Joe Tracy was born in St. Cloud, but more specifically with ties to the old sawmill town of Holopaw. Supposedly, a childhood buddy was the infamous John Ashley. Tracy and Ashley started out as pals, hunting, fishing, and drinking together. Locals described Tracy as “an outgoing guy with a generous nature and perpetual smile” (Griffin, 1986). But there was another side to Tracy, a Jekyll and Hyde personality. According to an article published in 1986, Lawmen considered this “backwoods Dr. Jekyll a bandit, train robber, and even a cold-blooded killer”.
Eventually enveloping himself in the notorious Ashley gang, Tracy would spend much ofhis life serving time. From 1921 to 1923, he served 2 years of a 15-year sentence for an Ashley gang-connected bank robbery in Hamilton County. After being paroled, he returned to Osceola County and would become the leading suspect in a tragic murder. A local man and father of two, Joseph DeLesdernier, was murdered during an attempted robbery in Lokosee, FL, just 12 miles south of Kenansville. The authorities confronted Tracy catching a passenger train, but he eluded capture by slipping out a lavatory window and disappearing into the swampland. He was eventually caught and sent back to Kissimmee to await trial.
But without solid evidence and Tracy’s popularity and likability in local circles, no charges were filed, and the culprit never stood trial. Tracy found himself continually repeating dirty deeds, from driving getaway cars to robbing banks. Shootouts, hijackings, and running rum included. With local authorities hot on the Ashley gang’s trail of treachery, the members supposedly slip up. Different fates befell each vandal, but Tracy would commit a crime that would land him in prison for good.
Tracy and another man, Hamilton Register, reportedly robbed and killed a taxi driver, dumping the evidence on a stretch of road near Fort Christmas. Both outlaws were tracked down and finally arrested in July of 1925. Tracy’s luck had finally run out, and he was charged and successfully convicted of 2nd degree murder in 1926. While serving his life sentence, Tracy made countless claims of buried Ashley gang profits in varied places around Osceola County. Is the bounty still buried somewhere to this day
Although nothing is for sure, Tracy took the supposed treasure’s hiding place to his grave when he died in Florida State Prison near Starke, FL in Bradford County of canceron August 31, 1968. All that is left of Tracy’s career is a hand-woven “black snake” whip he had crafted while in prison. Mr. William & Jean Stewart donated it to the Osceola County Historical Society in 1979 on behalf of Elvin Thomas, who had recorded receiving the whip in 1966 from Tracy himself. The beautifully hand-crafted whip is still currently preserved within our archives at the Spence Research Center on Bass Rd.
Source:
Griffin, M. “Good-natured bad guy made friends, victims”. The Orlando Sentinel. December 14, 1986. Pg. 323. Orlando, Florida. Newspaper.