On this day in Labor History the year was 1934.
That as the day that the bank robber known as Pretty Boy Floyd was gunned down by federal agents in Ohio.
He was born Charles Arthur Floyd in 1904 in Georgia.
His family moved to Oklahoma when he was a boy.
Like many Oklahomans during this era, he fell on hard economic times.
Floyd turned to crime.
He did a four year stretch in a Missouri prison for a payroll robbery.
When he got out, he tried to get a job in the Oklahoma oil fields.
Unable to find work, Floyd took up bank robbing.
He robbed banks in Kentucky, Ohio and Missouri.
He got caught and convicted in Ohio, but escaped on his train trip to prison.
He made his way back to Oklahoma.
There he became a folk hero.
Locals called him the “Robin Hood of The Cookson Hills.”
Legend had it that Floyd destroyed mortgage papers when he robbed banks, winning him friends among farmers reeling from the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.
Floyd became a national fugitive when he was accused of killing federal agents in Kansas City.
He denied he was involved in the killings.
Finally, the law caught up with Floyd in an Ohio cornfield.
His body was returned to Oklahoma, where as many as 40 thousands came to his funeral.
Woody Guthrie remembered Floyd in song.
January 31 - The Big Easy Fires 7000 Teachers
January 30 - Fred Korematsu Day
January 29 - Bread & Roses Striker, Anna LoPizzo, Shot Dead
January 28 - The 1917 Bath Riots
January 27 - Bans on Yellow Dog Contracts Ruled Unconstitutional
January 26 - Sid Hatfield Stands Trial
January 25 - Solidarity Works!
January 24 - Arturo Alfonso Schomburg is Born
January 23 - If Poison Doesn’t Work, Try Briggs!
January 22 - Tragedy in the Mines & in the Union Hall
January 21 - On Strike for Health & Dignity
January 20 - The Flint Womens Emergency Brigades
January 19 - A Snapshot in Misery
January 18 - Is Colorado in America?
January 17 - Standing Against Wage Theft
January 15 - We Want to Live, Not Just Exist
January 14 - The Rise of the Bellamyites
January 13 - Johnny Cash Plays Folsom Prison
January 12 - The Cost of Wartime Industrial Peace
January 11 - Battle of the Running Bulls
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Meaningful Life with Andrew G. Marshall
The No-Frills Teacher Podcast
Heal, Survive & Thrive!
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
The Mel Robbins Podcast