Pretty Boy Floyd Falls: FBI Ends a Criminal Era
FBI agents and local police cornered Charles 'Pretty Boy' Floyd in a cornfield near East Liverpool, Ohio, on October 22, 1934, and shot him as he tried to run. Floyd was the last of the great Depression-era outlaws still at large; Dillinger had been killed in July, Bonnie and Clyde in May. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had made Floyd's capture a personal priority. Floyd had robbed over 30 banks and was wanted for the Kansas City Massacre, a 1933 ambush that killed four lawmen. He denied involvement until his dying breath. In Oklahoma, where he grew up, Floyd was regarded as a Robin Hood figure; locals claimed he destroyed mortgage papers during bank robberies, freeing farmers from debt. Whether that actually happened is disputed, but his funeral drew 20,000 mourners.
October 22, 1934
92 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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