Pretty Boy Floyd

Charles Arthur Floyd, nicknamed Pretty Boy Floyd, was an American bank robber. He operated in the West and Central states, and his criminal exploits gained widespread press coverage in the 1930s. He was seen positively by the public because it was believed that during robberies he burned mortgage documents, freeing many people from their debts. He was pursued and killed by a group of Bureau of Investigation agents led by Melvin Purvis. Historians have speculated as to which officers were at the event, but accounts document that local officers Robert "Pete" Pyle and George Curran were present at his fatal shooting and also at his embalming. Floyd has continued to be a familiar figure in American popular culture, sometimes seen as notorious, other times portrayed as a tragic figure, even a victim of the hard times of the Great Depression in the United States. Floyd is viewed by many as a prime example of a real life anti-hero.

3 February 1904

Born on the same birth day (3 February): Blas Ople • Dave Davies • Felix Mendelssohn • Howard Phillips (activist) • James A. Michener • Johnny "Guitar" Watson • Joseph E. Johnston • Lucas Duda • Maitland Ward • Michele Greene • Ranald MacDonald • Shawn Phillips • Slobodan Rajković • Tim Heidecker

Born in the same month (February 1904): Antonin Magne • Bozorg Alavi • Deng Yingchao • George F. Kennan • Hans Morgenthau • James Baskett • James T. Farrell • Keith Holyoake • Lucile Randon • S. J. Perelman • Ted Mack (radio and television host) • Terence Fisher • Yulii Khariton