The Lawless
countless telegrams Merritt received. Today, those telegrams are laminated
for posterity in a scrapbook kept by J.R.’s grandson, Edwin
“Hap” Merritt, 69, at his Fort Pierce real estate office.
A photo of J.R. Merritt hangs on the wall of the office, north of
Midway Road on U.S. 1 on the same property his grandfather had his
homestead and Hap later ran a monument business. Underneath the
photo hangs the Winchester 25/35 rifle that J.R. took from John
Ashley the night of the shootings.
Hap Merritt, who lived with the sheriff until the age of 11, won’t
speculate on the legal evidence available. But knowing his grandfather
and the concerns he had for the safety of his family if the Ashley
Gang members survived, he believes his grandfather and posse of
lawmen had no intention of bringing the gang members back alive.
“The Ashley Gang were murderers, bank robbers, and smugglers
with a long history of jailbreaks and killing law enforcement officers,”
he says. “No way my granddad was going to put them in the
little Fort Pierce jail.”
HISTORY OF CRIMINALITY
The Ashley Gang’s history of criminality on what is now known as
the Treasure Coast began shortly after the arrival of Joe Ashley and
his wife and nine children in 1904 from Fort Myers.
Though patriarch Joe started out working for the railroad, the family
soon developed a reputation for bootlegging. But it wasn’t until
1911 that the family was thrust in the headlines. That’s when John
Ashley was accused in the shooting death of DeSoto Tiger, a
Seminole Indian, over $1,200 in hides. John Ashley fled the state, taking
jobs in New Orleans and then Washington state before returning
homesick to Florida to face a murder charge in 1914.
His first trial resulted in a hung jury. A jailbreak before a second
trial then fanned the family’s flames of infamy. While on the lam,
John and his gang attempted a train robbery that was botched
when an alert porter locked them out of the car doors. Two
weeks later they held up the Bank of Stuart . This time, the
robbery was successful, with a take of $4,500, though John lost
an eye when confederate Kid Lowe shot him in the jaw, either
by accident or perhaps angered over what he considered a
paltry take.
The shooting required John to receive medical attention,
which led to his subsequent arrest. John, whose
eye was replaced with a glass ball and began wearing
a patch, was tried again in the killing of
DeSoto Tiger. He was found guilty and sentenced
to death by hanging.
While John was being held in the Miami jail his
brother Bob went to an off-duty jailer’s home to
steal a key but in the process ended up killing the
jailer. A wild shootout followed between Bob
Ashley and Miami Police Officer John Reinhart
Riblet, putting an end to this botched jailbreak
and leaving both Riblet and Bob Ashley dead
from gun shot wounds.
LIVING HISTORY
John Ashley was the leader of
the Ashley Gang, whose members
Ray "Shorty' Lynn had served in
the Army before going AWOL,
hiding out in the Everglades
and joining the Ashley Gang.
16
The Law
repeatedly escaped custody
for various crimes, including
killings, train and bank robberies
and rum-running.
Handford Mobley was John
Ashley's nephew. Mobley
dressed as a woman while robbing
the Bank of Stuart in
1924. He was just 19 when he
was killed.
Clarence Midldleton sometimes
led the gang while John
was in prison.
J.R. Merritt, sheriff of St. Lucie
County, led the posse that
captured and killed the
Ashley Gang. For years the
question raged: Was the
killing of the Ashley Gang
done in self-defense or was it
a form of frontier justice?
Bob Baker, sheriff of Palm
Beach County, had a longrunning
feud with the Ashley
Gang that escalated when his
cousin was shot and killed
during a raid on the Gang.
Roy 'Young Matthews'' sometimes
served as leader during
John's prison stints. He was not
in the car the night the gang
was shot.
This
badge
belonged to
Sheriff J.R. Merritt,
who confiscated this
Winchester rifle 25/35 from
John Ashley the night of the
Sebastian Bridge shootings.