Background
Kelly was born on July 17, 1895 in Memphis, Tennessee, United States.
Kelly was born on July 17, 1895 in Memphis, Tennessee, United States.
Kelly attended Central High School in Memphis. Later he studied at Tennessee A. and M. College.
During his first years as a small-time criminal, Kelly served several terms for violation of the prohibition law, vagrancy, and assorted petty offenses. A turning point in his life was his marriage in 1929 to Kathryn Shannon. Already twice married, she had been a prostitute, an accomplice for burglars, and a gun moll. It was she who led to Kelly's winning the sobriquet "Machine Gun" by purchasing his weapon for $250 from a pawnbroker in Fort Worth, Texas, and insisting that he master it through hours of practice in the countryside. Legend has it that he received his nickname after writing his name on the side of a barn with bullets fired from that gun.
Kelly and his wife organized a gang by recruiting former associates from Texas and adding others from Minneapolis and St. Paul. By 1933 Kelly was wanted on charges that included the machine-gun killing of four policemen and Frank Nash, a prisoner, at the Kansas City railroad station on June 17, 1933; the robbery of a Federal Reserve Bank messenger and the killing of a policeman in Chicago on September 21, 1933; the robbery of Federal Reserve Bank mail; and the killing of a policeman in St. Paul.
His most infamous crime was kidnapping of oil tycoon and businessman Charles F. Urschel. On July 22, 1933, Urschel was taken at gunpoint from his mansion by two armed and masked men, later identified as Kelly and Albert L. Bates. Blindfolded, he was driven for hours to his place of captivity. Throughout his nine-day ordeal Urschel dedicated himself to remembering every bump on the road, every sound, every odor, and every change of weather. Among other things he recalled a young woman saying: "Let's kill him. A dead man can't finger nobody. " Upon his release after the payment of a $200, 000 ransom, Urschel gave these details to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), enabling them to trace his place of captivity to the farm of Robert G. Shannon, Kathryn Kelly's stepfather, in Paradise, Texas, where several members of the gang, including Harvey Bailey, were apprehended. Kelly and his wife were not, however, among those arrested at the farm.
During Bailey's trial Kelly is alleged to have threatened reprisals against anyone who turned state's evidence. On September 26, 1933, Kelly and his wife were arrested in Memphis. When the FBI broke in on him, Kelly reportedly pleaded, "Don't shoot, G-men, don't shoot, " coining the term "G-men" for "government men. " In addition to locating the Kellys, FBI agents also found the bulk of the ransom money, tracing it to the farm of T. M. Coleman at Stratford, Okla.
Since January 1933 the ranch had served as a criminal clearinghouse in preparation for the Urschel kidnapping. Kelly's trial took on particular significance because it was one of the first tests of the Lindbergh kidnapping law, enacted after the abduction and murder of the son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. The capture and conviction of Kelly were offered as evidence that a tough federal law, enforced by the FBI, could rid the nation of kidnapping, even when that crime was committed by so formidable and ruthless a gang as Kelly's. Both the Kellys were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Machine Gun announced from Leavenworth: "I won't be in this spot long"; Kathryn proclaimed: "George will see me at Christmas. " Each was wrong. George Kelly died in prison. In 1956 Kathryn Kelly was granted a new trial on a technicality and was freed after nearly a quarter of a century in prison. Her case was never retried.
Machine Gun Kelley achieved his reputation as a notorious, Depression-era gangster, bank robber, and kidnapper. He was charged for bank robbery in four southwestern states. He became widely famous for the kidnapping of oil millionaire Charles F. Urschel, Oklahoma City's richest and politically most powerful citizen.
Quotes from others about the person
"Kelly and his gang of Southwestern desperadoes are regarded as the most dangerous ever encountered. "
Kelly married his first wife, a graduate from Columbia Institute, in Clarksville, Mississippi, in 1919. Seven years later Kelly's wife announced divorce proceedings through a public advertisement because she "didn't know where to reach him. " She said that she was divorcing him because " he was running in bad company. " Kelly married his second wife, Kathryn Thorne in 1929.
