(Note to visitors: What you are about to read is the "accepted" version of what happened that warm fall afternoon in Eastern Ohio. Read the story; enjoy it. Then read "Floyd Revisited." It explains a lot, ties up loose ends and answers some obvious questions. Consider the facts, then you be the judge as to what really happened that day.)
Death of a Pretty Boy
A foggy morning encounter in the woods
Rose, left, and Juanita Baird
The small farming community of East Liverpool, Ohio, stepped into the national spotlight on the afternoon of Monday, Oct. 22, 1934, when Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd, at the time the most wanted man in America, was gunned down by FBI agents and local police.
A known bank robber, kidnapper and murderer, Floyd was being hunted for, ironically, a crime many believe he didn't commit ... and one he steadfastly denied.
That crime was the Kansas City Massacre, which occurred nearly 18 months before. The June 17, 1933, shooting resulted in the deathd of five people, four of them law enforcement officials. That single 60-second event made Floyd, along with his longtime crime partner Adam "Eddie" Richetti, and lawman-turned-outlaw Verne Miller, the subject of the most intense manhunts ever undertaken by the FBI to that point, and forced all three into deep hiding.
Floyd and Richetti had been hiding in Buffalo, N.Y., for much of the time after the shooting, and finally resurfaced to make their way back to the safety of Floyd’s family in the remote Cookson Hills of Oklahoma. With Floyd and Richetti were Rose Baird, Richetti’s companion, and her sister, Juanita (also known as Beulah) Baird, Floyd’s companion. Floyd and Richetti had met the sisters in Toledo in September, 1933. From there, the four traveled to Buffalo on Sept. 21. Floyd and Juanita, using the names of Mr. and Mrs. George Sanders, and Richetti and Rose Baird, using the names Mr. and Mrs. Ed Brennan, rented an apartment. Other occupants of the apartment building considered the couples mysterious, as they seldom went out, but otherwise quiet and respectful. Neighborhood children loved them, however, because they were sometimes invited into the apartment and given sweets and desserts.
In mid-October of 1934 they purchased a Ford sedan, and within days left Buffalo for Oklahoma.
At about 3 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 20, Floyd, driving in a dense fog, skidded off the road and slammed into a telephone pole just outside Wellsville, Ohio. No one was hurt, but the car was heavily damaged. It was agree the women would walk to East Liverpool, a short distance away, to find an all-night garage. Floyd and Richetti would wait in the nearby woods, and took items from the car, including a machine gun, pillows, blankets and a seat cushion.
A wrecker came sometime before dawn and took the car, and the women went to the garage to await the repair job. They’d planned to drive back to get Floyd and Richetti later that day.
At about 10 that morning, Joe Fryman and his son-in-law noticed two suspicious men in the hills near Fryman’s home. They discussed their concerns with a neighbor, Lon Israel, who contacted Wellsville Police Chief John H. Fultz at about 10:30 a.m.
Fultz believed the pair might have been involved in a bank robbery (they apparently were) the previous day in Tiltonsville, a small community about 40 miles down the Ohio River, and decided to question the strangers.
Armed with a .38 and in the company of two unarmed volunteer policemen, Grover Potts and William Irwin, the trio met with Israel, who agreed to lead them to where he had seen the men. Less than 25 feet into the woods, however, they were confronted by Floyd, holding a gun. After a brief exchange of words, a gun battle ensued in which Fultz was slightly wounded in the ankle by Richetti, who was lying on the ground a short distance away. During the confusion, everyone became separated. Floyd escaped, but Fultz managed to apprehend Richetti a short time later.
Meanwhile, the three men with Fultz had ran back to Israel’s house to get weapons, and returned to the scene a few minutes later, thinking the bandits had captured, or even killed, Fultz. What they found, however, was Floyd still the area, apparently looking for Richetti. Another brief exchange of gunfire left Potts wounded in the shoulder, and Floyd once again disappearing into the woods. He had less than 30 hours to live.
A known bank robber, kidnapper and murderer, Floyd was being hunted for, ironically, a crime many believe he didn't commit ... and one he steadfastly denied.
That crime was the Kansas City Massacre, which occurred nearly 18 months before. The June 17, 1933, shooting resulted in the deathd of five people, four of them law enforcement officials. That single 60-second event made Floyd, along with his longtime crime partner Adam "Eddie" Richetti, and lawman-turned-outlaw Verne Miller, the subject of the most intense manhunts ever undertaken by the FBI to that point, and forced all three into deep hiding.
Floyd and Richetti had been hiding in Buffalo, N.Y., for much of the time after the shooting, and finally resurfaced to make their way back to the safety of Floyd’s family in the remote Cookson Hills of Oklahoma. With Floyd and Richetti were Rose Baird, Richetti’s companion, and her sister, Juanita (also known as Beulah) Baird, Floyd’s companion. Floyd and Richetti had met the sisters in Toledo in September, 1933. From there, the four traveled to Buffalo on Sept. 21. Floyd and Juanita, using the names of Mr. and Mrs. George Sanders, and Richetti and Rose Baird, using the names Mr. and Mrs. Ed Brennan, rented an apartment. Other occupants of the apartment building considered the couples mysterious, as they seldom went out, but otherwise quiet and respectful. Neighborhood children loved them, however, because they were sometimes invited into the apartment and given sweets and desserts.
In mid-October of 1934 they purchased a Ford sedan, and within days left Buffalo for Oklahoma.
At about 3 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 20, Floyd, driving in a dense fog, skidded off the road and slammed into a telephone pole just outside Wellsville, Ohio. No one was hurt, but the car was heavily damaged. It was agree the women would walk to East Liverpool, a short distance away, to find an all-night garage. Floyd and Richetti would wait in the nearby woods, and took items from the car, including a machine gun, pillows, blankets and a seat cushion.
A wrecker came sometime before dawn and took the car, and the women went to the garage to await the repair job. They’d planned to drive back to get Floyd and Richetti later that day.
At about 10 that morning, Joe Fryman and his son-in-law noticed two suspicious men in the hills near Fryman’s home. They discussed their concerns with a neighbor, Lon Israel, who contacted Wellsville Police Chief John H. Fultz at about 10:30 a.m.
Fultz believed the pair might have been involved in a bank robbery (they apparently were) the previous day in Tiltonsville, a small community about 40 miles down the Ohio River, and decided to question the strangers.
Armed with a .38 and in the company of two unarmed volunteer policemen, Grover Potts and William Irwin, the trio met with Israel, who agreed to lead them to where he had seen the men. Less than 25 feet into the woods, however, they were confronted by Floyd, holding a gun. After a brief exchange of words, a gun battle ensued in which Fultz was slightly wounded in the ankle by Richetti, who was lying on the ground a short distance away. During the confusion, everyone became separated. Floyd escaped, but Fultz managed to apprehend Richetti a short time later.
Meanwhile, the three men with Fultz had ran back to Israel’s house to get weapons, and returned to the scene a few minutes later, thinking the bandits had captured, or even killed, Fultz. What they found, however, was Floyd still the area, apparently looking for Richetti. Another brief exchange of gunfire left Potts wounded in the shoulder, and Floyd once again disappearing into the woods. He had less than 30 hours to live.
The shooting comes again
Adam Richetti
Floyd probably understood the situation was grim, but he still had an ace card. If he could get to Youngstown, a short distance away, he had friends there who could help him ... but first he needed a car.
Shortly before 12:30, Floyd exited the woods near the home of brothers Theodore and William Peterson, who were working on a car in the driveway, along with their friend, George MacMillen, 24. Floyd was dirty and roughed up, but appeared dressed in an expensive suit, according to later testimony by the three.
Floyd offered them $5 to drive him to Youngstown. When they hesitated, he offered them $10. Finally they agreed, but as they were backing out their car, their mother, Emma Peterson, came out and, not liking the look of the stranger, told them they could not go. However, MacMillen, agreed to take Floyd in his Ford.
As they drove away, Floyd said "I suppose you know who I am." MacMillen said he didn’t, and Floyd identified himself and then lifted his coat to show his gun. MacMillen was frightened.
A short distance down the road MacMillen pretended he was low on gas, and caused the vehicle to sputter, drift into a ditch and stop. With no other cars on the road, Floyd reluctantly decided to go with MacMillen to find gas, and they walked to a nearby greenhouse where owner James Baum, 61, was working. After hearing their story, Baum agreed to drive them in his 1929 Nash to a gas station. Once in the car, however, Floyd said, "Old man, I have a surprise for you. I want you to keep on driving. Don’t stop." He laid a gun on the seat, but assured them he meant no harm. He just needed to get to Youngstown. In a comical moment, MacMillen, who had noticed Floyd had two guns, offered to take one "so if we get into trouble, I can do some shooting."
"Nuts to you," laughed Floyd. "If you start shooting, we know who you’ll be shooting."
Floyd, who seemed calm but alert, passed the time by telling them about the shootout earlier that day, and showed him a bullet hole in his shirt. He also told them about a broken machine gun he had left at the scene, and suggested they go back for it later and either keep it or sell it. Maybe Baum was confused, or maybe he was just buying time, but after driving about 60 miles on obscure country roads, they found themselves just a few miles away from where they had left MacMillen’s car.
Meanwhile, as Floyd was driving in circles and recounting the day’s events to his hostages, Fultz had gone to the sheriff’s office in Lisbon (a town on one of the possible routes to Youngstown) at about 1 p.m. He reported the events of the morning, and asked that roadblocks be set up because he believed he had captured one of the bank robbers from the day before, and the second one was probably headed to Youngstown, a known "safe town" for gangsters and outlaws. By this time, Mrs. Peterson had reported her concerns to police and told them the suspect and MacMillen would be in a black Ford sedan with East Liverpool license tags. As yet, no one was aware of Baum, and still had no idea as to the true identify of either the suspect in custody, or the one still on the run.
At 2:45 that afternoon, Lisbon deputy sheriffs George Hayes, armed with a revolver, and Charley Patterson, with a shotgun, set up a roadblock near a bridge on the highway outside East Liverpool. They stopped all cars going in both directions. Less than an hour later, they saw a tan Nash come toward them, but quickly veer off a side road, turn around and head back down the highway away from them. It wasn’t the car they were looking for, but they decided to give chase.
They followed the Nash until it eventually turned onto Roller Coaster Road (aptly named because of its many hills and dips). The Nash came to a stop about a half mile down the road. Just as Baum and MacMillen exited the Nash, a single bullet came through windshield and exited the read window of Hayes’ car. Patterson, who was cut by flying glass, would have been killed had he not bent forward slightly to reach the door handle just as the shot was fired.
The pair took cover behind their vehicle and ordered Baum and MacMillen to come forward with hands up. The pair was complying when a third man, Floyd, jumped out of the car and ran around to the front of it and fired at the deputies. Assuming it was a trap, the deputies opened fire and Baum was hit in the leg by buckshot. Floyd ran into the woods and Baum and MacMillen were arrested.
As all of this was occurring, Fultz was back at his jail questioning Richetti, who insisted his name was Richard Zamboni. He said the $98 in his pocket (a large sum for the time) had been won in a card game in Medina, near Akron, two days before. He said his companion in the woods was James Warren, an old Oklahoma friend he had encountered in Toledo a few days earlier. He could not explain about the gunfight, however. Fultz would remember Richetti as being well-behaved, polite and cooperative.
Satisfied with Richetti’s story for the moment, Fultz turned his attention back to the manhunt for the second suspect, but the woods were so large they was impossible to seal off by nightfall. It wasn’t until the next day, Sunday, Oct. 21, that a unified search was begun.
By early afternoon on Sunday, word had spread about the manhunt and Sheriff Ray B. Long of Steubenville, Ohio, went to Fultz’s office to offer assistance. When he saw Richetti, he instantly recognized him from a FBI photo he had in his office. Fultz started looking at pictures of wanted men he had piled on his desk, and quickly picked out one of Floyd as the other man he had encountered in the woods the day before. Identifies confirmed, this put a whole new light on the search, and the FBI in Cincinnati was called.
Home Next
Shortly before 12:30, Floyd exited the woods near the home of brothers Theodore and William Peterson, who were working on a car in the driveway, along with their friend, George MacMillen, 24. Floyd was dirty and roughed up, but appeared dressed in an expensive suit, according to later testimony by the three.
Floyd offered them $5 to drive him to Youngstown. When they hesitated, he offered them $10. Finally they agreed, but as they were backing out their car, their mother, Emma Peterson, came out and, not liking the look of the stranger, told them they could not go. However, MacMillen, agreed to take Floyd in his Ford.
As they drove away, Floyd said "I suppose you know who I am." MacMillen said he didn’t, and Floyd identified himself and then lifted his coat to show his gun. MacMillen was frightened.
A short distance down the road MacMillen pretended he was low on gas, and caused the vehicle to sputter, drift into a ditch and stop. With no other cars on the road, Floyd reluctantly decided to go with MacMillen to find gas, and they walked to a nearby greenhouse where owner James Baum, 61, was working. After hearing their story, Baum agreed to drive them in his 1929 Nash to a gas station. Once in the car, however, Floyd said, "Old man, I have a surprise for you. I want you to keep on driving. Don’t stop." He laid a gun on the seat, but assured them he meant no harm. He just needed to get to Youngstown. In a comical moment, MacMillen, who had noticed Floyd had two guns, offered to take one "so if we get into trouble, I can do some shooting."
"Nuts to you," laughed Floyd. "If you start shooting, we know who you’ll be shooting."
Floyd, who seemed calm but alert, passed the time by telling them about the shootout earlier that day, and showed him a bullet hole in his shirt. He also told them about a broken machine gun he had left at the scene, and suggested they go back for it later and either keep it or sell it. Maybe Baum was confused, or maybe he was just buying time, but after driving about 60 miles on obscure country roads, they found themselves just a few miles away from where they had left MacMillen’s car.
Meanwhile, as Floyd was driving in circles and recounting the day’s events to his hostages, Fultz had gone to the sheriff’s office in Lisbon (a town on one of the possible routes to Youngstown) at about 1 p.m. He reported the events of the morning, and asked that roadblocks be set up because he believed he had captured one of the bank robbers from the day before, and the second one was probably headed to Youngstown, a known "safe town" for gangsters and outlaws. By this time, Mrs. Peterson had reported her concerns to police and told them the suspect and MacMillen would be in a black Ford sedan with East Liverpool license tags. As yet, no one was aware of Baum, and still had no idea as to the true identify of either the suspect in custody, or the one still on the run.
At 2:45 that afternoon, Lisbon deputy sheriffs George Hayes, armed with a revolver, and Charley Patterson, with a shotgun, set up a roadblock near a bridge on the highway outside East Liverpool. They stopped all cars going in both directions. Less than an hour later, they saw a tan Nash come toward them, but quickly veer off a side road, turn around and head back down the highway away from them. It wasn’t the car they were looking for, but they decided to give chase.
They followed the Nash until it eventually turned onto Roller Coaster Road (aptly named because of its many hills and dips). The Nash came to a stop about a half mile down the road. Just as Baum and MacMillen exited the Nash, a single bullet came through windshield and exited the read window of Hayes’ car. Patterson, who was cut by flying glass, would have been killed had he not bent forward slightly to reach the door handle just as the shot was fired.
The pair took cover behind their vehicle and ordered Baum and MacMillen to come forward with hands up. The pair was complying when a third man, Floyd, jumped out of the car and ran around to the front of it and fired at the deputies. Assuming it was a trap, the deputies opened fire and Baum was hit in the leg by buckshot. Floyd ran into the woods and Baum and MacMillen were arrested.
As all of this was occurring, Fultz was back at his jail questioning Richetti, who insisted his name was Richard Zamboni. He said the $98 in his pocket (a large sum for the time) had been won in a card game in Medina, near Akron, two days before. He said his companion in the woods was James Warren, an old Oklahoma friend he had encountered in Toledo a few days earlier. He could not explain about the gunfight, however. Fultz would remember Richetti as being well-behaved, polite and cooperative.
Satisfied with Richetti’s story for the moment, Fultz turned his attention back to the manhunt for the second suspect, but the woods were so large they was impossible to seal off by nightfall. It wasn’t until the next day, Sunday, Oct. 21, that a unified search was begun.
By early afternoon on Sunday, word had spread about the manhunt and Sheriff Ray B. Long of Steubenville, Ohio, went to Fultz’s office to offer assistance. When he saw Richetti, he instantly recognized him from a FBI photo he had in his office. Fultz started looking at pictures of wanted men he had piled on his desk, and quickly picked out one of Floyd as the other man he had encountered in the woods the day before. Identifies confirmed, this put a whole new light on the search, and the FBI in Cincinnati was called.
Home Next
Richetti in the Wellsville jail with Fultz
