| |
| Ponyboy M. Curtis | |
| Biographical Information | |
| Aliases | "Pony" |
| Gender | Male |
| Born | September 23, 1954 Tulsa, Oklahoma |
| Affiliation | Curtis Brothers |
| Title(s) | Associate |
Ponyboy Michael Curtis is a former American gangster who is best known for his murder of Socs gang member Robert Sheldon on August 17, 1967. He was acquitted of charges in the following trial, which occured after he and the murderer Johnny Cade were forced to return from hiding, and resides in Tulsa.
Biography
The Curtis Brothers greasers.
Ponyboy M. Curtis was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on July 22, 1953, to English-American parents whose ancestors had immigrated to America in the early 1800s. Ponyboy Curtis' parents were killed in a car wreck when he was thirteen, so he was under the care of his older brother Darrel S. Curtis, Jr. He was a member of the Curtis Brothers gang, a gang of greasers (underprivileged teens who wear grease in their long hair and have leather jackets), and made friends with Johnny Cade, who was two years older than him. Ponyboy, unlike most other greasers, was intelligent and was in honors society in his high school. Ponyboy's first crime occured in 1966, when he participated in a rumble with the Socs. In 1967, he was jumped by Socs on his way home from a movie house while watching a Paul Newman movie. He hated the Socs just like every other greaser, who were beaten up by the upper-class Socs for fun. His view of Socs changed when he met Sherri "Cherry" Valance, a Soc girl who he met at The Nightly Double, a drive-in.
Robert Sheldon dead.
He decided to run away from home when Darrel slapped him, and Ponyboy and Johnny Cade stopped at the park in the center of the town. Usually filled with little kids swimming in the pools there, but it was dead quiet in the night, silent except for the sound of running water in the fountain. It was then that he committed his most serious crime. Socs Robert Sheldon, Randy Adderson, David Peterson, and John Leland departed their blue Mustang that had pulled up to the park to get revenge on Pony, who had tried to pick up Sheldon's girlfriend Cherry. Pony was nearly drowned in the ice-cold water of the fountain by Sheldon, but Cade stabbed Sheldon with a switchblade, killing him. They fled to the house of Buck Merrill, a country singer "friend" of Dallas Winston, one of the greasers, where Dallas gave Ponyboy a shirt, money, and a gun, and told them to hop onto a freight train headed to Windrixville in far western Oklahoma. Meanwhile, Dallas told the police that they were headed for Texas.
Ponyboy and Johnny hid out at an abandoned church on top of Jay Mountain in Windrixville, using the water pump in the back for cold, fresh, water, while Cade bought food, free time items, and peroxide, to dye Ponyboy's hair after cutting it to throw off the authorities. Soon, Dallas arrived to check up on Ponyboy and Johnny, where Johnny revealed that he and Ponyboy were going to turn themselves in. When they returned to the church, it was in flames (probably due to the peroxide and a lit cigarette touching), watched by many parents and schoolteachers, whose children were in the building. Ponyboy and Johnny rescued the children, both suffering burns, and Dallas, who pulled them out of the window, was also injured. Ponyboy revealed to Mr. Jerry Wood, a teacher, that he was a greaser, in the ambulance, but a newspaper editorial stated "Juvenile Delinquents Turn Heroes". Ponyboy was discharged from the hospital back home in Tulsa, where his brothers Darry and Sodapop were. Darry told Ponyboy how worried he was that he ended up like their parents, and the three brothers went back home.
Ponyboy, despite having injuries, and being sick, took part in a rumble with the Socs, a rumble that would end the gang war that had occured following the murder of Sheldon. Curtis was kicked in the head and had a concussion, and to make matters worse, went to the hospital to find that Johnny was dying, then while in the hospital, Johnny died. Dallas couldn't take it and ran out, only to make matters even worse by robbing a grocery store, and then calling Darry to meet him at the lot where Ponyboy and Johnny liked to hang out when Johnny was alive. Knowing what would happen, Dallas ran with the cops after him, and took out the unloaded gun that he had taken to Windrixville with him when he went to see Ponyboy and Johnny, and got shot by the cops. Ponyboy passed out from the injuries and being sick, and the overwhelming feeling of facing the reality that his best friends just died right in front of his eyes. When he woke up, he realized that he had to go to court for the entire situation a few days later. When that day came, he explained what had happened that night, and Cherry Valance, and Randy Adderson told the same stories, and he was proven not guilty and went home with his brothers.