The Hunt for the Last Public Enemy in Northeastern Ohio by Julie Thompson

Author:Julie Thompson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2019-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

IN WILD WEST FASHION

It reads like a memorable scene from Clint Eastwood’s 2011 biographical drama J. Edgar. During an interview with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, a young man in his late twenties declared, “One time, I told some of my friends that I’d like to be in one of those robberies just to see how it felt. But, believe me, I’ve had enough…I can still feel that machine gun in my back.”205 On that fateful day of November 7, 1935, Earl N. Davis, a young news agent from Garrettsville, was picking up the afternoon Cleveland Press at the Garrettsville train depot. Little did he know that he would become an involuntary aid to five outlaws.

Carried out in American Wild West fashion, these robbers—some masked with handkerchiefs—swung into position on the station platform under the terrified gaze of nearly a dozen men and women. Systematically, Karpis and his fellow marauders lined up the petrified victims. Aided by the muzzle of a machine gun, Mr. Davis, who was exhausted from holding his arms up, was ordered to carry four heavy mail pouches from the platform to the bandits’ Plymouth sedan.206 As he was loading the pouches into the car, Davis noticed the weapons on the seat. Not for one second did this family man contemplate playing the hero by seizing one of those guns.

There are some old-timers from the Garrettsville area who have spoken in great detail about their firsthand recollections of this last criminal act by Public Enemy No. 1. Dr. Myron Thomas, at the time of the train heist, was just a boy about five years old whose home sat within clear view of the depot. Along with his mother, Thomas watched this robbery take place from the front window of his house. In his retelling of the events, Dr. Thomas stated somewhat humorously in a letter dated May 3, 2014:

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