During the
Prohibition era of the 1920s and 1930s, Kelly worked as a
bootlegger for himself as well as a colleague. After a short time, and several run-ins with the local Memphis police, he decided to leave town and head west with his girlfriend. To protect his family and to escape law enforcement officers, he changed his name to George R. Kelly. He continued to commit smaller crimes and bootlegging. He was arrested in
Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1928, for smuggling liquor onto an
Indian reservation, and sentenced to three years at
Leavenworth Penitentiary, Kansas, beginning February 11, 1928. He was reportedly a model inmate and was released early. Shortly thereafter, Kelly married
Kathryn Thorne, an experienced criminal who purchased Kelly's first machine gun and insisted—despite his lack of interest in weapons—that he perform target practice in the countryside. She also went to great lengths to familiarize his name within underground crime circles. According to
Persons in Hiding, a 1938 book by
FBI Director
J. Edgar Hoover, Kelly worked with Kathryn and
Eddie Doll in the kidnapping of a wealthy manufacturer in
South Bend, Indiana, for a $50,000 ransom. Similar claims were made in several 1937
American Magazine articles co-authored by Hoover. While Hoover chose not to name the victim in either his book or magazine articles, local newspaper stories about Hoover's claims assumed that he was referring to the January 26, 1932,
abduction of Howard Arthur Woolverton. Woolverton was released unharmed after less than 24 hours in captivity, and the crime was essentially forgotten in the following decades, but his kidnapping was reported widely at the time and proved to be historic, characterized by contemporary reporting as a turning point in America's growing kidnapping scourge. The New York
Daily News called his abduction "spectacular", asserted that "for brazen audacity (it) has no parallel", and suggested that such crimes "represent a challenge to organized society". Woolverton's kidnapping revived consideration of the
Lindbergh Law in Congress and spawned several nationally distributed newspaper projects that sought to take the full measure of the growing crime wave, and which described kidnapping as a threat to every American. Completion of these projects (including a 16-part series in the
Daily News), were ready for publication within days of the March 1, 1932,
kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh Jr., meaning that the infant's abduction was presented not as a single crime but as part of a growing national problem. and
Oklahoma City for his trial for the kidnapping of
Charles F. Urschel, October 2, 1933 Kelly's last criminal activity was another history-making abduction, the July 1933 kidnapping of wealthy
Oklahoma City resident
Charles F. Urschel and his friend Walter R. Jarrett, which would prove to be Kelly's undoing. The Kellys demanded a ransom of $200,000 ($ million today), and held Urschel at the farm of Kathryn's mother and step-father. Urschel, having been blindfolded, made note of evidence of his experience, including remembering background sounds, counting footsteps and leaving
fingerprints on surfaces in reach. This proved invaluable for the FBI in its investigation, as agents concluded that Urschel had been held in
Paradise, Texas, based on sounds that Urschel remembered hearing while he was being held hostage. An investigation conducted in Memphis disclosed that the Kellys were living at the residence of J. C. Tichenor. Special agents from
Birmingham, Alabama, were immediately dispatched to Memphis, where, in the early morning of September 26, 1933, a raid was conducted. George and Kathryn Kelly were taken into custody by FBI agents and Memphis police officer Thomas Waterson and Sergeant William Raney. It is often reported that Kelly was caught without a weapon and allegedly shouted, "Don't shoot,
G-Men! Don't shoot, G-Men!" as he surrendered to FBI agents. This version of events appears to be a media myth created months after the arrest. Another version of the raid alleged Kelly had a pistol in his hand, but with a shotgun aimed at his heart he surrendered, saying, "I've been expecting you." However, the FBI's earliest account of the event was written between three and five days after Kelly's arrest and states: "Agent William Asbury 'Ash' Rorer saw that Kelly ... had proceeded into the front bedroom and was in a corner with his hands raised. He was covered by [Memphis Police] Sergeant William Raney" with Kelly not reported to have spoken at all. The arrest of the Kellys was overshadowed by the escape of ten inmates, including all of the members of the future
Dillinger gang, from the penitentiary in
Michigan City, Indiana, that same night. The trial was held at the
Post Office, Courthouse, and Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City with Judge
Edgar S. Vaught presiding. On October 12, 1933, George and Kathryn Kelly were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. An investigation in
Coleman, Texas, disclosed that the Kellys had been housed and protected by Cassey Earl Coleman and Will Casey, and that Coleman had assisted George Kelly in storing $73,250 of the Urschel ransom money on his ranch. This money was located by Bureau agents in the early morning of September 27 in a cotton patch on Coleman's ranch. They were both indicted in
Dallas, Texas, on October 4, 1933, charged with harboring a fugitive and conspiracy, and on October 17, 1933, Coleman, after entering a plea of guilty, was sentenced to serve one year and one day, and Casey, after trial and conviction, was sentenced to serve two years in the
United States Penitentiary at
Leavenworth, Kansas.{{cite web|title=FBI 100. The legend of 'Machine Gun Kelly'|url=https://www.fbi.gov/page2/sept08/kelly_092608.html|publisher=FBI The kidnapping of Urschel and the two trials that resulted were historic in several ways. They were: • the first federal criminal trials in the United States in which film cameras were allowed; • the first kidnapping trials after the passage of the
Lindbergh Law, which made
kidnapping a
federal crime; • the first major case solved by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI; and • the first prosecution in which defendants
were transported by airplane. ==Death==