BANK OF POMPANO ROBBERY

John Ashley and his gang pull off their last bank robbery

BY GREGORY ENNS

The Ashley Gang and Sheriff Bob Baker and his deputies had settled into a kind of detente in the months following the shootout at the still near Fruita that left Ashley patriarch Joe Ashley and Deputy Fred Baker dead.

Both sides knew that the only way the war would end was with more killings. After the still shootout Jan. 9, 1924, and an intensive manhunt, gang leader John Ashley fled to California but soon returned to Florida, haunted by the sounds of the last groans of his father as he died from a hail of bullets and shotgun blasts.

In late August, Sheriff Baker said he found a moonshine camp near Hialeah that was part of the Ashley-Mobley outfit. Because the camp was located in Dade County, he asked Gov. Cary A. Hardee for authority to go into Dade, but the governor declined, saying Baker could only do so if accompanied by a Dade officer. Baker got an officer to agree, but when he and two deputies arrived to raid the camp at night the deputy failed to show up. Mission aborted.

DRIFTING SOUTH?

The discovery of the Hialeah camp offered a clue that the gang was operating farther south of its base in Fruita. Apparently needing cash, John Ashley would pull off his last bank robbery in his former hometown of Pompano the afternoon of Sept. 12, 1924.

 Here’s how it went down:

Bank of Pompano cashier J.R. Cates told deputies that four men drove in front of the bank shortly after 2 p.m., with three of them, armed with revolvers, entering the bank and a fourth staying in the car.

The men brandished four revolvers and two rifles, and one of them ordered Cates and clerk T.L. Myers, the only employees inside the bank, to turn toward the wall and keep their hands above their heads. 

Two of the robbers then raked up all the cash on the counter, and more money in currency and silver were taken. The three robbers, working at an unhurried pace, collected $5,000 in cash and $4,000 in liberty bonds.

Before leaving, a man later identified as John Ashley gave a .25 caliber rifle bullet to them, saying, “Give this to our good friend, Sheriff Bob Baker, and tell him if he wants us, he will find us in the Everglades.”

SEARCH BEGINS

A posse was organized, following the bandits to Deerfield and then west near the Hillsboro Canal, where they found an abandoned Studebaker. The four apparently swam across the canal, with law officers later finding traces of the four climbing the steep bank on the other side. Deputies suspected the gang members were trying to make their way back to Fruita, and Baker later said he believed the bandits had a power boat waiting for them.

The Studebaker belonged to Wesley Powell, a taxi driver who said he was hired by a man, later identified as Joe Tracy, earlier in the day to drive him to Lantana eight miles south of West Palm Beach and then west toward a wooded area, where the three others, including Ashley, walked out. They then piled ammunition and various guns into the car, as well as a sack of canned foods.

Just three days before the Bank of Pompano robbery, Tracy became one of the suspects in the murder in Lakosee in Osceola County of C.O. Delesdernier, who was killed while four men, one believed to be Tracy, robbed a commissary of its money.

Once they arrived at the wooded area, Powell said Tracy pressed a revolver against his back. One of the men then took over the wheel, driving north to Lake Worth. When a tire blew out, they ordered Powell to change it. 

He said they had told him that they planned to rob the Bank of Pompano at 11:30, but the flat tire would delay their effort until the afternoon. Powell said he believed one of the men was John Ashley because he had only one eye. 

RELAXING MEAL 

Powell said the four decided to pull off in Deerfield, where, the men produced canned beans and meats, bread and syrup and sat down to dinner, which they shared with Powell. They then passed around a quart of gin, and referred to a fifth accomplice, with one of them saying, “Remember the fifth party told us to tote level heads and not get drunk. You can’t do this work drunk.”

After the meal, Powell said the men took out two rifles, four pistols, ammunition belts and hundreds of cartridges. They then oiled and loaded their guns and filled their belts and pockets with ammunition. Placing a small white piece of paper on a tree 50 yards away they then took turns at target practice, during which the center of the paper was clipped.

Powell said one of the men declared his revolver “sure could bark” and added, “It’s a snappy old gun and I’m going to die with it in my hand.”

At a point between Deerfield and Pompano, John ordered Powell to get out of the car and told him, “I will tie you so that you can escape, but do not attempt to leave here until sundown or the man who will remain here to watch you will kill you.” 

BULLET WITH A MESSAGE

Powell said Ashley also handed him a rifle cartridge and told him, “This bullet boy is just to remind you that we have had 15 years’ experience in this business and for you to take [it] to our good friend Sheriff Baker. Look us over carefully, give Sheriff Bob our descriptions and tell him that if he wants us, he can find us in the Glades.”

Powell said all of the men were wearing khaki trousers and short sleeve shirts while three wore caps and one wore a brown hat. Powell said for the most part he was treated kindly, with one of them telling him that “one of these days you will find some money at your house.”

After they left, Powell said he didn’t believe he was being watched, so he freed himself and dodged from tree to tree just in case he was being followed. He said he caught a ride and reported the theft to a Pompano officer. He said the gang had told him his car would be seven miles west of Deerfield, and it was discovered there. Also found was a wallet belonging to Joe Tracy.

Deputies continued searching the Everglades over the weekend, halting their effort on Sunday without luck. Besides Tracy and Ashley, the other two involved in the bank robbery were Clarence Middleton and gang newcomer Ray Lynn, who had escaped from prison the month before. Hanford Mobley at the time was likely in California.

Predicting just how heated the battle between the gang and law enforcement was getting, the Palm Beach Post observed: “Officers of every county in southeastern Florida have expressed the opinion, following the Pompano robbery, that if Ashley or his gang are taken it will be amid a hail of bullets, which may take its toll from both sides. Some officials believe that Ashley and Mobley, at least, will never be taken alive.”