Floyd succeeded John Dillinger as America's Public Enemy Number One when Dillinger was killed on July 22, 1934. He was accused of taking part in the Kansas City Massacre on June 17, 1933, but there is no conclusive evidence that he did. In the midst of the Depression, when sheriffs were enforcing farm foreclosures, a Populist myth grew up around Floyd as a modern Robin Hood. Floyd was killed by D.O.I. special agents on a farm near Clarkson, Ohio. Melvin Purvis, who was leading the D.O.I. unit, immediately called Director J. Edgar Hoover to tell him Floyd was dead.