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O. B. Padgett ~~ A Florida Son: The Ashley Gang, a Lawman and the Florida Frontier
A Florida native son, born into a farm family just before the turn of the 20th century, was the humble beginnings for Oren Benton “O. B.” Padgett of Taylor County, Florida. However, he would not experience an ordinary life, but rather one filled with adventure, good times and bad times, as Florida grew from a ‘frontier land’ into a growing and thriving state.
O. B. Padgett at the age of 26 served as Chief of Police for the city of Stuart on the east coast of Florida in the mid-1920s. It was a time Prohibition and bootleggers were trying to overrun the area by bring in illegal liquor. It was also the period when the East Coast of Florida had the villainous outlaws known as the Ashley Gang terrorizing communities all along the coast with their bank robberies, shootings, stealing cars, killings and illegal activities. Chief Padgett would evidently be part of the seven man posse to help take down the Ashley Gang on November 1, 1924 at the south entrance onto the Sebastian Bridge.
Padgett later had his own personal conflicts with the law for which he felt he “was arrested, tried on circumstantial evidence and found guilty.” He maintained his “suspicion that he had political enemies who sought only to harm a man’s reputation through methods behind one’s back.” He knew he had such enemies; individuals that Chief Padgett refused to co-operate with or allow to run outside the law just to make some illegal money.
In his final years of the mid-1970s, Padgett wrote his recollections of the events in Stuart and of the notorious Ashley Gang. As he wrote, “I am going to tell it like it was - word for word - as I saw it and know it to be a fact. I never have made a statement.” He goes on to write, “So, all I can do is just ‘tell it like it was’ as it happened and of my experience in the case; the way I came to know the Ashleys and the Mobleys and by whom I came to know them, both before and after I became Chief of Police in Stuart and Deputy Sheriff of Palm Beach County.”
His complete writings are included along with the research conducted by the author, Alice L. Luckhardt of Stuart.
O. B. Padgett at the age of 26 served as Chief of Police for the city of Stuart on the east coast of Florida in the mid-1920s. It was a time Prohibition and bootleggers were trying to overrun the area by bring in illegal liquor. It was also the period when the East Coast of Florida had the villainous outlaws known as the Ashley Gang terrorizing communities all along the coast with their bank robberies, shootings, stealing cars, killings and illegal activities. Chief Padgett would evidently be part of the seven man posse to help take down the Ashley Gang on November 1, 1924 at the south entrance onto the Sebastian Bridge.
Padgett later had his own personal conflicts with the law for which he felt he “was arrested, tried on circumstantial evidence and found guilty.” He maintained his “suspicion that he had political enemies who sought only to harm a man’s reputation through methods behind one’s back.” He knew he had such enemies; individuals that Chief Padgett refused to co-operate with or allow to run outside the law just to make some illegal money.
In his final years of the mid-1970s, Padgett wrote his recollections of the events in Stuart and of the notorious Ashley Gang. As he wrote, “I am going to tell it like it was - word for word - as I saw it and know it to be a fact. I never have made a statement.” He goes on to write, “So, all I can do is just ‘tell it like it was’ as it happened and of my experience in the case; the way I came to know the Ashleys and the Mobleys and by whom I came to know them, both before and after I became Chief of Police in Stuart and Deputy Sheriff of Palm Beach County.”
His complete writings are included along with the research conducted by the author, Alice L. Luckhardt of Stuart.
- GenresCrime
78 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 6, 2009
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 20, 2018
This slim volume (only 68 pages) is the story of Oren Benton Padgett who was most notably the police chief of Stuart, Florida during the latter days of the notorious Ashley Gang and was present when the gang was shot under controversial circumstances.
The book is half Padgett's previously unpublished memoir from the 1970s and half a short biography of Padgett's life, using genealogical research and other sources to give a more complete story.
The writing is decent in both halves and Padgett is an important primary source for the Ashley Gang, albeit written 50 years after the events. There is some overlap and it might have been better reading to intersperse the memoir between the additional story to avoid redundancy.
The biggest strike against this book is it feels to small to really stand on its own. It probably would have been better as the backbone of a new book on the Ashley Gang, or as part of an anthology of previously unpublished Stuart memoirs. I'm reminded of another slim volume I read recently, Robert Ranson's East Coast Florida Memoirs - a decent nonfiction story and a very useful source, but very short.
Moderate recommendation to those interested in Florida history or crime.
The book is half Padgett's previously unpublished memoir from the 1970s and half a short biography of Padgett's life, using genealogical research and other sources to give a more complete story.
The writing is decent in both halves and Padgett is an important primary source for the Ashley Gang, albeit written 50 years after the events. There is some overlap and it might have been better reading to intersperse the memoir between the additional story to avoid redundancy.
The biggest strike against this book is it feels to small to really stand on its own. It probably would have been better as the backbone of a new book on the Ashley Gang, or as part of an anthology of previously unpublished Stuart memoirs. I'm reminded of another slim volume I read recently, Robert Ranson's East Coast Florida Memoirs - a decent nonfiction story and a very useful source, but very short.
Moderate recommendation to those interested in Florida history or crime.
Displaying 1 of 1 review