For Sale —American Paradise (55 page)

And of course, there's my wife, Dr. Jane Morrow, who served as a story consultant and first-draft editor and allowed me to get away with the quirks and annoying habits for which writers are notorious.

Willie Drye
Plymouth, North Carolina
May 7, 2015

This book describes events that took place almost a century ago.

In some cases, the documentation for these events is plentiful and specific. In other cases, however, the documentation is scarce, and sometimes the documentation that does exist is conflicting or fragmentary or the events described do not align with other well-
documented events that were taking place at the
same time.

This is especially true about the career of the Ashley Gang, where I found differing accounts of several events.

For example, newspaper stories written while John Ashley was on trial for the murder of Desoto Tiger repeatedly wrote that he'd been paid $584 for the otter hides he stole from the Seminole Indian. Later accounts, however, said he'd received $1,200 for the hides. Because $584 was, without exception, consistently reported by all of the journalists covering the trial as it unfolded, I used that amount.

Tiger's first name also was spelled Desoto, DeSoto, and De Soto. I used the spelling I found most often in news stories.

The
New Smyrna News
, citing the
Miami Daily News
, reported that after Ashley escaped from prison in July 1918, he served several months in the US Navy aboard the battleship USS
Maryland
and then deserted. But the battleship was being built when Ashley escaped. The
Maryland
was launched in March 1920, but it was not completed and commissioned for service by the navy until July 1921—more than a month after Ashley was recaptured and returned to prison.

I was not able to determine whether Ashley might have been aboard the battleship briefly before it was commissioned. So I did not mention Ashley's possible military service.

There were similar uncertainties about John Ashley's nephew, Handford—or Hanford—Mobley, starting with the spelling of his first name. Newspaper stories of the day consistently spelled his name Hanford. Author Hix Stuart, who claimed to have the only interview ever granted by John Ashley, also used this spelling.

But Mobley's tombstone spells his first name Handford, and this is the spelling I've used.

There also are uncertainties about some of Mobley's crimes and adventures. The
Miami Herald
reported on November 9, 1924, that it was Mobley who had served in the navy. I also found frequent mention in books and magazine stories
about Mobley and other gang members robbing liquor distributors in the Bahamas sometime before his death in late 1924. But the only account of this robbery that was written fairly soon after Mobley's death was by Stuart, whose book about the gang was published in 1928. Stuart mentions the robbery but does not give a date.

The
New Smyrna News
of November 21, 1924, mentions that Mobley was wanted for piracy for stealing $15,000, but this story says he stole the money on the high seas between Florida and the Bahamas and does not mention a robbery of liquor distributors. Other accounts of Mobley's crimes were written many years after his death, and these stories gave conflicting information about the robbery.

Stories about the gang's bank robberies also were inconsistent, especially about the amount of money they stole in each robbery.

There were similar discrepancies in the newspaper stories about the gangland murder of Al Capone's enemy, Frank Uale.

In writing about these and other events, I pieced together the stories as best I could from the documentation that was available. Where there were inconsistencies, I used the version that seemed to me to be the most plausible or matched with other events that happened simultaneously.

Chapter One: An Old Man's Memories

1. “I tried to talk them out of it”:
Miami Herald
, March 16, 1986;
Daily Capital
of Topeka, Kansas, March 2, 1915

2. The look was becoming so popular that Macy's:
Time
magazine, September 16, 1985

2. The wind off the ocean made the early summer heat bearable:
Vero Beach Press
, July 2, 1925

2. As the acerbic journalist H.L. Mencken had noted: Andrist, Ralph K., chief editor,
The American Heritage History of the 1920s & 1930s
(New York, American Heritage/Bonanza Books, 1970) p. 33

3. Their spree had ended only six months earlier:
Nevada State Journal
, February 22, 1924

3. Rumor had it that John Ashley had hidden more than $110,000:
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
, August 5, 1926

3. Every day trains were bringing as many as seventy-five Pullman cars: George, Paul, “Brokers, Binders, And Builders,”
Florida Historical Quarterly
, vol. 65, no. 1, July 1986, p. 35

4. “It was easy to lie to a prospect in those days”: Fuller, Walter P.,
This Was Florida's Boom
(St. Petersburg, Florida, Times Publishing Co., 1954) p. 39

4. Jesse Livermore, the legendary stock market manipulator: Paige, Emeline K., editor, Untitled promotional booklet about the history of Martin County (Stuart, Florida, Southeastern Printing Co. and First National Bank and Trust Co. of Stuart, Florida, 1973) from the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History, University of Florida

4. In neighboring Palm Beach County, architect Addison Mizner: Promotional brochure,
Boca Raton Mizner Development Corporation
, from the collections of the Boca Raton Historical Society and Museums, Boca Raton, Florida (Philadelphia, J.H. Cross Company, 1925) p. 21

4. He'd moved from Nebraska to Miami in 1912: US Department of the Interior, National Parks Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, William Jennings Bryan House, Miami, Florida, December 9, 2011

4. Miami developer George Merrick was paying Bryan $100,000 a year: Nolan, David,
Fifty Feet in Paradise: The Booming of Florida
(New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers, 1984) p. 177

5. In the summer of 1925, sales of property in Coral Gables: George, Paul, “Brokers, Binders, And Builders,”
Florida Historical Quarterly
, vol. 65, no. 1, July 1986, p. 38

5. . . . when Merrick started selling lots in the new Sylvania Heights section of Coral Gables: George, Paul, “Brokers, Binders, And Builders,”
Florida Historical Quarterly
, vol. 65, no. 1, July 1986, p. 42

5. “I never see a crowd of people”:
The New York Times
, September 27, 1896

5. When he finished, the twenty thousand delegates didn't simply applaud:
The Newark
(Ohio)
Daily Advocate
, July 11, 1896

6. But the canny old political warhorse also had seriously contemplated: Flynt, Wayne, “Florida's 1926 Senatorial Primary,”
The Florida Historical Quarterly
, vol. 42, no. 2, October 1963, pp. 142–143

6. “He can smell the battle afar off”:
Nevada State Journal
of Reno, February 22, 1924

6. The dresses they wore—thin, revealing, with hemlines at the knee: Allen, Frederick Lewis,
Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s
(New York, Perennial Classics, an imprint of Harper Collins, 2000) pp. 79–80;
Palm Beach Post
, May 25, 1925

7. In the mid-1920s, however, the fashion dictated a stark contrast: “Historically Accurate 1920s Makeup Tutorial,” produced by Zabrena, available at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_iMr-yOUbo

7. Some of the women even dared to light up cigarettes: Allen, Frederick Lewis,
Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s
(New York, Perennial Classics, an imprint of Harper Collins, 2000) p. 78

7. He had recently introduced a bill in Tallahassee:
Palm Beach Post
, May 25, 1925

7. The proposal was defeated:
Palm Beach Post
, June 7, 1925

8. He started with a self-deprecating quip:
Vero Beach Press
, July 2, 1925

9. “I would feel lost if I were not there on that occasion”:
South Florida Developer
, August 4, 1925

Chapter Two: Railroad to Dreamland

10. The immortal Greek warrior Alexander the Great: Delumeau, Jean,
History of Paradise: The Garden of Eden in Myth and Tradition
(Urbana and Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 2000) p. 46

10. Tales of a fountain in a land somewhere to the north: Delumeau, Jean,
History of Paradise: The Garden of Eden in Myth and Tradition
(Urbana and Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 2000) p. 76

11. So to honor the season, Ponce de León named: Delumeau, Jean,
History of Paradise: The Garden of Eden in Myth and Tradition
(Urbana and Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 2000) p. 136

11. In the summer of 1559, Spain sent another expedition to Florida: Hudson, Charles; Smith, Marvin T.; DePratter, Chester B.; and Kelley, Emilia, “The Tristan De Luna Expedition, 1559–1561,”
Southeastern Archaeology
, vol. 8, no. 1, Summer 1989, p. 34

12. A hurricane would deposit more visitors on a Florida beach in 1696: Dickinson, Jonathan (edited by Evangeline Walker Andrews and Charles McLean Andrews),
Jonathan Dickinson's Journal, or God's Protecting Providence
(Port Salerno, Florida, Florida Classics Library, 1985) p. 5

13. Florida, Motte wrote, “is certainly the poorest country”: Motte: Jacob R.,
Journey into Wilderness
(Gainesville, University Press of Florida, 1953) p. 199

13. . . . Motte saw “picturesque clumps of cypress trees”: Motte: Jacob R.,
Journey into Wilderness
(Gainesville, University Press of Florida, 1953) pp. 191–192

14. Colonel William Chase, a West Point–educated army engineer: Bearss, Edwin C., “Civil War Operations In and Around Pensacola Part II,”
Florida Historical Quarterly
, vol. XXXVI, 1957–58, p. 128

14. . . . President Grant “ushered in that hustling period”: Carlson, Oliver,
Brisbane: A Candid Biography
(New York, Stackpole Sons, 1937) pp. 80–81

15. “No dreamland on earth: Stowe, Harriet Beecher (edited by Abbie H. Fairfield),
Flowers and Fruit from the Writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe
(Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1888) p. 18

15. But she also was aware of Florida's faults: Stowe, Harriet Beecher,
Palmetto-Leaves
(Boston, James R. Osgood and Company, 1873) pp. 29–39

15. “Undoubtedly the finest winter climate”: Brinton, Daniel G.,
A Guide-Book of Florida and the South for Tourists, Invalids and Emigrants
(Philadelphia, George MacLean, 1869), pp. 127–128

16. “In the winter months, soft breezes”: King, Edward,
The Great South: A Record of Journeys in Louisiana, Texas, the Indian Territory, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland
(Hartford, Connecticut, American Publishing Company, 1875) p. 379

16. King noted that Florida's Silver Spring: King, Edward,
The Great South: A Record of Journeys in Louisiana, Texas, the Indian Territory, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland
(Hartford, Connecticut, American Publishing Company, 1875) p. 401

16. Colby claimed to have been led there: Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp website, “A Brief History,” available at
http://www.cassadaga.org/history.htm

17. “I am very much pleased with Florida”: Jones, James P. (editor), “Grant Forecasts the Future of Florida,” Ulysses S. Grant and Florida,
Florida Historical Quarterly
, vol. 39, no. 1, July 1960, p. 53

17. Florida's leaders thought they could pull the state out of the postwar wreckage and political chaos: Garrison, Webb,
A Treasury of Florida Tales
(Nashville, Tennessee, Rutledge Hill Press, 1989) pp. 96–98; Gannon, Michael,
Florida: A Short History
(Gainesville, University Press of Florida, 1993) p. 53

18. After Flagler was gone: “Humanity At Palm Beach,” by W.L. George,
Harper's
, January 1925, p. 214