
Pretty Boy Floyd: The Notorious Life and Death of the Depression Era Outlaw
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $5.42
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Scott Clem
About this listen
"If you'll gather 'round me, children, a story I will tell
'Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an Outlaw, Oklahoma knew him well." [Woody Guthrie, “The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd” (1939)]
November 1, 1932 was a fine autumn day in the sleepy, cotton-farming city of Sallisaw, Oklahoma, the heart of Sequoyah County. The blinding rays of the midday sun were shining their brightest, but the otherwise blistering heat was offset by a brisk breeze. These were ideal conditions for a Tuesday, a seemingly pedestrian day of the week, but what was unfolding in the Sallisaw State Bank was anything but ordinary.
At first glance, it would seem as if a traveling carnival or a homegrown celebrity had come to town. The sidewalks of the city bank and its surrounding establishments were teeming with locals, generations of families, young lovebirds, and clusters of friends. Indeed, they had convened to witness a spectacle, albeit one of an entirely different sort.
The doors of the Sallisaw State Bank swung open with a resounding bang, signaling the start of the show. Out staggered a pair of thieves, each toting bulging sacks of bills and coins and glinting Colt .45s. The hogtied tellers inside the bank desperately wriggled across the floor to voice their distress, craning their necks and directing their muffled screams toward the open door. One had even managed to squirm out of his gag and was calling out to the crowd across the street for help. Unfortunately, his cries were negated, not by the spectators' own cries of alarm but by thunderous applause, supplemented by whoops, whistles, and a constellation of waving handkerchiefs. Some of those who cleared the path for the robbers' getaway car were supposedly patrons present in the establishment during the stick-up itself.
The ringleader, a striking young gentleman with a square jaw, a smoldering squint, and dark hair slicked back with scented pomade, acknowledged his admirers with a quick nod before ducking into the running vehicle. According to local lore, quite a few of the spectators had been briefed on the robbery beforehand by none other than the ringleader himself. So bold was he in his endeavors that he strolled into the bank's neighboring establishments in the days prior and simply asked its proprietors to refrain from ringing the cops, to which they gladly agreed. He even left those complicit with enough time to extract their savings from the bank.
The dashing ringleader, hailed by many as the “Robin Hood of Cookson Hills”, was none other than Pretty Boy Floyd, a perplexing character as abhorred as he was revered. To the feds, Pretty Boy Floyd was a venomous, manipulative scoundrel who was egregiously lionized as an antihero with a heart of gold. A career bank robber supposedly associated with up to 40 bank robberies, his face would soon be plastered on the 1934 poster of the FBI's Most Wanted alongside John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Alvin Karper.
©2019 Charles River Editors (P)2019 Charles River EditorsListeners also enjoyed...
-
Go Down Together
- The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde
- By: Jeff Guinn
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With dramatic flair, Jeff Guinn delivers the definitive portrait of Bonnie and Clyde. These media-savvy outlaws appealed to America's Depression-era hunger for swashbuckling characters. Glowing radio and newspaper reports transformed these "public enemies" into celebrities - much like the cinema gangsters of the time.
-
-
Bravo!
- By Tim on 09-09-09
By: Jeff Guinn
-
There Are No Children Here
- The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America
- By: Alex Kotlowitz
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This national best-seller chronicles the true story of two brothers coming of age in the Henry Horner public housing complex in Chicago. Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers are 11 and nine years old when the story begins in the summer of 1987. Living with their mother and six siblings, they struggle against grinding poverty, gun violence, gang influences, overzealous police officers, and overburdened and neglectful bureaucracies. Immersed in their lives for two years, Kotlowitz brings us this classic rendering of growing up poor in America’s cities.
-
-
A DEPRESSING ACCOUNT OF REAL LIFE IN THE U.S.
- By The Louligan on 03-04-15
By: Alex Kotlowitz
-
Blood Covenant
- The Michael Franzese Story
- By: Michael Franzese
- Narrated by: Michael Franzese
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A sworn member of the Colombo crime family in New York City, Michael Franzese was considered the biggest moneymaker in the mob since Al Capone. At age 35, he was number 18 on Fortune Magazine's list of the 50 most wealthy and powerful Mafia bosses in America. But then he did the unthinkable. He quit the mob. Franzese met Camille Garcia, who turned his world upside down with her innocent beauty. He fell in love with her, married her, and began a new life that didn't include the Mafia.
-
-
interesting book
- By ron on 03-12-14
By: Michael Franzese
-
American Heiress
- The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst
- By: Jeffrey Toobin
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On February 4, 1974, Patty Hearst, a sophomore in college and heiress to the Hearst family fortune, was kidnapped by a ragtag group of self-styled revolutionaries calling itself the Symbionese Liberation Army. The already sensational story took the first of many incredible twists on April 3, when the group released a tape of Patty saying she had joined the SLA and had adopted the nom de guerre “Tania.”
-
-
Privilege calling privilege privileged
- By Kelley on 08-05-16
By: Jeffrey Toobin
-
Gaspipe
- Confessions of a Mafia Boss
- By: Philip Carlo
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, the boss of New York's Lucchese crime family, was a Mafia superstar, responsible for more than 50 murders. Currently serving 13 life sentences at a federal prison in Colorado, Casso has given journalist and New York Times best-selling author Philip Carlo the most intimate, personal look into the world of La Cosa Nostra ever seen.
-
-
The author fails the objectivity test
- By William on 11-29-08
By: Philip Carlo
-
Bonnie and Clyde
- By: Karen Blumenthal
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bonnie and Clyde - we've been on a first name basis with them for almost a hundred years. Immortalized in movies, songs, and pop culture references, they are remembered mostly for their storied romance and tragic deaths. But what was life really like for Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker in the early 1930s? How did two dirt-poor teens from West Texas morph from vicious outlaws to legendary couple? And why? Award-winning author Karen Blumenthal devoted months to tracing the footsteps of Bonnie and Clyde, unearthing new information and debunking many persistent myths.
-
-
No new info
- By RueRue on 08-16-18
By: Karen Blumenthal
-
Go Down Together
- The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde
- By: Jeff Guinn
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With dramatic flair, Jeff Guinn delivers the definitive portrait of Bonnie and Clyde. These media-savvy outlaws appealed to America's Depression-era hunger for swashbuckling characters. Glowing radio and newspaper reports transformed these "public enemies" into celebrities - much like the cinema gangsters of the time.
-
-
Bravo!
- By Tim on 09-09-09
By: Jeff Guinn
-
There Are No Children Here
- The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America
- By: Alex Kotlowitz
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This national best-seller chronicles the true story of two brothers coming of age in the Henry Horner public housing complex in Chicago. Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers are 11 and nine years old when the story begins in the summer of 1987. Living with their mother and six siblings, they struggle against grinding poverty, gun violence, gang influences, overzealous police officers, and overburdened and neglectful bureaucracies. Immersed in their lives for two years, Kotlowitz brings us this classic rendering of growing up poor in America’s cities.
-
-
A DEPRESSING ACCOUNT OF REAL LIFE IN THE U.S.
- By The Louligan on 03-04-15
By: Alex Kotlowitz
-
Blood Covenant
- The Michael Franzese Story
- By: Michael Franzese
- Narrated by: Michael Franzese
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A sworn member of the Colombo crime family in New York City, Michael Franzese was considered the biggest moneymaker in the mob since Al Capone. At age 35, he was number 18 on Fortune Magazine's list of the 50 most wealthy and powerful Mafia bosses in America. But then he did the unthinkable. He quit the mob. Franzese met Camille Garcia, who turned his world upside down with her innocent beauty. He fell in love with her, married her, and began a new life that didn't include the Mafia.
-
-
interesting book
- By ron on 03-12-14
By: Michael Franzese
-
American Heiress
- The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst
- By: Jeffrey Toobin
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On February 4, 1974, Patty Hearst, a sophomore in college and heiress to the Hearst family fortune, was kidnapped by a ragtag group of self-styled revolutionaries calling itself the Symbionese Liberation Army. The already sensational story took the first of many incredible twists on April 3, when the group released a tape of Patty saying she had joined the SLA and had adopted the nom de guerre “Tania.”
-
-
Privilege calling privilege privileged
- By Kelley on 08-05-16
By: Jeffrey Toobin
-
Gaspipe
- Confessions of a Mafia Boss
- By: Philip Carlo
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, the boss of New York's Lucchese crime family, was a Mafia superstar, responsible for more than 50 murders. Currently serving 13 life sentences at a federal prison in Colorado, Casso has given journalist and New York Times best-selling author Philip Carlo the most intimate, personal look into the world of La Cosa Nostra ever seen.
-
-
The author fails the objectivity test
- By William on 11-29-08
By: Philip Carlo
-
Bonnie and Clyde
- By: Karen Blumenthal
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bonnie and Clyde - we've been on a first name basis with them for almost a hundred years. Immortalized in movies, songs, and pop culture references, they are remembered mostly for their storied romance and tragic deaths. But what was life really like for Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker in the early 1930s? How did two dirt-poor teens from West Texas morph from vicious outlaws to legendary couple? And why? Award-winning author Karen Blumenthal devoted months to tracing the footsteps of Bonnie and Clyde, unearthing new information and debunking many persistent myths.
-
-
No new info
- By RueRue on 08-16-18
By: Karen Blumenthal
-
Boston Mob
- The Rise and Fall of the New England Mob and Its Most Notorious Killer
- By: Marc Songini
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New England Mafia was a hugely powerful organization that survived by using violence to ruthlessly crush anyone that threatened it, or its lucrative gambling, loansharking, bootlegging, and other enterprises. From information based on newly declassified documents and the use of underworld sources, Boston Mob spans the gutters and alleyways of East Boston, Providence, and Charlestown to the halls of Congress in Washington, D.C., and Boston's Beacon Hill. Its players include governors and mayors, and the Mafia Commission of New York City.
-
-
Entertaining
- By joeyg1963 on 12-07-19
By: Marc Songini
-
True Stories from the Files of the FBI
- By: W. Cleon Skousen
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 4 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Be the FBI Agent in training under J. Edgar Hoover and run the gauntlet of Machinegun Kelly, Baby Face Nelson, and the Barker Karpis Gang. Step back into downtown Chicago of the 1930s and retrace the steps of some of America's most notorious mobsters. True Stories from the Files of the FBI was written by W. Cleon Skousen under the direct supervision of Mr. Hoover himself. These first-hand accounts of actual "do or die" situations were used for decades to train thousands of FBI agents.
-
-
Captivating and enlightening American history!
- By Inspector on 08-27-14
By: W. Cleon Skousen
-
Whitey Bulger
- America's Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice
- By: Kevin Cullen, Shelley Murphy
- Narrated by: James Colby
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Raised in a South Boston housing project, James "Whitey" Bulger became the most wanted fugitive of his generation. In this riveting story, rich with family ties and intrigue, award-winning Boston Globe reporters Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy follow Whitey’s extraordinary criminal career - from teenage thievery to bank robberies to the building of his underworld empire and a string of brutal murders.
-
-
Not Quite the Master Criminal of Lore
- By Cynthia on 10-18-14
By: Kevin Cullen, and others
-
Whitey
- The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss
- By: Dick Lehr, Gerard O'Neill
- Narrated by: John Rubinstein
- Length: 17 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on a trove of sealed files and previously classified material, Whitey digs deep into the mind of James J. "Whitey" Bulger, the crime boss and killer who brought the FBI to its knees. He is an American original - a psychopath who fostered a following with a frightening mix of terror, deadly intimidation, and the deft touch of a politician who often helped a family in need meet their monthly rent. But the history shows that despite the early false myths portraying him as a Robin Hood figure, Whitey was a supreme narcissist, and everything was always about him.
-
-
NOT Osama bin-Laden
- By Paul on 03-04-13
By: Dick Lehr, and others
-
Gangster Squad
- Covert Cops, the Mob, and the Battle for Los Angeles
- By: Paul Lieberman
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gangster Squad chronicles the true story of the secretive police unit that waged an anything-goes war to drive Mickey Cohen and other hoodlums from Los Angeles after WWII. In 1946, the LAPD launched the Gangster Squad with eight men who met covertly on street corners and slept with Tommy guns under their beds. But for two cops, all that mattered was nailing the strutting gangster Mickey Cohen. Sgt. Jack O’Mara was a square-jawed church usher, Sgt. Jerry Wooters a cynical maverick....
-
-
Nothing Like the movie
- By KEITH on 02-21-13
By: Paul Lieberman
-
Blood Aces
- The Wild Ride of Benny Binion, the Texas Gangster Who Created Vegas Poker
- By: Doug J. Swanson
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The astonishing story of Benny Binion - a rip-roaring saga of murder, money, and the making of Las Vegas. Benny Binion was many things: a cowboy, a pioneering casino owner, a gangster, a killer, and founder of the hugely successful World Series of Poker. Blood Aces tells the story of Binion's crucial role in shaping modern Las Vegas. From a Texas backwater, Binion rose to prominence on a combination of vision, determination, and brutal expediency.
-
-
FOLK ANTI-HERO
- By Ray on 08-21-14
By: Doug J. Swanson
-
Mafia Summit
- J. Edgar Hoover, the Kennedy Brothers, and the Meeting That Unmasked the Mob
- By: Gil Reavill
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a small village in New York, mob bosses from all over the country - Vito Genovese, Carlo Gambino, Joe Bonanno, Joe Profaci, Cuba boss Santo Trafficante, Jr., and Paul Castellano - were nabbed by Sergeant Edgar D. Croswell as they gathered to sort out a bloody war of succession. For years FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had adamantly denied the existence of the Mafia, but Robert Kennedy immediately recognized the shattering importance of the Apalachin summit....
-
-
Something I Didn't Know
- By Kevin on 03-29-13
By: Gil Reavill
-
Empire of Deception
- The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation
- By: Dean Jobb
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was a time of unregulated madness. And nowhere was it madder than in Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties. Speakeasies thrived, gang war shootings announced Al Capone's rise to underworld domination, Chicago's corrupt political leaders fraternized with gangsters, and the frenzy of stock market gambling was rampant. Enter a slick, smooth-talking, charismatic lawyer named Leo Koretz, who enticed hundreds of people (who should have known better) to invest as much as $30 million.
-
-
Incredible Tale!
- By electricblue201 on 10-11-15
By: Dean Jobb
-
The First Family
- Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder, and the Birth of the American Mafia
- By: Mike Dash
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before the Five Families who so notoriously dominated U.S. organized crime for a bloody half-century, there was the one-fingered, surpassingly cunning Giuseppe Morello and his murderous coterie of brothers. Born into a life of poverty in rural Sicily, Morello became an American nightmare, pioneering the bizarre initiation rituals, imaginative protection rackets, influential underworld reigns, and Mafia wars later popularized by countless books, television shows, and movies.
-
-
The truth about the origins of the American mafia
- By J. Sovar on 01-09-13
By: Mike Dash
-
Public Enemies
- America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34
- By: Bryan Burrough
- Narrated by: Campbell Scott
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Public Enemies, Bryan Burrough strips away a thick layer of myths put out by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI to tell the full story of the most spectacular crime wave in American history, the two-year battle between the young Hoover and an assortment of criminals who became national icons: John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and the Barkers.
-
-
Need the unabridged version
- By Craig Hansen on 07-28-04
By: Bryan Burrough
-
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber
- By: Julian Rubinstein
- Narrated by: Eric Bogosian, Demetri Martin, Tommy Ramone, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber tells the hilarious and improbable true story of Attila Ambrus, the Robin Hood of Eastern Europe. He's the onetime pelt smugger, goaltender (possibly the worst in the history of pro hockey), pen salesman, Zamboni driver, gravedigger, church painter, roulette addict, building superintendent, whiskey drinker, and native of Transylvania who's decided that the best thing to do with his time is to rob as many banks as possible.
-
-
DUH
- By Randall on 07-22-07
-
The Last Good Heist
- The Inside Story of the Biggest Single Payday in the Criminal History of the Northeast
- By: Wayne Worcester, Randall Richard, Tim White
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On August 14, 1975, eight daring thieves ransacked 148 massive safe-deposit boxes at a secret bank used by organized crime, La Cosa Nostra, and its associates in Providence, Rhode Island. The crooks fled with duffel bags crammed full of cash, gold, silver, stamps, coins, jewels, and high-end jewelry. The true value of the loot has always been kept secret, partly because it was ill-gotten to begin with, and partly because there was plenty of incentive to keep its true worth out of the limelight.
-
-
Interesting but not the greatest story.
- By Russell on 07-21-17
By: Wayne Worcester, and others