I've just turned off. . .Interstate 40 onto Highway 59 heading north through Sallisaw, Oklahoma. Now, we're turning onto Oklahoma 101 to the east - or, to the right. We're going in search of the gravesite of Charles Arthur Floyd; "Pretty Boy" Floyd. Now, the Floyds moved to this area from Georgia, and they were. . . it was somewhere around 19 & 15, and Charley was. . . 8 or 9 years old at the time. Now, Mr. Floyd - Walter Floyd - was a hard-working industrious-type person, as all the Floyds were, and he ended up ownin' a store in Akins, and. . . the store's not there now, and neither is the post office. . . where Charley, when he was 17-18 years old, stole $3.50. 'Course they didn't prosecute him because everybody liked the Floyds, and they - everybody liked Charley, and so. . . it just sort of died out, but that was his first taste of easy money. Now, this is really pretty country through here, but now the graveyard is up here on the right. Now, here we are at the Akins cemetery, and if you want to try and find Charley's grave, go straight up this road here 'til you get to the end of it, and then walk . . . sort of to your right just a little bit - maybe a couple hundred feet. Now, in 19 & 34, when Charley was buried here, they was estimated to be around twenty to forty thousand people. This is the largest funeral ever held in Oklahoma history. Now, when Charley was around 20, he married Ruby Hardgraves. She was a part Cherokee woman, and she was sixteen or seventeen years old; and a year or so later, they had Charles Dempsey Floyd. Now, Charley wanted to name him Jack Dempsey, after the boxer, but Ruby thought that was just a little bit too much. Now, Ruby. . . after Charley's death, Ruby married two or three more times but it didn't stick. -And here's Charley and Ruby. . . and Ruby died in 19 & 70. Now, Charley - here we are at the graveyard trying to find it now - Charley worked several jobs trying to support his little family, but when the depression come on, they just wasn't any jobs to be had. . . so Charley looked for an easier way. Charley was born in 1904 and he died, of course, in 1934. Now, Charley got his name, they say, from a paymaster that the gang had robbed, and . . .the man was trying to describe to the law. . . what Charley looked like, and he said he had a boyish face, and so on, and so forth, but the newspapers picked it up, and called him "Pretty Boy." Now, another story is that a prostitute called him that, but I believe - I sort of believe - the first story. Now this, buried next to Charley, is his mother and daddy. Walter and Minnie. Now. . .Charley - and here's the - here is not the entire family, but here's six; Walter and Minnie, and six of the kids - now, Charley is the one at the bottom on the right, standing in front of his mother. . . and he was the fourth child, and I think there was eight all together. . . there's only five here in the picture. Now, Charley and his mother, about a year before Charley was killed, they snuck up here to his daddy's grave 'cause his daddy died in 19 & 29, and they talked about what was going to happen to Charley and where he should be buried, and this & that. . . but they had to - they had to sneak and do it. And also, the tale is that Charley would drive by his mother's house and stop, and she would come out there, and he would hand her a fistful of money, and then take off again! Now, that's a - that's a kid that a mother could love! The people have been coming and chipping stones off of Charley's grave and I think this is - I believe this is the third tombstone that the family's had to replace, and, you know, that - that gets old, so don't do that. Now, this is one of the. . .sons of Walter and Minnie, and you notice it only has one date, so it's an infant son. Now this is an odd thing; this is Charley's brother here, and he was. . .four years younger than Charley. E.W. is what they called him, and in. . .1940s - the end of 1940s, he was elected sheriff of this county, and he actually remained sheriff until his death in 1970; and this is his wife, Beulah - so that just shows how well the family was thought of. Can you imagine? To elect the brother of the number-one criminal in the country. . .sheriff? Now, these two right here, I know that they are Floyds, I know they're related to the Floyds, but I really don't know where they fit in at. . . or how they come in. I don't know. But this one, I do. Now, this is Mary Delta here. This is a sister of Charley's. Now, Mary Delta was eight years younger than Charley, but. . . she married a Carleton - I think they called him Mike - and she died in 1997, and. . . Mike died in 19 & 95. You can see the favoritism on her! Now on November the 1st, in 19 & 32. . . Charley had robbed so many banks in Oklahoma that he felt confident that he could rob the bank in his own county, in Sallisaw. So, standing on this empty lot here on this corner, was the Sallisaw State Bank, and so Charley tells his friends and his family that on November the 1st, at a certain time, he's going to rob the Sallisaw Bank, and, sure enough, he pulls up at the right time; and a lot of people, who were waiting to see the show, was standing across the street and they all start clapping when they see him pull up, and he goes in and robs the bank, and then, when he comes out and gets in the car to leave. . . he drives down the street, and starts throwing out money. And of course they don't let it lay there, you know! Now, four days before Charley's death on the 18th of October, 19 & 34, Charley Floyd, Adam Ritchie, and two female companions - and, by the way, those female companions come and attended his funeral! Now, this right here is Charlie Ritchie This is a buddy of Floyd's for a long time, and what they did was, they left Buffalo, New York; it was foggy. They got into Ohio and they hit a telephone pole. Well, it put the car out of commission, So, they sent the two girls to get a tow truck - - and here they are - They sent these two ladies to get a tow truck and have the car fixed, and they took their guns and blankets and went up into the woods to hide. They were supposed to come back and get them, and once they got the automobile fixed; but somebody saw 'em up'ere, and thought it odd that two men in suits was laying in the woods, so they notified the local law, the law comes out, they chase Ritchie, they capture him . . .but Floyd gets away. So, four days later, he's still on the run. And at this spot in Ohio, right outside of East Liverpool, Ohio, he comes up to a farmhouse, and he's hungry and tired and cold, and he's been on the run; and he knocks on the back door and. . . Mrs. Conkle. . .C-o-n-k-l-e; Now, she was a widow woman, by herself, and he tells her that he's been. . . he is off hunting with a friend and he got lost. 'Course she knew the difference, 'cause he was in a suit, and so, but nevertheless, she tells him to come in, and she cooks him a meal and feeds him, and he pays her a little money, and he says he needs a ride into town. Now, this is her right here, showing the dishes that he eat off of. Now. . .she tells him that her brother, and his wife, is in the fields, but her brother might take him into town once he gets in from the fields. Instead of staying in the house, with her, like a gentleman he goes out and sits in the car and waits. The car's behind this corn shed here, and when the brother gets there, and he starts to take him into town, they start to pull out from the corn shed. Well, when they do it, at the same time law enforcement is passing on the main road, and they back up to sort of hide theirself. Well, the law noticed it - that they had backed up - and got suspicious; and started pulling out. Well, instead of taking anybody as a hostage, Charley gets out of the car and runs towards the woods. He gets to this spot in the cornfield before he's shot - he's shot once - he gets up, runs a little futher, and he's shot again. Now, this is a after picture. This is not a real picture here. I don't think law enforcement would stand in a circle and shoot at one another, but this is the location that it happened. Then Charley was taken. . .to the local morgue and then, later on. . . he was sent down here to Akins, Oklahoma, where he's buried today.
