Much of this book is based on original research gleaned from hundreds of field and telephonic interviews conducted in several states, including Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, and California. The majority of the interviews involved relatives of Charles Arthur Floyd, surviving Floyd associates and friends, former criminals, retired state and federal law enforcement officers, prison officials, historians, journalists, and others who had direct contact with Floyd.
Several historical societies, university and public libraries, book, newspaper, and magazine publishers, chambers of commerce, and law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, provided critical records, documentation, photographs, correspondence, and other pertinent material. Many of the individuals, institutions, and agencies contacted by the author during the book’s development are further discussed in the acknowledgment section, photographic credits, or are directly credited within the text.
The Floyd and Lessley families were especially helpful in providing family history and background as well as remarkably candid firsthand accounts of Charles Floyd’s life in Georgia and Oklahoma. Interviews with various family members were conducted in Sallisaw, Oklahoma City, and Moore, Oklahoma, throughout the summer and autumn of 1990. This marks the first time that so many members of the Floyd family have lent their full cooperation to any author. From the beginning, it was understood that every aspect of Floyd’s brief life would be thoroughly explored with no restrictions.
A principal source for material used in the preparation of this work has been the daily and periodical press of the twenties and thirties, with major reliance on the microfilm files of the Tulsa World, Tulsa Tribune, The New York Times, and significant input from the files of several other key newspapers such as the Oklahoma Times, Kansas City Times, Kansas City Star, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Buffalo Courier-Express. Walter Biscup’s feature and news articles from 1932 and 1933 published in the Tulsa World, although not always the most reliable as far as factual material, were helpful because of his first-person interviews with Ruby Hardgraves Floyd and others.
A wide variety of books, monographs, correspondence, academic papers photographs, newsreels, and films were thoroughly examined during the research phase. It is impossible in this space to list separately the hundreds of books, booklets, brochures, pamphlets, newspaper microfilm files, and other source material consulted.
Especially helpful sources included a series of newspaper articles written by Vivian Brown, the only journalist who was ever able to conduct a formal interview with Charles Floyd. Brown’s series was published in October of 1934 in the Oklahoma Times, following Floyd’s death in Ohio. Several passages from Brown’s interview are directly quoted in this book.
A twelve-part newspaper series written by Robert Unger, national correspondent for the Kansas City Times, published in June of 1983, was also of value to the author in the preparation of this book. Unger’s articles focusing on the events leading up to and including the massacre at Union Station on June 17, 1933, were written after the newspaper, under the Freedom of Information Act, obtained five volumes of previously unexamined files from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
NONFICTION BOOKS
Adams, Vernon R. Tom White, The Life of a Lawman. Texas Western Press, 1972.
Allen, Eric. Crossfire in the Cooksons. Hoffman Printing Company, 1974.
Allen, Frederick Lewis. Since Yesterday: The 1930s in America. Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1939.
———. Only Yesterday. Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1964.
Andrew, Geoff. Hollywood Gangsters. Gallery Books, an imprint of W. H. Smith Publishers, Inc., 1985.
Audett, James Henry. Rap Sheet. William Sloane Associates, Inc., 1954
Badger, Anthony J. The New Deal: The Depression Years, 1933–40. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc., 1989.
Barrett, Paul W., and Barrett, Mary H. Young Brothers Massacre. University of Missouri Press, 1988.
Bernstein, Irving. The Lean Years: A History of the American Worker, 1933–1941. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1960.
Bernstein, Michael A. The Great Depression. Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Bird, Caroline. The Invisible Scar. David McKay Co., 1966.
Bonnifield, Paul. The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt, and Depression. University of New Mexico Press, 1979.
Botkin, B. A., ed. A Treasury of Western Folklore. Crown Publishers, Inc., 1951.
Bowman, John S. General Editor. The World Almanac of the American West. World Almanac, an imprint of Pharos Books, 1986.
Brooks, Elston. I’ve Heard Those Songs Before, Volume II. The Summit Group, 1991.
Brown, A. Theodore. Frontier Community: A History of Kansas City to 1870. University of Missouri Press, 1963.
Bryant, Keith, L., Jr. Alfalfa Bill Murray. University of Oklahoma Press, 1968.
Burbank, Garin. When Farmers Voted Red: The Gospel of Socialism in the Oklahoma Countryside, 1910–1924. Greenwood Press, 1976.
Burns, Walter Noble. The Saga of Billy the Kid. Doubleday, 1926.
Butler, William J. Fort Smith, Past and Present; A Historical Summary. The First National Bank of Fort Smith, Arkansas, 1972.
Callahan, Clyde C., and Jones, Byron B. Heritage of an Outlaw: The Story of Frank Nash. Schoonmaker Publishers, 1979.
Chandler, Lester. America’s Greatest Depression, 1929–1939. Harper and Row, 1970.
Clarens, Carlos. Horror Films. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1967.
Clayton, Merle. Union Station Massacre, The Shootout That Started the FBI’s War on Crime. The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1975.
Cook, F. P. The American Struggle. Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1974.
Cook, Frederick J. The FBI Nobody Knows. Macmillan, 1964.
Cooper, Courtney Riley. Ten Thousand Public Enemies. Blue Ribbon Books, 1935.
Cunyus, Lucy Josephine. History of Bartow County. Tribune Publishing Co., Inc., 1933.
Dalton, Emmett (in collaboration with Jack Jungmeyer). When the Daltons Rode. Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1931.
Daniels, Jonathan. The Time Between Wars. Doubleday & Co., 1966.
Davis, Burke. The Civil War: Strange & Fascinating Facts. The Fairfax Press, 1982.
Debo, Angie. And Still the Waters Run. Princeton University Press, 1940.
———, and Oskison, John M., eds. The WPA Guide to 1930s Oklahoma. Originally published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 1941 under the title Oklahoma: A Guide to the Sooner State. Published by the University Press of Kansas, 1986.
deFord, Miriam Allen. The Real Ma Barker. Ace Publishing Corp., 1970.
Demaris, Ovid. The Director: An Oral Biography of J. Edgar Hoover. Harper’s Magazine Press, 1975.
Dorsett, Lyle W. The Pendergast Machine. Oxford University Press, 1968.
Draper, W. R. On the Trail of “Pretty Boy” Floyd, A Reporter’s Thrilling Pursuit of an Outlaw’s Story. Haldeman-Julius Publications, 1946.
Edge, L. L. Run the Cat Roads: A True Story of Bank Robbers in the ’30s. Dembner Books, 1981.
Ellsworth, Scott. Death in a Promised Land. Louisiana State University Press, 1975.
Elman, Robert. Fired in Anger, The Personal Handguns of American Heroes and Villains. Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1968.
Evans, Harold. C., ed. The WPA Guide to 1930s Kansas. Originally published by Viking Press in 1939 under the title Kansas: A Guide to the Sunflower State. Published by the University Press of Kansas, 1984.
Faherty, William Barnaby. The St. Louis Portrait. Continental Heritage Press, Inc., 1978.
Fischer, LeRoy H., ed. Oklahoma’s Governors 1929–1955. Oklahoma Historical Society, 1983.
Foreman, Grant. A History of Oklahoma. University of Oklahoma Press, 1942.
———. Sequoyah. University of Oklahoma Press, 1938.
Fugate, Francis L., and Fugate, Roberta B. Roadside History of Oklahoma. Mountain Press Publishing Company, 1991.
Galbraith, John K. The Great Crash: 1929. Houghton Mifflin, 1955.
Gentry, Curt. J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets. W. W. Norton, 1991.
Gibson, Arnell Morgan. Oklahoma: A History of Five Centuries. University of Oklahoma Press, 1980.
———. The Oklahoma Story. University of Oklahoma Press, 1978.
Gilmore, Robert K. Ozark Baptizings, Hangings, and Other Diversions. University of Oklahoma Press, 1984.
Gish, Anthony. American Bandits. Haldeman-Julius Publications, 1938.
Glassman, Bruce. The Crash of ’29 and the New Deal. Silver Burdett Company, 1986.
Gordon, Lois, and Gordon, Alan. American Chronicle, Seven Decades in American Life 1920–1989. Crown Publishers, Inc., 1987.
Graves, Richard. Oklahoma Outlaws. Oklahoma Publishing Co., 1909.
Green, Donald E., ed. Rural Oklahoma. Oklahoma Historical Society, 1977.
Gregory, James N. American Exodus. Oxford University Press, 1989.
Haley, J. Evetts. Robbing Banks Was My Business. Palo Duro Press, 1973.
Harrington, Michael. The Other America: Poverty in the United States. Macmillan, 1962.
Hartman, Mary and Ingenthron, Elmo. Bald Knobbers: Vigilantes on the Ozark Frontier. Pelican Publishing Company, 1989.
Hendrickson, Kenneth D., Jr., ed. Hard Times in Oklahoma. Oklahoma Historical Society, 1983.
Hicks, Roger W., and Schultz, Frances E. Battlefields of the Civil War. Salem house Publishers, 1989.
Hill, Lois, ed. Poems and Songs of the Civil War. The Fairfax Press, 1990.
Hinton, Ted and Grove, Larry. Ambush—The Real Story of Bonnie and Clyde. Shoal Creek Publishers, Inc., 1979.
Horan, James D. The Authentic Wild West: The Outlaws. Crown Publishers, Inc., 1976.
Jenkins, John H., and Frost, H. Gordon. “I’m Frank Hamer.” Pemberton press, 1980.
Karpis, Alvin, with Trent, Bill. The Alvin Karpis Story. McCann & Goeghegan, Inc., 1971.
Kelley, Robert Lloyd. The Shaping of the American Past, Volume 2, 1865 to Present. Prentice-Hall, 1986.
Kelly, Charles. The Outlaw Trail. Bonanza Books, 1938.
Kellner, Esther. Moonshine. The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1971.
Keylin, Arleen, and Bent, Christine, eds. The New York Times at the Movies. Arno Press, 1979.
Kirkpatrick, E. E. Voices from Alcatraz. The Naylor Company, 1947.
Kirschten, Ernest. Catfish and Crystal. Doubleday, 1960, and The Patrice Press, 1989.
Kohn, George C. Dictionary of Culprits and Criminals. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1986.
Kooistra, Paul. Criminals as Heroes: Structure, Power & Identity. Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1989.
Lamb, Arthur H. Tragedies of the Osage Hills. Red Corn Publishing, 1964.
Lane, Mills, ed. Marching Through Georgia. Arno Press, 1978.
Leuchtenburg, William E. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932–1940. Harper & Row, 1963.
Logan, William Bryant, and Muse, Vance. The Smithsonian Guide to Historic America: The Deep South. Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 1989.
Lomax, Alan, compiler; Guthrie, Woody, notes on songs; Seeger, Pete, ed. Hard-Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People. Oak Publications, Inc., 1967.
Long, R. M. Wichita Century. The Wichita Historical Museum Association, Inc., 1969.
Long, E. B. The Civil War Day by Day. Doubleday & Co., 1971.
Louderback, Lew. The Bad Ones: Gangsters of the 30’s and Their Molls. Fawcett, 1968.
Love, Robertus. The Rise and Fall of Jesse James. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1926.
Lurie, Nancy Oestreich. North American Indian Lives. Milwaukee Public Museum, 1985.
Marriott, Alice, and Rachlin, Carol K. Oklahoma, The Forty-sixth star. Doubleday & Company, 1973.
Marsh, Dave, and Leventhal, Harold, eds. Pastures of Plenty. HarperCollins Publishers, 1990.
McBee, William D. The Oklahoma Revolution. Modern Publishers, Inc., 1956.
McElvaine, Robert S. The Great Depression. Times Books, 1984.
Meltzer, Milton. Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? Alfred A. Knopf, 1969.
Merz, Charles. The Dry Decade. Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1931.
Miller, Merle. Plain Speaking. Berkley Publishing Corporation, 1931.
Milligan, Maurice M. Missouri Waltz. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948.
Morgan, H. Wayne, and Morgan, Anne Hodges. Oklahoma. W. W. Norton & Company, 1984, 1977.
Morris, John W. Cities of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Historical Society, 1979.
———. Ghost Towns of Oklahoma. University of Oklahoma Press, 1977.
———; Goins, Charles R.; and McReynolds, Edwin C. Historical Atlas of Oklahoma. University of Oklahoma Press, 1976.
Nash, Jay Robert. Bloodletters and Bad Men: A Narrative Encyclopedia of American Criminals from the Pilgrims to the Present. M. Evans and Company Inc., 1973; and Warner Books, 1975.
Nevin, David. Sherman’s March: Atlanta to the Sea. Time-Life Books, 1986.
Nix, Evett Dumas. Oklahombres. Eden Publishing House, 1929.
Parrish, William Earl. Turbulent Partnership, Missouri and the Union, 1861–65. University of Missouri Press, 1963.
Patterson, Richard. Historical Atlast of the Outlaw West. Johnson Publishing Company, 1985.
Perkerson, Medora Field. White Columns in Georgia. Bonanza Books, a division of Crown Publishers, Inc., by arrangement with Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1952 Perrett, Geoffrey. American in the Twenties. Simon and Schuster, 1982.
Phillips, Cabell. From the Crash to the Blitz, 1929–1939. The New York Times Company, 1969.
Poling-Kempes, Lesley. The Harvey Girls, Women Who Opened the West. Paragon House, 1989.
Polley, Jane, ed. American Folklore and Legend. The Reader’s Digest association, Inc., 1978.
Powers, Richard Gid. G-Men: Hoover’s FBI in American Popular Culture. Southern Illinois University Press, 1983.
———. Secrecy and Power: The Life of J. Edgar Hoover. The Free Press, 1987.
Purvis, Melvin H. American Agent. Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1936.
Quinby, Myron J. Devil’s Emissaries. A. S. Barnes and Company, Inc., 1969.
Reddig, William M. Tom’s Town: Kansas City and the Pendergast Machine.
Harper & Row, 1953; University of Missouri Press, 1986.
Russell, Francis. The Shadow of Blooming Grove: Warren G. Harding in His Times. McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1968.
Ruth, Kent. Oklahoma Travel Handbook. University of Oklahoma Press, 1977.
———and Argo, Jim. Here We Rest: Historic Cemeteries of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Historical Society, 1986.
Sabljak, Mark, and Greenberg, Martin H. Most Wanted: A History of the FBI’s Most Wanted List. Bonanza Books, 1990.
Sann, Paul. Fads Follies, and Delusions of the American People. Crown Publishers, Inc., 1967.
———. The Lawless Decade. Crown Publishers, Inc., 1957.
Scales, James Ralph, and Goble, Danney. Oklahoma Politics: A History. University of Oklahoma Press, 1982.
Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr., ed. The Almanac of American History. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1983.
Sellin, Thorsten. Research Memorandum on Crime in the Depression. Reprint edition by Arno Press, Inc., 1972.
Sequoyah County Historical Society. The History of Sequoyah County 1828–1975. The Sequoyah County Historical Society, 1976.
Settle, William. Jesse James Was His Name. University of Missouri Press, 1966.
Shirley, Glenn. Henry Starr: Last of the Real Badmen. David McKay Company, 1965.
———. Law West of Fort Smith: A History of Frontier Justice in the Indian Territory, 1834–1896. University of Nebraska Press, 1968.
———. West of Hell’s Fringe: Crime, Criminals, and the Federal Peace Officer in Oklahoma Territory. University of Oklahoma Press, 1978.
Sinclair, Andrew. Prohibition, The Era of Excess. Little, Brown and Company, 1962.
Smallwood, James M. An Oklahoma Adventure of Banks and Bankers. University of Oklahoma Press, 1979.
Smith, Leon E. High Noon at the Boley Corral. Detroit: Leon E. Smith, 1980.
Steele, Philip W. Jesse and Frank James: The Family History. Pelican Publishing Company, 1989.
———. Ozark Tales and Superstitions. Pelican Publishing Company, 1988.
Stradler, Francis Hurd. St. Louis Day by Day. The Patrice Press, 1989.
Steckmesser, Kent. The Western Hero in History and Legend. University of Oklahoma Press, 1965.
Taylor, Deems. A Pictorial History of the Movies. Simon & Schuster, 1949.
Terry, Dickson. There’s a Town in Missouri. New Sunrise Publishing, 1979.
Theoharis, Athan G., ed. From the Secret Files of J. Edgar Hoover. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1991.
———, and Cox, John S. The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition. Temple University Press, 1988.
Thompson, John. Closing the Frontier: Radical Response in Oklahoma, 1889–1923. University of Oklahoma Press, 1986.
Time-Life Books. The Old West. Prentice Hall Press, 1990.
Toland, John. The Dillinger Days. Random House, 1963.
Treherne, John. The Strange History of Bonnie and Clyde. Stein and Day, 1985.
Trekell, Ronald L. History of the Tulsa Police Department 1882–1990. Tulsa: Ronald L. Trekell, 1991.
Tully, Andrew. The FBI’s Most Famous Cases. William Morrow, 1965.
Ungar, Sanford J. FBI. Atlantic Monthly Press Book, Little Brown and Company, 1975.
Vaughn-Roberson, Ann and Glen, City in the Osage Hills. Pruett Publishing Company, 1984.
Wamsley, Burtkett. Ad Libs to Bixby History. Citizens Security Bank and Trust, 1974.
Watters, Pat, and Gillers, Stephen, eds. Investigating the FBI. Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1973.
Wecter, Dixon. The Age of the Great Depression. The Macmillan Company, 1948.
Wellman, Paul I. A Dynasty of Western Outlaws. Doubleday & Company, 1961.
Welsh, Louise; Townes, Willa Mae; and Morris, John W. A History of the Greater Seminole Oil Field. Western Heritage Books, Inc., 1981.
West, C. W. “Dub.” Muskogee: From Statehood to Pearl Harbor. Muscogee Publishing Company, 1976.
———. Only in Oklahoma. Muscogee Publishing Company, 1982.
———. Outlaws and Peace Officers of Indian Territory. Muscogee Publishing Company, 1987.
Whitehead, Don. The FBI Story: A Report to the People. Random House, Inc., 1956.
Wilson, Charles Reagan, and Ferris, William, eds. Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. The University of Carolina Press, 1989.
Wilson, Steve. Okalahoma Treasures and Treasure Tales. University of Oklahoma Press. 1976.
Witt, Margaret A., ed. Pause in Missouri. American Association of University Women, Missouri State Division, 1979.
Worster, Donald. Dustbowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930’s. Oxford University Press, 1979.
FICTION BOOKS
Carroll, Lenore. Annie Chambers. Watermark Press, Inc., 1989.
Cunningham, William. The Green Corn Rebellion. The Vanguard Press, 1935.
Cunningham, Walter. Pretty Boy. The Vanguard Press, 1936.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Viking Press, Inc., 1939.
MAGAZINES AND JOURNALS
A host of magazines and periodicals provided helpful information for this book. Some of the publications include: Americana; American Heritage; American History Illustrated; American Magazine; American West; America’s Civil War; Chronicles of Oklahoma; Civil War, The Magazine of the Civil War Society; Colliers; Current Opinion; Fortune; Georgia Historical Quarterly; Harper’s Weekly; Journal of American Folklore; Journal of Negro History; Kansas City Business Journal; Life; Literary Digest; Memories; Missouri Historical Review; The Nation; National Geographic; New Republic; North American Review; Ohio Magazine; Oklahoma Monthly; Oklahoma Today; Reader’s Digest; Saturday Evening Post; Scribner’s Magazine; Smithsonian; The Independent; The Investigator; The Outlook; The Peace Officer; Time; Timeline; True Detective; Western Historical Quarterly.
NEWSPAPERS
The more significant newspapers (including some no longer in existence) used for researching this book include: Akron Beacon Journal; Boliver (Mo.) Free Press; Blackwell (Okla.) Morning Tribune; Bolivar Herald-Free Press; Buffalo Courier-Express; Chicago Tribune; Cleveland Plain Dealer; Columbus Citizen-Journal; Columbus Dispatch; Daily Oklahoman; Dallas Morning-News; Denver Post; East Liverpool Review; Eufaula (Okla.) Democrat; Florence (S.C.) Morning News; Fort Worth Star-Telegram; Jefferson City (Mo.) Post-Tribune; Joplin Globe; Kansas City Journal-Post; Kansas City Star; Kansas City Times; Liberty (Mo.) Tribune; Los Angeles Times; McAlester (Okla.) News-Capital; Memphis Commercial Appeal; Muskogee Daily Phoenix; New York Daily News; The New York Times; Norman (Okla.) Transcript; North Bartow News; Oklahoma News; Oklahoma City Times; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Pittsburgh Press; Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph; St. Joseph Gazette; St. Louis Globe-Democrat; St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Sallisaw Democrat-American; Seminole (Okla.) Producer; Sequoyah County Times; Springfield (Mo.) Daily News; Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader; Stillwater News-Press; Sylvania Herald; Toledo Blade; Topeka Capital; Tulsa Tribune; Tulsa World; Youngstown Vindicator; Washington Evening Star; Wichita Beacon; Wichita Eagle.