Machine Gun Kelly was a bootlegger, bank robber, and a kidnapper. It didn’t take long before he was infamous across the whole nation. He was well renown along with Al “Scarface” Capone, George “Baby Face” Nelson, and many other gangsters during the prohibition era. George “Machine Gun” Kelly can be considered one of the most famous gangsters from the 1930’s. Machine Gun Kelly’s real name was George Kelly Barnes. He was born on July 18, 1895, to a wealthy family in Memphis, Tennessee. As a child, he was raised in a traditional home where everything was pretty uneventful. After high school, Kelly attended Mississippi A&M College, and “quickly fell in love with Geneva Ramsey and made an abrupt decision to quit school and marry” (Ocean View Publishing). The two got married when George was 19 and had two sons together. During his college years, George …show more content…
In 1927 he was caught selling illegal liquor and spent a few months in a New Mexico Jail. After George was released, he was caught yet again illegally selling alcohol on an Indian Reservation in 1927 and spent a few months in jail in New Mexico (Biography.com). These friends were known to be bank robbers, and it was believed he even helped some of the prisoner's escape. George later met up with the two prisoners he helped escape, and the three of them did a bank robbery in Minnesota together. He moved around to other states, including Iowa, Texas, and Washington, where he did many other bank robberies. Not only was he involved in the robberies, he also got caught up in kidnappings. Kelly, his new wife, Kathryn, and friend Albert Bates hatched a plan to kidnap a wealthy oil man from Oklahoma, Charles Urschel. On July 22nd, Kelly and Bates abducted Urschel and a friend Walter Jarrett. Eventually, Walter was let go, but Urschel was held hostage for a $200,000 ransom. The money was delivered on July 30th, and Urschel was let go the following