SEPTEMBER SEARCH

A distracted Bob Baker begins an intensive — and unsuccessful — search for the Ashley Gang after the Bank of Pompano robbery

BY GREGORY ENNS

Palm Beach County Sheriff Bob Baker got something of a break when John Ashley and the gang robbed the Bank of Pompano on Sept. 12, 1924.

While other Ashley Gang heists such as a train robbery and two bank robberies had been committed in Palm Beach County, the Bank of Pompano robbery was committed in Broward County, a jurisdiction beyond Baker’s responsibility.

Since late December 1911 when John killed Seminole DeSoto Tiger, Baker, and his father George before him, had been ridiculed about their inability to capture and keep John Ashley and the gang in jail or to bring them fully to justice for the crimes they committed. Throughout most of these dozen years, Ashley family patriarch Joe ran one of the biggest moonshine and bootlegging operations in southeast Florida right under the nose of the Bakers.

Which begs the questions.

Why was it so difficult for the father and son to capture and keep John Ashley? Why was the Ashley moonshine operation allowed to run so long without the weight of the law bearing down on it? Until 1923, all moonshine arrests relating to the Ashleys occurred outside Palm Beach County.