Florida's early band of bank robbers - the Ashley Gang

 

Ashley Gang 1910
Florida State archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

The Wild West wasn’t the only region beset by a gang of outlaws similar to the James gang. In the early 1900s, South Florida chronicles are laced with the doings of its own band of family-linked criminals: the Ashley gang.

Ashley brothers – Bob, Tom, Ed, Frank, and most notably John - were thought to be responsible for a series of robberies and a murder or two between Stuart and Miami and in the Everglades. John first came to the attention of authorities for the 1911 murder of a Seminole, DeSoto Tiger. The crime, which occurred on the New River Canal, an Everglades dredging project, was committed for a load of otter skins sold in Miami.

John Ashley lived on the lam for a few years until pressure from the Seminoles forced his arrest when he surfaced near Stuart. He was sent to a Miami jail to await trial but broke out. Afterward, he and a few of his brothers, who came from Fort Myers and settled in Gomez, north of Hobe Sound, robbed a bank in Stuart. Captured and convicted, Ashley served a few years in Raiford prison before escaping with his gang’s help.

John Ashley, far right, entering
Florida State Prison, Raiford
Public Domain (Creative Commons)

The outlaws took refuge in the Everglades not far from Fort Lauderdale. John Ashley, known then as "King of the Everglades" teamed up with love interest (some say wife) "Queen of the Everglades" Laura Upthegrove. From a base camp there, the gang robbed banks, bootlegged and hijacked for a living. On occasion they came into Fort Lauderdale seeking medical assistance from the city’s first doctor, Thomas Kennedy. In 1923, they robbed the Bank of Pompano.

Ashley and three members (not brothers) of his gang died in a showdown shootout with the law at the Sebastian River Bridge Nov. 1, 1924, closing one chapter of crime in South Florida.

Copyright © 2021.
All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Douglas, Marjory Stoneman. Everglades: River of Grass. Miami: Banyan Books (1978)

Weidling, Philip J. , Burghard, August. Checkered Sunshine. Gainesville: University of Florida Press (1966)
Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 22, 1984.

Tags: Ashley Gang, Florida crime, Broward County crime, Fort Lauderdale history, Pompano Beach history, history of Broward County