Machine Gun Kelly (criminal)
George F. Barnes Jr. , also known as George "Machine Gun" Kelly Barnes (born July 18, 1895 in Chicago , † July 18, 1954 in Leavenworth , Kansas ) was an American criminal of the Prohibition era .
Life
Kelly came from a wealthy Memphis , Tennessee family, but was born in Chicago, Illinois. He left the University of Mississippi and worked in a variety of professions. Kelly's marriage to Kathryn Ramsey (née Thorne) resulted in two children. After falling out with his wife and parents, he became an alcohol smuggler during the prohibition era. Police intervened to force Kelly to go to the western United States with his wife.
The kidnapping of Charles F. Urschel
In 1928 he was in Tulsa , Oklahoma arrested and due to alcohol trade to three years in prison in Leavenworth prison ( Kansas sentenced). He was released early because of good conduct. With several accomplices, Kelly kidnapped Oklahoma City businessman Charles F. Urschel and his friend Walter R. Jarrett after his release . Urschel later managed to provide detailed information about the location of his imprisonment and thereby supported the police. Eventually Kelly's whereabouts, Memphis, was found out.
History of the nickname
Kelly got his well-known nickname - who in fact almost never used a submachine gun - according to the most common version by his wife, who is said to have tried in this way to give him a "notorious" reputation in crime circles. It was allegedly also who brought George Kelly together with other criminals. The nickname spread in the media through the discovery of a submachine gun at Urschel's abduction site. Investigators later managed to identify Kathryn Kelly as the buyer of the gun. Since the name "Machine Gun" was used by the press in the following years, when Barnes / Kelly was reported, it ultimately remained as a permanent epithet.
Arrested by the FBI
On September 26, 1933 Kelly was arrested by members of the FBI and the Memphis police in a raid and sentenced on October 2, 1933, like Kathryn Kelly, to life imprisonment . George Kelly was initially housed in Leavenworth Federal Prison in Kansas. After boasting several times about an impending outbreak, he was transferred to the maximum security prison in Alcatraz (island near San Francisco ) in August 1934 . In 1951 he was transferred back to Leavenworth Federal Prison , where he died of a heart attack in 1954 at the age of 59.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ William J. Helmer, Rick Mattix: The Complete Public Enemy Almanac. Cumberland House, Nashville 2007, ISBN 978-1-58182-506-0 , p. 58.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Machine Gun Kelly |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Barnes Jr., George F. (real name); Kelly Barnes, George R. (pseudonym) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American gangster |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 18, 1895 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chicago |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 18, 1954 |
| Place of death | Leavenworth, Kansas |