A collection of documents relating to the appeal and pardon of Bonnie and Clyde gang member Floyd Hamilton.
First document, signed by Lyndon B. Johnson’s Attorney General Ramsey Clark, one page, 9 x 13.5, and reads, in part: “Be it known, that Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, in consideration of the premises, divers and other good and sufficient reasons, has granted unto the said Floyd Garland Hamilton a full and unconditional pardon.” Signed at the conclusion by Clark and retaining its crisp original red Department of Justice seal.
A second pardon is also included in the group, issued by the Governor of Texas John Connally, one onionskin page, 8.5 x 14, dated April 4, 1967. Pardon reads, in part: “Floyd Hamilton, No. 1413473018…was convicted in the District Court of Dallas County, Texas, on October 1, 1938, and was sentenced to twenty-five (25) years in the Texas Department of Corrections for the offense of Robbery by Assault. Subject was granted a parole to Dallas County on July 1, 1958. He has been represented as being worthy of being restored full civil rights…the Board of Pardons and Paroles…do hereby grant unto the said Floyd Hamilton a full pardon and restoration of full civil rights of citizenship.” Signed at the conclusion by Connally, and the document retains its gold foil seal.
Remainder of the collection consists of copies of Hamilton's appeals in which he contests his consecutive sentences, each bearing his initials "FGH" on the bottom margin of the first page of each document, with one document still clipped in its original legal folder. In overall very good condition, with paper loss to the bottom of Connally’s document.
A member of the Barrow gang, arrested for bank robbery and harboring a fugitive while his brother Raymond was on the run with the famous outlaws, Floyd Hamilton continued his life of crime well after the ambush that ended Bonnie and Clyde’s spree. Convicted of a series of offences, ranging from armed bank robberies to transporting stolen automobiles across state lines to numerous assaults, Hamilton was proclaimed Public Enemy #1 by J. Edgar Hoover in 1938. Captured shortly after with fellow gang member Ted Walters, he began one of several 30–year sentences, ordered to be served consecutively. After twenty years in state and federal prisons—including a period at Alcatraz, from which he unsuccessfully attempted to escape in 1943—he was finally paroled in 1958. For his extensive work with ex-convicts and the International Prison Ministry, he received pardons from Texas Governor John Connelly and President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967 and 1966, respectively. An excellent archive of material related to one of the most notorious gangs in American history. RR Auction COA.
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