Ford Not So Tough

On this date back in 1934, Oklahoma desperado and psychopath Ford Bradshaw met his end. He first appeared on police radar three years previously when his bullet riddled body was dumped from a car on the streets of Muskogee, but he refused to say who had shot him. The following year he was involved in a car jacking that resulted in the death of a woman. He was also accused of killing a gambler in 1933.

Bradshaw reportedly joined fellow Oklahoma bad man Wilbur Underhill a.k.a. the Tri-State Terror on some bank robberies. His exploits led to the Sooner-States National Guard being sent out to the Cookson Hills to bring him to justice. Bradshaw managed to elude them.

Bradshaw's downfall was a result of his own violent behavior. On March 3, he and his moll Stella "Boots" Moody patronized a roadhouse in Arkoma, Oklahoma. During their visit, Bradshaw lost a hundred bucks at gambling and then became belligerent, He wrecked a couple of slot machines and sent "Boots" out to their car to get his bullet-proof vest. She left his automatic shotgun in the car.

Back inside, Bradshaw threatened the other patrons and bartender, who happened to be a deputy sheriff and the owners brother, with a pistol and forced them to drink with him. Meanwhile, the proprietors wife and another patron snuck out and alerted the police. Officers came and surrounded the place. Once the police were their, the bartender drew his gun on Bradshaw who raised his hands. The police came in and disarmed the desperado and took his bullet proof vest. As they were escorting him out the back, he tried to make a dash for his car. A number of people tried to stop him and as they were wrestling about, the proprietor arrived with a gun and fired half a dozen shots into the thug.

"Don't do that!" Bradshaw groaned before rolling over dead.

Ford Bradshaw

Al Spencer Bows Out

Less than a month after he and his gang robbed the Katy Limited, a mail train (and the last train robbery in the history of his home state of Oklahoma), bandit Al Spencer was gunned down on the Osage Indian Reserve.

Spencer got his start in crime by rustling cattle and stealing horses, he soon gained notoriety as a "motorized bandit" who began picking off banks. Always retreating to the Osage hills. After the train robbery, a bounty of $10,000 dead or alive was placed on his head. A posse of U.S. marshals along with a postal inspector worked in tandem to bring him in, or down.

On the evening of September 15, 1923, the Federal men traced him near the Osage and Washington County lines, about three miles south of the Kansas border. There on a road, at about ten p.m., he was ordered to halt, he fired a shot at his pursuers who then opened up with a rifles. Spencer dropped with three bullets in his chest. It was reported that he had ten thousand dollars worth of bonds on his body when searched. 

Al Spencer