Machine gun Kelly

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By Rebecca Nash and Lana west

His first sign of trouble began

when he enrolled into Mississippi

State University to study agriculture

in 1917.

He was considered a poor

student from the start.

His highest grade was a C+

given to him for good physical

hygiene.

He was almost always in

trouble with teachers, and spent

most of his time as a student

attempting to work off the demerits

he had earned.

Trouble Begins

The Bootlegger During his time as a student, Kelly met a

young woman named Geneva Ramsey.

He quickly fell in love with her, and decided

to quit school and marry.

They had two kids.

To make financial ends meet, he

obtained a job as a cab driver in Memphis.

He worked long hours with little reward

for his time.

Kelly wasn’t able to pay the bills for his

family, so he left Geneva and their children.

Around this time, he started to work for

a small time gangster as a bootlegger.

He started to enjoy the rewards of his

new trade.

A Seasoned Gangster After being arrested on several

occasions for illegal trafficking, Kelly decided

to leave Memphis along with a new girlfriend

and head west.

He took on the name George R. Kelly to

help preserve his families dignity back home.

By 1927, Kelly had already started to

earn his reputation in the underground world

as a seasoned gangster.

He had been through 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.

Kathryn Thorne Kelly served out another long-time sentence in the State

Penitentiary in New Mexico for a similar occurrence.

After his release, he gravitated towards Oklahoma City

where he hooked up with a small time bootlegger named Steve

Anderson.

He soon fell in love with Anderson’s mistress, Kathryn

Thorne, a seasoned criminal of her own.

She had come from a family of outlaws.

Kathryn had been charged for almost everything.

She 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.

Kelly and Kathryn became inseparable and married in

Minneapolis in September of 1930.

Kathryn Thorne

The Machine Gun Up until his relationship with Thorne,

Kelly had been a relatively small time

criminal.

Kathryn purchased a machine gun for

Kelly and pressured her husband to

practice.

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.

The Kidnap 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.“

Their new hostages were uncooperative and he was unable

to tell which man was Urschel.

The two hostiges were forced into a sedan, covered with a

tarp and searched for identification.

Once they found an 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.

Charles Urschel 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.

The Nationwide Search

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.

Kelly was found badly hung over from the prior evening's

drinking binge (still in his pajamas) and Kathryn was still asleep.

The couple was quickly flown to Oklahoma where they stood

trial and both received life sentences.

They didn’t have much of a gang, but six of those who

helped them also received life sentences.

Sentenced For Life

AZ #117 Kelly was transferred to Leavenworth in

Kansas, and Kathryn was transferred to a

federal prison in Cincinnati.

Kelly bragged 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 was transferred to Alcatraz.

Two other members of his ‘gang’ were

transferred with him.

They arrived on September 4th, 1934,

and became one of the first group of

prisoners.

He became AZ #117.

Alcatraz

At Alcatraz, Kelly was constantly boasting

about robberies and murders he had never

committed.

Although he had been a major point of

frustration to many inmates, Warden Johnson

considered him a model inmate.

He took a job as an Alter Boy at the

prison chapel.

He would become depressed when he

received mail from family members.

Kelly wrote many letters to Urshel

begging that he would help plead his case.

These letters were never responded to.

Kelly on Alcatraz

George “Machine Gun”

Kelly was returned to

Leavenworth in 1951.

He died of a heart attack

on July 18, 1958.

Ironically, it was his 59th

birthday.

Kathryn was released from

prison in 1958.

She took a job at a

hospital in Oklahoma as a

bookkeeper.

July 18th, 1958