LIVING HISTORY
36
ANOTHER ESCAPE
Meanwhile, Ashley, who
had been a model prisoner
at Raiford, was assigned
to a road gang. On Sept, 27,
1923, he escaped for a second
time by bribing a guard
and headed straight for the
Everglades. Two other gang
members, Ray Lynn and
John Clarence Middleton,
also escaped from a prison
in Marianna and later met
up with Ashley. Once
again, he was back in
control of the gang and
Laura was back with
her lover.
The hijacking of other
smugglers’ liquor
and stealing cars increased
up and down
the east coast during
the rest of 1923.
Whenever it was
necessary, the gang
slipped back into the
swamps, mangroves
and underbrush of
the Everglades for
protection.
At 6 a.m. on Jan. 9,
1924, Sheriff Bob Baker
led a raid at one of the
gang’s liquor stills 1½
miles from the Ashley
home in Fruita. Baker
and a 50-man posse
came in with guns
blazing. The major gun
battle resulted in the
death of Deputy Sheriff
Fred Baker, a cousin of
the sheriff, and Joe Ashley,
the patriarch of the
family. Laura was shot in the hip and her loud screaming distracted
the deputies, allowing Ashley to escape. Other family
members, including his sisters and his mother, were hauled off
to jail while their homes were set on fire by outraged citizens.
The sisters and mother were later released.
After treatment for her injury, Laura was arrested in connection
with the death of Fred Baker and remained in the
Palm Beach County jail. Bail was finally set at $5,000, but was
later reduced to $2,500 and she bailed out.
HIDING OUT
After a few months of hiding in the Everglades, Ashley
and Laura met up again. Over time, the gang set its sights on
rival illegal liquor operations out of the Bimini Islands in the
Bahamas. In mid-1924, the gang attacked the harbor at West
End, Grand Bahama Island, stole cash and destroyed storage
buildings and docks. Ashley was now an American privateer
damaging the property of a British crown colony. >>
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Ashley was the leader of a
gang that pulled off a number
of bank robberies in Martin
County in the early 1920s.
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