Youngblood
Facing murder charges, on March 3rd the outlaw decided to assist Dillinger in the public enemy's "wooden gun" escape from the Crown Point jail, first controlling hostages with the thick handle of a toilet plunger, then after weapons are confiscated, with the menace of a fully loaded Thompson sub-machine gun. Escape successful, at a streetcar stop in Chicago on Western Avenue, Dillinger gives Youngblood $100, thanks him for his help, and the two men say goodbye and part ways ... for Dillinger, it will be back to bank robberies, shootouts with authorities, and lots of headline news. Youngblood however has only a couple of weeks left to live.
Dillinger with a real and a fake weapon
Making his way northeast from Chicago, Youngblood hides within the colored community that has established itself in Port Huron to work in the foundries on the south side of town. Called the "Gateway to Canada" and located at the south end of Lake Huron, the town is the perfect spot for an outlaw that might need to cross the border at a moment's notice. Sadly though for Younblood, he doesn't hide well at all and won't have even a second for fleeing when he is finally discovered. Finding a need to boast about helping Dillinger escape, during his few days and nights in Port Huron the outlaw drinks wildly, flashes a large bankroll about, and tells one and all in the colored saloons about town that without him the public enemy would still be behind bars. It is a formula made for disaster.
Port Huron Postcard
And disaster indeed does strike on the 16th when an intoxicated Youngblood makes a nuisance of himself in a small grocery store belonging to Mrs. Pearl Abraham. Knocking over products and displays as he stumbles about and declares himself a "badman," the outlaw's foolery in refusing to pay for a pack of cigarettes eventually results in the owner's son calling the police. Three officers, Sheriff William L. Van Antwerp, Deputy Sheriff Charles Cavanaugh, and Deputy Howard Lohr, soon arrive to find out about the disturbance and put an end to it. Removing a .38 automatic from the belligerent drunk he finds in the store (given to the outlaw by Dillinger during their escape from Crown Point), Cavanaugh corrals Youngblood and the lawmen relax slightly, thinking the arrest will be a routine one. Youngblood has other ideas though, and now fancying himself a bad-ass like his Crown Point buddy, instead of submitting to custody he pulls a concealed 10-shot .32 Savage automatic out of an unchecked pants pocket, and despite the odds against him, begins blasting away.
.32 Savage
In the slugfest which follows as all four men unload their weapons, Cavanaugh receives mortal wounds from hits to both of his lungs, Van Antwerp and Lohr take damage to their chests (both men will recover), Eugene Fields, the son of the store's owner, gets a flesh wound in his shoulder, and Youngblood is struck ten times. Taken to the emergency room of the nearest hospital, Youngblood passes away four hours later, but lingers on long enough to do Dillinger one last favor by lying to authorities, telling questioning lawmen that he left the public enemy just the day before as the desperado was about to leave the United States and enter Canada (Dillinger however is in Mason City robbing its bank, and by nightfall will be back in his hiding place in St. Paul, Minnesota). Over and out, Youngblood is only twenty-nine-years-old when he makes his bullet holed exit.
Cavanaugh
Forty-seven-year-old Cavanaugh, a twenty-two-year veteran of the police force, leaves behind a wife and a child.
wow thata fucked
ReplyDeleteThat was really CrAzY!;)
ReplyDeletehaha u finnaly seennnn my story huh well almy god ddamn ill see u tonight boy!
ReplyDeleteAny idea where Youngblood is buried?
ReplyDeleteYou mean middle-aged old girl?
DeleteYeah, Youngblood drank and talked too much. He had an opportunity to get into Canada but got foolish by not paying for cigarettes.l imagine racism kept him out of the gang of white outlaws.Nevertheless, all of them had a crucial end.
ReplyDeleteHe fought bravely and killed one pig before himself being fatally wounded, and misdirected the police about the whereabouts of Dillinger. A very brave man!
DeleteI think you're the pig.
DeleteMy grandmother Anna Mae Jacobs living on Cedarstreet in port Huron Michigan heard noises coming from the basement late one night when she investigated the noises found Herbert Youngblood and my grandfather David Jacobs drinking in the basement my grandmother then took a broom and repeatedly started to hit Herbert Youngblood with the broom while chasing him out of the house it was shortly after that Youngblood was gunned down in a small convenience store located in the South part of Port Huron
ReplyDeleteWell, at least he got a more noble (if racialist stereotyped) ending in the film "Dillinger" by John MIlius, ironically the same actor plays a professor in the film "Red Dawn" and is symbolically killed by the enemy in deference to the real life hero Crispus Attucks who was shot down by redcoats in the infamous "Boston Massacre", first to die in a war and country that did not consider the Black as a full-Human, as did thousands of Blacks who fought for American liberation, but were still treated shabilly after that war, into the 19th century and it continues even today despite all the blood spilled by the ancestors...
ReplyDeleteMy God, get over it and get on with living a successful life! Millions of people of all colors come from something happening to them, their families or their people and don't use it as an excuuse 24/7.
DeleteEasy for u to Say✊
DeleteWhat happened to you as a result of your race?
DeleteMy grandfather was a federal man in Detroit at the time said he was involved in the investigation i the killing. His opinion was that Dillinger was as outside shooting into the building. More shots fired than guns present. Talked to a gas station employee
DeleteIn Goodles the next day who said a man matching Dillinger's description had stopped for gas heading west toward Flint.
He fought bravely and killed one pig before himself being fatally wounded, and misdirected the police about the whereabouts of Dillinger. A very brave man!
ReplyDeleteDon't take your gun to town son, don't do it!!
ReplyDeleteSeems like Herbert wanted badly to run with the Dillinger crowd and be taken on short violent ride to the end but I am sure that wasn't going to happen in those circles of gangsters. Just like Larry Devol being a loud mouth reckless drunk did him in. Should of stayed sober and fled to Canada and came back years later when no one would have cared really about his drunk bragging and his short time with Dillinger as an old man.
ReplyDeleteThat was my G- Uncle and those are not the only stories that was told in Michigan, That not first time he helped John Dillinger escape. Why don't you tell the real truth? Maybe because he was black true fact were left out.
ReplyDeleteJustice for Tony Piazza murdered by Youngblood.
ReplyDeletetruly interesting outlaw history Herbert "Badman" Youngblood. in urban communities the term Youngblood was a common way to greet people of color.
ReplyDeleteI have always lived in a very racially diverse environment or location and in my experience... "Youngblood", is never used toward a specified color or etnicity. Round these here parts it is used as a way to describe a more likely than not naive but passionate and driven individual, either male or female. I think in this way it shows reverance and respect.
DeleteJust another sad tale of a black man being killed wen there was enough of a police presence to detain him..... and on we go to the next
ReplyDeleteDamn even back then black men getting killed over stolen cigarettes
ReplyDelete