Child:
Charles Edward Hovious Son of Edward E. HOVIOUS and Carrie MORE. Born in Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana, on 5 March 1901. Married (1) in Indianapolis, IN, on 11 March 1921, Margaret Maggie Mae BADGLEY [3 June 1900-28 Sept. 1978]. Charles E. Hovious died in Los Angeles, CA on 10 July 1970.
Charles E. Hovious was briefly a member of Frank Badgley's gang, which in 1926 and 1927 robbed banks, gas stations and drugstores in Michigan and Indiana. By 1927 Badgley had been sentenced to life in prison and control of the gang seems to have passed to Russell Clark. Clark broke out of jail in 1933 and would go on to become a member of John Dillinger's much better-known crime gang. The following is a summary of some original Indiana newspaper clippings about the case from 1927.
Charles Hovious, who is in jail at Bryan, O., and his confederate Reed Brown, alias Russell Clark, in prison at Hillsdale Mich., are the last known members of the notorious Frank Badgley gang. Apprehension of the two fugitives came after a long chase on many side roads, across fields and through swamps of Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, under the direction of Sheriff A. Guy Emrick of Allen county.
Hovious had about $142.70 of the loot when arrested. Hovious said he knew Clark under the name John Smith and in his confession he repeatedly referred to him by that name. He admitted he was the one that entered the Huntertown bank and asked for change for a $5 bill.
"After asking for change I said `Stick 'em up.´ I had a .38 caliber revolver, double action. Smith entered the bank then and went around and told the man to lay on the floor. I put my gun back in my pocket. Then I also went around. Smith was gathering up the money. John asked the cashier where his gun was and he told us. He told me to get it out of the drawer and I did, giving it to John. He ordered me to go out and get in the car which I did and heard some shooting. He came out and got on the side of the car and then got in. They were still shooting. He instructed me which roads to take. We kept on going until we saw a car chasing us. We jumped out and started running and shooting."
Hovious said Clark gave him some silver money during the chase, remarking that it was too heavy for him to carry. "I only assisted on one bank job besides this. That was at Straughn and was with Badgley and Smith and we used a car stolen in Detroit. We got $500 and I got $235 for my share. I did not help pull the Paragon bank robbery but I know who did. Badgley and Smith stuck up that bank. They gave some of the money to my wife to pay off a mortgage."
Hovious said that Badgley took Mrs. Hovious away from him about three months ago. He blamed Badgley for getting him into the robberies. He said his brother-in-law continually coaxed him to go along on the jobs.
Thanks to Estella Cox for finding and scanning the news clippings about Charles, and to Lori Hyde for bringing them to my attention.
15:44 09/11/01