George Kelly Barnes, the man history remembers as Machine Gun Kelly, rose from a failed college student to one of the most notorious criminals of the Prohibition era. His nickname came from his preferred weapon, the Thompson submachine gun, but his most infamous act was the kidnapping of Oklahoma City oil tycoon Charles F. Urschel in July 1933. That crime ultimately led to his capture and a life sentence in federal prison.
Kelly’s first signs of trouble appeared in 1917 when he enrolled at Mississippi State University to study agriculture. He was considered a poor student from the start, with his highest grade awarded for good physical hygiene. He spent most of his academic career working off demerits rather than excelling in his studies. During this period, Kelly met a young woman named Geneva Ramsey.
He quickly fell in love and abruptly dropped out of school to marry her. The couple had two sons, but Kelly struggled to hold a job and support his family. The marriage ended in divorce soon after. During the 1920s and 1930s, Kelly worked as a bootlegger, both on his own and with a colleague.
After several run-ins with the Memphis Police, he decided to leave town with his girlfriend and head west. He changed his name to George Achilles to protect his family and avoid law enforcement. Despite the new identity, Kelly continued committing minor offenses and bootlegging. In 1928, he was arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for smuggling liquor onto a Native American reservation.
He was sentenced to three years in Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas, beginning February 11, 1928. He was described as a model inmate and was released early. Shortly after his release, Kelly married Kathryn Thorne, an experienced criminal who purchased Kelly’s first machine gun. She insisted he practice target shooting in the countryside, despite his lack of interest in weapons.
She also worked hard to build his reputation within underground crime circles. Kelly’s final criminal act was the kidnapping of Charles F. Urschel from his Oklahoma City home on July 22, 1933, with the help of accomplice Albert Bates. Three days later, a ransom note arrived via Western Union at the home of Urschel’s friend, J.
G. Catlett, demanding $200,000 for the businessman’s release. While blindfolded, Urschel gathered evidence during his captivity. He remembered background sounds, counted footsteps, and left fingerprints on surfaces within reach.
The FBI used this information to determine that Urschel had been held hostage in Paradise, Texas, based on the sounds he remembered hearing. The ransom exchange went smoothly. A few days later, the money was in Kelly’s hands, and Urschel was back with his family. The case, however, was far from over.
Urschel’s collected intelligence helped authorities locate the kidnappers. An investigation in Memphis revealed that the couple, then known as the Achillises, were living at the home of J. C. Tichener.
Special agents from Birmingham, Alabama, were immediately dispatched to Memphis. In the early morning hours of September 26, 1933, FBI agents and Memphis police officers apprehended George and Kathryn Kelly. The arrest of the Kellys was largely overshadowed by the escape of ten inmates, including the future John Dillinger gang, from the Michigan City Penitentiary that same night. The trial was held in Oklahoma City at the post office courthouse and federal office building, with Judge Edgar S.
Vaught presiding. On October 12, 1933, George and Kathryn Kelly were convicted and sentenced to life in prison. An investigation also revealed that Cassie Earl Coleman and Will Casey had housed and protected the couple while they were fugitives. Coleman had also helped George Kelly store $73,250 of the ransom money on his ranch.
Bureau agents discovered the money in a cotton patch on Coleman’s ranch on September 27, 1933. Machine Gun Kelly spent the remaining 21 years of his life in prison. During his time on Alcatraz, he earned the nickname “Pop Gun Kelly. ” According to fellow inmate Dale Stamphill, the nickname arose because Kelly told “big fish stories.
” The cons called him Pop Gun Kelly after cork guns popular with kids, and the guys didn’t take him seriously. This may have been because, in addition to his exaggerated tall tales, Kelly was a model prisoner who did not act like the brutal gangster his wife, the media, and the FBI had painted him as. He spent 17 years on Alcatraz as inmate number 117, working in the prison industries and boasting about his past exploits to other inmates. In 1951, he was quietly transferred back to Leavenworth.
On his 59th birthday, July 18, 1954, he died of a heart attack in Leavenworth.