The Life and Death of Pretty Boy Floyd

Charles Arthur Floyd, better known as Pretty Boy Floyd (1904–1934), was one of the last of the so-called Robin Hood outlaws in the tradition of Jesse James, Billy the Kid, and John Dillinger. He engaged in numerous bank-robbing exploits across the Midwest until federal agents and local police shot him down near East Liverpool, Ohio, on October 22, 1934―a feat which helped build the image of the modern FBI. This detailed account of his life, crimes, and death makes extensive use of FBI reports, government records, local newspapers, and contemporary journalistic accounts. Neither highly intelligent nor polished, Floyd relied on his cool demeanor, shrewd cunning, and expert gun-handling ability, but he was also considered by those who knew him to be generous and honest. During the depression, many people saw banks as enemies and Floyd as a hero, and helped screen him from the police. Once he left a large contribution at an Oklahoma church–and no one reported his visit. He was known to drop in at country dances, dance with the prettiest girls, and pay the fiddler well. One story claims that he kept a rural school in fuel one winter. He attended church regularly, even during intense manhunts, and visited his father’s grave each Memorial Day, despite the risk of capture. In this biography, Jeffery S. King addresses many of the questions still surrounding Floyd, such as whether he had contact with other notorious outlaws of the period, including Dillinger, Alvin Karpis, and Bonnie and Clyde, and whether he was executed by the FBI. He also links Floyd to the infamous Kansas City Massacre. Particularly notable are King’s assessments of the effectiveness of the FBI and of J. Edgar Hoover’s talent for self promotion. Jeffery S. King is a freelance writer and retired reference librarian. His articles have appeared in Lincoln Herald, Sepia, and Utah Historical Quarterly.

When Pretty Boy Floyd died in a hail of gunfire in 1934, he was a media star whose funeral "was a circus with the mob eating peanuts, drinking corn liquor, spreading picnic lunches, carrying pistols, upsetting gravestones, trampling graves, and ripping down fences as they tried to hear the sermon and catch a glimpse of the notorious outlaw." King's biography is curiously wide-ranging and tightly focused. He trots out much dazzling detail, then doesn't pursue it; for instance, he makes much of Kenny Barker as Floyd's accomplice but fails to discuss Barker's other affiliations or even that he is the famous Ma Barker's son. King allows many other 1930s miscreants to take a bow, but Floyd is in the crosshairs, after all. King's close documentation of Floyd's life and career provides true-crime fans with a gritty portrait of a notorious American and his times that especially attends to the mythologizing effects of the popular media of the day. Thoroughly enjoyable, informative, and suitably bloody. Mike Tribby