"Farmers & Merchants Bank" (November 23,1932)

On November 23,1932 three members of Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy Floy's Depression-era gang made the worst mistake of their lives.They tried to rob the state's first nationally chartered  African-American Farmers & Merchants Bankin Boley,Oklahoma,an all-African American town.Up to that point,the Floyd gang had been robbing an average of a bank a week,usually without any resistance.Boley's bank was the  state's first nationally chartered African-American owned bank,and residents had vowed it would soon discover,people in Boley meant what they said.One of the largest and most successful African American towns in the Country,Boley was established in 1904 in the old Native American Territory.

Gangster Floyd had warned his gang members against  robbing the Boley bank because,the people of Boley all had guns,knew how to shoot them and weren't afraid to use them.

They didn't heed to Floyd's warning and Birdwell armed with a .45-Caliber pistol,and Patterson,armed shotgun,burst into the bank early that morning.Birdwell,always the speaker in the gang's bank robberies,announced they were robbing the bank and warned "don't pull no alarm."

The bank's courageous bookkeeper McCormick,in turn,shot the second gang member,Birdwell to death.As the robbers attempted to flee the bank they were met by a rain of bullets from the African-American vigilantes,Patterson fell wounded.Hearing McCormick gunfire,Charles Glass-the gang's new African-American recruit-rushed into the bank,picked up the $600 ran to the get away car.

C.CPatterson was hospitalized with two serious gunshot wounds and a body riddled with buckshots.He was later jailed.Wiser than his lieutenant,Pretty Boy Floyd refused to participate in the gang's attempt to rob Boley.