Every now and then in my research I come across a relatively unknown lawmen who, in his time, was already legendary. FBI Special Agent "Jelly" Bryce is just such a lawman. What was unique in the case of Agent Bryce is that he became famous for one particular thing, and that notoriety led him into actions that made him famous again...
Born Jacob Aldolphus Bryce, 12/6/1906, Bryce changed his name on an unspecified date to Delf Bryce in honor of his father and grandfather. His popular nickname was Jelly, but not until after he was referred to by a dying criminal as "jelly bean". At the time, jelly bean was a nickname for a fancy dresser or someone who might be a bit feminine. When the criminal's dying words made it to the newspapers, Bryce became known as "Jelly".
Jelly Bryce was born in Mt. View, Oklahoma and there was a popular "fairy tale" that went around later that year detailing how the baby Bryce had been allowed to use his father's pistol as a replacement teething-ring, thereby starting early on his weapon skills. While such a tale is almost immediately dismissed, Bryce's sister, Lila Dawson, has been quoted as defending the "tale" as fact. "When he was a baby they let him teethe on Daddy's unloaded pistol. They propped him up with pillows there in the crib and let him go after it." There shows a great difference between the early 1900s and today. If someone let their baby use an unloaded pistol as a teething-ring today, they'd most likely end up charged with a child endangerment or some kind of child neglect crime.
Bryce gained an extremely early reputation as a crack shot with some of his early neighbors saying that, even at the age of ten, he never missed. It was apparently more common to see Bryce walking with either his .22 rifle or his air-rifle than to see him without it. Apparently his favored use for the .22 was to hunt rabbits and shoot tin cans. Immediately after graduating from high school Bryce entered a citizen's military camp (no such thing exists anymore) held at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. In the course of the camp he won first place in pistol and rifle competitions, and went on to win the national rifle competition at Camp Perry, Ohio.
Bryce's entrance into police work was accidental and a direct side-effect of his shooting prowess. After high school he had become a State Game Ranger in Oklahoma, but in the fall he headed to the University of Oklahoma where he planned to enroll. Along the way he came across a pistol competition where the first prize was $100 in gold. The competition was in Shawnee, Oklahoma and was part of the annual Sheriff's and Peace Officers convention.
When Bryce arrived he approached the Oklahoma City Night Chief of Police, Clarence Hurt and asked if the competition was open "to anybody." Hurt eyed this young man, wondering if a boy barely out of high school could really shoot. To test him, Hurt stuck an envelope to a tree and then paced off the competition distance. From that (unspecified) range, Bryce drew and fired six fast rounds from his .38, putting all his shots into "the size of a silver dollar". Night Chief Clarence Hurt, astonished, looked at Bryce and said, "You are now a member of the Oklahoma City Police Department." The pistol team won that day and Bryce took the first prize.
Bryce's first gunfight as a police officer reportedly occurred shortly thereafter. Off-duty, he caught a man in the midst of trying to steal a car. He had approached the man because he looked like a guy Bryce had seen on a wanted poster. When Bryce confronted the man and identified himself as a police officer (who hadn't even been issued a badge yet) the man tried to draw on Bryce. Bryce drew and fired and the man fell out of the car dead. Bryce was so new that the City PD Captain who responded to the scene didn't know him and had him arrested until later that night when Night Chief Clarence Hurt came in for duty and had Bryce released.
That same year Bryce was on patrol when he caught two men trying to burglarize a furniture store. When he confronted them, both pulled guns and fired at him. Bryce drew and returned fire: two shots, two dead burglars. In his first year on the job, Bryce had been in two gunfights against three assailants, each who had fired (or attempted to) first; all three of which lost.
As lawlessness grew in the early '30s, the FBI actually began to recruit lawmen known as "gunslingers." In November 1934 the FBI hired three Oklahoma City Detectives, all of whom were on the pistol team: Jerry Campbell, Night Chief Clarence Hurt, and the city's youngest detective, Jelly Bryce. Even though Bryce didn't have a college degree, his involvement in the Harvey Pugh incident allegedly secured his place in the FBI.
As told, outlaw Harvey Pugh - once an associate of Clyde Barrow (the male half of the infamous Bonny & Clyde) - had holed up at the Wren Hotel in Oklahoma City. Bryce and two other detectives were dispatched to arrest Pugh. When they got to the hotel, the front desk clerk showed Bryce and the other detectives to the room of the hotel's owner. Upon arriving there, when the room door was opened by the desk clerk, it was discovered that one of Pugh's associates - J. Ray O'Donnell - was in the hotel owner's bed (with her). As Bryce entered the room he saw O'Donnell on the bed armed with two pistols, already aimed at the door. Before O'Donnell could fire, Bryce drew and fired six shots. Reportedly the first hit O'Donnell in the chin, with the next four hitting him in the head, and the last one going into the mattress of the bed.
In 1941 his career entered a new level when he was appointed Special Agent in Charge (SAC) in El Paso. He also served as SAC in San Antonio, Albuquerque and Oklahoma City. Sometime during this period Bryce developed what came to be known as the FBI fast-draw holster.
In 1945 to resolve the question, So, just how fast is Jelly anyway? LIFE Magazine timed his draw and fire at 2/5ths of a second. Allegedly he could drop a half dollar from shoulder height and, with the same hand, draw and fire, hitting the half dollar, before it dropped below his waist.
In the end though, as is true of all lawmen, Bryce's reputation wasn't built wholly upon his shooting skill, but on how many and what type of bad guys he arrested or killed. Bryce reportedly was in 19 gunfights, and assuming that he never lost and never missed, that means 19 dead bad guys. When someone once asked him, "Aren't you interested in bringing them in alive?" he responded, "I'm more interested in bringing ME back alive."
Jelly had married in 1944 and had a son in 1945. He retired in 1958 and did some private detective work, but most of what he did was hunt and fish. His wife died as a result of injuries received in a car crash in April 1973, and in May of 1974 Jelly followed her. He died of a heart attack in his sleep one night during a gathering of retired FBI agents.
Surely, not withstanding his exceptional skill with firearms, Jelly Bryce is deserving of the term legendary lawman due to his vigilance, longevity of career, and the fact that he went to his grave with a clear conscience, never having shot anyone without legal and moral justification.
Charles Bennett
Charles Bennett was born in our Nation's Capital and grew up in the Maryland suburbs. Mr. Bennett has been working in all aspects of the publishing industry since the late 1980s primarily in the fields of commercial photography and magazine production. Moving to California in 1992 to attend college resulted in B.F.A and Masters degrees. California also supplied Mr. Bennett with his wife. The two of them are avid sports persons and participate in shooting, scuba diving, surfing, running and bicycling. As a long time hobby Mr. Bennett has studied the legends of American law enforcement which led to his writing these columns.
