In East Liverpool, Ohio, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents shoot and kill notorious bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd.
Charles Arthur Floyd (February 3, 1904 October 22, 1934), nicknamed Pretty Boy Floyd, was an American bank robber. He operated in the West and Central states, and his criminal exploits gained widespread press coverage in the 1930s. He was seen positively by the public because it was believed that during robberies he burned mortgage documents, freeing many people from their debts. He was pursued and killed by a group of Bureau of Investigation (BOI) agents led by Melvin Purvis. Historians have speculated as to which officers were at the event, but accounts document that local officers Robert "Pete" Pyle and George Curran were present at his fatal shooting and also at his embalming. Floyd has continued to be a familiar figure in American popular culture, sometimes seen as notorious, other times portrayed as a tragic figure, even a victim of the hard times of the Great Depression in the United States.
East Liverpool is a city in southern Columbiana County, Ohio, United States. The population was 9,958 at the 2020 census. It lies along the Ohio River within the Upper Ohio Valley and borders Pennsylvania to the east and West Virginia to the south. East Liverpool is included in the Salem, OH Micropolitan Statistical Area, about 40 miles (64 km) from both Youngstown and downtown Pittsburgh.
Historically, East Liverpool was known as the "Pottery Capital" of the United States due to its large number of potteries, but due to changes in the ceramics industry, only two remain in the area. The city is also known as the hometown of former NCAA Division I football coach Lou Holtz. The Beginning Point of the U.S. Public Land Survey is just east of the city center, on the Ohio–Pennsylvania border. Because of its role in the ceramics industry, the town is one of the settings in author Holly Black's award-winning middle-grade novel Doll Bones.