D.A. “Jelly” Bryce was born on 1906 in Mt. View, Oklahoma and according to legion was known to be a exceptional shooter and hunter since childhood using all types of firearms (handguns, rifles and shotguns) who later reflected in his life to Life Magazine that because during those times, life was tough, game was scarce and ammunition was precious, so he had no other choice, but to make every bullet count and become a perfect shot. His career in law enforcement began when he was about to enter a shooting contest where 1st. place was to be a hundred dollars in gold. When he arrived, the Chief of Police of Oklahoma City PD asked him to test his ability, so Bryce placed his shots no bigger than a dollar bill into a envelope stuck on a tree. After he picked his jaw off the ground, the Police Chief asked Bryce to become a member of the Oklahoma Police department, who also went out to win the $100 dollars in gold.
Just after a couple of days on the job, Bryce was involved in his first Police officer shooting when he spotted a man sitting in a car acting peculiar as he was leaving a diner while off duty. Bryce approached the vehicle and identified himself as a Police officer and the strange man quickly reached for his handgun, but was shot dead by Bryce before the suspect could get off a shot. Since Bryce was a new hire, he did not have a Police badge yet and was subsequently arrested by his own Police department, but the Police Chief sprung him out and Jelly Bryce was backed on the job the very next day. In 1927, while on patrol, he observed two burglars trying to break into a store and confronted them where gunfire was exchanged and the two burglars were killed instantly making this dead man #3 for Bryce’s first year as a Police officer. In 1934, The F.B.I were informed of three outlaws (one who frequently associated with famed criminal, Clyde Barrow) who were hiding out at the Wren Hotel in Oklahoma City. When Jelly Bryce questioned the hotel owner, he immediately slammed the door making Bryce to forced his way through and confront criminal, J. Ray O’Donnell, who was holding two automatic pistols while Bryce was still unholstered. When O’Donnell raised his guns up to shoot, Bryce pulled out his revolver and shot O’Donnell in the chin killing him instantly.
Bryce earned his nickname when he and his partner were involved in a gunfight with a couple of crooks where one of the suspects crawled into a movie theater and passed out. He later woke up and saw Bryce standing over him while he laid there bleeding. The crook later told officials that looking up at Bryce was like looking at a “jellybean,” which was a term at the time that meant “fancy dresser,” thus, given the nickname “Jelly” by his law enforcement associates. After hearing about the shooting incident at the Wren hotel, the FBI scooped Bryce up in 1934 and he eventually got involved in several more shootings totally 19 men altogether that he had killed in his lifetime as a law enforcement officer (some were actually committed with a Tommy machine gun) from there on, he gradually became the FBI’s shooting instructor that would later earned him national recognition.
He was known to carry a Smith and Wesson .44 revolver with the ivory grips embossed with a black cat and the number #13 and a steer’s head on both sides where he practiced his method of the fast draw for 8 hours straight in front of a mirror tuning in on his already mastered skills or identifying any potential problems. Bryce also included a gun stance in his practice where he would shift his body weight forward so that if the officer got shot, he would fall forward and still be able to shoot back, which later became a standard practice for law enforcement officers. During the FBI shooting exercises, Bryce would perform shooting demonstrations that became legendary wowing audiences with shooting exhibitions, for example, taking a pill box and placing it on the back of his hand and than draw and hit the pillbox before it reached his waist. He would also shoot Mexican pesos with a .22 rifle or clay pigeons with his .357 revolver while holding the gun upside down. He wore a diamond ring and would use it as a mirror to shoot targets over his shoulder, in fact, Life Magazine once clocked how fast Bryce could draw his revolver and got a shot off on a target two-fifths of a second.
D.A. “Jelly” Bryce retired from the F.B.I in 1958 and ran for Oklahoma governor because he was fed up with corruption going on across the state, but eventually lost after a close race. Bryce’s later years were marked by tragedy when his wife, Shirley, died in a auto accident in 1973 and from that time on Jelly Bryce had never been the same and constantly would worry that someone would take revenge on his only son for his (Bryce) work as a lawman. Then on a Saturday, May 1974, Bryce appeared tired and worn out after a F.B.I gathering of veteran agents and he retired early in his hotel room, but the very next day several of his associates knocked on his door and no-one answered. It was later discovered that D.A. “Jelly” Bryce died that very night in his sleep of a heart attack and was buried next to his wife. The life of the F.B.I’s very first sharpshooter had finally ended...in peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment