LIVING HISTORY
urday. It was a beautiful morning; the sun was shining and it was
warm; the birds were singing and everything was just beautiful. I
walked by a grocery store where George F. Mario brother-in-law of
John Ashley had just walked out and was putting some supplies in
his car. I stopped and spoke to George and we started talking and
passing the time of day. I asked him if he had anything new at all,
he looked all around and saw that there was nobody nearby to hear
what he said. He said, “Yes, they are leaving tonight and they are
going to California. They are going as far as Jacksonville tonight
and will lay up there tomorrow at John Ashley’s sister, Daisy’s,
house and they will continue traveling at night until they get to
California. They will be traveling in this automobile that I am putting
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these supplies in. They’re going to leave later today and there
will be four of them.”
Continuing, Padgett wrote:
I thought the situation over very carefully, pondered it in my
mind a little bit, went on down to my office, sat around and talked a
while to some of the boys. Then I went out and rode around a little,
trying to figure out just what to do, if anything. I decided to call
Sheriff Bob Baker of Palm Beach County, of which Stuart was a part
of that time. For fear that somebody might overhear me talking on
the telephone in my office, I went to my home and called Bob Baker
on my private telephone. And in talking to him, I did not want to
give the name of my informer — I did not want to tell him of the information
and how I got it. One of his first reactions was, “Padgett,
you better watch this kind of information — if they can get you out
of town this afternoon, they’ll rob that bank again.” It was then that
I assured him that my information was correct.
Chief Padgett had known Mario for years and trusted him.
Did surviving Ashley family members learn that he was the
informant? Mario was with the last remaining Ashley brother,
SANDRA MARIO PROVENCE COLLECTION
Hanford Mobley, left, and George F. Mario, brother-in-law of John Ashley,
were members of the Ashley Gang. Mobley was killed, along with
Ashley, Ray Linn and Clarence Middleton, during a sheriff’s ambush on
>> a bridge over the St. Sebastian River near Roseland.
Ashley, Lynn and Mobley were buried in the Little Ashley Cemetery, where the Ashley family home once stood, now part of Mariner Sands.