The Day the Ashley gang robbed the Pompano bank I sat on the front porch of former St. Lucie County Sheriff J.R. Merritt, who was a close friend of my Dad, in the small community of White City, located six miles South of Ft. Pierce. On more than one occasion, I listened to the big broad-shouldered man with the wide-brimmed hat tell me the story of how he and five other law-men captured and killed the last remaining members of the notorious "Ashley Gang" at the Sebastian Inlet Bridge in November 1924. They had robbed, plundered, and killed for years in southern and Central Florida. At the intersection of U.S. Highway 1, and White City road, the Merritt home still stands. It's the two story frame house on the north side of White City road. The family business, Merritt Monument Co., fronts on U.S.1, in White City. John Ashley was known as the "Swamp Bandit". His father, the only good one of the Ashley clan, lived in Pompano, and was a Deputy Sheriff in Palm Beach County when Pompano was a part of Palm Beach County. The Ashley gang began their reign of lawlessness sometime around 1911, when the work on the building of the Florida East Coast Railroad ended. John Ashley killed a Seminole Indian named De Soto Tiger, stole his furs and sold them in Miami. This was the beginning of the Ashley Legacy which was to end at the Sebastian inlet bridge in 1924. John Ashley and his gang, in the thirteen or so years they operated, robbed many banks and businesses, including trains and post offices. Nothing was below stealing, with one exception: they would not rob women. They robbed the bank of Stuart twice. I suppose it was because it was close to their family home in Gomez, a whistle stop alongside the railroad north of Jupiter. The Bank of Pompano, located at the corner of N.E. 1st Street and N.E. 1st Avenue opened for business as usual on a blustery September day in 1924. Cashier C.H. Cates and teller T.H. Myers had an uneventful day as usual until just before closing time. They had no way of knowing that earlier in the day in West Palm Beach, John Ashley and his gang had engaged a taxicab. When they got to Deerfield, they tied the cab driver, Wesley Powell, to a tree, took his cab, and told him they were on their way to Pompano to rob the bank. The told Powell to take a good look at them so he could tell the Palm Beach County Sheriff, Bob Baker, who they were and dare him to come after them. No other customers were in the bank when Cates and Myers looked up into the muzzles of pistols held by gang members Shorty Lynn and Clearance Middleton. In the doorway stood John Ashley himself, holding a rifle and telling the two men to turn around, face the wall and raise their hands as they would not be long. The Gang scooped up $5,000.00 in cash and $18,000 in securities, dumped it in a bed sheet, tied it up and went out the door. They got into their hi-jacked taxi, but not before handing Cates a rifle bullet and told him to tell Sheriff Baker he had one just like it waiting for him if he came after them. John Ashley leaned out of the cab as it crossed the railroad tracks at Flagler and 1st Street onto Dixie Highway. He held up the bed sheet with the money in it, waved it at E.E. "Gene" Hardy who owned the garage on that corner and who knew the Ashleys, and yelled "We got it all Gene". A car load of Pompano residents, names unknown, gave chase, but there is no record of them catching up to the gang. From the record the Ashleys had, it was probably fortunate they didn't. The Ashleys went into the swamps near Clewiston where they had a shoot-out with Deputies and several people were killed. The robbing of the Bank of Pompano was the beginning of the end for the Ashley Gang, as the people of Florida had just about had enough of them. One of the gang's girl friend turned against them and informed the Sheriff that the gang would be heading north on a certain day. She said they were planning on leaving the state and that they were hiding in Ft. Pierce. Sheriff Merritt was notified. The gang would have to leave by way of the Sebastian Inlet bridge, so Sheriff Merritt and five deputies headed up and set up a road block at the Inlet. After dark they put a chain across the bridge and used a red lantern to stop all traffic. They had to fight off mosquitoes and wait. Around 11 p.m., a big black touring car approached the roadblock. When the car stopped, no one emerged, so Merritt shouted out "Alright, Ashley, don't move, don't reach for your gun and don't say a word. Get out with your hands up!" These orders were followed, and while the deputies held the gang at gun point, Sheriff Merritt returned to his car for handcuffs. When he had them in hand, he closed the door to his car. Just then shooting broke out on the bridge, and when the shooting was over, John Ashley, his cousin Handford Mobley, Shorty Lynn, and Clearance Middleton lay dead on the bridge. The Deputies said later at the inquest that John Ashley pulled a pistol out of his coat and started shooting. This was the end of the Ashley Gang as all the Ashleys except one had been killed over the years. And this was the story I remember Sheriff Merritt telling me many years ago on his front porch. Read Bud Garner every week in The SENTRY Click here to subscribe