The World's Worst Criminals by Charlotte Greig

Author:Charlotte Greig
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing Limited
Published: 2017-07-05T00:00:00+00:00

At the other end of a machine gun, for once, George Kelly (handcuffed, centre) leaves the courthouse accompanied by a bevy of heavily armed guards

The outlaw bride – and PR girl

Kathryn Thorne was the mistress of a bootlegger named Steve Anderson, but she was also a hardened criminal in her own right. She came from a family of outlaws: her mother was a bootlegger, her aunt a prostitute and several other members were known to police for robbery offences. Thorne was a divorcee who had been married twice, and it was rumoured that she had shot her second husband dead for infidelity. Kelly immediately became enamoured of the worldly wise Thorne, and the pair were married in 1930. From that time on, Kelly rose from being a small-time criminal to a well-known gangster, reaching a pinnacle of infamy when he became ‘Public Enemy Number One’.

Thorne bought her husband his first machine gun and encouraged him to practise shooting it, distributing the used cartridges to the denizens of underground drinking clubs as souvenirs from ‘Machine Gun’ Kelly. In this way, she built up a reputation for her husband as a cold-blooded killer and an expert gunman.

Kelly went on to perform a series of bank robberies, resulting in a series of ‘Wanted’ posters that emphasized his prowess as an ‘expert machine gunner’. The public was terrified, and Kelly hit the headlines as America’s most wanted gangster.

In July 1933, Kelly kidnapped a wealthy oil man, Charles Urschel. He demanded a ransom of two hundred thousand dollars. Once the money was delivered, Urschel was freed. A huge investigation was launched, aided by Urschel, who had carefully laid as many clues as he could during his ordeal. Kelly and his cronies were now on the run.

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