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Charles Arthur Floyd born in Georgia in 1904 first came to the attention of the authorities after stealing money from a post office at age 18. In 1925 he was jailed for a payroll robbery and paroled in 1929. Upon his release he went on his merry way, robbing Missouri banks and vowing never to be taken alive. To Missouri — Kansas, Ohio and Indiana banks were added to his name — such was the ripe pickens in the 1930s for one crazy machine-gun wielding Pretty Boy Floyd.
The moniker ‘Pretty Boy’ was given to him by a one time girlfriend. Floyd was to become none too happy with it.
Pretty Boy Floyd’s Colt [45] with a reserve of $10k sold at auction exactly one year ago (June 5, 2020) for $31,625.
On June 17, 1933 Floyd allegedly joined up with the ex-army sharp-shooter and ex-police officer turned career criminal Vernon C. Miller and Adam Richetti in an attempt to grab criminal Frank Nash from police custody at Union Railway Station, Kansas City. Nash was in police transit via train and automobile. The botched job and killing of four police officers and Nash in the railway carpark became known as ‘the Kansas City Massacre.’
The Kansas City Massacre, bank robberies, together with the subsequent death of fellow gangster John Dillinger (at the hands of law enforcement) one year later helped send Floyd to the top of the hit…
