Okla-homey
6/15/2006, 06:57 AM
June 15, 1933 George "Machine Gun" Kelly becomes a kidnapper
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/8805/machinegunkelly8yt.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
George "Machine Gun" Kelly
73 years ago today, George "Machine Gun" Kelly's first attempt at kidnapping is foiled when his wife gets drunk and blabs the plan to a couple of men who warn the intended victim. Following the old adage, if at first you don't succeed, the next month Kelly successfully abducted his first victim, millionaire OKC oilman Charles Urschel, and collected a $200,000 ransom before his capture by the FBI.
Born to a wealthy and prominent family in Memphis and named George Kelly Barnes, he flunked out of Mississippi State University while pursuing a degree in agriculture to pursue Geneva Ramsey, and then a life of crime.
The couple married, had two children, but not wanting to rely on his family's money, struggled to make ends meet. His father was also not inclined to help George because of what had happened at Mississippi State, and because the elder Barnes didn't approve of the "trashy" Geneva Ramsey.
Money strained the relationship, and Geneva eventually left him. This was during Prohibition, and George found work with a bootlegger. After a short time, and several run-ins with the local Memphis police, he decided to leave town and head to Oklahoma.
To protect his children and escape law enforcement officers, he changed his name from George Barnes to George R. Kelly.
In OKC, he met Kathryn Cleo Brooks where she was the mistress of "Little Steve" Anderson, a local bootlegger. Kathryn had a criminal record for shoplifting, robbery, prostitution, and receiving stolen goods. George and Kathryn fell in love and ran away together with Anderson's new Cadillac and his prized English bulldog. [perhaps an outgrowth of his old college memories cheering on the Mississippi State University Bulldogs?;) ]
Kathryn Kelly was twenty-three when they met but had already been married a few times. She faked the suicide of her third husband in 1927 after falling in love with George. Kathryn and George were married in September 1930. Kathryn thought George had the stuff to be a big-time gangster and encouraged him in that direction.
Kathryn bought George a new Thompson machine gun and nagged him until he agreed to practice using it. Then she would go to the bars and hang out with the local mobsters, handing out spent cartridges from Kelly's machine gun.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/662/goga55machinegun7exb0ku.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Thompson sub-machine gun circa 1930. Nicknamed the "Tommy Gun" or "Chopper," it spewed .45 ACP rounds and could be very devastating at close range. It was tough to fire accurately in "automatic" mode because the muzzle tended to rise making it hard to stay on the target.
While George was away recovering from a disease, Kathryn told everyone that he was out robbing banks.
Kelly continued to commit smaller crimes and bootlegging. He was arrested in Tulsa for smuggling liquor onto an Indian Reservation in 1928, and sentenced for three years to Leavenworth Penitentiary, Kansas. Sent to Leavenworth on February 11, 1928, new wife Kathryn used the opportunity to spread more rumors about George's robbery exploits. George even started to get in on the act when he found that a tough reputation made things easier for him in the klink.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/5900/gkelly0cn.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
George and Kathryn Kelly
When he was released, Kathryn showed him newspaper clippings about Bonnie and Clyde and Pretty Boy Floyd and hectored him into joining a bank robbery gang
"Machine Gun" Kelly's bank robbery career was quite undistinguished. He helped hit a few small banks in the South before giving it up. That's when Kathryn convinced him that kidnapping was where real money could be made. The timing wasn't exactly ideal because this was just after the uproar over the murder of Charles Lindbergh's baby had made kidnapping a capital offense. :eek:
After collecting the ransom and releasing Urschel, George and Kathryn fled to Chicago where they spent the money as fast as they could.
Cracking the case was made easier by the wealthy kidnapped OKC oilman himself. Urschel, having been blindfolded, made sure to foil his kidnappers by leaving fingerprints on every surface in reach. This in turn proved invaluable for the FBI in their investigation.
The FBI closed in on the couple quickly and during the arrest in a sleazy Chicago hotel, Kelly is reported to have shouted, "Don't shoot, G-men!" Legend has it that this was the first recorded instance that FBI agents had been referred to as G-men -- but some believe the tale was made up by FBI PR types.
Tried in OKC, both the Kelly's got life sentences. His fellow inmates eventually figured out Kelly was really a poser who benefitted greatly from his wife Kathryn's bragging and successful efforts to portray him as a dangerous machine gunning desperado. They eventually began to call him "Pop-gun Kelly."
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/7497/usprison1gn.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
George Kelly's last home.
After twenty-one years in the big house, "Pop-gun" Kelly died of a heart attack on his 59th birthday in Leavenworth. Kathryn lived to see parole in 1958. After her parole, it is believed she lived quietly in Oklahoma with her mother Ora.
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/8475/insane7zo4ds.jpg
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/8805/machinegunkelly8yt.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
George "Machine Gun" Kelly
73 years ago today, George "Machine Gun" Kelly's first attempt at kidnapping is foiled when his wife gets drunk and blabs the plan to a couple of men who warn the intended victim. Following the old adage, if at first you don't succeed, the next month Kelly successfully abducted his first victim, millionaire OKC oilman Charles Urschel, and collected a $200,000 ransom before his capture by the FBI.
Born to a wealthy and prominent family in Memphis and named George Kelly Barnes, he flunked out of Mississippi State University while pursuing a degree in agriculture to pursue Geneva Ramsey, and then a life of crime.
The couple married, had two children, but not wanting to rely on his family's money, struggled to make ends meet. His father was also not inclined to help George because of what had happened at Mississippi State, and because the elder Barnes didn't approve of the "trashy" Geneva Ramsey.
Money strained the relationship, and Geneva eventually left him. This was during Prohibition, and George found work with a bootlegger. After a short time, and several run-ins with the local Memphis police, he decided to leave town and head to Oklahoma.
To protect his children and escape law enforcement officers, he changed his name from George Barnes to George R. Kelly.
In OKC, he met Kathryn Cleo Brooks where she was the mistress of "Little Steve" Anderson, a local bootlegger. Kathryn had a criminal record for shoplifting, robbery, prostitution, and receiving stolen goods. George and Kathryn fell in love and ran away together with Anderson's new Cadillac and his prized English bulldog. [perhaps an outgrowth of his old college memories cheering on the Mississippi State University Bulldogs?;) ]
Kathryn Kelly was twenty-three when they met but had already been married a few times. She faked the suicide of her third husband in 1927 after falling in love with George. Kathryn and George were married in September 1930. Kathryn thought George had the stuff to be a big-time gangster and encouraged him in that direction.
Kathryn bought George a new Thompson machine gun and nagged him until he agreed to practice using it. Then she would go to the bars and hang out with the local mobsters, handing out spent cartridges from Kelly's machine gun.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/662/goga55machinegun7exb0ku.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Thompson sub-machine gun circa 1930. Nicknamed the "Tommy Gun" or "Chopper," it spewed .45 ACP rounds and could be very devastating at close range. It was tough to fire accurately in "automatic" mode because the muzzle tended to rise making it hard to stay on the target.
While George was away recovering from a disease, Kathryn told everyone that he was out robbing banks.
Kelly continued to commit smaller crimes and bootlegging. He was arrested in Tulsa for smuggling liquor onto an Indian Reservation in 1928, and sentenced for three years to Leavenworth Penitentiary, Kansas. Sent to Leavenworth on February 11, 1928, new wife Kathryn used the opportunity to spread more rumors about George's robbery exploits. George even started to get in on the act when he found that a tough reputation made things easier for him in the klink.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/5900/gkelly0cn.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
George and Kathryn Kelly
When he was released, Kathryn showed him newspaper clippings about Bonnie and Clyde and Pretty Boy Floyd and hectored him into joining a bank robbery gang
"Machine Gun" Kelly's bank robbery career was quite undistinguished. He helped hit a few small banks in the South before giving it up. That's when Kathryn convinced him that kidnapping was where real money could be made. The timing wasn't exactly ideal because this was just after the uproar over the murder of Charles Lindbergh's baby had made kidnapping a capital offense. :eek:
After collecting the ransom and releasing Urschel, George and Kathryn fled to Chicago where they spent the money as fast as they could.
Cracking the case was made easier by the wealthy kidnapped OKC oilman himself. Urschel, having been blindfolded, made sure to foil his kidnappers by leaving fingerprints on every surface in reach. This in turn proved invaluable for the FBI in their investigation.
The FBI closed in on the couple quickly and during the arrest in a sleazy Chicago hotel, Kelly is reported to have shouted, "Don't shoot, G-men!" Legend has it that this was the first recorded instance that FBI agents had been referred to as G-men -- but some believe the tale was made up by FBI PR types.
Tried in OKC, both the Kelly's got life sentences. His fellow inmates eventually figured out Kelly was really a poser who benefitted greatly from his wife Kathryn's bragging and successful efforts to portray him as a dangerous machine gunning desperado. They eventually began to call him "Pop-gun Kelly."
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/7497/usprison1gn.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
George Kelly's last home.
After twenty-one years in the big house, "Pop-gun" Kelly died of a heart attack on his 59th birthday in Leavenworth. Kathryn lived to see parole in 1958. After her parole, it is believed she lived quietly in Oklahoma with her mother Ora.
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/8475/insane7zo4ds.jpg