Florida’s Ashley Gang: Friends of the Everglades or Foes of the Moneyed?

            The scandalous Ashley Gang of Florida, fabled to have been villainous, murderous robbers and bootleggers of the early twentieth century, were not as nefarious as the media portrayed them to be. Instead, based on current research and interviews, the close-knit family were modern day Robin Hoods, working hard to survive in the swampy conditions of early 20^th century Florida.

           A book written in 1928 by Stuart Hix set in stone the infamous reputation of the Ashley Gang that still exists today. His book entitled, The Notorious Ashley Gang, describes the group as blood thirsty and evil. While the story does seem to be taken directly out of a cops and robbers movie, what really happened during the prohibition era on the east coast of Florida was not all gun fights and bullet casings. In fact, the true story is one of corruption and scheming in order to get ahead in Florida’s political realms. Take for example the life of Stuart Hix himself. His research for the book was extremely poor, so the information he used was mostly used to benefit himself and the Sheriff of Palm Beach County, Sheriff Bob Baker. Hix wanted to become the first constable of Martin County, which at the time was just starting to separate itself from Palm Beach County. Martin County was created in 1925, just a few years before The Notorious Ashley Gang was published. In order for Hix to achieve his goal, he needed the backing of Sheriff Bob Baker[1]. All Baker had to do was make a recommendation to the Governor of Florida that states he chooses Stuart Hix to be the new sheriff of Martin County. At the time that Martin County was forming, Hix put his book together in a way that make Sheriff Bob Baker look like Florida’s greatest hero.  

                  The tale begins in 1911 with a fur trading trip to Miami from the Ashley homestead in West Palm Beach. John Ashley, the purported leader of the gang, was a simple, honest man whose key motivation was to support his family in the difficult conditions of pioneer Florida. The main modes of income were farming, hunting and trading, bootlegging, making whiskey, or working for Henry Flagler’s rail road business. Of course there were other job titles, but these were the most common. The Ashley family did all the above. They were your everyday Florida cracker family. Ada Coats Williams writes in her book, Florida’s Ashley Gang, that during a fur trading expedition on December 29, John Ashley murdered a local Seminole and family friend, DeSoto Tiger, explicitly for the furs Tiger had so he could make double the his profits.[2] Florida in 1911 was lawless. Families governed themselves and looked out for their neighbors. This was the unspoken rule of Florida Crackerdom.

                     Further inspection of this fur trading mission gone awry reveals two possible motives. First, John was acting in self-defense in what should be called “justifiable homicide”, or second, John acted with greed and murdered an innocent man. Murder goes against John’s human nature, however. The people who knew John and grew up with him in Pompano, including a local pastor of a church, wrote glowing letters about him, describing him as a “nice, level-headed person without an inch of meanness in him.”[3] Other accounts define John Ashley as “just not being that kind of person. He really wasn’t the murdering kind of person.” When DeSoto Tiger was described by friends and acquaintances, he was depicted most commonly as being an alcoholic. He was privileged in his tribe because he was the son of a local Seminole Chief and had a reputation of being “brutal”.[4] Alcoholics by nature have a tendency to be physically forceful, especially when liquor is involved. Being addicted to liquor was more widely accepted then than it is now. Those who crave the fiery liquid will do nearly anything to acquire the effects of alcohol.

                  DeSoto Tiger was on the wooden poling skiff with John Ashley headed south to trade the load of furs, but some sources claim that Tiger was going down to Miami to party. No other friend was willing to go down to Miami with Tiger because they knew him as being a liquor lover. Traveling a long distance with a drunk does not sound so appealing. John was the only one eager enough to join him because it was his way of supporting the family. John’s response to what happened that night should be convincing enough to win the self-defense plea. He was going to pole the canoe during the day and since Tiger knew the route well, Tiger would pole at night. This way they could take turns sleeping on the off-shift. Unfortunately, it was common knowledge that the Ashley’s made their own whiskey. DeSoto was already drinking during the day half of the journey. By the time night fell, Tiger had no liquor left. When John woke up, he caught Tiger going through his personal items looking for John’s bottle that he assumed was with him. When John caught him, DeSoto pulled a knife and said, “Give me your whiskey or I’ll kill you”![5] John, being the pioneer that he was, kept a weapon strapped under him and pull it out and shot DeSoto Tiger in self-defense.[6] “News accounts of the events that followed state that John Ashley arrived in Miami alone and sold the hides for $1200 to Girtman Brothers.”[7] On December 29, the body of DeSoto Tiger was found by a dredging crew. Historian Steve Carr thinks that the drunk DeSoto Tiger forgot John was packing heat and expected to win the fight. It was common knowledge that trappers and traders carried firearms with them wherever they went. Here is where the problem lies with this story. Because of the Seminole community that makes up majority of the native tribes left from the Spanish Conquest, no one was willing to go again the word of the Seminole Tribe. The fear, especially today, is rooted in racial injustices that occurred centuries prior to the DeSoto Tiger killing. If the lawsuit were to be tried in a modern court system, it surely would make headlines. Would the minority being DeSoto Tiger end up winning in court? Or would the color of John’s white skin help him in his pursuit of claiming self-defense?

                  When John made it to Miami and sold the furs, it was reported that he took a train home because the Canoe was not his. A local dredgeman in Cape Sable told officials that he saw a single man poling a skiff south. Either one of the men were sleeping or this was after the shooting took place. Another thought is John would not have been able to make that long journey alone anyway. It would take twice as long to get back to the Ashley homestead. This brings up many questions. If John was such a kind-hearted man, why would he dump the body overboard, sell Tiger’s furs, and leave the canoe in Miami? Should he have kept the body, explained what happened, and gave the Seminole family their share of the profits? John’s defense stated that DeSoto Tiger tried to kill him, so he was justified in selling his furs. This became known as “pioneer justice”. When John went to trial, it was reported that he was not afraid. He readily admitted to killing DeSoto in self-defense. If someone tried to kill you, you end up owning their possessions.[8] 

            Steve Carr, conducted interviews in the 1970’s and 1980’s with people who were present at the time of this ordeal. Bink Glisson and Zeb Cruise were two of the individuals interviewed that knew more about the Ashley Family and their story than anyone else. Bink’s whole life was about this story. His knowledge is what fueled modern historians to bring justice to the gang. When Carr spoke with him about DeSoto Tiger, Bink’s outlook on the situation was one of digust. Bink’s problem with the truth was figuring out how to bring justice to John without offending the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

             Bink was a “ham-grabber”. During the days of prohibition, rum-runners would bundle their stash and sink it in the canals of the intracoastal. A few decades after that, they would do the same thing with marijuana and cocaine. This was Bink’s trade. He would run his boat up and down the canals and “snatch” and parcels of product that resembled bundled up hams. The Ashley’s required Bink’s services along the coast more than a handful of times. Bink witnessed much of the drama that has been written in Stuart Hix’s book. The problem is Bink remembers the truth a little bit differently than the authors who wrote about the Gang. He described Baker’s intention as being pure evil. Nowhere in Baker’s heart was there room for morals and ethics. He acted out of hatred for anyone who did not conform to his belief system.

                   A few years after DeSoto’s murder, when a robbery took place in the north, Sheriff Bob Baker sent deputies to arrest John Ashley at his homestead in Hobe Sound. Kid Lowe, a member of the Gang, was extremely disappointed with the outcome of the robberies. This information is according to Stuart Hix. Because the gang was so evil, Lowe ended up shooting John in the eye. Rare pictures show John wearing an eye patch and later photos show his glass eye. Carr thinks that the gun shot was purely accidental and that Lowe had no intention of shooting John maliciously. The gang was more like a family than a group of rowdy killers.

                  In November of 1916, John Ashley plead guilty to robbing the Bank of Stuart. There are two opposing recollections as to why John chose that route. One version told by the family was that John was promised a lighter sentence if he plead guilty. The other version claims that by pleading guilty, he could avoid prosecution for the death of DeSoto Tiger that occurred five year earlier. After John’s conviction, he escaped during field work. He was known for his consistency in successfully escaping jail. When he was first arrested, the county jail sat at the end of Climatis street in downtown West Palm Beach. John was reported to be a great prisoner because he obeyed the sheriff’s orders and was quite friendly to the jailer. He was occasionally let outside to get fresh air and took the opportunity to run. This happened a few times and the last time he escaped, he went North, as far away from downtown as he could go. Anywhere north of Hobe Sound was basically uncharted swamp land; the perfect place to hide and make shine.John was injured and had his family caring for him. It was John’s need for medical care that led him to a capture. Now Sheriff Baker knew the location of the Ashley homestead. When deputies arrived, John took the sheriff’s weapons and said, “don’t send any more chicken-hearted deputies!”[9] John escaped the grasp of the Sheriff once again, but was later taken into custody. In 1915, John Ashley was brought to trial and found guilty of murder. He was sentenced to death by hanging. John knew he was innocent based on the actions of DeSoto Tiger and the self-defense plea. He insisted that the murder was justified. While John was awaiting a retrial with the Supreme Court, his family decided to help John get out of jail. They noticed he was living in tough conditions. According to Hix, John’s brother, bob, killed the jailer who was taking care of John. When other deputies heard the gun fire, they immediately went after Bob and mortally wounded him. Steve Carr learned of a different story in past interviews. The Stuart Hix rendition of what happened labeled Bob as the bad guy. According to close friends and family, Bob was heading down to visit his brother John in the Miami jail. John’s jailer, Sheriff Hendrickson, refused to let the brothers talk out of fear that they were plotting against him. Hendrickson pulled a gun on Bob and out of self-defense, Bob shot the sheriff. John was grieving the death of his brother and made a peaceful escape from the Miami jail using a spoon as his only weapon.[10] In 1916, the Supreme Court of Florida reversed the circuit court’s decision to hang John for his actions in 1911.

                A feud was growing between the Ashley’s and the local law enforcement. “John’s ability to elude capture, his popularity with the native crackers in the area, and his taunting of the legal officers when he outsmarted them, caused the name Ashley to evoke bitterness and a desire to get him.”[11] If John was the villain the media claimed him to be, he would have shot the deputies right then and there. Instead, he took their guns and their car and sent them on their way. Ada Coats Williams parroted Hix’s story regarding this interception. Had Stuart Hix done his research on the Ashley’s side of the story, he would have seen how Bob Baker manipulated those around him. Baker’s inspiration resides in his yearning to remain in power. By this time, the Ashley whiskey operation grew to the point to where they had to move north out from under the eyes of the law. They created their own homestead and named it Fruita after the Tomatoes that John’s father, Joe, grew. Today, this town would have been in the heart of Hobe Sound near Gomez road, north or Jupiter Inlet. Fruita was the first camp in Florida that was tolerant of African Americans. The Ashley’s welcomed the black families into their community in exchange for the help in the crops. They also had the ability to make their own money working in the Ashley whiskey business. The issue was that because of the work that was provided to the negros, and the pay they received from the whiskey, more and more black families were moving to fruita in hopes of getting a sliver of the profits. Word was spreading fast throughout the eastern side of the state. The negro families grew to be extremely loyal to the Ashley’s in exchange for their continued kindness. Aside from being historically important, this community fueled Sheriff Bob Baker’s hatred of the Gang even more.

                Sheriff Baker was reported to be a head member of the Ku Klux Klan. There is no written proof of this activity, however, in recorded interviews, numerous anonymous people have come forth describing the Sheriff’s relation to the KKK and his high ranking within the organization. Any support of negro culture in his domain was deserving of punishment. Ever since he heard about the Ashley’s new community, Baker tried to do everything he could to remove it. The final straw when when a black church was built in the community. The still-raid created by Sheriff Bob Baker was an excuse for Baker to level Fruita. The truth was, Bob Baker was up for re-election that year. Baker had to do something to make himself stand out. By using news outlets, he could manipulate the public into thinking he was a hero. The Ashley’s were made out to be one-hundred times worse than how they actually were. The shootout at the still-site did not go as smoothly as Baker had hoped. The plan was to kill John Ashley and the gang, and have the media praise Baker for his heroic acts. What happened tuned out to be much worse for Baker. John got away but his father, Joe was shot and killed and Bakers brother ended up being shot and killed as well. Hanford Mobley, a gang member, said that Baker’s father was shot by a member of his own ambush party, but John Ashley was blamed. Hanford also claims that John wasn’t even at the site at the time of the ambush. Steve Carr think otherwise. The loyalty that existed between John and the black community was so strong that they actually hid John on the roof of their church while the ambush was taking place. When Baker questioned the pastor, he responded by saying, “I swear on a bible that John is not in my church. After the ambush, the sheriffs arrested everyone in Fruita including almost all the women in the Ashley family. Soon after, the site was burned to the ground. In the book The Notorious Ashley Gang, Hix described the scene by writing, “incense at the death of Fred Baker, an angry mob of citizens set fire to the home of Joe Ashley, burning it to the ground. They then set fire to the Mobley house and to a garage in the back of it, destroying a new automobile in the conflagration.”[12] Carr is convinced that the burning of the homes was actually good natured in that the people wanted to help the Ashley’s by getting rid of any evidence of illegal moonshining.[13] 

            Fruita should be remembered in today’s history. Not because of the Ashley Gang and their spirited enterprise, but because it is not widely known that Hobe Sound housed the first ever desegregated, mix-raced village in the state. Hobe Sound even housed a negro league baseball team which has since been forgotten in time. Today, the family plot can be found in the gated community of Mariner Sands. Unfortunately, access is only granted to family members and residents of the townhomes. The grave is the last remaining fragment of the tale of the Ashley’s. They had a total of three working moonshine stills. One was located in present day Riverbend Park in Jupiter; the second was found on a present day golf course in Palm Beach Gardens; their biggest still was in Fruita. If Fruita wasn’t destroyed by Sheriff Baker in an outright gun battle, maybe the unique history of the town would still be intact. Occasionally avid fans of the family will come across bottle scatter assumed to be remnants from a hide-out. Carr described how the bottles that were used to transport the whiskey have been found with a opalescent hue left over. This is how they can be identified. While the history of the family is fascinating today, the events that took place in the early twentieth-century were not exhilarating for John. Preserving history was definitely not on the minds of the restless Sheriff and the nifty Ashley’s.

          Florida was the perfect habitat for manufacturing whiskey. It has been reported that in their prime, the Ashley’s whiskey business was producing nearly one thousand gallons of whiskey a day![14] In fact, the term “real McCoy” came out of Stuart, Florida with Mr. McCoy’s moonshine’s reputation of being the best in all the land.[i] There are no current records of who were clients of the Gang’s still, but families have come forward with intriguing stories about how relatives acquired gallons of the moonshine for years. The Reece family owned property west of I-95 in Jupiter, Florida. David Reece, the oldest remaining relative, tells tales of how his father would meet up with John at the ranch for days at a time and hunt together.[ii] 

          When Steve Carr conducted his interviews, he received numerous accounts of Sheriff Bob Baker having way more money than the typical sheriff in cracker-cultured Florida. One reason that was reported was that Baker himself was half owner of in E.R. Bradley Beach house, a covert gambling casino on the opulent island of Palm Beach, and he owned a bordello. When Baker was divorcing his wife, he declared $1.8 million in the divorce decree[15]. On a sheriff’s salary of $400 a month, $1.8 million does not fit the budget.[iii] Steve Carr met with Debbie Murray of the Historical Society of Palm Beach and spent months researching Bob Baker. Carr discovered that Baker’s wife was a strong Christian woman who could not take her husband’s abuse any longer. Carr read in the divorce proceedings in 1927 that Baker’s wife knew that he kept a young negro boy at his bordello for the exclusive reason of illicit sexual purposes.[16] How the sick nature of Sheriff Baker hasn’t been made known to the public is not certain. One would think that the slanderous words that came out of Baker’s wife’s mouth would have made it to the press. Unfortunately, Baker remained in the interest of the public in a positive light for the remainder of his life. Occasionally people would speak out against him, but Stuart Hix’s book played quite a large role in keeping Baker’s reputation pure.

           Life in Florida was very difficult as an early twentieth-century pioneer. Prohibition was one of the best things to happen to Florida for two reasons. Florida was very close to the Bahamas. Rum-runners could purchase legal whiskey and “run” it back state-side. The lack of law enforcement to be able to reduce moonshining was due to the state’s small budget. Florida was very spread out. It had small roads and strong people. The state became the perfect habitat for making shine. The Ashley Gang fits perfectly into the Florida equation. Their story rabbit-tails into multiple other narratives. There is Bob Baker’s dynasty; Henry Flagler’s railroad industry and the Gang’s relationship with working on his tracks; gambling; moonshining; racial tensions; criminality; real-estate. The list goes on, creating Florida’s first thriving economy. Real-estate was one of the state’s first con games. Imposters would buy acres upon acres of swamp land for dirt cheap prices, then sell it to families in the North as an expens ive yet beautiful place to vacation.[iv] 

            In 1923, John Ashley and the members of the “Gang” robbed a Stuart bank and held up a train.[v] “The Ashley family was known still to be strongly Confederate in their feelings”, according to Ada Coats Williams. “They used as their excuse for robbing the bank the fact that Yankees owned the insurance company and that is was one way to get the Yankee money back that was stolen from the South.”[17] Steve Carr says this didn’t actually happen the way that Hix and Williams described. John was present for a different reason. Williams stating that the Ashley’s had a confederate nature is misinformation. The Ashley family hailed from the North and decided to head to Florida to make a better living working on Henry Flagler’s railroad. Long before the bank was ever robbed, John’s father made a deal with the FEC. His father was a tomato farmer and had a few hundred acres dedicated to the crop. The FEC condemned two and a half acres of his land. They told him they were going to build a skirt-way so that John’s father could load the tomatoes directly onto the train car for more efficiency. The FEC actually wanted to build a postal express office. When everything was mail-ordered back then through Sears and Roebuck, the train could stop at the post office and unload the ordered items. Those who received notices of their order’s arrival could then travel a much shorter distance to collect their purchase. Because the FEC lied to John’s father, the Gang decided to rob the train out of revenge for the deal going bad. John’s father, Joe, was most likely involved in this retaliatory robbery. Two drought seasons had a massive impacts on Joe’s tomato crop. At that point, Joe was nearly destitute. John wanted to have the bank robbed so he could essentially help his father to get back into moonshining. It was proven to be a much better business than raising tomatoes for obvious monetary reasons. Their farm consisted of two sets of 180 acres near the Gomez track in Hobe Sound; aka Fuita.[vi] While Hix and Williams describe the robberies as selfish ways to get money, the truth rests in the basic necessity to keep the family alive and right any wrong-doings.

            Jerry Bowers wrote a newspaper article titled, “Ashley Gang…Gunned Down, Burned Out; But Guilty?”[18] After a decades long game of cat and mouse beginning with the shooting of DeSoto Tiger, the Gang of Ashley’s were slain on the night of Halloween in 1924. Sheriff Baker set up an ambush on US1 in Sebastian. As the gang was crossing over a bridge in a model-T car, police surrounded the car and immediately started shooting. Relatives of the Ashley’s to this day believe there was no “gang” in the family. It was all nonsense created by the media in a sick way to gain attention to the Sunshine State. “One of the more outspoken Ashley decedents is Bill Mobley, 55, of Port Salerno. He is the brother of Hanford Mobley, one of the victims of the Sebastian bridge shooting, and the nephew of John Ashley, another victim often labeled leader of the “gang”. The other two victims were not related to the Ashley’s except by friendship. They were Ray Lynn and John C. Middleton.”[19] The idea was that the Gang was going to get out of dodge by moving north and leaving their homestead in Fruita. They were done with Sheriff Baker and his hatred for the kind-hearted group. Leaving the county was their way of starting fresh. Stuart Hix summarizes the event that took place on the Sebastian bridge in his book The Notorious Ashley Gang. “As they (the four) got out another (of several) guns fell out of the car from under Lynn’s legs; the deputies picked up this gun, and they intended to line them up and search their persons thoroughly and one of the deputies spoke of getting the handcuffs and John Ashley mumbled something to his pals and snatched another gun out, and then the deputies fired.”[20] This account is a contradiction of what Ted Miller and S. O. Davis said happened when they watched it occur from their car. “Miller was the driver. He said he had entered the narrow peninsula south of the bridge, came upon the chain barrier and then found himself hemmed in by the approach of another car. He thought it was a holdup. Miller got out of the car and recognized the deputies emerging from the bushes. One of them spoke to him, and he got back in the car. Then St. Lucie Sheriff J. R. Merritt came forward, said his car was on the other side of the bridge and asked for a lift. Merritt took down the chain, hopped on the running board of Miller’s car and rode across.”[21] When Miller reached the other side of the bridge, according to the article, and headed back to Sebastian, they saw the four men in handcuffs lined up on the road. It was a massacre.

                This part of the Ashley Gang story is perhaps the most controversial. What happened after the members were handcuffed on the bridge? Lester Lewis was at the mortuary when the men’s corpses were sent in. Lester noted that the bodies were still handcuffed when they came in. “Early the next morning, four bullet-riddled bodies were stretched out on the sidewalk in front of the mortuary.”[22] The police report says that they were shot because the gang pulled out weapons on the police and threatened to kill them. However, the witnesses say they were handcuffed. Those who are in favor of the Ashley’s say that Baker and the other Sheriffs wanted the Gang gone bad enough to the point to where they were slain unarmed. What the police did was lined the men up along the bridge, shot them, tied them up to the back of their police vehicles, and paraded them around town. Once they got to town, the police laid the corpses on the corner of the main street in Stuart. Baker states that they were never handcuffed, but witnesses said they remember seeing cuff marks on the wrists of the men. The death of the Gang was so horrendous that John’s great love, Laura Upthegrove, (also known as the Queen of the Everglades) killed herself out of sadness. “The death of the Everglades Queen brought to a dramatic close one of the most picturesque and notorious feminine careers in the history of South Florida. A history in which the flashing of guns and the speeding of bullets was not unknown.”[23] It has been rumored that Laura played a much larger role in the moonshine business than the media claims. Steve Carr briefly discusses in an interview that Laura actually bought a room at the Breakers Hotel on Palm Beach, and sold whiskey out of it to the patrons of the gaudy resort. Since Baker was part owner of the Bradley Beach House, and also sold illegal whiskey out of there, Laura posed as a threat to his own operation. Now with Laura dead as well as her consort, Baker has to freedom to cater to the wealthy and further his inexcusable corruption.

              The Ashley family did more for the local residents than Sheriff Baker did trying to protect them. In prohibition South Florida, there was not much to do that could keep locals at ease. Life was indeed tough and whiskey helped get through the mundane lifestyle. Moonshine created excitement. It gave people enjoyment where there was boredom. John Ashley was responsible for the happiness of the people who lived along Florida’s eastern seaboard. Whenever a family or relative needed help in any way, John was there to help. He provided for his family all while trying to keep himself safe.

             In current Palm Beach County, the story of the Ashley Gang has been mostly forgotten except for the occasional born and raised Floridian who has heard about the Gang since birth. The tale lives on through word of mouth and speculation. The family is still actively trying to make the Ashley name good again. Historians and archaeologists have worked hard in trying to get onto the right side of history. An injustice has been done by Sheriff Bob Baker by defiling the Ashley name. Their story plays a large role in the state’s history, yet it is nowhere to be found in books and periodicals. No current research has been published since William’s book in 1995. It is imperative to history to correct their story and make right with all the parties involved.  

            “Almost everyone had a story to tell about the Ashley Gang: they had left money under a brick on a poor, ill person’s porch; they had left groceries at the door of a widow woman; they abandoned the robbery of one bank because one of the Gang found that the president was a former boyhood playmate and they just couldn’t do that to him; John had disarmed a colored man that Sheriff Baker had sent into a camp to kill John, and when the man started begging for him not to shoot, John had given him a five-dollar bill and told him to get running.”[24] Even the term gang was developed by the media. In reality, the Ashley family were simply a cracker family desperate to take care of one another.

            Decades after the slaying of the Ashley family members, a witness who chose to remain anonymous spoke out while on his death bed. Steve Carr was present to hear what the man had to say. He spoke of the night of the shooting on the Sebastian bridge and how the men were in fact murdered in cold-blood. He told Carr that the members of the gang were handcuffed and told to stand on the side of the bridge. When all the men were apprehended, the sheriffs began taking their shots at the men and killed them on the spot. The man was not apologetic, but he did speak up because he knew the truth was important to the history of Martin County. He also explained that he wanted to give the families involved peace before he passed away. Unfortunately, the families involved did end up changing their name to avoid any harassment from writers, reporters, and media outlets.

            Preserving both sides of the Ashley Gang story is paramount to the future. The chronology of the tale shows how Florida became the state it is today. Surprisingly not much has changed in modern Florida. The Sunshine State is flooded with crime, corruption, and killings. Did Sheriff Bob Baker set the course for how Florida would continue its legacy? Perhaps. One thing is for sure, all parties involved are dead and it is now up to Florida’s youth to change the habits that were created so long ago.

Bibliography

Bowers, J. (1935). Ashley Gang...Gunned Down, Burned Out; But Guilty? Miami Herald.

Carr, S. (2019, March 29). Historian. (C. Ricca, Interviewer)

Hix, S. (1928). The Notorious Ashley Gang. Stuart, Florida: St. Lucie Printing Co.

The Divorce Proceedings of Bob Baker (Palm Beach County 1927).

Unknown. (1927, August 7). Laura Upthegrove Died By Own Hand.

Williams, A. C. (1996). Florida's Ashley Gang. Port Salerno, Florida: Florida Classics Library.

[1] (Carr, Interveiw, 2019)

[2] (Williams, Florida’s Ashley Gang, 1996) pg. 8

[3] (Carr, interview, 2019)

[4] (Carr, interview, 2019)

[5] (Carr, interview, 2019)

[6] (Carr, interview, 2019)

[7] (Williams, Florida’s Ashley Gang, 1996) pg. 9

[8] (Carr, interview, 2019)

[9] (Carr, interview, 2019)

[10] (Williams, Florida’s Ashley Gang, 1996) pg. 21

[11] (Williams, Florida’s Ashley Gang, 1996) pg. 14

[12] (Hix, The Notorious Ashley Gang, 1928) pg. 16

[13] (Carr, interview, 2019)

[14] (Carr, interview, 2019)

[15] (The Divorce Proceedings of Bob Baker, 1927)

[16] (The Divorce Proceedings of Bob Baker, 1927)

[17] (Williams, Florida’s Ashley Gang, 1996) pg. 24

[18] (Bowers, Ashley Gang...Gunned Down, Burned Out; But Guilty?, 1935)

[19] (Bowers, Ashley Gang...Gunned Down, Burned Out; But Guilty?, 1935)

[20] (Hix, The Notorious Ashley Gang, 1928) pg. 63

[21] (Bowers, Ashley Gang...Gunned Down, Burned Out; But Guilty?, 1935)

[22] (Williams, Florida’s Ashley Gang, 1996) pg. 36

[23] (Unknown, 1927)

[24] (Williams, Florida’s Ashley Gang, 1996) pg. 30-31

[i] Famous cracker cowboy, Bone Mizell, was supplied moonshine by Fox Brown. Currently, Fox Brown is a private hunting preserve in Florida. Supposedly, Bone Mizell died from complications derived from drinking moonshine sold by McCoy.

[ii] Research is currently being conducted to find photos of the Reece family and the Ashley family together on the ranch property.

[iii] Baker’s divorce decree is public records and can be studied with an appointment at the Historical Society of Palm Beach, located in the Historic PB county Court House.

[iv] Judge Chillingworth was one of the local con artists who bought property and sold it for close to $15,000.

[v] The bank in Stuart failed during the Depression and was replaced soon after.

[vi] Thousands of artifacts have been retrieved from the area before new construction began.