CHARLES ARTHUR "PRETTY BOY" FLOYD

Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd was born on a farm in Bartow Co., Georgia, on February 3, 1904.  Born during a time when cotton was king.  In 1911 the Floyd family fled the impoverished hills of Georgia for Oklahoma and settled in the Cookson Hills located in Sequoyah County.  Charley came of age during a time when there were no jobs and no food, which led into a world of petty crime and bootlegging as a natural outgrowth of the bitter circumstances of the 1920’s.  June 28, 1924 he married Ruby Hardgrave, and it was then his troubles began.  Growing bitter and angry at not being able to make a living, Floyd decided the only way to get ahead was to break the law.

After being arrested for a 1925 payroll robbery in St. Louis, he was sentenced to five years in the Missouri State Penitentiary.  He served three and a half hard years and was released, vowing he would never see the inside of another prison.  His real education in crime came in Kansas City in 1929, where he mixed with all sorts of gangsters and criminals and learned how to use a machine gun.  It was also where he was given the name he hated: "Pretty Boy" Floyd. He and his outlaw partners successfully took a number of small banks until they held up the bank at Sylvania, Ohio.  They were caught and Floyd was sentenced to 15 years in the Ohio State Penitentiary.  Remembering the vow he had made to himself, 'Pretty Boy' escaped on his way to prison by leaping from a moving train and headed for Toledo, Ohio.  In time he ended up hiding out back in the Cookson Hills near his hometown, where he was accepted and protected by the people.  Floyd became known as 'The Robin Hood of the Cookson Hills'.  He and a partner, George Birdwell, robbed the banks in Earlsboro, Konawa, Maud, Morris, Shamrock, Tahlequah, and on December 12, 1931, two banks in one day at Castle and Paden, Oklahoma.  The bank insurance rates doubled in one year in Oklahoma, and the governor placed a reward, dead or alive, on Pretty Boy's head.

Time Line Of Events

Early May 1929 Charles Floyd obtains a job in the oil fields near Earlsboro, Oklahoma, working with his brother Bradley and Bradley's friend, George Birdwell. He is later fired after his boss finds out he is an ex-con.  Floyd then goes to Kansas City, where he meets Beulah Baird.

Mar 9, 1931 Pretty Boy Floyd, William "Billy the Killer" Miller, and George Birdwell rob the bank at Earlsboro, Oklahoma, of $3,000. Floyd and Miller escape to Kansas City. Birdwell returns to his farm near Earlsboro, Oklahoma.

Aug 4, 1931 Pretty Boy Floyd and George Birdwell rob the Citizens Bank of Shamrock, Oklahoma, of $400.

Sept 8, 1931 Pretty Boy Floyd and George Birdwell rob the Morris State Bank in Morris, Oklahoma. They escape with $1,753.

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Sept 29, 1931 Pretty Boy Floyd and George Birdwell rob the First National Bank of Maud, Oklahoma, of $3,850.

Sept 30, 1931 The Sequoyeh County Sheriff and other officers near Sallisaw, Oklahoma confront Pretty Boy Floyd and George Birdwell. There is a brief exchange of gunfire, but both outlaws escape.

Oct 14, 1931 Pretty Boy Floyd and George Birdwell rob the Bank of Earlsboro, Oklahoma, of $2,498.

Nov 5, 1931 Pretty Boy Floyd and George Birdwell rob the First National Bank of Konowa, Oklahoma, of $2,500

Dec 23, 1931    Pretty Boy Floyd and George Birdwell again rob the Morris State Bank of $1,162.

Jan 14, 1932 Pretty Boy Floyd and George Birdwell rob the First State Bank of Castle, Oklahoma, of $2,600, and the Farmers State Bank of Paden for an unknown amount.

Feb 9, 1932 Pretty Boy Floyd and George Birdwell are confronted by police while sitting in their car in Tulsa. Floyd and Birdwell open fire with machine guns, slightly injuring one policeman. The outlaws escape.

Feb 10, 1932 Pretty Boy Floyd and George Birdwell are involved in a running gun battle with the Tulsa police. No one is hurt, and the outlaws escape.

Feb 11, 1932 Tulsa police surround Pretty Boy Floyd's house. Police fire tear gas into the house. Floyd and Birdwell escape out the back. The Tulsa police takes wife Ruby and son Dempsey Floyd into custody.

March 23, 1932 Pretty Boy Floyd And George Birdwell rob the Bank Of Meeker, taking $500.00 for their effort.

Apr 9, 1932 Pretty Boy Floyd and George Birdwell drive to Bixby, Oklahoma, to meet Ruby. When they drive up to the gate in front of the farmhouse, ex law officer turned bounty hunter Erv Kelley steps in front of the car with a machine gun. Floyd and Kelley fire at the same time. Floyd is shot in the ankle while Kelley is killed. Floyd and Birdwell escape to Seminole County, Oklahoma.

Apr 21, 1932 George Birdwell and C.C. Patterson rob the First State Bank of Stonewall, Oklahoma, of $600.

June 7, 1932 Pretty Boy Floyd and George Birdwell meet at a farmhouse near Stonewall, Oklahoma. A police posse arrives and after a gunfight, the outlaws escape. No one is injured.

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July 29, 1932 Governor Murray of Oklahoma posts rewards of $1,000 for either Pretty Boy Floyd or George Birdwell or $1,500 for both, dead or alive.

Nov 1, 1932 Pretty Boy Floyd, George Birdwell, and Aussie Elliott rob the bank at Sallisaw, Oklahoma, while Floyd's grandfather sits on a bench across the street to watch. They escape with $2,530.

Nov 7, 1932 Pretty Boy Floyd, George Birdwell, and Aussie Elliott rob the American State Bank in Henryetta, Oklahoma, of $11,352.

Nov 23, 1932 George Birdwell, C.C. Patterson, and Charlie Glass attempt to rob the Farmers & Merchant's Bank in Boley, Oklahoma. Pretty Boy Floyd, who was in Kansas City with Beulah Baird, had warned Birdwell to stay away from the bank in Boley. George Birdwell, Glass, and the bank president are killed.

Nov 25, 1932 George Birdwell is buried in Seminole, Oklahoma.

November 1932 Floyd takes his third partner, Adam C. Richetti.

June 16, 1933 Pretty Boy Floyd and Adam Richetti kidnap Sheriff Jack Killingsworth of Polk County, Missouri after Sheriff Killingsworth happened upon the two as they were having their car repaired.  Within a couple of days and several auto-changes Sheriff Killingsworth was released unharmed.

June 17, 1933 the Kansas City Massacre occurs at the Union Street Train Station, Pretty Boy Floyd is implicated in this although there has never been one shred of evidence to prove he had anything to do with it.

June 21, 1933 a business postcard stamped with a Springfield, Missouri postmark was sent to the Kansas City Police Station.   The postcard dated June 20, 1933 in which Pretty Boy Floyd publicly denies participation in the Kansas City massacre.

September 21, 1933 Pretty Boy Floyd, Adam Richetti and the Baird sisters head off to Buffalo, New York where they spend the next 13 months in hiding.

July 22, 1934 John Dillinger is shot and killed by FBI agents in Chicago.  Pretty Boy Floyd is now named as “Public Enemy Number One”. 

October 19, 1934 Pretty Boy Floyd decided it is time to head home.  Floyd, Richetti and the Baird sisters load up and leave Buffalo.  October 20, 1934 just outside Wellsville, Ohio the car in which they were driving skids out of control and strikes a telephone pole.  Floyd, feeling that the car was in no shape to continue on without repairs, sends the Baird sisters into Wellsville to have the car repaired while he and Richetti settled on a hill to wait for the car to be finished.  During this time Floyd and Richetti are discovered and after a gunfight with the local law, Richetti is shot in the ankle and arrested while Floyd is able to escape.  Now on the run Charles Arthur Floyd was only interested in finding a way to get home. 

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October 22, 1934 Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd makes his way to East Liverpool, Ohio.  Appearing at Ellen Conkle’s farm Floyd asks if she could help him out with some food and offered to pay for it.  Mrs. Conkle obliged with his request and prepared Floyd a meal that he stated was “fit for a king” and insisted on paying for his meal although Mrs. Conkle refused, he insisted that she at least take a dollar bill.  Floyd asked if she could assist him in getting to a bus station, however she was unable to do so but thought her brother and sister-in-law would be willing to give him a lift.  Her brother stated they were going home but would take him to Clarksville, Floyd accepted their offer.  They had barely moved when local policemen and federal agents pulled up.  Floyd made his break and headed off through the empty cornfield when he is shot by local officers and then executed by federal officers under the order of Melvin Purvis.  Charles Arthur Floyd was thirty years old.

October 28, 1934.  Charles Arthur Floyd is laid to rest in Akins, Oklahoma in the local cemetery.  His funeral remains to this day as the largest funeral to be held in the state of Oklahoma.