Ashley camp, only to be confronted by John 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:53.760 and his brother Bob. John told the deputies that he 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:55.960 had let them live so they could deliver a message 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:58.840 to the sheriff if Baker sent any more lawman to 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:02.960 find him, that it hurt. The deputies left, but John 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:07.560 figured they'd return with more men. Baker chose a different approach. 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:11.120 Instead of sending men into the Everglades, they'd wait for 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.040 John to come to them. At some point, John would 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:17.000 need to go into town. It didn't take long before 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:20.120 nearly every post office in South Florida had a wanted 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:23.600 poster of John Ashley on display, and there wasn't a 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:27.160 town John could step foot in without being recognized. With 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.880 a reward on his head, he decided to leave the state. 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:33.240 Some say he headed toward New Orleans, others say he 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:37.360 went to Seattle. Either way, John got homesick and returned 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:40.640 in nineteen fourteen. He surrendered and was taken to jail 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:44.079 to await trial, but John and his family had no 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:55.920 intention of giving up so easily. John Ashley's first trial 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:59.600 in Palm Beach in July of nineteen fourteen ended in 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:04.200 a trial Convinced of his guilt, the state prosecutor and 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.560 Sheriff Baker were determined to see him hang for murder. 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.720 After reevaluating the trial, the prosecutor determined that it had 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.960 been a mistake to try John and Palm Beach, the 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:18.400 county was full of friends, relatives, and customers of the 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:22.320 Ashley family. When the prosecutor set a new trial date, 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:27.199 he also requested a new location, Miami. A judge granted 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.880 the request, which didn't bode well for the Ashley's, but 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.360 John managed to escape during transport, who climbing over a 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:38.560 ten foot fence and disappearing into the everglades. Adding insult 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:42.920 to injury, He'd escaped from Sheriff Baker's own son. The 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:45.560 Ashley family had long been at odds with the law, 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:50.480 and Joe had little problem encouraging his son's illegal actions. 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:53.520 He helped his sons and their gang in an attempted 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:57.840 robbery of the Florida East Coast Railway. However, the gang's 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:01.720 lack of a plan and a savvy poor foiled their attempt. 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:06.120 In late February of nineteen fifteen, the Ashley Gang robbed 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:09.079 a bank in Stuart. The group took in forty three 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:12.480 hundred dollars about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars today. 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:17.880 Though not everything went smoothly, kid Lowe, the gang's newest member, 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:22.280 accidentally shot John in the jaw. The bullet's trajectory caused 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:25.800 John to lose his eyesight. The group went into hiding 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:29.480 for a while. John's pain increased and he was forced 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:33.640 to seek medical attention. A doctor removed one eye, replacing 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:36.880 it with a glass eye and the patch. When he finished, 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:40.120 Sheriff Baker and a posse arrested John and sent him 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.880 to jail in Miami. It wasn't long before the Dade 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:47.120 County jail guards heard rumors that the Ashley Gang had 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:50.920 plans to break John out. A security increased, though that 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:55.120 hardly deterred the Ashley's. Joe gathered his sons to make 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:59.680 detailed plans for John's escape. Bob grew impatient and decided 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.360 to break John out in a blaze of glory by himself. 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:05.840 On June second of nineteen fifteen, he went to the 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:09.760 Miami Dade Deputy Sheriff's home next to the jail. Bob 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:12.360 stood outside for a few minutes before knocking on the door. 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:17.640 Deputy Wilbur Hendrickson answered. Bob raised his rifle and fired, 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.800 shooting the deputy in the chest. While he took the 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:24.600 deputy's jail house keys, Missus Hendrickson grabbed a rifle. She 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:28.000 pulled the trigger, but the rifle didn't fire. The shot 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:31.680 had drawn the attention of nearby residence, forcing Bob to flee. 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:36.199 In his hasty retreat, he dropped the keys. Bob carjacked 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:39.120 delivery truck, though the driver had a gun to his head. 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:42.560 He stole the truck to allow officer John Riblet to 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:45.560 catch up in a vehicle behind him. When the officer 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.200 demanded that he gave himself up, Bob shot him in 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:52.720 the head. Incredibly, Officer Riblet returned fire, hitting Bob twice. 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:56.520 Both men were rushed to the hospital where Riblet died. 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.640 The sheriff moved Bob Ashley to the jail, but he 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:05.000 died upon arrival. John's second trial went better than expected. 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.360 He managed to escape the death sentence for the murder 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:11.920 of the Sodo Tiger. However, the court did sentence him 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:15.000 to seventeen years for his part in the bank robbery. 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:18.760 In March of nineteen eighteen, John Ashley got out of 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:22.360 prison on good behavior and immediately returned to his former 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:25.920 life of crime. The Ashley Gang continued to rob trains 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:30.480 and banks, but with prohibition, rum running and bootlegging proved 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:33.920 easy money. The Ashley gang set up multiple stills around 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.520 Palm Beach County. John, along with brothers Ed and Frank, 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:42.080 made frequent moonlight trips to and from British liquor warehouses 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:45.520 in the Bahamas to the Jupiter Inlet. The gang added 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:49.920 a new member, John's girlfriend, Laura, up the grove Laura 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:52.680 had had two children with her first husband and two 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:56.400 more with her second husband, Ernest. One day, she left 0:12:56.480 --> 0:13:00.480 Ernest and her children to join the Ashley Gang. Laura 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:03.400 worked as a scout for the gang. She've also helped 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:06.520 play in the bank robberies and often drove the getaway car. 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.160 When members of the gang were arrested, Laura planned their escape. 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:14.440 Though perhaps not a raving beauty, she still caught men's attention. 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:18.760 She was tall, dark hair, dark eyed, and a notorious flirt. 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:22.600 By all accounts, she was a mean spirited woman who 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.320 wore a thirty eight on our hip as She was 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:27.400 as good a shot as any member of the gang, 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:32.079 and like the Ashley's, Laura knew her way around the Everglades. 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.440 By nineteen twenty, John didn't think life could get much better, 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.200 but then he got word that his nemesis, Sheriff Baker, 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:57.000 had died. John's elation didn't last though, a Sheriff Baker's 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:00.680 son stepped in to take his father's place. He wasn't 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.559 about to give up on arresting the Ashley Boys. In 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:08.640 nineteen twenty one, John was delivering liquor in Wachula when 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:12.120 the new sheriff Baker arrested him. During the months that 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:16.760 followed John's incarceration, his nephew, Hanford Mobley and gang member 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:20.680 Roy Matthews ran the day to day operations. A brothers, 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:24.160 Ed and Frank Ashley continued the run running operation without him, 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:27.080 and they set out on a dark October night in 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.240 nineteen twenty one for another trip across the Gulf Stream. 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:34.240 That was the last anyone saw of those two Ashley boys, 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:38.520 But in the following years, the gang robbed the Bank 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:43.040 of Stuart again and John escaped from prison, followed by 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:47.680 the escape of two other gang members from a different prison. Reunited, 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:51.640 the gang ramped up their crime spree to taunt Sheriff Baker. 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:54.560 John began leaving a gun with a single bullet at 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:59.160 every robbery. Infuriated, Baker swore that he would bring John 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:02.240 to justice and carry his glass eye around like a 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:06.680 pocket watch. In the early morning hours of January ninth, 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:10.920 nineteen twenty four, Baker gathered a large posse and surrounded 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:13.360 a camp a couple of miles from the Ashley homestead. 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:17.680 The two groups exchanged gunfire. One of the officers shot 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:22.400 Joe in the head, killing him. John fatally shot Deputy 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:26.280 Fred Baker, the sheriff's cousin, and during the exchange, Laura 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:31.640 was also shot but survived. John Ashley vowed kill every 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:34.640 deputy when given a chance. Then he and the gang 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:38.520 escaped into the Everglades the empty handed. The posse burned 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:42.200 the camp and the homestead to the ground. The Ashleys 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:44.800 had made a threat, and as far as the deputies 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:47.920 were concerned, it was now them or the Ashley Gang. 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:51.120 John and the gang robbed the Bank of Pompinow on 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:54.320 September twelfth of nineteen twenty four. The heist netted the 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:58.200 group five thousand dollars in cash and another eighteen thousand insecurities. 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:01.440 Was still angry over his father's death and Laura's injury, 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:06.480 John wanted to humiliate Baker, so he handed the cashier 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:09.560 and unspent bullet. He ordered the cashier to give the 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:12.360 bullet to Sheriff Baker when he arrived, along with the 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:15.240 message that he had another bullet waiting for the sheriff 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:17.360 if he was man enough to come and get it. 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.520 John moved the gang's camp nearly three hundred miles north 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:24.360 to his sister's house. As some say he was headed 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:28.320 toward Jacksonville, where they were planning another bank robbery. Later, 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:31.160 John's mother would insist her sons were trying to give 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:34.800 up their life of crime. For a while. John took 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:38.440 some delight that the press chastised Baker for his inability 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:42.640 to capture the gang, but even the humiliation didn't quite 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:46.440 quench his hatred for Baker. John wanted revenge for his 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:51.920 father's death and vowed to assassinate Baker after the November elections. However, 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:54.840 Sheriff Baker was already on to the Ashley's and their 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.960 new location. The Stuart police chief had been on the 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:00.760 lookout and saw John's brother in law a loading an 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:04.160 excessive amount of groceries into his car. A Baker called 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.520 Saint Lucy County Sheriff J. R. Merritt, and the two 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:11.000 men planned an ambush for the Ashleys. Merritt placed a 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:14.439 roadblock on the Sebastian Bridge on November first of nineteen 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:18.520 twenty four. Baker stayed behind, afraid that if he left 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:21.199 Palm Beach, someone might tip off the Ashleys that he 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.840 was onto them. Instead, Baker sent four men to meet 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:28.600 up with Merritt and to Saint Lucy. Deputies ten thirty 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:31.840 that night, a car drove up and stopped a blockade. 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:35.200 A second car carrying the Ashley gang, drove up behind 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:38.400 the first. With the gang's interests centered on the car 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:41.160 stopped in front of them, Merritt and the deputies took 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:44.679 the Ashley gang by surprise, surrounding them and ordering them 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.600 out of their vehicle with their hands up. What happened 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:50.960 next is still debated. Some say that the Ashley gang 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:54.040 tried to escape and were shot, but the men in 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:56.399 the first car claimed that the gang was already in 0:17:56.520 --> 0:18:00.520 handcuffs when they were asked to leave the scene. Ashley 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.679 was known to carry a gun, and the deputies claimed 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:06.920 they did not yet have the gang in handcuffs. John 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:08.680 was ordered to keep his hands up and not make 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:11.359 a move. They said he was shot when he lowered 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:15.440 his hands and stepped forward. The investigation ruled that the 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:17.640 deputies shot and killed the rest of the gang when 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:21.439 they attempted to flee, leaving some to speculate that Baker 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:24.760 had ensured that justice would be served in one way 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:36.919 or another. Laura up the Grove lived to tell the tale. 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:40.479 She hadn't been there the night John was killed. Without 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:44.640 John and the gang, she wandered around South Florida. Reportedly, 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:47.600 Laura had told an informmant about John and the gang's 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:50.479 plans to travel north. She knew they would be traveling 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:53.240 across the bridge that night. He had left her behind, 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:56.840 and she had been angry. Or One night after the shooting, 0:18:57.200 --> 0:18:59.800 she fought with a friend over a bottle of moonshine. 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:03.520 Angry and not paying attention, she grabbed a bottle that 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:07.440 she thought was moonshine and drank deeply. Instead of alcohol, 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:12.080 the bottle contained a strong disinfectant. Within minutes, she was dead. 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:15.399 Rumors swirled that she had been the last to know 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:19.080 where the Ashley Gang had hidden their money. Locals speculated 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:21.280 that the gang had stolen a large amount of cash 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:23.879 that was unaccounted for and had buried it deep in 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.600 the Everglades. It's estimated that the gang stole over a 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.439 hundred thousand dollars, though only thirty two thousand was ever reclaimed. 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:34.480 Some rumors say that Laura had some of the money 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:37.919 buried with her. Others say that after John's death, she 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:41.440 buried the money at a gas station. When the Great 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:46.159 Depression hit, the story of the Ashley Gang changed. They'd 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:49.400 done some horrific things, but the new tale among many 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:51.639 of the locals was that the gang gave food to 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:55.600 the poor. To them, John became a modern day Robin Hood. 0:19:56.160 --> 0:20:00.520 People idolized the Ashley's, claiming the gang where missunderstood rebels 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:03.879 rising up against a corrupt government and system designed to 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:07.960 keep the poor impoverished. Others said that with the stolen money, 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:10.680 the Ashley's were able to hire people in the community, 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:13.800 which helped them earn a living. Like the James Gang, 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:17.480 It's unlikely that the Ashley Gang gave away their money 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:20.760 to the needy. They most likely spent the money or 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:25.040 gave some of its relatives. People have searched for their stash, 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:30.280 including professional treasure hunter Robert Allison in nineteen seventy two. Reportedly, 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:33.400 Allison found the treasure after his team used a front 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:36.040 loader to scrape the top soil on the Ashley's property 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:40.240 near Hope Sound, though this is also speculation and has 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:45.480 never been confirmed. One last detail for you. Remember how 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:48.240 Sheriff Baker Wants swore that he would one day wear 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:51.560 John Ashley's glass eye like a pocket watch. One of 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:54.879 the deputies at the scene supposedly snatched the eye to 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:59.679 give to Baker. Two stories follow. One account is that 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:03.520 just after John's death, Laura walked into Sheriff Baker's office, 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:06.960 leveled to forty five at his head, and demanded John's eye. 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:09.520 After taking it from him, she told him that if 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:11.840 he wanted it bad enough, he was welcome to come 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:14.879 and get it if he was a man enough. But 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:18.920 the truth is more likely the second story. In an interview, 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:21.800 the deputy who took the eye from John Ashley said 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:24.840 he never ended up giving the eye to Baker. Instead, 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:27.440 he was forced to return it to be married with Ashley. 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:30.760 He stated that had he known John would get it back, 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:33.359 he would have crushed the eye under the heel of 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:38.160 his boot. There's more to this story. Stick around after 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:50.920 this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. Long 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:56.440 before outlaws roamed the West, America feared a different villain, pirates, 0:21:57.160 --> 0:22:00.359 and while some treasure hunters still searched the Everglade for 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:04.680 John Ashley's treasure, others looked the Florida Keys for buried 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:07.760 gems and gold coins left behind by one of the 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:12.080 state's most fearsome pirates in history. A little is known 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:16.560 about Black Caesar. Legends tell us. He roamed the Caribbean 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:19.879 Sea in the late seventeen hundreds, striking fear into the 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:23.920 hearts of sailors and merchants alike. Stories about him may 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:27.480 actually be an amalgam of stories about different black men 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:30.520 who were pirrating in the Caribbean at the time. Whatever 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:34.199 the case, his real name was conveniently never known, and 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:37.400 he adopted the pseudonym Black Caesar due to his dark 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:41.840 skin and imposing stature. According to legend, he came from 0:22:41.840 --> 0:22:44.960 West Africa and was the son of a powerful chief. 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:48.440 He was rumored to be of enormous size and strength, 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:51.840 and many enslavers tried to capture him, to no avail. 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:56.119 It took betrayal to finally capture him. A business associate 0:22:56.200 --> 0:22:59.480 lured Black Caesar onto a boat, claiming there were many 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:03.400 valuable and stolen goods that might be of use. Once aboard, 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:08.520 Caesar was outmanned and subdued. His captors chained and shackled him, 0:23:08.840 --> 0:23:11.879 then transferred Caesar to a slave ship headed to the Caribbean. 0:23:12.640 --> 0:23:15.919 A sailor aboard the ship befriended him, and during a storm, 0:23:16.000 --> 0:23:19.399 he freed Caesar. Together, the two managed to escape the 0:23:19.440 --> 0:23:22.320 ship before it smashed into the reefs, killing all those 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:25.760 still aboard. Caesar and the sailor rowed a small boat, 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:28.679 the Hurricane, and made it safely to a small island 0:23:28.680 --> 0:23:32.640 in the Florida Keys. There the friends began their pirrating 0:23:32.680 --> 0:23:36.520 scheme in earnest, laying wait for passing ships. The men 0:23:36.560 --> 0:23:38.840 would row out to sea and pretend to be lost 0:23:38.880 --> 0:23:42.920 and in need of rescue. When the other ships offered help, 0:23:43.240 --> 0:23:46.120 the pirates took advantage of their kindness and plundered them. 0:23:46.520 --> 0:23:50.480 The scheme proved to be very profitable. Eventually, Caesar and 0:23:50.520 --> 0:23:54.520 the sailor added more men to their crew. Their partnership 0:23:54.560 --> 0:23:57.800 apparently ended when they captured a woman, and the sailor 0:23:57.880 --> 0:24:01.639 and Caesar both wanted her. Caesar killed his best friend 0:24:01.680 --> 0:24:05.399 over her. A black Caesar was known for his cunning 0:24:05.440 --> 0:24:09.240 and intelligence, as well as for his immense wealth. He 0:24:09.320 --> 0:24:13.360 plundered countless ships over the years, amassing of fortune in gold, jewels, 0:24:13.400 --> 0:24:18.119 and other valuable goods. When he raided ships, he took men, women, 0:24:18.160 --> 0:24:21.280 in children captive and placed them in prisoner camps, hoping 0:24:21.320 --> 0:24:25.439 for ransoms. In Some stories say that escaped children created 0:24:25.480 --> 0:24:29.359 their own society on the islands as his wealth grew. 0:24:29.760 --> 0:24:32.399 It was said that Black Caesar kept his treasure in 0:24:32.440 --> 0:24:36.000 a secret location known only to him and a select 0:24:36.040 --> 0:24:39.879 few of his most trusted crew members. According to legend, 0:24:40.080 --> 0:24:43.760 he buried the treasure off the Florida coast on Elliott Key, 0:24:43.840 --> 0:24:47.560 where he believed it would be safe. Caesar later joined 0:24:47.600 --> 0:24:50.840 Blackbeard's crew and was with him the day Lieutenant Robert 0:24:50.880 --> 0:24:55.200 Maynard killed him. As Caesar was arrested and later hanged 0:24:55.240 --> 0:24:59.879 in Williamsburg, Virginia, the rumors of Black Caesar's treasure spread 0:25:00.119 --> 0:25:04.680 like wildfire throughout the Caribbean. Many pirates and adventurers set 0:25:04.680 --> 0:25:07.119 out to find what they thought was a treasure of 0:25:07.320 --> 0:25:12.359 unimaginable wealth. However, no treasure was ever found. As the 0:25:12.440 --> 0:25:15.800 years passed, the story of Black Caesar's treasure became the 0:25:15.840 --> 0:25:19.240 stuff of legend, and many said that the island was 0:25:19.320 --> 0:25:22.040 cursed and that anyone who'd tried to claim the treasure 0:25:22.040 --> 0:25:25.399 would suffer some terrible fate. Some even claimed that the 0:25:25.440 --> 0:25:27.720 island was haunted by the ghosts of those who had 0:25:27.720 --> 0:25:30.720