George Kelly Barnes (July 18, 1895 – July 18, 1954),
better known by his pseudonym "Machine Gun Kelly", was an American
gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...
from
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
, active during
the Prohibition era. His nickname came from his favorite weapon, a
Thompson submachine gun
The Thompson submachine gun (also known as the "Tommy Gun", "Chicago Typewriter", "Chicago Piano", “Trench Sweeper” or "Trench Broom") is a blowback-operated, air-cooled, magazine-fed selective-fire submachine gun, invented by United Sta ...
. He is best known for the kidnapping of oil tycoon and businessman
Charles F. Urschel
Charles Frederick Urschel (March 7, 1890 – September 26, 1970) was an American oil business tycoon and kidnap victim of George "Machine Gun" Kelly.
Urschel eventually helped solve the crime himself by carefully noting every piece of eviden ...
in July 1933, from which he and his gang collected a $200,000 ransom. Urschel had collected and left considerable evidence that assisted the subsequent
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
investigation, which eventually led to Kelly's arrest in
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
, on September 26, 1933.
His crimes also included
bootlegging and
armed robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...
.
Early life
Kelly's first sign of trouble came when he enrolled in
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.
Career
During the
Prohibition era
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic be ...
of the 1920s and 1930s, Kelly worked as a
bootlegger for himself as well as a colleague.
After a short time, and several run-ins with the local Memphis police, he decided to leave town and head west with his girlfriend. To protect his family and to escape law enforcement officers, he changed his name to George R. Kelly.
He continued to commit smaller crimes and bootlegging. He was arrested in
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...
, in 1928, for smuggling liquor onto a Native American Reservation, and sentenced to three years at
Leavenworth Penitentiary, Kansas, beginning February 11, 1928. He was reportedly a model inmate and was released early. Shortly thereafter, Kelly married
Kathryn Thorne, an experienced criminal who purchased Kelly's first machine gun and insisteddespite his lack of interest in weaponson his performing target practice in the countryside, and went to great lengths to familiarize his name within underground crime circles.
Kelly's last criminal activity – the July 1933 kidnapping of wealthy
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...
resident
Charles F. Urschel
Charles Frederick Urschel (March 7, 1890 – September 26, 1970) was an American oil business tycoon and kidnap victim of George "Machine Gun" Kelly.
Urschel eventually helped solve the crime himself by carefully noting every piece of eviden ...
and his friend Walter R. Jarrett – would become his undoing. The Kellys demanded a ransom of $200,000 ($ million today), and held Urschel at the farm of Kathryn's mother and step-father.
Urschel, having been blindfolded, made note of evidence of his experience, including remembering background sounds, counting footsteps and leaving
fingerprint
A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfac ...
s on surfaces in reach. This proved invaluable for the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
in its investigation, as agents concluded that Urschel had been held in
Paradise, Texas
Paradise is a city in Wise County, Texas, United States. The population was 475 in 2020.
According to tradition, the area was a cowboy's "paradise", hence the name.
In 1985, Blue Bell Ice Cream filmed a television commercial in Paradise, TX. T ...
, based on sounds that Urschel remembered hearing while he was being held hostage.
An investigation conducted in Memphis disclosed that the Kellys were living at the residence of J. C. Tichenor. Special agents from
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...
, were immediately dispatched to Memphis, where, in the early morning hours of September 26, 1933, a raid was conducted. George and Kathryn Kelly were taken into custody by FBI agents and Memphis police. It is often reported that Kelly was caught without a weapon and allegedly shouted, "Don't shoot,
G-Men! Don't shoot, G-Men!" as he surrendered to FBI agents. This version of events appears to be a media myth created months after the arrest. Another version of the raid alleged Kelly had a pistol in his hand, but with a shotgun aimed at his heart he surrendered mumbling something along the lines of "I've been expecting you." However, the FBI's earliest account of the event was written between three and five days after Kelly’s arrest and states: "Agent Rorer saw that Kelly…had proceeded into the front bedroom and was in a corner with his hands raised. He was covered by
emphis PoliceSergeant
ame withheld" with Kelly not reported to have spoken at all.
The arrest of the Kellys was overshadowed by the escape of ten inmates, including all of the members of the future
Dillinger gang, from the penitentiary in
Michigan City, Indiana, that same night.
The trial was held at the
Post Office, Courthouse, and Federal Office Building
The United States Post Office and Courthouse, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is a historic post office, courthouse, and Federal office building built in 1912 and located at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. It previousl ...
in Oklahoma City with Judge
Edgar S. Vaught presiding.
On October 12, 1933, George and Kathryn Kelly were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
An investigation in
Coleman, Texas
Coleman is a town in and the county seat of Coleman County, Texas, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 4,709.
Geography
Coleman is located north of the center of Coleman County at (31.827694, −99.425689). U.S. Routes 84 a ...
, disclosed that the Kellys had been housed and protected by Cassey Earl Coleman and Will Casey, and that Coleman had assisted George Kelly in storing $73,250 of the Urschel ransom money on his ranch. This money was located by Bureau agents in the early morning hours of September 27 in a cotton patch on Coleman's ranch. They were both indicted in
Dallas, Texas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...
, on October 4, 1933, charged with harboring a fugitive and conspiracy, and on October 17, 1933, Coleman, after entering a plea of guilty, was sentenced to serve one year and one day, and Casey, after trial and conviction, was sentenced to serve two years in the
United States Penitentiary at
Leavenworth, Kansas.
The kidnapping of Urschel and the two trials that resulted were historic in several ways. They were:
# the first federal criminal trials in the United States in which film cameras were allowed;
# the first kidnapping trials after the passage of the
Lindbergh Law, which made
kidnapping a
federal crime;
# the first major case solved by
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation � ...
's FBI; and
# the first prosecution in which defendants
were transported by airplane.
Death
Machine Gun Kelly spent his remaining 21 years in prison. During his time at
Alcatraz
Alcatraz Island () is a small island in San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military pris ...
, he got the nickname "Pop Gun Kelly." According to fellow inmate Dale Stamphill, the nickname originated because, "He told big fish stories. The cons called him ‘Pop Gun Kelly’ after
cork guns that were popular with kids...the guys didn’t take him seriously...." This may have stemmed from the fact that, in addition to his exaggerated tall tales, Kelly was a model prisoner and did not act like the brutal gangster his wife, the media, and FBI had made him out to be. He spent 17 years on Alcatraz as inmate number 117, working in the prison industries, continuing to boast and exaggerate his past escapades to other inmates, and was quietly transferred back to Leavenworth in 1951. He died of a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
at Leavenworth on July 18, 1954, his 59th birthday, and was buried at Cottondale Texas Cemetery in Kathryn Kelly's stepfather's family plot with a small headstone marked "George B. Kelley 1954".
Kathryn Kelly was released from prison in 1958 and lived in relative anonymity in Oklahoma under the assumed name "
Lera Cleo Kelly" until her death in 1985 at the age of 81.
In popular culture
Machine Gun Kelly and his crimes are portrayed in films such as ''
Machine-Gun Kelly'' (1958), ''
The FBI Story
''The FBI Story'' is a 1959 American drama film starring James Stewart, and produced and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. The screenplay by Richard L. Breen and John Twist is based on a book by Don Whitehead.
Plot
John Michael ("Chip") Hardesty ( Jam ...
'' (1959) and ''
Melvin Purvis: G-Man'' (1974).
Crime novelist
Ace Atkins' 2010 book ''Infamous'' is based on the Urschel kidnapping and on George and Kathryn Kelly. Kelly is (along with
Pretty Boy Floyd
Charles Arthur Floyd (February 3, 1904 – October 22, 1934), nicknamed Pretty Boy Floyd, was an American bank robber. He operated in the West and Central states, and his criminal exploits gained widespread press coverage in the 1930s. He was s ...
and
Baby Face Nelson
Lester Joseph Gillis (December 6, 1908 – November 27, 1934), also known as George Nelson and Baby Face Nelson, was an American bank robber who became a criminal partner of John Dillinger, when he helped Dillinger escape from prison, in Crown P ...
) one of the main characters of the comic book series ''
Pretty, Baby, Machine
''Pretty, Baby, Machine'' (also known as ''Pretty Baby Machine'') is a three-issue comic book limited series written by Clark Westerman with art by Kody Chamberlain, and released by Image Comics through their ShadowLine studio in 2008.
The titl ...
''.
George and Kathryn Kelly were the inspiration for "Machine Gun Kelly" (1970), a song written by
Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar and recorded by
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, havi ...
on his 1971 album ''
Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon
''Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon'' is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter James Taylor, released in April 1971 by Warner Bros. Records. The album was recorded between early January and late February of the same year.
Relea ...
''.
Machine Gun Kelly
George Kelly Barnes (July 18, 1895 – July 18, 1954), better known by his pseudonym "Machine Gun Kelly", was an American gangster from Memphis, Tennessee, active during the Prohibition era. His nickname came from his favorite weapon, a Thom ...
is the stage name for American musician Colson Baker.
Kelly was an inspiration to the popular UK punk band, The
Angelic Upstarts
Angelic Upstarts are an English punk rock / Oi! band formed in South Shields in 1977. AllMusic calls them "one of the period's most politically charged and thought-provoking groups". Angelic Upstarts Biography AllMusic. accessed 3 July 2006 T ...
, for their track “Machine Gun Kelly” written by Thomas ‘Mensi’ Mensforth.
References
Further reading
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External links
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FBI file on George "Machine Gun Kelly" Barnes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Machine Gun
1895 births
1954 deaths
American bank robbers
American people convicted of kidnapping
American people who died in prison custody
American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
American bootleggers
American gangsters of Irish descent
American gangsters
Depression-era gangsters
Inmates of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary
People from Memphis, Tennessee
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States federal government
Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government
Prisoners who died in United States federal government detention