The Making of a Gangster Legend

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Meet the Kellys:

The True Story of Machine Gun Kelly and His Moll Kathryn Thorne

Kathryn Kelly, wife of gangster George “Machine Gun” Kelly (Original photo has no negative date or photo credit, published 08/03/1986 in The Daily Oklahoman)

The Urschel kidnapping was the first prominent case in which FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover exercised his control of the print media and laid the groundwork for building his legendary status. He not only recruited talented individuals to help develop scientific methods to solve crimes and track offenders but hired publicists to feed information to the press that highlighted the Bureau’s accomplishments and the methods employed by relentless agents to apprehend notorious outlaws. Throughout the investigation into Charles Urschel abduction, Director Hoover turned every lead, either uncovered by his men or reported by a civilian, into an opportunity to promote the agency as a superior crime-fighting force.

Much of what the Bureau reported about the capture of Machine Gun Kelly and Kathyrn Thorne was accurate, but some of the events they claimed occurred were fiction. Kelly pointed out the discrepancies to newspaper reporters, but journalists were disinclined to take the gangster’s word, and Hoover counted on that. Kathryn Kelly had a flair for manipulating the press as well, but her talent was discovered too late to improve her circumstances. News of the Kellys’ crimes and various law enforcement agencies pursuits of the pair appeared in newspapers across the country. Hoover and his staff painted Kathryn as a materialistic femme fatale who drove her husband to commit the crimes he did. She tried to change the public’s opinion of her by giving interviews with respected journalists and candidly sharing her truth about her relationship with Kelly and how he misled her.

George’s upper-middle-class background was in sharp contrast to Kathryn’s depressed past. She referred to the difference in their upbringing often when she spoke with reporters and was quick to tell them that it was Kelly who intimidated her into breaking the law and not the other way around. “The first time I ever saw a machine gun was when Kelly had one at my house in Fort Worth,” Kathryn told Pulitzer Prize–winning Scripps-Howard staff writer Lee Hills in mid-October 1933. “It is being told that I provided my husband with weapons and that he taught me how to use them. He never taught me to use a machine gun or any other kind. I wouldn’t know what to do with one. This talk about him being about to write his name on a wall with machine gun bullets may be so, but I don’t know whether he even can shoot.”

Kathryn herself circulated the rumor about his shooting prowess long before she and Kelly embarked on their first kid napping. That kind of promotion had served its purpose well when they were deciding to graduate from robbing banks to abducting the wealthy, but once they were caught, Kathryn denied it all to the press. To avoid life in prison, it was important potential jurors saw her as a naïve young woman with ordinary wants and dreams who was taken advantage of by the man she loved.

To learn more about the woman behind the gangster read Meet the Kellys:

The True Story of Machine Gun Kelly and His Moll Kathyrn Thorne