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
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