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PRETTY BOY FLOYD - Signed Fingerprint/ Mug Shot

Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd (1904-1934) Gangster. Floyd was a notorious bank robber of the 1920s and 1930s gangster era.  Following the death of John Dillinger, he was elevated by the FBI to the status of "Public Enemy #1."  He got his start at age 18 when he stole $3.50 in pennies from a local post office. Three years later, in 1925, he was arrested for a payroll robbery in St. Louis and served five years in prison. When paroled, Floyd vowed that he would never see the inside of another prison. Entering into partnerships with more established criminals in the Kansas City underworld, he committed a series of bank robberies over the next several years; it was during this period that he earned the nickname "Pretty Boy." In 1933 he was accused of participating in the Union Station massacre in Kansas City, in which three police officers, an FBI agent, and a prisoner were killed. Though Floyd denied involvement in the incident, authorities intensified efforts to capture him, and the following year he was gunned down by FBI agents who were pursuing him in an Ohio field. Floyd was romanticized by the press and by folk singer Woody Guthrie in his song Pretty Boy Floyd written five years after Floyd's death. The lyrics play up Floyd's generosity to the poor, and contain the famous line: "Some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen." 8 ½" x 8 ½" fingerprint card and arrest record, while he was using the alias "Frank Mitchel", signed in pencil as "Frank Mitchel". The card was made at the time of his arrest in Akron, Ohio, on March 8, 1930.  He was being held as a material witness to the murder of a police officer. The card is headed Akron Police Department.  It contains the original fingerprints of Floyd. The reverse has a "mug shot" of Floyd and handwritten identifying information.  Below the photo are ten typewritten lines of arrest history identifying Mitchel as Charles Arthur Floyd.

The condition of this lot is very good any condition issues are clearly defined in the description.

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