To begin with I
did my investigation on Charles Frank Floyd who was born in 1892 and passed
away in the year of 1944. The reason this person caught my mind is simply
because of his last name and I wanted to go deeper into his case. Charles was
charged with the crime of rape. Going into this investigation I was not as sure
on how I would find what I was looking for, but I wanted to figure out if I
could connect the dots on who this person raped. Also, since it was during that
time if it really was rape or maybe if this person might have gotten accused of
doing this crime. Then, I hoped to find out more in depth about the last name
he had and see if it had any type of connection with mine.
Now I started my
research by using the family tree tool and searching his name up just to see
how I wanted to dig in to what I could possibly find. Looking his name up I
found out that he was married to Ethel M. Odle, who was born in Kansas and
Charles happened to be from Missouri. The two got married in 1913, which
confused me a tad bit because his case for the rape crime he commuted was filed
in 1917. This means Charles was sneaking around with someone else while still
with Ethel his wife. Continuing my research, I also came across the same year
in 1917 Charles was registered for the draft that year. Going back to his wife
it shows that her and Charles had a child named Cyril Wayne Floyd, that
happened to be born in 1914 just three years before the crime. Then I decide to
look at the census in the year 1920 to see if anything g has changed in their
household. Now this is their house in Idaho at the time and it shows that two
men William Pyror
and Harold Jeffries are living with them as well, but they have not relation
with them. This is when I was wondering what is going on because Charles and
Ethel are supposed to have a son that was born in 1914 Cyril, but in their
house, it shows that this child is not even living with them. What it shows it
that they have a daughter named Sarah Floyd and another son named Harold Floyd
and the daughter is 5 years old at the time and the son is 2 years of age. This means that the
daughter was born in 1915 and the son just in 1918 just right after he got
filed for rape. Looking deeper into Sarah and Harold to try and figure out why those
two are in the household with their parents, but not Cyril I come across
another child of theirs Wayne Floyd. This young man was born around 1923 in
Idaho like the rest. This made me start to question are his kids passing away
or getting sick why they are not altogether. I then see that in the 1930 census
of their house Cyril who is now 15 is currently staying with them. That is not
all I came across I also see that they have another child Albert and Lloyd
Floyd, but this time their daughter Sarah is no where to be seen in the
household with them. I am wondering how these young kids are going in and out
of their parent’s house like what is happening to them and why are they not
together. Also, in his case on his file it only says that Charles has two sons
at the time, which probably were Cyril and Harold. It did not make sense to me
though because Sarah their daughter was born in 1915 but was not even listed as
his child and is clearly in their household in the year 1920. I go on to look
further into her name and see if I can find information on her, but nothing
seems to come up. All his other children have some type of information about
them besides their date of birth. As I’m looking into information about her it
also shows that the data on the record that was filed back then happens to be
incorrect. The person that is supposed to be in replace of Sarah is his son
Cyril Wayne who was born in 1914. I come across his parents James W Floyd and
Mary Elizabeth and the two had ten children in
16
years so Charles
has tons of siblings. Then I look more into Charles file in 1917 on when he
committed his crime and I started to believe he got off the hook and didn’t
have to serve anytime. His sentence was supposed to be from the minimum of 5
years to the max of 15 years and if he got sentenced in 1917 of September the
earliest he could have been let out was the year 1922. Also, because if he
happened to go to jail in the year of 1917 there is no way possible that he is
able to have a son in the year of 1921. His son Albert Lee was born in
February. I believe he truly did not serve time because again in his federal
census of 1920 it shows he is good and well in a household with his family just
three years after he was sentenced. Another thing is he did happen to do all of
this as he was registering for the draft in 1917. Maybe he knocked up one of
the people out there and got sent back home and let right off the hook. Just
because the people filed his case there is no actual evidence of proof that
this man Charles actually did serve time for the rape charge because if he did
he wouldn’t be living with his wife and family just a couple years after.
My overall goal
of this research was to find out who Charles raped and to see if he served any
time for it. Also, another reason was to get some type of information on the
generation of his last name. The research and the document I started off with
was confusing at times because this person and his family go by many different
names. As you can tell from earlier they had a daughter listed as living with
them and turns out she was not even supposed to be there in the documentation.
My conclusion for saying that I believe Charles never served anytime seems to
go well with the time period and what was going on in that time how most of the
times the white man may get “caught” yes, but that does not mean they will
actually serve time for it. Everyone in history wants justice and really to
think that a man could just rape possibly a random woman and just go back
around and spend time with his family and raise kids on his own is terrible
about the world.
Lastly, you would think that the military and the government would hold their
troops to a much higher standard if they commit some type of crime representing
the country they serve; however people slip things under the rug way too much
in our world.
