Ed Davis (July 30, 1900 – December 16, 1938) was an American burglar, bank robber and Depression-era outlaw. He was particularly active in

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

, referred to by authorities as "The Fox", and frequently teamed with

Jim Clark James Clark Jr. OBE (4 March 1936 – 7 April 1968) was a British Formula One racing driver from Scotland, who won two World Championships, in 1963 and 1965. A versatile driver, he competed in sports cars, touring cars and in the Indianapol ...

and Frank Sawyer during the early 1930s. Eventually captured in 1934, he was involved in a failed escape attempt from

Folsom State Prison Folsom State Prison (FSP) is a California State Prison in Folsom, California, U.S., approximately northeast of the state capital of Sacramento. It is one of 34 adult institutions operated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabi ...

, resulting in the deaths of one guard and two inmates, and was executed at

San Quentin San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County. Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the o ...

.Newton, Michael. ''The Encyclopedia of Robberies, Heists, and Capers''. New York: Facts On File Inc., 2002. (pg. 76-77)

Biography

Early life and criminal career

Ed Davis was born in Waurika,

on July 30, 1900. He enlisted in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

at the age of 17 but was prematurely discharged for undisclosed reasons on January 2, 1918. He spent the next year drifting then returned to his hometown where he started committing minor robberies with Oscar Steelman and Earl Berry. He was eventually arrested for one of these robberies and sentenced to two years in the

Oklahoma State Reformatory The Oklahoma State Reformatory is a medium-security facility with some maximum and minimum-security housing for adult male inmates. Located off of State Highway 9 in Granite, Oklahoma, the facility has a maximum capacity of 1042 inmates. The med ...

. Released in the summer of 1920, he took a

freight train Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) haul ...

heading east and continued

riding the rails ''Riding the Rails'' is a 1938 Fleischer Studios animated short film featuring Betty Boop and Pudgy the Pup. Although some sources claim that this film was nominated for an Academy Award, it does not appear in the official Academy Awards database ...

until his arrest in Hutchinson,

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

for train riding and carrying a concealed weapon. The charges were dropped on the condition that Davis leave town which he did after purchasing a train ticket on a

box car A boxcar is the North American (AAR) term for a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is considered one of the most versatile since it can carry most loa ...

. His next brush with the law occurred on January 23, 1923, when he and Bill Sheppard burglarized the home of oil tycoon Joe McDonald stealing $50 in cash and $2,425 in jewelry. Davis and Sheppard then hiked five miles north to their Agawam hideout however police were easily able to follow their tracks through the fresh snow and arrested them hours later. Both men pleaded guilty to robbery charges and sentenced to 10 years each at the McAlester state prison. By the time of his parole in 1928, Davis had become more violent and would frequently resist police for the rest of his criminal career. He had also developed an

ear infection Otitis is a general term for inflammation or infection, inner ear infection, middle ear infection of the ear, in both humans and other animals. When infection is present, it may be viral or bacterial. When inflammation is present due to fluid buil ...

which left him in almost persistent pain.

Murder of J.R. Hill

One of his early confrontations with the police occurred in Marlow,

on April 20, 1931. He was sitting in a car with two other men, Jack Alfred and John Schrimsher, when night police chief Ike Veach and officer J.R. Hill saw them on a routine patrol and decided to approach the car. All three men were heavily armed and one of them fired a shotgun which shattered the windshield and killed Hill instantly. Sheriff Veach was also badly wounded from buckshot but returned fire managing to disable their car and wounding Alfred before they escaped. All three men were caught after a brief manhunt. Alfred was the first to be arrested and was sent to a hospital in Duncan,

where he awaited trial. Schrimsher surrendered to authorities near

Henderson Henderson may refer to: People *Henderson (surname), description of the surname, and a list of people with the surname *Clan Henderson, a Scottish clan Places Argentina *Henderson, Buenos Aires Australia *Henderson, Western Australia Canada * H ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

on October 24 while Davis was found in an

East Texas East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that comprises most of 41 counties. It is primarily divided into Northeast and Southeast Texas. Most of the region consi ...

oil field A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presence ...

the next day and taken into custody.Owens, Ron. ''Oklahoma Heroes: The Oklahoma Peace Officers Memorial''. Paducah, Kentucky: Turner Publishing Company, 2000. (pg. 236) At the time of his capture, he was renting a house with his wife under the name Paul Martin in Joinerville. Davis and his accomplices were tried and convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment on August 3, 1931.

Escape from McAlester

After nine months in prison, Davis escaped the McAlester state penitentiary with Robert Smith and Edmond Hardin on May 26, 1932. Hardin was quickly recaptured while still on foot but Davis and Smith were able to escape by stealing a car. Davis then attempted to try his hand at bank robbery and joined veteran outlaws

and Frank Sawyer. The gang's time was short-lived however. On June 17, the three were arrested by police near Black Rock,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

. In addition to driving a stolen car, they were also charged with a bank robbery carried out hours before in Fort Scott,

. The robbery was actually committed by the

Barker Gang Kate Barker (born Arizona Donnie Clark; October 8, 1873 – January 16, 1935), better known as Ma Barker (and sometimes known as Arizona Barker and Arrie Barker), was the mother of several American criminals who ran the Barker–Karpis Gang ...

, however Davis and his partners were wrongly convicted on the robbery and given long jail terms.

Time with the Bailey-Underhill Gang

Davis escaped from prison once again, this time taking part in a mass escape from the Kansas state prison in

Lansing Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, makin ...

on May 30, 1933. He was one of twelve convicts including

Harvey Bailey Harvey John Bailey (August 23, 1887 – March 1, 1979), called "The Dean of American Bank Robbers", was an American criminal who spanned a long career and was one of the most successful bank robbers during the 1920s, walking off with over $1 mill ...

, Robert "Big Bob" Brady, Wilbur Underhill, Jim Clark and seven others. He briefly joined Bailey-Underhill gang in two major robberies, first as the

getaway driver A crime scene getaway is the act of fleeing the location where one has broken the law. It is an act that the offender(s) may or may not have planned in detail, resulting in a variety of outcomes. A :crime scene is the "location of a crime; e ...

in Black Rock on June 16 and in

Kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

on August 9, Davis later being identified with Clark and Bailey from prison mugshots. Bailey was arrested at a ranch by federal agents two days later, the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

then looking for

George "Machine Gun" Kelly Machine Gun Kelly most often refers to: * Machine Gun Kelly (gangster) (1900–1954), American gangster. * Machine Gun Kelly (musician) (born 1990), American rapper. Machine Gun Kelly may also refer to: * ''Machine-Gun Kelly'' (film), 1958 film a ...

, and was wrongly charged as an accessory to the Charles Urchel kidnapping case. With Bailey in jail, the Bailey-Underhill gang broke up and Davis decided to strike out alone. He began a one man crime spree raiding countless banks in central Texas with such success that police began referring to him as "The Fox". By late-September 1933, Davis decided he had gained enough money to retire and moved with his wife to California. He was also considering surgical removal of various

prison tattoos Prison tattooing is the practice of creating and displaying tattoos in a prison environment. Present-day American and Russian prisoners may convey gang membership, code, or hidden meanings for origin or criminal deeds. Lack of proper equipment ...

Capture, imprisonment and death

However, Governor

Alf Landon Alfred Mossman Landon (September 9, 1887October 12, 1987) was an American oilman and politician who served as the 26th governor of Kansas from 1933 to 1937. A member of the Republican Party, he was the party's nominee in the 1936 presidential ...

had ordered the Kansas state police to "spare no effort" in hunting down the escapees from Lansing prison. Within two months, only Davis and Wilbur Underhill remained at large. Underhill was gunned down by Oklahoma police on December 30, 1933, while Davis was captured months later. Running out of money while living in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, he robbed a store and then kidnapped its owner J.J. Ball. He was quickly arrested and tried on a series of charges including three counts of first-degree burglary, six counts of robbery and two counts of kidnapping. A second version claims he was captured by police in an apartment-house raid in March 1934. Davis was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in

on June 22, 1934. Kansas authorities declared they would prosecute Davis to finish his prison sentence in Lansing if he ever received parole. While serving his time in Folsom, he became known among the inmates as "Old Deafy". Davis eventually tried to escape after three years inside when, on September 19, 1937, he and six other convicts took the warden and two guards hostage. They held them at knifepoint and attempted to use them to leave the prison but guards opened fire instead. The warden and two prisoners were killed before Davis and the surviving convicts surrendered. All five inmates were convicted of murder, including Davis, and sentenced to death. Davis was sent to

where he remained on

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...

for a week before his execution in the

gas chamber A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. Histor ...

on December 16, 1938. A note was found in his cell following his execution which read ''"No regrets for Old Ed. All considered, my conscience is now resting easy"''.