“JOHN DILLINGER SHOT AND KILLED!
'PRETTY BOY' FLOYD BECOMES AMERICA'S NEW PUBLIC ENEMY #1!”

Headlines like this screamed across newspapers after the feds killed John Dillinger on July 22, 1934. However, Floyd's distinction of wearing the 'Public Enemy #1' crown didn't last long,....he was also killed by the feds exactly three months after Dillinger: October 22, 1934.

His real name was Charles Arthur Floyd, born in Georgia in 1904. So where did he get the nickname “Pretty Boy”? There are two stories – one of them could be true or they could both be false.
1) He was given the name by one of his girlfriends in Kansas City when he lived there in a boarding house.
2) The name was dubbed onto him by fellow workers in an oil field; Floyd would wear a dress shirt and slacks to work in the field, and they began calling him “Pretty Boy”. However he got the name, he hated it until the rest of his life.

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His life of crime began at age 18, when he stole $3.50 from a post office. In 1925 his official crime spree kicked off when he robbed a payroll; he was arrested and spent 3½ years in prison.

After release, he performed more bank robberies with his choice of weapon: machine guns. Traveling to Ohio, he robbed a good number of banks and committed other crimes in Akron, Sylvania, Toledo, and other Buckeye towns.

On February 5, 1930, Floyd robbed the bank in Sylvania and fled in a vehicle that had Michigan license plates. From there he crossed the border into Michigan and made 4408 Luna Pier Road on Lake Erie his hideout. Luna Pier is approximately 20 miles from Sylvania. and six miles north of the Michigan/Ohio border.

Afterward, he zipped down to Toledo – big mistake – where he was captured and sentenced to 15 years. He escaped by jumping out of a window of a moving train and proceeded to rob even more banks for another four years.

When Dillinger was killed and Floyd took over the role as our #1 Enemy, he had a $23,000 bounty on his head, dead or alive. He finally met his end 7½  miles north of East Liverpool, Ohio. Floyd was again eluding authorities and hiding in a cornfield. Bullets started flying, he was shot, and uttered his last words: “I'm done for; you've hit me twice”. Fifteen minutes later, he was dead.

Pretty Boy Floyd was buried in the Akins Cemetery, Oklahoma.
He was 30 years old.

His Michigan hideout is now an Airbnb and the whole house is available to rent. Might be fun! Take a look at the photo gallery below...

Pretty Boy Floyd's Michigan Hideout, 1930

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