George Kelly Barnes was born in Memphis, Tennessee in July of 1895 (this date has been disputed) his father was an insurance company executive in Memphis and George was given the chance at a normal life, including a college education at Mississippi State College. George dropped out of college after only a few months and got involved with bootleggers.
BOOTLEGGING:
George was born during the turbulent times when prohibition was the law of the day and those who sought an easy dollar and didn’t mind going against the establishment could make handfuls of money by supplying people with what they wanted “liquor.”
Arrested several times for bootlegging related crimes George spent time behind bars where he would meet and develop relationships with hardened criminals who would not only further his education on bootlegging but introduce him to the more lucrative and violent crime of bank robbery.
MID-WEST CRIME WAVE: ( late 1920’s - mid 1930’s )
During the depression-era in American history many legendary crime figures emerged from the dust and poverty of the struggling population to use crime as a way of protesting the wealthy banks and corporations who many felt were hording the wealth and squeezing the average people unfairly and doing nothing to help the economy.
George “Machine Gun Kelley” was one of the first of these outlaws to emerge on the scene and refuse to work for meager wages and made the conscience decision to make crime his profession. Shortly before 1930 he would meet his second wife “Cleo Brooks” later known as Kathryn Kelly.
Kathryn came from a crime family and was married several times to various bad characters and whose family included bootleggers, thieves, and prostitutes. Kathryn encouraged and supported George’s criminal ways and even bought him his first machine gun and gave him his infamous nickname.
KELLY’S CRIME SPREE BEGINS:
Shortly after George was paroled from Leavenworth prison in July of 1930 he participated in his first bank hold-up in Minnesota by helping lifelong convicts Jimmy Keating and Thomas Holden and a few others rob the Bank of Willmar, Minnesota of an estimated 70,000 dollars.
In September 1930 he took part in the heist on the bank of Ottumwa, Iowa along with Keating, Holden, and others, and struck again on April 8th 1931 by stealing 40,000 from the Central State Bank of Sherman, Texas.
George continued to rob banks and formed a partnership with thug Albert L. Bates who was a career criminal with convictions dating back to 1916 for burglary. Together they and a third man Eddie Bentz robbed the Colfax First Trust and Savings Bank in Colfax, Washington getting away with 77,000 dollars, and Machine Gun Kelly and associates struck again in November of 1932 in Mississippi by robbing the Citizens State Bank of Tupelo and adding 38,000 to their already impressive purse of stolen money.
THE KIDNAPPING OF CHARLES F. URSCHEL:
Machine Gun Kelly had tried several times to profit by the lucid crime of kidnapping but several attempts had been bungled. But in July of 1933 along with his partner Bates, millionaire Charles F. Urschel was forcefully kidnapped at the point of Kelly’s “tommy gun.”
This crime would be Kelly’s most successful crime netting 200,000 in ransom money, but would ultimately be the crime that would fuel the F.B.I to greater heights of action and bring George’s crime spree to a dramatic conclusion. The kidnapping was the most high profile kidnapping since Lindbergh and many powerful people took notice including F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover and president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The end came on September 12th 1933 when F.B.I. agents raided the home they suspected George and Kathryn to be holding up in. The arrest was made without incident and a popular legend was born when it was reported that “Machine Gun Kelly” uttered the famous words, “Don’t shoot G-Men” referring to the F.B.I. agents as “Government Men” a nickname that would stick.
Machine Gun Kelly, Kathryn Kelly, and Bates were all convicted and sentenced to life in prison. George would serve time in “Alcatraz” prison in San Francisco and ultimately be transferred to Leavenworth Penitentiary in 1951 and died of a heart attack on July 17th 1954 at the age of fifty-four.
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