Wednesday, July 26, 1933

Pauline and Gweyn and Baby Doll were over. Mother is up today. Today was girl's day at the swimming pool but I didn't get to go.

                                                      

George "Machine Gun" Kelly being led from the
Shelby County, TN, jail for his trip to Oklahoma
City, where his and Kathryn's trial was held

Continued from July 25 ...

In October 1933, George and Katherine Kelly were convicted and sentenced to life
imprisonment. Their accomplices were tried separately but received the same
sentence. The trials were held at the Post Office, Courthouse and Federal
Office Building in Oklahoma City. Eventually all chages against Kathryn
Kelly were dropped, and she was released in released from prison in 1958.

The kidnapping of Urschel and the two trials that resulted were historic in several ways:
 1) they were the first, last, and only federal criminal trials in the United States in
which moving cameras were allowed to film; 2) the first kidnapping trials after the
passage of the so-called Lindbergh Law, which made kidnapping a federal crime; 
3) the first major case solved by J. Edgar Hoover's evolving and powerful FBI.
For that, and for bragging he was going to break out of Leavenworth and get
Kathryn out in time for them to spend Christmas together, Kelly got sent to
 Alcatraz; 4) the first crime in which defendants were transported by airplane.
At the time, it was the largest ransom ever paid in the United States.

George "Machine Gun" Kelly was eventually transported back to Leavenworth,
where he died of heart trouble. After she was released from prison, Kathryn
returned to Oklahoma and worked as a bookkeeper until her death.

The End (of this crime story, anyway)

Tuesday, July 25, 1933

Aunt Kate, Uncle Laten and Helen were by this morning. I got me a book to read and an ice cream cone today. I cooked the dinner and supper.




George "Machine Gun" Kelly and Kathryn Kelly's hideout
1408 Rayner Street in Memphis, TN 2010

Continued from July 24, 1933

Having been blindfolded throughout his ordeal, Charles F. Urschel made sure to
foil his kidnappers by noting all possible evidence of his experience such as
background sounds, counting footsteps and leaving fingerprints on every surface
in reach. This proved invaluable for the FBI in their investigation, as they soon
learned that Urschel had been held in Paradise, Texas. The house there was
raided and several of the Kellys' accomplices were arrested.

After bouncing around different states, dyeing their hair, and enjoying a lavish
lifestyle on the ransom money, the Kellys finally headed to George's hometown.
An investigation conducted at Memphis disclosed that after 56 days on the run,
the Kellys were staying at the residence of J.C. Tichenor. Special Agents from
Birmingham, Alabama, were immediately dispatched to Memphis, where, in the
early morning hours of September 26, 1933, a raid was conducted. George and
Katherine Kelly were taken into custody by FBI Agents and the Memphis Police.

Caught without a weapon, George Kelly supposedly cried, "Don’t shoot,
G-Men! Don’t shoot, G-Men!" as he surrendered to FBI Agents. The term
 (which had applied to all federal investigators, meaning simply 'Government Men')
became synonymous with FBI Agents. Reports of the raid, however, indicate
 that George Kelly came to the door, dropped his pistol and said, "I’ve been
waiting for you all night." Recent research revealed a 1933 newspaper interview
 with one of the federal agents at the arrest. He commented that, upon their arrest,
Katherine Kelly put her arms around George and said, "These G-men will
never leave us alone." The FBI press machine generated the G-Man
story to build its own reputation

To be continued . . .

Monday, July 24, 1933

Mother got sick today like I am. She washed clothes this morning. I went out and played a little in the evening. Sure was hot.

Kathryn Thorne Kelly (Mrs. George "Machine Gun" Kelly)
Born Cleo May Brooks, 18 March 1904 — Died 28 May 1985
Kidnapper and Gun Moll - gave her husband his first machine gun
Considered by the U. S. Department of Justice as the "brains of the Urschel kidnapping"

Continued from July 23, 1933 . . .


Having been burned once already when an Indiana kidnapping she and George carried
out  resulted in no ransom being paid, Kathryn was determined that the kidnapping of
Oklahoma oilman Charles F. Urschel would pay off big time. Urschel was held for nine
days, during which time several letters were sent to his family and friends demanding
 $200,000 for his release.


Following the instructions in the letters, $200,000 in used $20 notes of the Federal
Reserve Bank, Tenth District, was obtained and the serial numbers recorded. They
were placed in a new, light-colored leather Gladstone bag. At the same time,
another identical bag was purchased and filled with old magazines, in case of a
hijacking attempt. As a precaution, it was decided that two of Urschel's trusted
friends would take the money to Kansas City, as instructed. By prearrangement, 
one man sat just inside the rear end of the observation car, while the other sat on
the observation platform with the bag containing the magazines. Unbeknownst to
 them, Kathryn Kelly was also on that train.


Once the ransom was paid, Urschel was returned to his family. He was exhausted and
still in shock, but otherwise unharmed. That was when the FBI went to work . . .

To be continued . . .

Sunday, July 23, 1933

I felt better today. Went to church. I got some oranges and lemons. Raiferts went over to Mart's yesterday, but Mr. Raifert was over today.

George Kelly Barnes (July 18, 1895 – July 18, 1954)
AKA "Machine Gun" Kelly

At 11:15 p.m., on Saturday, July 22, 1933, Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Urschel, one of Oklahoma's wealthiest couples, were playing bridge with their friends, Mr. and Mrs. Walter R. Jarrett, on a screened porch of the Urschel residence at Oklahoma City. Two men, one armed with a machine gun and the other with a pistol, opened the screen door and inquired which of the two men was Mr. Urschel. Receiving no reply, they remarked, "Well, we will take both of them." After warning the women against calling for help, they marched Urschel and Jarrett to where they had driven their car, put them into the back of the Chevrolet sedan, and drove rapidly away.

Mrs. Urschel, in accordance with the Attorney General's advice to the public, immediately telephoned J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), United States Department of Justice. Special Agents were sent to Oklahoma City, where an extensive investigation commenced.

At 1:00 a.m., Sunday, July 23, 1933, Jarrett made his way back to the Urschel residence. The victims had been driven to the outskirts of the city, where they had turned right on a dirt road parallel to the 23rd Street Highway and had proceeded northeast to a point about twelve miles from the city. After crossing a small bridge and arriving at an intersection, they had put Jarrett out of the car after they had identified him and had taken fifty dollars which he had in his wallet, warning him not to tell the direction the kidnappers had gone. He stated that after he was released the car proceeded south ...

To be continued

Tuesday, May 30, 1933

If, in Gym, we wanted to we could play baseball. Otherwise we could sit in the shade. Which most of us did.

Harvey John Bailey (August 23, 1887 - March 1, 1979)
"Dean of the Midwestern Bank Robbers"

Bailey was incarcerated in the Kansas State Penitentiary (Cell Block A) in Lansing on July 8, 1932,
 until he escaped with ten other convicts on May 30, 1933. During the breakout Warden Kirk
Prather was kidnapped and used as a human shield (he was later released unharmed). Bailey was
 shot in the right knee after going over the wall. He eventually made his way to Oklahoma, where
he joined with George "Machine Gun" Kelly and three other conspirators in kidnapping banker
 Charles F. Urschel. He was recaptured and sentenced to life in prison. Released in 1964, he died in
Joplin, Missouri.