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Quick Facts
- NAME: Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd
- OCCUPATION: Criminal
- BIRTH DATE: February 03, 1904
- DEATH DATE: October 22, 1934
- Did You Know?: When Floyd robbed banks in the 1940s, he would often destroy many of the banks' mortgage records, leaving many people free of debt.
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Adairsville, Georgia
- PLACE OF DEATH: East Liverpool, Ohio
- Full Name: Charles Arthur Floyd
- AKA: Charles Floyd
- Nickname: Pretty Boy
- Nickname: "Robin Hood of the Cooksoon Hills"
Best Known For
Pretty Boy Floyd is best known for his constant run-ins with police and violent bank robberies.
Videos see all videos
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Pretty Boy Floyd - His Death (3:26)
Pretty Boy Floyd - His Death
Pretty Boy Floyd was accused of Crimes Against America and yet his downfall was a sad day in America. He is survived by his son who remembers his good side rather than his bad.
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Play NowCharles Floyd. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 10:42, May 25, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/charles-pretty-boy-floyd-9542085.
Charles Floyd. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/charles-pretty-boy-floyd-9542085 [Accessed 25 May 2013].
"Charles Floyd." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 25 2013, 10:42 http://www.biography.com/people/charles-pretty-boy-floyd-9542085.
"Charles Floyd," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/charles-pretty-boy-floyd-9542085 [accessed May 25, 2013].
"Charles Floyd," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/charles-pretty-boy-floyd-9542085 (accessed May 25, 2013).
Charles Floyd [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 25] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/charles-pretty-boy-floyd-9542085.
Charles Floyd, http://www.biography.com/people/charles-pretty-boy-floyd-9542085 (last visited May 25, 2013).
Charles Floyd. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/charles-pretty-boy-floyd-9542085. Accessed May 25, 2013.
Synopsis
Born in George in 1904, Pretty Boy Floyd is best known for his constant run-ins with police and violent bank robberies. Floyd vowed never to steal again after he was arrested for a payroll robbery at the age of 18, but he nevertheless went on to rob numerous banks. He was often protected by Oklahoma locals, who called him "the Robin Hood of the Cooksoon Hills." Floyd was gunned down and killed by FBI agents in 1934.
Early Life
Charles "Pretty Boy" Arthur Floyd was born in Adairsville, Georgia, on February 3, 1904, one of seven children. His family moved soon after to Oklahoma, where they owned a farm and were extremely poor.
After an unlikely first career as a farmer, Floyd turned to crime to escape the poverty of the Depression era, which hit farmers in the "Dust Bowl" especially hard. After he was arrested for a payroll robbery at the age of 18, Floyd vowed never to steal again, but he nevertheless went on to rob numerous banks.
He married Ruby Hargrove in 1921; they had a son, Jack Dempsey Floyd, who was born while Floyd was serving a three-year sentence in prison for a robbing a Kroger store in St. Louis, Missouri. (Ruby divorced Floyd during his imprisonment.)
A Life of Crime
Upon returning to his parents farm, Pretty Boy Floyd is said to have killed a man accused, but acquitted, of killing his father. He became a hired gun for bootleggers along stretches of the Ohio River.
Known for his reckless use of a machine gun, Floyd began—with a group of gangster accomplices—robbing banks in Ohio, and soon moved on to Michigan, Kentucky and Oklahoma. During his crime spree, bank insurance rates in Oklahoma are reported to have doubled. He became popular with the public by destroying mortgage papers at many of the banks he robbed, liberating many debt-ridden citizens; he was often protected by Oklahoma locals, who dubbed him "Robin Hood of the Cooksoon Hills."
Final Years and Legacy
After the capture of John Dillinger, Floyd was named "Public Enemy No.1," and a $23,000 bounty was offered for him, dead or alive. Finally, in 1934, following another bank robbery, Floyd's boyd was found in East Liverpool, Ohio; he had been shot and killed by FBI agents during a chase on October 22 of that year.
Pretty Boy Floyd's legend was put into song, in Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd."
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