Pretty Boy's final months were spent 1n• hiding out By Lois Firestone police a penciled message on to themselves - there were no TORIES ABOUT PRETTY the back of a business postcard raucous parties or get togethers SBoy Floyd's final days have - Dated June 20, 1933 and with visiting friends. If neigh­ melded into Columbiana Coun­ mailed from Springfield, Mis­ bors questioned anything it ty folklore - Sprucevale Road souri, it read "Dear Sirs: I, was why the two men never farm wife Ellen Conkle, for Charles Floyd want it made went out to a job. Living on the instance, enjoyed a brief. cele­ known that I did not partici­ "lam" was worse than doing brity and is still remembered pate in the massacre of officers hard time in prison, he wrote because she prepared the at Kansas City. Charles Floyd." to his family. Floyd had always desperado's last "fit for a king During the first six months liked to cook and spent hours meal" of spareribs, homebaked before the murders, Floyd was over a stove, stirring up spagh­ bread and rice pudding. And in Oklahoma with Adam etti sauce or baking his favorite for years afterward, people Richetti, the last of his many dessert, apple pie. For most of talked about the expert mark­ companions, visiting his former his waking hours, Richetti manship of East Liverpool wife Ruby and son Dempsey drank whiskey - prohibition policeman Chester Smith who and others in his family. By had been repealed in December winged Floyd in the arm in a September, though, worried 1933. The others played pitch vain attempt to "save him" for that the "feds" were dosing in and double solitaire to pass the trial. and hoping to hide out until dragging hours, or they lis­ But what was he doing in the authorities gave up their hunt, tened to the radio and read area in the first place? And Floyd and Richetti said good­ detective magazines - Floyd why did Floyd foolishly bye to friends and relatives and picked up a copy of the Buffalo emerge from his self-imposed headed east with two girls Courier-Express every day to exile after 14 months of suc­ they'd picked up, Buelah and keep up with Hoover's raids cessfully eluding J. Edgar Rose Baird. and manhunts. Hoover and the Federal Bureau They stopped briefly in Can­ Twelve long months passed, of Investigation.? field where Floyd read a story, but Floyd's name continue to Charles "Choe" Floyd's illustrated with sketches, in an crop up almost every day with death warrant was signed and Ohio newspaper which sug­ rumors about whe·re he was irrevocably sealed 16 months gested that Pretty Boy was the hiding out or what he was before his death on the Conkle ghost of Jesse James risen from doing: He was seen every­ farm on the evening of Mon­ the grave. Pleased, he scribbled where, on both coasts on the day, Oct. 22, 1934. The instru­ a thank-you note to the staff same day. He had joined the ment was the Kansas City Mas­ artist: "Thanks for the compli­ Chinese army, he was negotiat­ Walter Floyd, holding baby Emma, poses with his family in sacre, the wanton murders of a ments and the fictures of me in ing with a Hollywood film Adairsville, Georgia in 1907. Others in the family (from left) federal agent and four other your paper. I'I be gone before company for his life story, he are Ruby, Ruth, Bradley, mother Mamie and Charley. men shortly after 7 a.m. on you get this. Jesse James was was dead from old gunshot June 17, 1933 as they emerged no punk himself. I'm not as wounds, he was dying from Oklahoma. His money dwindling, Floyd from Kansas City's Union Sta­ bad as they say I am. They just blood poisoning, he was living The major reason was the gave Rose Baird $600 to buy a tion. Head G-Man J. Edgar wouldn't leave me alone after I in Mexico, Virginia and Arkan­ headline he'd read eight days Ford two-door sedan, and Hoover saw the chance to got out. Yours truly, Chas. A. sas, he'd had his hair dyed red earlier in the Buffalo-Courier about 3 a.m. on October 19 they blame the murders on Floyd Floyd." and grown a beard. Express which read: U.S. Men locked the door of the apart­ and put him away once and for Their destination was Buffa­ John Dillinger was shot Solve Massacre of 5 in Kansas ment and traveled south. Hell's all - whether he was caught lo. On September 21 the quartet down in front of Chicago's Bio­ City... Pretty Boy Floyd, two Half Acre was a small settle­ dead or alive didn't concern rented an apartment in a non­ graph Theater on July 22, 1934, others named by federal agents ment along the Ohio River on them. Nor did it matter that descript section of the city, liv­ and Hoover announced that he in railway station tragedy. · the border of Ohio and Pen­ "eyewitnesses" were unreliable ing on cash the two men had was naming Floyd as the coun­ Government witness James nsylvania operated by a local and no actual evidence pointed accumulated from previous try's Public Enemy Number LaCapra had placed Floyd at character, State Line Jenny, and to his guilt. bank robberies. Floyd and One. Floyd became more and the scene of the crime. The for years bootleggers and bank From then until his death, Juanita adopted the names Mr. more cautious as the summer news set off a flood of conjec­ robbers had found refuge there. Floyd vehemently denied hav­ and Mrs. George Sanders and merged into fall, and then on ture about Floyd's whereabouts Floyd's plan was to stay there ing anything to do with the Richetti and Rose were Mr. and October 19, Floyd decided to and stories of heavily-armed slaughter. Shortly after it hap­ Mrs. Ed Brennan. leave Buffalo and return home posses on the hunt for Floyd pened, he sent Kansas City They lived quietly and kept to the familiar hills of and Richetti. See PRETIY BOY, page 8 $~~~ ?:}t/~~~a~f ~~~~ Women speak Servicemen made supreme sacrifice By Lois Firestone IGHTY SIX SERVICEMEN Ein the Salem area paid Vera Chamberlain of North the supreme sacrifice in Benton dropped off an issue of defending their country during the Feb. 22, 1895 issue of the World War II. Citations and Salem Daily News, and the awards for daring feats of hero­ interesting thing about it is that ism were conferred on local the entire newspaper that day soldiers, sailors, marines and was written and edited - and air force men during the war. filled with advertisements the We ran across the accom­ women solicited - by the Dor­ panying photo of the Salem cas Society of Salem. District Honor Roll for World The venture was a suc­ War II in the June 5, 1956 edi­ cess;the Dorcas Society received tion of the Salem News which $500 and the 3,700 copies print­ printed the names below - ed weren't enough to keep up we're thinking this may be the with demand. sign reader Howard Krause William H. Mullins paid $25 asked us about. He was won­ as the highest bidder for the dering what had happened to silk copy. A deluxe gilt edition, the the memorial which stood the first of its kind published in in front of the Memorial Build­ the country by a newspaper, ing during the war. So far, we went on sale at Miss A. R. Grif­ haven't heard what became of fiths' store for 50 cents a copy. it, but maybe we'll hear from a The writers devised a list of reader who knows. things "We Should Like to According to records kept by See," among them: "A public the Salem News up to May 15, library. More water, more light. 1945, the following comprise Street crossings cleared in the war dead from World War muddy weather. The hollows II: on our streets filled as soon as SALEM Pfc. V. R. McBane Jr. Cpl. Emmett R. Sommers, Pfc. Yarian, Pfc. Marion C. they appear. The snow plow Pvt. Delbert E. Barnard, Petty Marine Cpl. Carl McCave, George T. Spack, Pvt. Lawrence Zepemick. kept near the sidewalk when Officer C. Theodore Bowling, Pfc. Clark E. McCowin, Lt. E. Stayton, Sgt. Leward D. Stof­ WINONA on its round. Lt. Arthur W. Brian, S/Sgt. Fre­ Robert E. McGaffic, Cpl. James fer, Pvt. Ray A. Stoffer, Pvt. Pvt. Glenn W. Bennett, Pvt. "A resting place for the dead derick W. Bruderly, Pfc. John J. E. Mclaughlin, Pvt. Marion E. John P. Sutherin, Pvt. Charles Charles Wolford, Technician that would not be a disgrace Comanisi, Pfc. John J. Craw­ McLaughlin, Pfc. Lawrence M. R. Taylor, Pvt. Charles Sweit­ Gerald Wheaton. for the living. An end to the ford, Lt. Wallace J. Davis, Pfc. McMichael, Pvt. Charles E. zer, Pfc. Jack Thompson, Pvt. DAMASCUS mutilation of shade trees which Zeno J. Buda, Pvt. Walter G. Martin, Pfc. Cessna E. Mackin­ Earl A. Trimmer. Pfc. Robert Spencer. has been done for the benefit of Eastek, Fireman le Joseph J. tosh, Pvt. Ralph A. Mentzer, Lt. Pfc. Stanton Trimmer, Lt. LEETONIA grades, electric light wires, etc. Fink, Pfc. Ernest R. Fluharty. William Miller, Pvt. Raymond Robert B. Waggoner, Cpl. War­ Technician Eugene Altomare, Tramps who 'can not find Pfc. Alexander Fratila Jr., Moore, Flight Officer Donald ren E.