October 22, 1934: Pretty Boy Floyd Is Killed

"Pretty Boy"?

October 22, 1934: Pretty Boy Floyd is killed by FBI agents led by Melvin Purvis in East Liverpool, Ohio. The Midwest-based bank robber was 30 years old. Like his contemporary Lester Gillis, a.k.a. Baby Face Nelson, he hated his nickname.

Charles Arthur Floyd was born on February 3, 1904 in Adairsville, Georgia, and grew up in Akins, Oklahoma. He first got arrested at age 18, for stealing $3.50 from a post office. In 1925, he was busted for a payroll robbery in St. Louis, and served 3 1/2 years in prison.

He got involved with organized crime in Kansas City, and pulled off numerous robberies. In 1930, he was sentenced to 12 to 15 years for bank robbery in Ohio, but escaped. In 1931, members of his gang killed Patrolman R.H. Castner in Bowling Green, Ohio. Later that year, Floyd himself killed federal Agent Curtis Burke in Kansas City.

In 1933, Floyd was implicated in a shootout at Union Station that left 2 Kansas City detectives, an Oklahoma police chief, a federal agent dead, becoming known as the Kansas City Massacre. However, the available evidence suggests that Floyd wasn't even there.

Following the death of John Dillinger on July 22, 1934, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover replaced him as "Public Enemy Number 1" with Floyd. By mid-October, Floyd was on the run in Ohio. On October 22, he made his way to East Liverpool, not far from Wheeling, West Virginia, and found refuge at a pool hall owned by a friend. Attempting to leave the pool hall, he was confronted by officers, tried to run, and was shot and killed.

It was a busy time for the nascent FBI, having gunned down some major bad guys in an 8-month span of 1934 and 1935: May 23, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in Arcadia, Louisiana; July 22, Dillinger in Chicago; October 22, Floyd November 27, Nelson outside Chicago in Wilmette, Illinois; and January 16, Ma Barker in Lake Weir, Florida.

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October 22, 1934 was a Monday. Canadian football star Gerry James was born on this day.

Although Monday Night Football was still 36 years away, there was only 1 score on this historic day, and it was in the NFL: The new Detroit Lions beat the football version of the Brooklyn Dodgers, 28-0 at the University of Detroit Stadium.