Machine Gun Kelly | Manhunt | 4

This episode contains descriptions and details that some listeners might find disturbing. Listener discretion is advised. It's the afternoon of May 12th, 1932.

In New Jersey, Orville Wilson and his assistant, William Allen, are driving their truck on a winding road near the small community of Mount Rose. They've been on the move all day, and William's really gotta go.

As the truck moves deeper into the woods, he thinks this is as good a place as any to pull over. He asks Orville to stop for a sec so he can get out. Orville sighs and slows down to find a wide spot on the shoulder.

William climbs out and starts walking into the dense woodland. He turns around a couple of times, checking to see if he's out of sight of the truck.

When he's sure he's come far enough, about 50 feet, he stops, and as he looks down, he sees something that shouldn't be there. It's the color that catches his eye. A shock of off-white among the browns, grays and greens that cover the ground.

He bends slightly to get a closer look, then straightens right back up again. He squints. Surely, that's not what he thinks it is.

But the longer he looks, the more certain he becomes. That's a child's head he's looking at. Blonde hair and all.

It's sticking out of the ground, the rest of the body still covered with dead leaves and dirt. William stands there another moment, wondering what to do. His instinct is to pick up the baby.

But he can see that the child is long dead. So the best thing is to tell someone as soon as he can. He turns and starts walking back towards the truck.

As he pushes through the shrubs and long grass, he thinks about the news stories from a few months back. The ones about the kidnapped baby belonging to that famous pilot.

He's pretty sure the boy's parents live somewhere close by, in a big mansion in the middle of the woods. He thinks back over everything he's heard about the case.

There was a big search, and the family paid a ransom, but they didn't find the kid, right? By the time he's reached the truck, William's certain, he's just stumbled upon the remains of the Lindbergh baby.

From Airship, I'm Jeremy Schwartz, and this is American Criminal. In early August 1933, George Kelly was on top of the world. With his partner in crime, Albert Bates, he'd successfully ransomed a man for $200,000.

It was the largest ransom payment in US history at the time, and it had the whole country talking. But big splashy crimes that caught everyone's attention were a recipe for trouble.

And with so many kidnappings going on, the federal government was taking a direct interest in stemming the tide. The whole world had watched as their Bureau of Investigation failed to solve the Lindbergh kidnapping, and the child had tragically died.

This time, they were determined to prove they could get it right. Charles Urschel had made it home safely, and with his help, the Bureau's agents had figured out exactly where he'd been held.

Now it was just a small matter of figuring out who was responsible for the crime, tracking them all down, and bringing them to justice. And with the entire country following the story, there was no room for failure.

This is the final episode in our four-part series on the life and crimes of George Machine Gun Kelly, Manhunt. It's just before dawn on August 12th, 1933.

5:00

The Shannon Farm Raid

In the still quiet of the morning, a small convoy of cars winds along a dirt road just outside of Paradise, Texas. Twelve days ago, Charles Urschel returned home after being kidnapped and held for ransom for more than a week.

Now, following careful investigation, agents from the Bureau of Investigation are on their way to the farm where they're sure Charles was kept. It's owned by a man named RG. Shannon.

There are 14 men in the raiding party, a mix of federal agents and cops from nearby Fort Worth. 53-year-old Charles himself is riding along too. He insisted on it.

And he's so rich and influential that no one dared refuse him. He's even got a sawed-off shotgun to carry just in case.

By this stage, the investigators are confident they know who's behind the kidnapping, George and Kathryn Kelly and an accomplice named Albert Bates.

Recently, they intercepted a letter George sent from Cincinnati and it all but confirmed the trio's involvement in the plot. Today, they're hoping to round up as many co-conspirators as they can, including Kathryn's family, the Shannons.

As the police cars approach the farmhouse, they slow down and fan out. Quietly, the men get out of their cars, all of them packing a lot of heat. Then, on the signal, they move quickly towards the house.

RG Shann and Kathryn Kelly's stepfather is the first person cornered. He's just walking out onto the porch to watch the sunrise when he's surrounded. He pales at the sight of so many guns pointed at him.

When RG starts talking, Charles recognizes his voice immediately. That's one of the guys who stood watch over him all week. They called him boss.

On the back porch, infamous bank robber Harvey Bailey is caught sleeping. He had nothing to do with the kidnapping, but George and Kathryn's criminal friends often stopped by the Shannon's farm to lay low for a while.

Turns out this wasn't the best weekend to do that. He's hauled out of bed and handcuffed to a fence next to RG. Inside, the cops find Ora Shannon, Kathryn's mother and RG's wife, who cooked meals for Charles.

He approaches her to thank her for the best fried chicken he's ever had in his life. Then Ora's taken into custody like her husband.

After the main farm house is cleared, the raiding party get back into their cars and drive a short distance across the property to a smaller house, the one where Charles was kept for the majority of his time on the farm.

It's the home of RG's son, 21-year-old Armand. Again, Charles identifies Armand as one of his jailers. They called him Potatoes.

But he's not one of the men who grabbed him from his porch three weeks ago. Neither of them are here, so the hunt will continue. After the initial action of the raid, Armand Shannon agrees to tell the feds everything.

He sits down with lead agent Gus Jones to explain all he knows about the kidnapping plot and who was behind it. He, his father and his stepmother weren't involved in the planning.

They were just roped into the scheme by the Kellys, who needed somewhere to hide Charles Urschel. Now, the ringleaders of the plot have made themselves scarce, which means investigators have to start an entirely new search.

The hope is that the Kellys and Bates might eventually circle back to the farm, so news of the raid is kept out of the press for a couple of days while law enforcement hangs out nearby. But George and Kathryn aren't anywhere near Paradise right now.

8:52

Fugitives on the Run

By this stage, they're in Chicago, living it up and spending their new, ill-gotten fortune. They get a room in a nice hotel and pick up a brand new Chevy Coupe.

Of course, they can't stay in one place for long, not while the crime's still so fresh in everyone's mind. So, they make their way 300 miles west to Des Moines.

That's where they are on August 12th, when the news of the raid on the Shannon Farm finally makes it into the papers. Kathryn's beside herself when she reads that her mother's been arrested. It's an outrage.

Orra did nothing wrong. She thinks she was just helping out her family by making meals for their, you know, guest. Kathryn won't let this stand.

She has to win her mother her freedom no matter the cost. But for that to happen, she knows she'll need to be much closer to Oklahoma City. So she and George packed their things once again and head to Coleman, Texas.

Kathryn's mother is from Coleman originally, so she has a few relatives there they can count on to shelter them. They arrive on August 16th and head straight for her uncle's farm just south of town.

Cassie Cass Coleman welcomes his niece and her husband with open arms. But although they're relatively secluded on the rural property, George is getting antsy about carrying all this money around the country.

So the first thing he wants to do is hide his and Kathryn's share of the ransom. He borrows a thermos and a syrup jug from Cass, fills them with the stolen $20 bills and buries them on the farm.

He's hoping that if they're not found with the ransom money on them, they'll be harder to tie to the crime. Let's see how that works out for them.

Meanwhile, 39-year-old Albert Bates has made his way to Denver, Colorado where he has a young wife waiting for him. He hands off most of his ransom money to her for safekeeping, but he holds on to about $700 spending money.

Then, he picks up from storage a car he stole some time ago. His plan is to use the late model Buick to cruise around to various towns laundering the ransom money as he goes. But his scheme never gets off the ground.

While he's sitting in the car just listening to the radio, a couple of Denver cops recognize the vehicle as stolen and bring Albert in for questioning.

Now, they don't realize that they've got one of the most wanted men in the country in their custody. But Albert does. And he knows he's cooked if they figure out the $20 bills he has in his pocket or from the Urschel ransom payment.

So he freely admits that he committed a bank robbery in Texas and says that he'll willingly go back to face charges there.

He's got some police contacts in the state and his hope is that if he can get into their jurisdiction, he'll have an easier time talking his way out of trouble. It's a relatively common trick criminals are using lately.

And speaking of cops on the take, Albert remembers that the Kellys have a couple of Fort Worth investigators squarely in their pocket, Ed Weatherford and JW. Swinney. And Kathryn made arrangements for this exact scenario.

Shortly before the Urschel kidnapping, she gave Weatherford and Swinney instructions.

If they ever hear that George or Albert has been arrested in another state, they're to write out a dummy warrant and have them extradited to Fort Worth, as a special favor to Kathryn.

So, while he's still being held in a Denver jail, Albert smuggles a note out to his wife, telling her to contact Weatherford and Swinney to tell them what happened.

But what the Kellys and Albert still don't know is that these Fort Worth cops aren't on their side.

And when they get Albert's wife's message, they take it straight to the local office of the Bureau of Investigation to tell them they know exactly where Albert Bates is.

Within the day, agents from the Bureau's Denver office have inspected the cash that Albert had on him when he was arrested, confirming that it's from the ransom.

They fly him directly to Oklahoma City, where Charles and Berenice Urschel are able to identify him on site. It's a huge win for J Edgar Hoover's Bureau of Investigation.

They've managed to capture nearly everyone involved with the Urschel kidnapping, but they're still no closer to finding the two people everyone is sure masterminded the whole thing, George and Kathryn Kelly.

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See mintmobile.com. It's the morning of August 17th, 1933, four days after Albert Bates was first arrested in Denver, Colorado.

Some 750 miles away on a farm outside of Coleman, Texas, George Kelly is waiting for the kettle to boil so he can make some coffee. In the small bathroom just off the kitchen, he can hear his wife clattering around, getting herself ready for the day.

As George pours himself a cup of joe, the bathroom door opens and 29-year-old Kathryn emerges, a playful smirk on her face. She shakes her head, the red curls of her brand new wig bouncing slightly. What does he think of her new look?

She asks. George scrubs a hand through his own hair. They dyed it blonde just yesterday to help him keep a lower profile too.

All the newspapers are saying the feds are after them both for kidnapping Charles Urschel. So they should be laying low. But Kathryn is insisting on driving over to Fort Worth for a meeting.

George thinks it's crazy, but he knows better than to argue with his headstrong wife, especially when it concerns her mother. So instead, he smiles at Kathryn and tells her, darling, you've never looked better.

With her disguise in place, Kathryn leaves George with her relatives in Coleman and drives the 150 miles to Fort Worth.

Years ago, a lawyer there helped her win an appeal that kept her out of jail, and she asked for his help in representing her mother, Ora.

But although she has faith in the attorney's skills, she's not content to leave her mom's fate entirely in someone else's hands. So on August 18th, the day after she hires the lawyer, she writes a letter to the Department of Justice.

In it, she makes them an offer. She'll give them her husband in exchange for the release of her mother and her other relatives. It's certainly an intriguing proposition, but Kathryn can't resist throwing in some dramatic threats, too.

Trying to sound like a badass, she promises that Charles Urschel and his family will be, quote unquote, exterminated very soon. There's nothing anyone can do about it. But she's not involved in this plan, she writes.

She would never. But enough about that. What does the government think of her plan?

Despite the vague threat against the Urschels and despite the offer to betray her husband, Kathryn's letter goes unanswered. Perhaps that's because the feds are confident that they're closing in on their prey.

While Kathryn's in Fort Worth trying to secure her mother's release, the sheriff of Coleman County gets in touch with agents from the Bureau of Investigation. He's suspicious of the Coleman family, he says.

He knows they're related to Kathryn Kelly and invites the Bureau down to check out the farm. Luckily for George, he gets word that people suspect he's in town and decides that Texas isn't a safe place for them to hide anymore.

So he takes off, leaving a message for Kathryn to meet him in Mississippi. Only, he's barely made it to the city of Biloxi when he hears paperboys crowing the latest headline, George Kelly has been spotted here in town.

Okay, so a little while back, I promised that I'd tell you exactly when people started calling George Machine Gun Kelly. Well, this is it. It happens for the first time in print on August 22, 1933.

It seems likely that the name comes about because of Kathryn's earlier efforts to hype up her husband as a fearsome criminal with a signature weapon. As a result, the Bureau of Investigation has been printing wanted posters for George for weeks.

All of the mentioning is famed skill with a machine gun. Now is when the media picks up that idea and just runs with it. Machine Gun Kelly spotted in Biloxi.

Obviously, this is not ideal. George practically runs to the bus station, not even bothering to go back to his hotel for his things. He gets on the first bus to Memphis where he grew up.

If he's going to be safe anywhere, it's there. The problem is, is that a couple days later, Kathryn comes to Biloxi looking for George. She's left the lawyer in Fort Worth with instructions to help her mother, hopeful that he won't let her down.

Now she tracks down the hotel George was at, but that's where the trail goes cold. So with no other clues to her husband's whereabouts, she hits the road, making for Waco, Texas.

Her drive is nearly 600 miles, so Kathryn's got plenty of time to think over their situation. All of their best allies have been arrested, and she's feeling pretty alone. She decides that what they really need is more people on their side.

So when she passes a family of three on the side of the road on September 4th, she pulls over to pick them up. To Luther Arnold, his wife Flossie May, and their daughter Geraldine, Kathryn's arrival is a godsend.

Remember, this is the middle of the Great Depression, so there are a lot of American families doing it really tough.

The Arnolds are just a few of the many who have been forced to drift from town to town hoping to find work and relying on the kindness of strangers to get them through.

And suddenly here's this glamorous woman offering to buy them food and let them stay in hotels with her? But of course, Kathryn's not just doing this out of the goodness of her heart.

Over dinner that first night, she tells the Arnolds exactly who she is and confesses that she needs their help. She gives Luther some money and puts him on a bus to Fort Worth to meet with her lawyer on her behalf.

She wants an update on how her mother's case is going, but doesn't want to risk contacting him directly. Luther returns a couple days later, but not with any good news. Kathryn's frustrated.

She starts to doubt that this attorney will be able to get the job done after all.

So she sends Luther off to Oklahoma City with several hundred dollars and a mission, hire a new lawyer to represent her mother, one with experience working in Oklahoma's criminal justice system.

Now by this time, the Bureau of Investigation is on to Luther Arnold. They've been closely watching all the lawyers representing the people arrested over the Urschel kidnapping, and they're watching the people who come into contact with them too.

So they kept tabs on Luther when he went to Fort Worth. Now they track him to a hotel in OKC, where he's making the most of the money Kathryn gave him, spending it on the services of a pair of escorts.

His fun ends though when Bureau agents pick him up and begin a forceful interrogation. And so Kathryn's plan for a useful new ally comes to an abrupt end.

But whether she knows where Luther's got to or not, she's got more to be concerned with just now. She's heard that her husband has made his way back to the Coleman farm.

It's been a few weeks since she last saw George, so Kathryn gets back on the road and she takes 12 year old Geraldine Arnold with her. Of course, this leaves Flossie Mae all alone.

But Kathryn explains that her need for Geraldine is greater than Flossie Mae's right now. The authorities are looking for her and George, a married couple, but she figures they won't look twice at a family of three.

A daughter will be the ultimate disguise for the Kelly's wherever they go. At least until Kathryn can convince the government to trade her husband for her mother. When the Kelly's finally reunite, they don't stay in Coleman for long.

28:29

The Walls Close In

They bundle into a car and get back on the road, dragging Geraldine in their wake. At 12, she's just the right age to start paying attention to what's going on around her and to understand what it means.

What she sees is a married couple reaching the end of their rope. By this stage, George is well aware that Kathryn is trying to turn him in. And it seems like he's on board with it.

I mean, sure, he's a lifelong criminal, but he doesn't want his wife's family to pay for getting roped into his schemes. So Kathryn calls her lawyer in Fort Worth and tells him to speak with the government directly and make the offer.

He has the meeting on September 16th and the message is passed up the chain. But pretty quickly the idea is rejected. The Bureau's investigators are certain they'll get the Kellys before long.

They're not going to offer any quarter. It ain't good news for the Kellys. They're in Chicago posing as a happy family with their prop daughter slash hostage.

But the pressure is starting to get to them. Geraldine notices them bickering a lot, like a pair of rats in a trap, trying to decide whose tail they should gnaw off first.

And to be fair, the stress of the situation would be getting to anyone, especially Kathryn, who's forced to follow her mother's trial through the newspapers when it begins on September 17th.

Feeling totally useless, Kathryn decides to write a letter to Flossy May to give her an update on her daughter.

But thanks to Luther Arnold's cooperation, the feds have tracked down Flossy May and they intercepted the letter, which gives them enough information to work out that the Kellys are in Chicago.

Agents are dispatched to track them down, but by the time they arrive in the Windy City, George and Kathryn are already on the move again. They head back to Memphis, figuring they'll once again rely on family connections to get them out of trouble.

Lankford Ramsey is the brother of George's first wife. The marriage didn't end happily, but George is still on okay terms with his former in-laws, and so Lankford agrees to run an errand for him.

See, life on the Lamb is expensive, when you have the taste of the Kellys, that is. So George wants Lankford to retrieve the rest of the ransom money that he buried on the Coleman's farm.

They decide to send Geraldine along too, since she's been to the farm before and can be Lankford's pint-sized guide. Only when the pair arrive in Texas, Kathryn's uncle Cass Coleman turns them away.

The place is being watched, he says, and he doesn't want any trouble. So leaving the farm empty-handed, Lankford takes Geraldine to the station and puts her on a train to reunite with her parents, who were supposed to be waiting in Oklahoma City.

Before he leaves town, Lankford sends a telegram to OKC to let the Arnolds know when their daughter will arrive. He also telegrams George and Kathryn to tell them he couldn't get the money. What should he do next, he asks?

Unfortunately for Lankford, the feds intercept both of these messages and use the clues of them to work out that the Kellys are hiding out somewhere in Memphis. And that's not all.

When Geraldine arrives in Oklahoma late that night, Bureau agents are waiting for her, and she's happy to tell them everything.

Like Charles Urschel, she's got a killer memory, and she spills all the details of her time traveling around with the Kellys. She even pinpoints the exact address in Memphis where George and Kathryn had been hiding out.

The Kellys have no idea that any of this is going on. So while Geraldine is talking to the authorities in Oklahoma, they're 450 miles away in Memphis fast asleep in a friend's house. The Bureau doesn't waste any time.

The orders come directly from J Edgar Hoover. Do not screw this up. He wants the Kellys brought in and he wants it done by them.

Doesn't want any local police force stealing the credit for their hard work. An agent is sent to Memphis in the middle of the night, and he's met at the airport by the city's other Bureau representative and a small force of local cops.

They head straight to 1408 East Rainer Street, where Geraldine said the Kellys would be. It's just before dawn on September 26th, when the raiding party arrives at the house.

33:06

Capture and Trial

Coincidentally, it's the Kellys' third wedding anniversary. The traditional gift for three years of marriage is leather, but George and Kathryn might have to settle for steel instead.

The sky is just starting to lighten, but 1408 is still dark and quiet. There's a sense of apprehension in the air, as the small group of lawmen climb out of their vehicles and fan out around the building.

The press has been calling this guy Machine Gun Kelly for the last few weeks. What if the stories are true? What if he decides to try and shoot his way out?

But they have their orders, so they walk up the porch steps and push open the unlocked front door. The living room shows evidence of a night of heavy drinking. Empty bottles and cigarette butts are scattered on the floor and coffee table.

One by one, the men check the bedrooms, finding Kathryn asleep in one of them. As for Machine Gun Kelly, he's heard them coming. He wanders out into the hallway with his hands in the air.

He's unarmed and willing to come quietly. Legend has it that he tells the agents, don't shoot, G-Men. But like his famous nickname, that's probably apocryphal.

Just a nice bit of myth making. When she's woken up, Kathryn asks for time to dress and do her hair before they take her in. As ever, she wants to look her best, even for her mugshot.

And with that, the hunt for George and Kathryn Kelly comes to a close. Now, it's time for the courts to decide their fates.

Do you have a dark curiosity? Heart Starts Pounding, Horrors, Hauntings and Mysteries is a weekly podcast hosted by me, Kaelyn Moore.

34:57

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It's October 7th, 1933, 10 days after George and Kathryn Kelly were arrested. In an Oklahoma City courtroom, the trial of Kelly's co-conspirators has come to a close. All that remains now is the sentencing.

The trial has made history for a couple of reasons. Foremost is the fact that it's the first federal trial to allow news reporters, film crews, and cameras all into the courtroom.

Nearly the entire thing was filmed, with witnesses, attorneys, and defendants captured from every angle. This unprecedented level of access has prolonged the public's interest in the case, as has its other historic development.

It's the first case that's seen the new Lindbergh law put into effect. Also known as the Federal Kidnapping Act, the law was passed just months after Charles Lindbergh Jr. was abducted from his bed about 18 months ago.

The law granted agents from the Bureau of Investigation the power to pursue kidnappers across state lines, which made coordinating the hunt for Urschel's abductors much easier.

Even though the kidnapping occurred in Oklahoma, agents were able to search for the Kellys and Albert Bates in Texas, Illinois, Colorado and Tennessee. And here in the court room, the law sets guidelines for punishing the people behind the crime.

The first trial has been the prosecution of Kathryn Kelly's relatives, her mother, Aura, stepfather, RG Shannon and his son, Armand and of Albert Bates, who helped plan and carry out the actual abduction and ransom drop off.

Also standing trial has been Harvey Bailey. He is a bank robber acquaintance of the Kellys, who just happened to be using the Shannon farm as a place to crash between jobs.

He didn't have anything to do with the kidnapping, but the feds are happy to get him off the streets however they can, so they have charged him with planning the crime.

All through the week-long trial, federal agents have stood guard throughout the courtroom, Thompson machine guns in their arms. J Edgar Hoover is proving a point. He and the Bureau of Investigation aren't messing around.

The five defendants stand to hear their fates. Armand Shannon is given a 10-year suspended sentence, likely because he was the one who cooperated with investigators as soon as they arrived at the farm. The rest of them?

They get life in prison, even Kathryn's mom, who was just a glorified accessory to the crime. With those sentences handed down to their accomplices, it ain't look good for George and Kathryn.

The same day that Kathryn Kelly's mother and stepfather are sentenced to life in prison, Kathryn herself is in a different courtroom, pleading not guilty to the charges against her.

George does the same, setting the stage for a full trial to begin on October 9th, less than three months after the kidnapping.

Like their co-conspirators before them, the Kellys are being tried under the strict new Lindbergh laws and are facing life sentences if they're convicted. Not that any other outcome seems likely.

Aside from the evidence against them, they don't have any leverage to use. The authorities have already found the Kelly's share of the ransom money on the Coleman farm. So that can't even be offered up as a bargaining chip.

Mostly, it feels like the trial is just for show. The entire country has been captivated by the story of the Urschel kidnapping and the Manhunt for the people responsible. People want to see how the story ends.

With that in mind, the judge holds an audience with a room full of journalists before the proceedings begin. He tells them that they have free reign in the courtroom.

They can film what they like, interview whomever they want, and photograph everything they see. Once the trial gets underway, Kathryn plays it up for the cameras, posing and smiling whenever they're pointed in her direction.

Later, she'll explain that she was explicitly told that doing so would earn her leniency at sentencing.

On the stand, she denies having anything to do with the kidnapping and rejects the accusation that she wrote some of the ransom letters and other notes signed by her husband.

However, the prosecution has handwriting experts who testify that the writing in the letters is undeniably Kathryn's. George doesn't take the stand in his own defense.

At this stage, there really isn't anything he can say that will help him, so he holds his tongue. It doesn't make a difference. On October 12th, George and Kathryn are found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

He's sent back to Leavenworth in Kansas. She's sent to a workhouse in Ohio. They'll never see each other again.

In total, 21 people are prosecuted over their role in the kidnapping of Charles Urschel, including the Kellys, their relatives and in-laws, and various friends and acquaintances who helped them during their run from the law.

Six of those people get life sentences, though not all of them spend the rest of their days behind bars.

A year later, in 1934, George has moved to Alcatraz, along with a collection of other notorious criminals, including his buddies Albert Bates and Harvey Bailey.

41:14

After Alcatraz

Albert will die there of heart disease in 1948, when he's 54 years old. George lives a little longer. In fact, in the early 1950s, it starts to look like he'll be granted parole before long.

All he wants is to enjoy some time in the sun again. He often tells people that he can never get warm in Alcatraz. But then, in July 1954, the day before his 59th birthday, George has a sudden heart attack and dies.

When Kathryn gets the news, she applies for permission to attend the funeral. But she's turned down. Still, plenty of other people, about 300 and all, show up to bid farewell to Machine Gun Kelly.

At this point, Kathryn's been in prison for nearly 20 years. Just a month after her trial, she and her mother were reunited at a women's facility in Michigan.

And just like when she was on the run, Kathryn has remained devoted to aura during their two decades behind bars. Now, with plenty of time passed since their crimes, their minds turned to the possibility of release.

In the mid-50s, an attorney begins working to appeal Kathryn and aura's convictions. He obtains extensive evidence that their rights were violated during their initial interrogations, and then again during their trials.

Had this kind of appeal been launched back in the 1930s, it probably wouldn't have gone very far. On the whole, the 30s wasn't a decade especially known for respecting the constitutional rights of criminal defendants.

And even if it were, the Urschel kidnapping came right on the heels of the Lindbergh case and the Kansas City massacre. So public sentiment was against the Kellys and their co-defendants for a long time.

That public sentiment is part of the reason why Kathryn and aura have a good case. In all the excitement and anger over the kidnapping, they were rushed to trial before they had time to prepare a defense.

They were also tried in an atmosphere closer to a circus than a courtroom, with armed guards, standing watch, and photographers taking pictures from all sides.

And in general, there was a national excitement over seeing the Lindbergh laws put to use for the first time. And then the government had poured considerable resources into ensuring that they secured convictions.

So, anything less than life behind bars would have felt like a cop out. And to be fair, Kathryn Kelly was more than likely heavily involved in the planning of the Urschel kidnapping, and then profited from the ransom money.

Ora was less involved, but was at the very least an accessory to the crime. So, yes, they both broke the law. No question about that.

But the US criminal justice system functions on a set of rules and regulations to ensure fairness as much as possible. Obviously, that doesn't always happen.

But in this specific instance, a judge agrees that Kathryn and Ora were both denied a fair trial. In June 1958, their convictions are vacated and mother and daughter are set free.

Kathryn and her mother spent the rest of their lives living quietly out of the spotlight. They got jobs, earned honest wages, and kept to themselves. Ora died in 1980, and Kathryn followed in 1985.

She changed her name after she left prison. She reverted back to the ones her parents gave her when she was born, Lara Cleo. But she kept Kelly.

It was a name that she'd taken almost on as a dare. George had just said to her one night, we should get married, and that was it. After that, his name brought her infamy, just as she helped build a legend around it for him.

However, he got it. Machine Gun Kelly was a name that represented an aspect of George Kelly's life, but it didn't reflect his real world reputation. Still, it's not like he's getting the short end of the stick with that nickname.

He was a man who repeatedly stole from others to fund his expensive lifestyle. He struck fear into his victims, not because of his renowned skill with a machine gun, but by the simple fact of carrying it with him.

And for one week, in 1933, he held a man captive, chained to a chair and demanded that his loved ones pay for his return. I can think of a few names you could call a guy like that, but I guess Machine Gun Kelly will do.

From Airship, this is the final episode in our series on Machine Gun Kelly. On the next series, a deadly shooting leaves the city of Boston reeling, but is it a robbery gone wrong or cold blooded murder?

We use many different sources while preparing this episode. A few we can recommend are George Machine Gun Kelly by Bart L. Largent, The Year of Fear by Joe Urschel, and Hopman's Ladder by Richard T.

Cahill, Jr. This episode may contain reenactments or dramatized details. And while in some cases, we can't know exactly what happened, all our dramatizations are based on historical research.

American Criminal is a co-production of Airship and Evergreen Podcasts. It's hosted, edited, and produced by me, Jeremy Schwartz. Audio editing and sound design by Sean Ruhl-Hoffman.

Music by Thrum. This episode is written and researched by Joel Callan. Managing producer, Emily Burke.

Executive producers are Joel Callan, William Simpson, and Lindsey Graham.