Pretty Boy: The Life and Times of Charles Arthur Floyd

by Michael Wallis

Overview

"This engaging biography exactly and vividly catches the tone of a region, a time, and a man."—Larry McMurtry

From the best-selling author of Billy the Kid and Route 66, a true-life story of a notorious outlaw that magnificently re-creates the vanished, impoverished world of Dust Bowl America. Michael Wallis evokes the hard times of the era as he follows the life of Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd from his coming of age, when there were no jobs and no food, to his descent into a life of petty crime, bootlegging, murder, and prison. Before long he was one of the FBI's original "public enemies." After a series of spectacular bank robberies he was slain in an Ohio field in 1934 at the age of thirty. Pretty Boy is social history at its best, portraying, with a sweeping style, the larger story of the hardscrabble farmers whose lives were so intolerably shattered by the Depression.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393342185
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/18/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	505
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Michael Wallis, the best-selling author of Route 66 and Billy the Kid, has published eighteen books and won numerous honors and awards. He is a popular public speaker and a highly acclaimed voice actor. He lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Table of Contents

Prologue The Conkle Farm Near Clarkson, Ohio xiii

Part 1 1904-1914 Charley

1 Child of Aquarius 3

2 The Floyds 8

3 Georgia Roots 12

4 Baptism by Fire 19

5 Adairsville, Georgia 32

6 Sequoyah County 37

7 Outlaw Ghosts 45

8 King Cotton 55

9 Heroes 60

10 America's Robin Hood 67

Part 2 1914-1925 Choc

11 Moonshine 81

12 Akins, Oklahoma 90

13 Over There 100

14 Wanderlust 113

15 Bootleg Harvest 125

16 One Step Over the Line 140

17 Star Light, Star Bright 155

18 Ruby 172

19 The St. Louis Blues 181

Part 3 1925-1934 Pretty Boy

20 The Pen 197

21 Tom's Town 213

22 The Walls Come Tumbling Down 231

23 Whirlwind 247

24 Dog Days 267

25 On the Scout 287

26 The Phantom Terror 309

27 The Midnight Rambler 333

28 Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? 358

29 The Summer of '33 384

30 The Massacre 406

31 Trail's End 425

Epilogue: Sallisaw, Oklahoma 454

Select Bibliography and Source Notes 475

Acknowledgments 485

Index 493

What People are Saying About This

Tony Hillerman

Wallis brings the legendary Robin Hood of the Great Depression alive—and he proves to be a fascinating fellow.

Editorial Reviews

Among the revelations in this well-researched biography/social history, is that J. Edgar Hoover framed the legendary Depression-era bandit for most of the murders he was accused of but did not, in fact, commit, and that "Pretty Boy" was never at the infamous Kansas City Massacre of 1933. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"Wallis brings the legendary Robin Hood of the Great Depression alive—and he proves to be a fascinating fellow."—Tony Hillerman

"Delivering more than an outstanding biography of Public Enemy No. 1 during the 1930s, Wallis offers exceptional social and regional history as well."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

Wallis brings the legendary Robin Hood of the Great Depression alive—and he proves to be a fascinating fellow.

Tony Hillerman