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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 1980)
Page 14 THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1980 ’30s gangster says he wouldn’t do it toda y United Press International DALLAS — As a big-time gangs ter in the 1930s Floyd Hamilton spent a lot of time with the likes of Clyde Barrow, “Machine Gun’ Kel ly and Alvin Karpis. Consequently, he spent a lot of time in prison. Hamilton, 71, has gone straight now but he still spends some of his time in prisons. He goes back to in spire inmates to find their way through God, as he says he did after three years of solitary confinement in Alcatraz. “I’m trying to show these prison ers that they should make time serve them instead of serving time,’’ said Hamilton, who spent 22 years in prisons and once had the distinction of being Public Enemy No. 1. Hamilton’s long and colorful story has been published by International Prison Ministries and, as a lesson for others, is distributed in prisons across the nation, Canada and Mexico. Hamilton also lectures civic groups, churches and high schools on how to avoid the tragedy of such a life as his: spending a good part of it in prison, having his wife divorce him and two children he hardly knew dying while he was behind bars. Hamilton dropped out of school at the age of 12 to support his mother, brother and four sisters after “my daddy run off’’ and at the age of 24 the law started taking an interest in him. “It was about 1932 that they started arrestin’ me,” Hamilton said. “It was because I was kin to Raymond and he was associated with Clyde. Raymond was only about 17 then.” “Clyde” was Clyde Barrow; Raymond Hamilton was Floyd’s younger brother, who was executed by the state of Texas in 1935 for kill ing a guard during a prison escape. Hamilton was one of 22 people charged with harboring Bonnie and Clyde and he received a two-year federal prison sentence for it. “I knew where they were and I wouldn’t tell the police,” he said. After serving time at the Leaven worth, Kan., federal prison, during which Bonnie and Clyde were shot to death, he went to work at an oil refinery in Shreveport, La. A short time later he was arrested for receiv- More quakes occur in U.S. during 79 United Press International DENVER — Both minor and sig nificant earthquakes increased in the United States during 1979 although worldwide the number of major tre mors declined, the National Earth quake Information Service has re ported. Spokesman Waverly Person said Monday the strongest earthquake reported last year measured 8.1 on the Richter scale. The quake, which occurred in the West Irian region of Indonesia on Sept. 12 caused five deaths, numerous injuries an extensive damage. The number of significant earth quakes in the world declined from 62 in 1978 to 58 last year. Person said. A significant earthquake is one with a magnitude of 6.5 or greater on the Richter scale, or a lesser quake that causes casualties or considerable damage. He said 452 earthquakes were re corded in the United States last year compared to 345 the previous year. Person said no one has been killed by a tremor in the United States since 1975 when two people died and $4 million in damage was caused by a tsunami (sea wave) generated by an earthquake in the Hawaiian Islands. The five significant earthquakes in the United States in 1979, three in Alaska and two in California, were the most recorded in four years. The strongest earthquake in the nation registered 7.1 on Feb. 28 in south eastern Alaska near Anchorage. The strongest earthquake in the contiguous 48 states in 1979 was 6.8 magnitude quake on the U.S.- Mexican border on Oct. 15 that in jured 91 people in California and Mexico. It was the strongest quake in the 48 states since a 1971 tremor measuring 6.5 injured 65 people. Need baby apes? Call Sampson United Press International CHICAGO — Sampson, a 450- pound African lowland gorilla, is at the Brookfield Zoo where zoo offi cials hope he live up to his reputa tion. Sampson is known for his fertility and that makes him a “rare commod ity because more and more captive gorillas are turning up sterile,” pub lic relations director Joyce Gardella said. The gorilla is on loan from a zoo in Buffalo, N.Y. He will be “seques tered” for at least a year with diffe rent female gorillas in hopes of bring ing three new baby gorillas into the world, zoo officials said. Gardella said there are fewer than 3,000 lowland gorillas left in western and central equatorial Africa. She said their habitats have been des troyed by agricultural development and lumbering operations. ing stolen parts and jailed in Monta gue, Texas. “I did receive the parts, and then they made this bargain with this fel low. He said I helped steal this car and they turned him loose,” Hamil ton said. “That made me mad, so I broke out of jail. Soon the FBI was listing Hamilton as a public enemy No. 1. He was 29 and found life on the run in 1938 a frightening experience. “You couldn’t sleep, you couldn’t associate with anybody, let anybody know where you were gonna’ be or anything,” he said. It was not until late in the year that the law finally caught up with Hamilton. “The FBI had put me on the list after I broke out of jail,” he said. “They knew I had been across state lines and they said I was a fugitive from justice. “I had to run through the woods in Arkansas and when I came to Dallas, I got my leg shot out from under me. “They said I robbed some people in a car when I got out of Jail. I got 25 years for that, plus the five for theft. Then they released me to the FBI, who tried me on two bank counts of robbery which I committed when I was out of jail. ” Hamilton said he never shot any one but only tried to “scare ’em” when he robbed banks, sometimes with Raymond, and usually stole only a small amount. After being convicted of robbing four banks, Hamilton was sent back to Leavenworth and then transferred to Alcatraz, “because they thought I would try to escape. ” And indeed, he did in 1943, along with the partner of his friend, “Machine Gun Kelly,” and others. “I stayed hid out; They thought I was dead. The warden and the doc tor said they saw me go down in a hail of bullets so they took me off the count for three days. “When I came out they caught me. They locked me up in D-Block, that’s what we called the isolation area, and they locked me up for three years. Hamilton said he became severely ill after a year, developing mouth ulcers and pyorrhea. “The started letting me get mail from my mother and Mrs. Hattie Rankin MoOre and I turned my life over to God at their urging. After a total ofl2 years at Alcatraz, he was transferred back to Leaven worth to spend the rest of his term. He then was brought back to Texas to serve his state sentences and finally was released from jail in 1958, at the age of 50. Today, Hamilton said, "I’m livin’ off Social Security andi| rent houses.” He also has been given had; I citizenship rights, thanks to ap™ idential pardon from President); son and a state pardon from Texas Gov. John Connally, “I wouldn’t repeat today wf* done. I’ll tell you, Hamilton adding that he does not beliif owes a debt to society or looks unfavorably on him. m WE I GIVE | TOMATO SAUCE THURS, FRI, & SAT - JAN 31 & FEB 1-2 ■•••••••••••• ill Fresh iBEff iUVER. 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