Bonnie and Clyde were small timers in comparison.
People loved him, and he took down some of the most powerful Klansmen in America. He was not exactly the type of Folk Hero that they wanted inspiring people at time.
Introduction : When you think of the word “Hero” the idea of a Pirate, or a Moonshiner is not exactly the first thing that pops into your mind, am I right? The story you are about to read will probably do more than change your mind about that, it might just inspire you. He started out humble, and unassuming, he was literally a just a small time construction worker doing labor for his father's construction company and living in a shack. After his family was attacked by the local Sheriff, he quickly became one of the wealthiest, and most influential figures of his time, and he did it all out of revenge for the political murder of his father..
Chapter 1 : Building “Them” Homes
Their construction company was growing. John and his brother were going to keep growing their dad's business, they already had a good reputation in town. Their names had begun to become respected amongst the people, and to John that felt great. He knew better than anyone what it felt like to be poor as a kid, but as he became a young man he got to see his father's hard work paying off. When he and his brother pitched in and started working, the company really began to take off. Things went great for them for a few years. They had eventually gotten to the point where the single, all family, work crew they were running needed to grow even more so they hired on a few more workers. After the new guys had been working with them for a while, they would start to help them by building a few homes.
It was the kind act of helping his workers build their homes that actually started a war with the local Sheriff. You see, some of the workers were black folks, and when the sheriff found out he let them know exactly how he felt about it. He came through one day to let John’s dad know that he was aware that he had been creating permanent homes for colored folks in his county, and he wanted it to stop now. So, because of this John’s father decided to do something brave. He didn't like being threatened by the racist Sheriff. So to send him a message that he understood, John’s dad built 8 more homes, and a church for the hard working guys on his crew. This is when the Sheriff stepped way outside of the law, and decided to get his point across in a different way, with cold blooded murder.
He had just about enough of the Ashley family, and their sympathetic antics. This wasn't going to continue in Palm Beach, not in his watch. His donors and supporters were powerful local business men, the sheriff knew that if he didn't make them happy, he was not going to be reelected. One night he gathered up a few guys and decided to burn down a few of those new houses, but they did it with the residents still sleeping inside of them. Then he also had them burn down the church, just in case them burning a few families alive wasn't a strong enough message. They heard him loud and clear, but the response that the Sheriff got, was not the one that he expected.
The Ashley family needed more money if they were going to start a war with the corrupt sheriff. This is when they branched out into the highly profitable moonshining business. That may have been enough for the Ashley's funding a few small battles, at first. John knew that the Sheriff was being financially backed by several of the local business owners. They couldn't exactly take the taxpayer funds to use against the Ashley's. So John figured he could use that to his advantage and decided to knock out two birds with one stone. He started robbing all of the banks that these guys kept their money in. This caused the sheriff's backers some huge losses, and made them take another bold step.
They were going to try to steal their money back.
Chapter 2: The Game Changes.
Being involved in Boot legging, Robbing Banks, and Piracy, but doing it all just to steal power from the KKK was not how John Ashley wanted to live his life. At the moment it appeared that the corrupt Sheriff left him no choice.
Stay Tuned…
This Is a Sample of A Very Large Future Project That I am Working On. The Ashley Gang had a lot of History on the Treasure Coast of Florida, and inland toward Okeechobee, and Palm City.
John Ashley was a Real Robin Hood in a more modern day, he battled a Tyrannical figure that was also a Sheriff, and the money he stole was primarily from Klan affiliated banks. The money he gained from banks was a minor fraction of the fortune he had. That was mostly made from profit made Moonshining, and eventually Piracy.
There is still approx. $100,000,000.⁰⁰ in Gold and Silver coins missing throughout the area, allegedly buried. Only a handful of coins have ever been found because people are clearly looking in all the wrong places.
Is this a made up story