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On October 12, 1933, gangster George Francis Barnes, aka Machine Gun Kelly, was sentenced to life imprisonment. From the article:
"Machine Gun Kelly was an American bootlegger, bank robber and kidnapper who made headlines in the 1930s. He was sentenced to life in prison along with wife Kathryn Kelly in 1933.
Who Was Machine Gun Kelly?
Machine Gun Kelly was a bootlegger, small-time bank robber and kidnapper who ranged through Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico in the 1920s and 1930s. Beginning his criminal career as a bootlegger, he was caught in 1927 and subsequently spent a few months in jail, where he met bank robbers. In 1930, he married Kathryn Thorne. They, along with others, robbed banks in many states, and kidnapped a wealthy oil tycoon and held him for ransom. For that crime, Kelly was arrested and sentenced to life in prison in 1933. He died in 1954.
Early Life
Bootlegger, bank robber and kidnapper Machine Gun Kelly was born George Kelly Barnes on July 18, 1895, in Memphis, Tennessee. (Some sources state that he was born in 1897. A book by one of his sons stated that he was born in Chicago in 1900.) Despite the nickname "Machine Gun," Kelly was a relatively minor criminal until a 1933 kidnapping made him infamous. Before beginning his life of crime, he was a student at Mississippi A&M College. He married Geneva Ramsey when he was 19. The couple had two sons together before divorcing. His first wife told The New York Times after his arrest that she divorced him because he was "running in bad company."
Involved in bootlegging as a teenager, Kelly returned to the profitable illegal enterprise after several failed attempts at legitimate work. He was caught selling illegal liquor in 1927 and spent a few months in jail in New Mexico. Nabbed again, this time for selling liquor on an Indian reservation, Kelly did time at Leavenworth Prison in Kansas. While incarcerated, he made friends with several bank robbers, including Charlie Harmon, Frank Nash, Francis Keating and Thomas Holden, and is believed to have helped Keating and Holden escape.
Bank Robberies
After his release from prison in 1930, Kelly traveled to St. Paul, Minnesota, with his girlfriend Kathryn Thorne. (The two later married in the fall of that year.) There, he reunited with Keating and Holden and participated in a bank hold-up with the pair. Continuing his crime spree, Kelly was involved in bank robberies in several states, including Iowa, Texas and Washington. According to legend, Kelly's wife helped build his reputation, buying him a machine gun and nicknaming him after the weapon. She also reportedly gave away shell casings from his exploits to people as souvenirs to increase his notoriety.
Kidnapping
Along with bank robbing, Kelly made several attempts at kidnapping. With his wife and longtime associate Albert L. Bates, Kelly hatched a plan to kidnap wealthy Oklahoma oil man Charles F. Urschel. On July 22, Bates and Kelly entered the Urschel's Oklahoma City home and abducted Urschel and one of his friends, Walter R. Jarrett, leaving their wives behind. Jarrett was soon let go, but Urschel was held for ransom. Kelly and his gang wanted $200,000 for the oil man.
They set up an elaborate system for the handling of their captive and the delivery of the ransom. But they didn’t count on Urschel’s sharp mind and the authorities keeping track of the ransom money’s serial numbers. The ransom was delivered on July 30 in Kansas City and Urschel was released the next day. He was unharmed and, although blindfolded some of the time, he was able to provide a number of clues to authorities. From Urschel’s descriptions of what he heard and saw while being held hostage, the authorities were able to figure out that he must have been near Paradise, Texas. Earlier there also had been a tip that the Kellys were involved.
Arrest and Later Years
Kathryn Kelly's mother, Ora Shannon, lived on a ranch near Paradise. The place was raided and several suspects, including Shannon, her husband and his son, were arrested on August 12. Bates was caught that same day in Denver, Colorado, on an unrelated charge, but he was found to have money from the kidnapping on him. But the Kellys eluded capture for several weeks. They were discovered in Memphis, Tennessee, and taken into custody on September 26, 1933. They were quickly tried and convicted; both were sentenced to life in prison on October 12.
The once-notorious Kelly was mocked in the news as "Pop Gun Kelly." He was sent to Alcatraz Prison in California, home to many hardened criminals, including Al Capone. In the 1950s, Kelly moved to Leavenworth, Kansas, where he died of heart failure on July 18, 1954.
Today, Kelly is remembered, along with the likes of Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, "Baby Face" Nelson, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, as one of the criminals that made up the Midwest crime wave of the early 1930s."
"Machine Gun Kelly was an American bootlegger, bank robber and kidnapper who made headlines in the 1930s. He was sentenced to life in prison along with wife Kathryn Kelly in 1933.
Who Was Machine Gun Kelly?
Machine Gun Kelly was a bootlegger, small-time bank robber and kidnapper who ranged through Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico in the 1920s and 1930s. Beginning his criminal career as a bootlegger, he was caught in 1927 and subsequently spent a few months in jail, where he met bank robbers. In 1930, he married Kathryn Thorne. They, along with others, robbed banks in many states, and kidnapped a wealthy oil tycoon and held him for ransom. For that crime, Kelly was arrested and sentenced to life in prison in 1933. He died in 1954.
Early Life
Bootlegger, bank robber and kidnapper Machine Gun Kelly was born George Kelly Barnes on July 18, 1895, in Memphis, Tennessee. (Some sources state that he was born in 1897. A book by one of his sons stated that he was born in Chicago in 1900.) Despite the nickname "Machine Gun," Kelly was a relatively minor criminal until a 1933 kidnapping made him infamous. Before beginning his life of crime, he was a student at Mississippi A&M College. He married Geneva Ramsey when he was 19. The couple had two sons together before divorcing. His first wife told The New York Times after his arrest that she divorced him because he was "running in bad company."
Involved in bootlegging as a teenager, Kelly returned to the profitable illegal enterprise after several failed attempts at legitimate work. He was caught selling illegal liquor in 1927 and spent a few months in jail in New Mexico. Nabbed again, this time for selling liquor on an Indian reservation, Kelly did time at Leavenworth Prison in Kansas. While incarcerated, he made friends with several bank robbers, including Charlie Harmon, Frank Nash, Francis Keating and Thomas Holden, and is believed to have helped Keating and Holden escape.
Bank Robberies
After his release from prison in 1930, Kelly traveled to St. Paul, Minnesota, with his girlfriend Kathryn Thorne. (The two later married in the fall of that year.) There, he reunited with Keating and Holden and participated in a bank hold-up with the pair. Continuing his crime spree, Kelly was involved in bank robberies in several states, including Iowa, Texas and Washington. According to legend, Kelly's wife helped build his reputation, buying him a machine gun and nicknaming him after the weapon. She also reportedly gave away shell casings from his exploits to people as souvenirs to increase his notoriety.
Kidnapping
Along with bank robbing, Kelly made several attempts at kidnapping. With his wife and longtime associate Albert L. Bates, Kelly hatched a plan to kidnap wealthy Oklahoma oil man Charles F. Urschel. On July 22, Bates and Kelly entered the Urschel's Oklahoma City home and abducted Urschel and one of his friends, Walter R. Jarrett, leaving their wives behind. Jarrett was soon let go, but Urschel was held for ransom. Kelly and his gang wanted $200,000 for the oil man.
They set up an elaborate system for the handling of their captive and the delivery of the ransom. But they didn’t count on Urschel’s sharp mind and the authorities keeping track of the ransom money’s serial numbers. The ransom was delivered on July 30 in Kansas City and Urschel was released the next day. He was unharmed and, although blindfolded some of the time, he was able to provide a number of clues to authorities. From Urschel’s descriptions of what he heard and saw while being held hostage, the authorities were able to figure out that he must have been near Paradise, Texas. Earlier there also had been a tip that the Kellys were involved.
Arrest and Later Years
Kathryn Kelly's mother, Ora Shannon, lived on a ranch near Paradise. The place was raided and several suspects, including Shannon, her husband and his son, were arrested on August 12. Bates was caught that same day in Denver, Colorado, on an unrelated charge, but he was found to have money from the kidnapping on him. But the Kellys eluded capture for several weeks. They were discovered in Memphis, Tennessee, and taken into custody on September 26, 1933. They were quickly tried and convicted; both were sentenced to life in prison on October 12.
The once-notorious Kelly was mocked in the news as "Pop Gun Kelly." He was sent to Alcatraz Prison in California, home to many hardened criminals, including Al Capone. In the 1950s, Kelly moved to Leavenworth, Kansas, where he died of heart failure on July 18, 1954.
Today, Kelly is remembered, along with the likes of Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, "Baby Face" Nelson, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, as one of the criminals that made up the Midwest crime wave of the early 1930s."
Machine Gun Kelly
Posted from biography.com
Crime
Murder
American History
Federal Bureau of Prisons
Posted 4 y ago
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Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on October 12, 1933, gangster George Francis Barnes, aka Machine Gun Kelly, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
George "Machine Gun" Kelly: (Jerry Skinner Documentary)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Yho2lLThU0
Images:
1. George “Machine Gun” Kelly not long after his capture in Memphis in 1933.
2. A Thompson submachine gun, also known as a Tommy gun, of the same type famously used by George “Machine Gun” Kelly.
3. Kathryn, the wife of George “Machine Gun” Kelly. Circa 1933.
4. Machine Gun Kelly being led by United States Marshals to prison following his conviction.
Background from {[https://allthatsinteresting.com/george-machine-gun-kelly/]}
George “Machine Gun” Kelly: Prohibition’s Most Trigger-Happy Gangster
By William DeLong
Published April 24, 2018
Updated June 13, 2018
Prohibition-era gangster George "Machine Gun" Kelly pulled off one of American history's most infamous crimes and thought he got away with it. Then his victim got revenge.
Born in Memphis, Tenn. in 1895, George Kelly Barnes never had much success at a “normal” life. He dropped out of college at Mississippi A&M due to low grades. Meanwhile, he married Geneva Ramsey, and the couple had two sons. But he could never hold down a job to support his new family and the couple divorced not long after.
After failing to make it in the legitimate working world, Kelly ran bootlegging schemes across the South during Prohibition. This landed him in jail in Kansas in 1928, but it didn’t end his criminal career — in fact, it helped him truly get it started.
While in jail, he met bank robbers and hardened criminals who helped put him on the path to committing serious crimes. And when he got out in 1930, his new wife Kathryn Thorne actually helped nudge him along as well.
It was Thorne who bought her husband his first machine gun, encouraged him to devote himself to crime, and gave him the nickname George “Machine Gun” Kelly.
Legend has it that Thorne would take spent machine gun cartridges and give them to associates at illegal drinking clubs and would say they were souvenirs from George “Machine Gun” Kelly, thus bolstering his reputation in the criminal underworld. If Kelly was the criminal mastermind, his wife was the chief marketing officer.
Kelly pulled off several small bank robberies in Mississippi and Texas from 1930 to 1933. All the while he built himself a reputation that even he couldn’t live up to. For one, the F.B.I. claimed the petty bank robber was an expert machine gunner, which simply wasn’t the case. In fact, the man with the famous nickname never killed anyone in his life.
But just because he wasn’t a killer doesn’t mean he wasn’t a daring criminal. Kelly and Thorne hatched a daring plan after several failed kidnapping attempts in the early 1930s. Instead of resorting to small targets for their next kidnapping, they would go after a bigger fish in the form of oil tycoon Charles Urschel.
On July 22, 1933, Kelly and accomplice Albert Bates snatched Urschel from his Oklahoma City home. Three days later, a ransom note appeared via Western Union at the home of Urschel’s friend J.G. Catlett demanding $200,000 for the release of the wealthy businessman.
A few days later, the exchange went smoothly, the money was in Kelly’s hands, and Urschel was back with his family. However, the saga of the Urschel case was far from over.
Urschel had been blindfolded the entire time, and Kelly was careful not to give away any clues as to their whereabouts. However, the small-town bank robber failed to take into account two things. First, authorities wrote down the serial numbers of the $20 bills they used for the ransom. Any time the serial numbers showed up in a transaction, they could track any of the criminals. Second, Kelly didn’t count on Urschel’s sharp mind.
The oil tycoon couldn’t see anything, but he could hear just fine, leaving him plenty to report to authorities about what his ears had detected during his time as Kelly’s prisoner. Without Urschel’s calm intelligence gathering, Kelly would have gotten away with the kidnapping altogether.
Urschel noted that one hour after he was blindfolded, he could hear and smell oil fields nearby with the oil fields spaced 30 minutes apart. This allowed authorities to deduce the direction in which Urschel had been taken after leaving Oklahoma City (south). Urschel also noted rainy and stormy weather conditions and the sound of airplanes flying overhead. After the cops checked meteorological data and flight records, these sounds further helped authorities determine the kidnappers’ likely location.
Meanwhile, someone had tipped the F.B.I. that Kelly and Thorne were involved. So when authorities learned that Thorne’s family owned a ranch in Paradise, Texas (a destination that made sense based on what Urschel had heard), the cops figured they’d found the site where Urschel had been held prisoner.
On August 10, just 10 days after Urschel’s release, F.B.I. agents raided the ranch and arrested Kelly’s in-laws. A day later, the feds caught Kelly’s accomplice in Denver after he swapped out some of the marked bills used in the ransom at local banks.
But it was several more weeks before authorities captured Thorne and George “Machine Gun” Kelly himself. It turned out, he went back to his roots in Memphis. Authorities caught up with him and his wife there on Sept. 26, 1933. Less than three weeks later, Kelly and his wife were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
He went to Alcatraz, where he earned the nickname “Pop Gun Kelly” because he was a model prisoner who didn’t act like the daring gangster his reputation suggested. In 1951, he was transferred to the same prison in Kansas where he’d first met the bank robbers that helped push him into crime two decades earlier. He died there of heart failure in 1954."
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George "Machine Gun" Kelly: (Jerry Skinner Documentary)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Yho2lLThU0
Images:
1. George “Machine Gun” Kelly not long after his capture in Memphis in 1933.
2. A Thompson submachine gun, also known as a Tommy gun, of the same type famously used by George “Machine Gun” Kelly.
3. Kathryn, the wife of George “Machine Gun” Kelly. Circa 1933.
4. Machine Gun Kelly being led by United States Marshals to prison following his conviction.
Background from {[https://allthatsinteresting.com/george-machine-gun-kelly/]}
George “Machine Gun” Kelly: Prohibition’s Most Trigger-Happy Gangster
By William DeLong
Published April 24, 2018
Updated June 13, 2018
Prohibition-era gangster George "Machine Gun" Kelly pulled off one of American history's most infamous crimes and thought he got away with it. Then his victim got revenge.
Born in Memphis, Tenn. in 1895, George Kelly Barnes never had much success at a “normal” life. He dropped out of college at Mississippi A&M due to low grades. Meanwhile, he married Geneva Ramsey, and the couple had two sons. But he could never hold down a job to support his new family and the couple divorced not long after.
After failing to make it in the legitimate working world, Kelly ran bootlegging schemes across the South during Prohibition. This landed him in jail in Kansas in 1928, but it didn’t end his criminal career — in fact, it helped him truly get it started.
While in jail, he met bank robbers and hardened criminals who helped put him on the path to committing serious crimes. And when he got out in 1930, his new wife Kathryn Thorne actually helped nudge him along as well.
It was Thorne who bought her husband his first machine gun, encouraged him to devote himself to crime, and gave him the nickname George “Machine Gun” Kelly.
Legend has it that Thorne would take spent machine gun cartridges and give them to associates at illegal drinking clubs and would say they were souvenirs from George “Machine Gun” Kelly, thus bolstering his reputation in the criminal underworld. If Kelly was the criminal mastermind, his wife was the chief marketing officer.
Kelly pulled off several small bank robberies in Mississippi and Texas from 1930 to 1933. All the while he built himself a reputation that even he couldn’t live up to. For one, the F.B.I. claimed the petty bank robber was an expert machine gunner, which simply wasn’t the case. In fact, the man with the famous nickname never killed anyone in his life.
But just because he wasn’t a killer doesn’t mean he wasn’t a daring criminal. Kelly and Thorne hatched a daring plan after several failed kidnapping attempts in the early 1930s. Instead of resorting to small targets for their next kidnapping, they would go after a bigger fish in the form of oil tycoon Charles Urschel.
On July 22, 1933, Kelly and accomplice Albert Bates snatched Urschel from his Oklahoma City home. Three days later, a ransom note appeared via Western Union at the home of Urschel’s friend J.G. Catlett demanding $200,000 for the release of the wealthy businessman.
A few days later, the exchange went smoothly, the money was in Kelly’s hands, and Urschel was back with his family. However, the saga of the Urschel case was far from over.
Urschel had been blindfolded the entire time, and Kelly was careful not to give away any clues as to their whereabouts. However, the small-town bank robber failed to take into account two things. First, authorities wrote down the serial numbers of the $20 bills they used for the ransom. Any time the serial numbers showed up in a transaction, they could track any of the criminals. Second, Kelly didn’t count on Urschel’s sharp mind.
The oil tycoon couldn’t see anything, but he could hear just fine, leaving him plenty to report to authorities about what his ears had detected during his time as Kelly’s prisoner. Without Urschel’s calm intelligence gathering, Kelly would have gotten away with the kidnapping altogether.
Urschel noted that one hour after he was blindfolded, he could hear and smell oil fields nearby with the oil fields spaced 30 minutes apart. This allowed authorities to deduce the direction in which Urschel had been taken after leaving Oklahoma City (south). Urschel also noted rainy and stormy weather conditions and the sound of airplanes flying overhead. After the cops checked meteorological data and flight records, these sounds further helped authorities determine the kidnappers’ likely location.
Meanwhile, someone had tipped the F.B.I. that Kelly and Thorne were involved. So when authorities learned that Thorne’s family owned a ranch in Paradise, Texas (a destination that made sense based on what Urschel had heard), the cops figured they’d found the site where Urschel had been held prisoner.
On August 10, just 10 days after Urschel’s release, F.B.I. agents raided the ranch and arrested Kelly’s in-laws. A day later, the feds caught Kelly’s accomplice in Denver after he swapped out some of the marked bills used in the ransom at local banks.
But it was several more weeks before authorities captured Thorne and George “Machine Gun” Kelly himself. It turned out, he went back to his roots in Memphis. Authorities caught up with him and his wife there on Sept. 26, 1933. Less than three weeks later, Kelly and his wife were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
He went to Alcatraz, where he earned the nickname “Pop Gun Kelly” because he was a model prisoner who didn’t act like the daring gangster his reputation suggested. In 1951, he was transferred to the same prison in Kansas where he’d first met the bank robbers that helped push him into crime two decades earlier. He died there of heart failure in 1954."
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Machine Gun Kelly Trial (2009-10-23)
Coverage of the trial of notorious gangster Machine Gun Kelly
Coverage of the trial of notorious gangster Machine Gun Kelly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4hbtB5Ivyo
Images:
1. Machine Gun Kelly and Kathryn Thorne
2. Machine Gun Kelley finger prints
3. Machine Gun Kelley in Alcatraz Prison
4. October 12, 1933 Machine Gun Kelley's record of sentencing
Background from {{https://www.alcatrazhistory.com/mgk.htm]}
Where the voices of Alcatraz come to life...
George "Machine Gun" Kelly
George "Machine Gun" Kelly is probably considered one of the most famous "gangsters" from the prohibition era. "Machine Gun" was born George Kelly Barnes on July 18, 1895, to a wealthy family living in Memphis, Tennessee. Kelly's early years as a child were essentially uneventful and his family raised him in a traditional household. His first sign of trouble began when he enrolled into Mississippi State University to study agriculture in 1917. From the beginning, Kelly was considered a poor student with his highest grade (a C plus) awarded for good physical hygiene. He was constantly in trouble with the faculty and spent much of his academic career attempting to work off the demerits he had earned.
It was during this time that Kelly met a young woman by the name of Geneva Ramsey. Kelly quickly fell in love with Geneva and made an abrupt decision to quit school and marry. Kelly fathered two children with Geneva, and to make ends meet, took a job as a cab driver in Memphis. He worked long hours with little reward for his time. Kelly and Geneva were struggling financially, as the job was failing to provide enough money to support their family. Distressed and broke, Kelly left his job with the cab company to seek other avenues to make ends meet. The strain proved to be overwhelming and at 19 years old, he found himself without steady work and separated from his wife. It was about this time when Kelly took up with a small time gangster and started a new venture as a bootlegger. Kelly began to enjoy the financial rewards of his new trade along with the notoriety.
Along with the new success also came the quandaries of working in the underground. After being arrested on several occasions for illegal trafficking, Kelly decided to leave Memphis along with a new girlfriend and head west. He adopted the new alias of George R. Kelly to help preserve the respect and name of his upstanding family back home. Kelly's luck continued to saw tooth with great monetary scores and several unfortunate predicaments. By 1927, Kelly had already started to earn his reputation in the underground world as a seasoned gangster, having weathered several arrests and serving various jail sentences. In 1928 he was caught smuggling liquor into an Indian Reservation and was sentenced to three years at Leavenworth Penitentiary.
After serving-out another long sentence at the State Penitentiary in New Mexico in 1929 for another similar conviction, Kelly gravitated to Oklahoma City where he hooked up with a small time bootlegger named Steve Anderson. Kelly soon fell for Anderson's attractive mistress Kathryn Thorne, a seasoned criminal in her own right. Thorne had come from a family of outlaws and had been arrested for various charges ranging from robbery to prostitution. Thorne was twice divorced and her second husband had been a bootlegger who had later been found shot to death under suspicious circumstances. The official determination of death was suicide, but many people (including one of the investigators) had long suspected that Kathryn was involved since only days before, she had made comments to a gas station attendant that she was going over to "kill that god-damned Charlie Thorne." Kelly and Kathryn became inseparable and married in Minneapolis in September of 1930.
Up until his relationship with Thorne, Kelly had been a relatively small time criminal. Kathryn's influence soon became obvious, as Kelly's crime sprees would launch him to the prestigious status of "Public Enemy Number One." Kathryn purchased a machine gun for Kelly and pressured her husband to practice. It was said her purpose was premeditated. She was a master at marketing her husband to the underground circles and public. She was known to take the spent gun cartridges and pass them around to acquaintances at many of the underground drinking clubs, introducing them as souvenirs from her husband "Machine Gun" Kelly.
Many historians (and fellow inmates of Kelly) believe that Kathryn was the creator of the "Machine Gun Kelly" image and became known as the mastermind behind several of the successful small bank robberies Kelly pulled off throughout Texas & Mississippi. In August of 1933, the FBI published Wanted Posters describing Kelly as an "Expert Machine Gunner" and created a public frenzy that would later place Kelly into the history books.
In July of 1933, Kathryn and Kelly plotted a scheme to kidnap wealthy oil tycoon & businessman Charles Urschel. Kelly, carrying his trademark Tommy Gun, and two other men carrying pistols entered the Urschel's mansion in Oklahoma City. The Urschels were playing a game of bridge with friends when Kelly stormed in threatening to "blow everyone's head off." Kelly's new hostages were non-cooperative and he was unable to determine which man was Urschel. The two men were forced into a sedan, covered with a tarp and searched for identification. Once they found the ID on Urschel's friend, a man by the name of Walter Jarret, they robbed him of $51 and left him on the side of a deserted road. Urschel was taken into hiding on a rural ranch in Texas and the Kelly Gang made demands for a $200,000 ransom.
The Urschel's family friend E.E. Kirkpatrick made drop arrangements and delivered the ransom in denominations of $20 bills. The money was delivered near the LaSalle Hotel in Kansas City on July 30th, ending the eight-day ordeal. The following day Urschel was released near Norman, Oklahoma, and casually walked into a restaurant to call for a cab. Urschel was sharp, and though blindfolded throughout the ordeal, made sure that his fingerprints were spread everywhere, counted his footsteps to various areas when blind folded, and audible sounds of his surroundings were mentally cataloged, all of which would later become useful in the FBI's investigation.
After splitting the ransom money with their accomplices, Kathryn and "Machine Gun" started state hopping trying to stay two steps ahead of law officials. From the several clues that Urschel was able to provide, the FBI raided the ranch and made an arrest of one of the other conspirators. The bills that had been used for payment in the ransom, had traceable serial records and the Center Bureau of Investigation (now the FBI) started a nationwide search for whom they now suspected was George R. Kelly.
George and Kathryn bounced around different states with Chicago becoming their main hub. Both dyed their hair to conceal their identities and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle. After several weeks in hiding, the couple finally made their way back to Memphis to stay with longtime friend John Tichenor. On the morning of September 26, 1933, Memphis police, along with FBI Agents, surrounded the Tichenor house and then made a violent forced entry. It was said at that moment, that Kelly coined the phrase: "G-Men, please don't shoot." Kelly was found badly hung over from the prior evening's drinking binge (still in his pajamas) and Kathryn was in bed still asleep. The couple was quickly flown to Oklahoma where they stood trial and both received life sentences. Eventually all of the accomplices were apprehended, and out of all of those involved, six were issued life sentences.
Kelly was transferred to Leavenworth in Kansas, and Kathryn was transferred to a federal prison in Cincinnati. Kelly was arrogant towards prison officials, and bragged to the press that he would escape, break out his wife and they would spend Christmas together. It was decided that these threats should be taken seriously and in August of 1934, Kelly along with his accomplices Albert Bates and Harvey Bailey, were transferred from Leavenworth by train to Alcatraz. Arriving on September 4, 1934, they would be among the first groups of prisoners. Kelly became AZ#117.
At Alcatraz, Kelly was constantly boasting about several robberies and murders that he and never committed. Although this was said to be an apparent point of frustration for several fellow prisoners, Warden Johnson considered him a model inmate. His life at Alcatraz was largely uneventful. He took a job as an altar boy in the prison chapel, worked in the laundry, held an administrative role in the industries office for a long period, and generally served out his time quietly. Warden Johnson made statements that Kelly would become depressed when receiving mail form family members, but rarely failed to write his full quota of letters. He seemed to feel remorse for his crimes and always felt that his wife Kathryn and the other accomplices were treated too harshly.
Inmate Willie Radkay, who shared a cell next to Kelly on the second tier of B Block, stated that he shared many fond memories getting to know him, working together in the prison industries along with Basil “The Owl” Banghart. Everyday they would work side by side, having to endure all of his “big” tales. When asked his most prominent memory of sharing a cell next to “Machine Gun,” he said that nearly every night he would accuse Willie of snoring, reach out of his cell and slap him in the head with a magazine. Warden Johnson also stated that Kelly wrote several remorseful letters to Urschel begging that he help plead his case. Urschel apparently never responded to any of Kelly’s letters.
George “Machine Gun” Kelly was returned to Leavenworth in 1951 and died of a heart attack on July 18, 1954. Ironically, it was his 59th birthday. Kathryn was released from prison in 1958 and took a job at an Oklahoma hospital as a bookkeeper."
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4hbtB5Ivyo
Images:
1. Machine Gun Kelly and Kathryn Thorne
2. Machine Gun Kelley finger prints
3. Machine Gun Kelley in Alcatraz Prison
4. October 12, 1933 Machine Gun Kelley's record of sentencing
Background from {{https://www.alcatrazhistory.com/mgk.htm]}
Where the voices of Alcatraz come to life...
George "Machine Gun" Kelly
George "Machine Gun" Kelly is probably considered one of the most famous "gangsters" from the prohibition era. "Machine Gun" was born George Kelly Barnes on July 18, 1895, to a wealthy family living in Memphis, Tennessee. Kelly's early years as a child were essentially uneventful and his family raised him in a traditional household. His first sign of trouble began when he enrolled into Mississippi State University to study agriculture in 1917. From the beginning, Kelly was considered a poor student with his highest grade (a C plus) awarded for good physical hygiene. He was constantly in trouble with the faculty and spent much of his academic career attempting to work off the demerits he had earned.
It was during this time that Kelly met a young woman by the name of Geneva Ramsey. Kelly quickly fell in love with Geneva and made an abrupt decision to quit school and marry. Kelly fathered two children with Geneva, and to make ends meet, took a job as a cab driver in Memphis. He worked long hours with little reward for his time. Kelly and Geneva were struggling financially, as the job was failing to provide enough money to support their family. Distressed and broke, Kelly left his job with the cab company to seek other avenues to make ends meet. The strain proved to be overwhelming and at 19 years old, he found himself without steady work and separated from his wife. It was about this time when Kelly took up with a small time gangster and started a new venture as a bootlegger. Kelly began to enjoy the financial rewards of his new trade along with the notoriety.
Along with the new success also came the quandaries of working in the underground. After being arrested on several occasions for illegal trafficking, Kelly decided to leave Memphis along with a new girlfriend and head west. He adopted the new alias of George R. Kelly to help preserve the respect and name of his upstanding family back home. Kelly's luck continued to saw tooth with great monetary scores and several unfortunate predicaments. By 1927, Kelly had already started to earn his reputation in the underground world as a seasoned gangster, having weathered several arrests and serving various jail sentences. In 1928 he was caught smuggling liquor into an Indian Reservation and was sentenced to three years at Leavenworth Penitentiary.
After serving-out another long sentence at the State Penitentiary in New Mexico in 1929 for another similar conviction, Kelly gravitated to Oklahoma City where he hooked up with a small time bootlegger named Steve Anderson. Kelly soon fell for Anderson's attractive mistress Kathryn Thorne, a seasoned criminal in her own right. Thorne had come from a family of outlaws and had been arrested for various charges ranging from robbery to prostitution. Thorne was twice divorced and her second husband had been a bootlegger who had later been found shot to death under suspicious circumstances. The official determination of death was suicide, but many people (including one of the investigators) had long suspected that Kathryn was involved since only days before, she had made comments to a gas station attendant that she was going over to "kill that god-damned Charlie Thorne." Kelly and Kathryn became inseparable and married in Minneapolis in September of 1930.
Up until his relationship with Thorne, Kelly had been a relatively small time criminal. Kathryn's influence soon became obvious, as Kelly's crime sprees would launch him to the prestigious status of "Public Enemy Number One." Kathryn purchased a machine gun for Kelly and pressured her husband to practice. It was said her purpose was premeditated. She was a master at marketing her husband to the underground circles and public. She was known to take the spent gun cartridges and pass them around to acquaintances at many of the underground drinking clubs, introducing them as souvenirs from her husband "Machine Gun" Kelly.
Many historians (and fellow inmates of Kelly) believe that Kathryn was the creator of the "Machine Gun Kelly" image and became known as the mastermind behind several of the successful small bank robberies Kelly pulled off throughout Texas & Mississippi. In August of 1933, the FBI published Wanted Posters describing Kelly as an "Expert Machine Gunner" and created a public frenzy that would later place Kelly into the history books.
In July of 1933, Kathryn and Kelly plotted a scheme to kidnap wealthy oil tycoon & businessman Charles Urschel. Kelly, carrying his trademark Tommy Gun, and two other men carrying pistols entered the Urschel's mansion in Oklahoma City. The Urschels were playing a game of bridge with friends when Kelly stormed in threatening to "blow everyone's head off." Kelly's new hostages were non-cooperative and he was unable to determine which man was Urschel. The two men were forced into a sedan, covered with a tarp and searched for identification. Once they found the ID on Urschel's friend, a man by the name of Walter Jarret, they robbed him of $51 and left him on the side of a deserted road. Urschel was taken into hiding on a rural ranch in Texas and the Kelly Gang made demands for a $200,000 ransom.
The Urschel's family friend E.E. Kirkpatrick made drop arrangements and delivered the ransom in denominations of $20 bills. The money was delivered near the LaSalle Hotel in Kansas City on July 30th, ending the eight-day ordeal. The following day Urschel was released near Norman, Oklahoma, and casually walked into a restaurant to call for a cab. Urschel was sharp, and though blindfolded throughout the ordeal, made sure that his fingerprints were spread everywhere, counted his footsteps to various areas when blind folded, and audible sounds of his surroundings were mentally cataloged, all of which would later become useful in the FBI's investigation.
After splitting the ransom money with their accomplices, Kathryn and "Machine Gun" started state hopping trying to stay two steps ahead of law officials. From the several clues that Urschel was able to provide, the FBI raided the ranch and made an arrest of one of the other conspirators. The bills that had been used for payment in the ransom, had traceable serial records and the Center Bureau of Investigation (now the FBI) started a nationwide search for whom they now suspected was George R. Kelly.
George and Kathryn bounced around different states with Chicago becoming their main hub. Both dyed their hair to conceal their identities and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle. After several weeks in hiding, the couple finally made their way back to Memphis to stay with longtime friend John Tichenor. On the morning of September 26, 1933, Memphis police, along with FBI Agents, surrounded the Tichenor house and then made a violent forced entry. It was said at that moment, that Kelly coined the phrase: "G-Men, please don't shoot." Kelly was found badly hung over from the prior evening's drinking binge (still in his pajamas) and Kathryn was in bed still asleep. The couple was quickly flown to Oklahoma where they stood trial and both received life sentences. Eventually all of the accomplices were apprehended, and out of all of those involved, six were issued life sentences.
Kelly was transferred to Leavenworth in Kansas, and Kathryn was transferred to a federal prison in Cincinnati. Kelly was arrogant towards prison officials, and bragged to the press that he would escape, break out his wife and they would spend Christmas together. It was decided that these threats should be taken seriously and in August of 1934, Kelly along with his accomplices Albert Bates and Harvey Bailey, were transferred from Leavenworth by train to Alcatraz. Arriving on September 4, 1934, they would be among the first groups of prisoners. Kelly became AZ#117.
At Alcatraz, Kelly was constantly boasting about several robberies and murders that he and never committed. Although this was said to be an apparent point of frustration for several fellow prisoners, Warden Johnson considered him a model inmate. His life at Alcatraz was largely uneventful. He took a job as an altar boy in the prison chapel, worked in the laundry, held an administrative role in the industries office for a long period, and generally served out his time quietly. Warden Johnson made statements that Kelly would become depressed when receiving mail form family members, but rarely failed to write his full quota of letters. He seemed to feel remorse for his crimes and always felt that his wife Kathryn and the other accomplices were treated too harshly.
Inmate Willie Radkay, who shared a cell next to Kelly on the second tier of B Block, stated that he shared many fond memories getting to know him, working together in the prison industries along with Basil “The Owl” Banghart. Everyday they would work side by side, having to endure all of his “big” tales. When asked his most prominent memory of sharing a cell next to “Machine Gun,” he said that nearly every night he would accuse Willie of snoring, reach out of his cell and slap him in the head with a magazine. Warden Johnson also stated that Kelly wrote several remorseful letters to Urschel begging that he help plead his case. Urschel apparently never responded to any of Kelly’s letters.
George “Machine Gun” Kelly was returned to Leavenworth in 1951 and died of a heart attack on July 18, 1954. Ironically, it was his 59th birthday. Kathryn was released from prison in 1958 and took a job at an Oklahoma hospital as a bookkeeper."
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