Beschreibung:

Lot of 4 items. Two checks, both drawn on the Peoples State Bank, Paradise, Texas, on the account of R.G. Shannon. One made out to George R. Kelley (with "ey") for $500. Endorsed on verso and stamped for deposit to the First National Bank of Fort Worth, TX, Automobile Finance Co. Dated February 12, 1932. Second is made out to Mrs. George Kelly (no "e"), with "By wife" below R.G. Shannon. This check was for only $2, dated June 15, 1931. Endorsed "Mrs. Geo. R. Kelly" and stamped payable to the First National Bank, and Gulf Refining Co. Robert Green "Boss" Shannon (1877-1956) was born in Arkansas and attended a one-room log church/school. His mother gave him the nickname "Boss" at an early age. In 1895 the Shannons moved to Texas, but Robert returned to Arkansas often to visit friends and relatives. His first two wives were sisters from his hometown, Mary Icye and Maude H. Jackson After Maude died in 1923 Robert married Ora Coleman Brooks (1928). Ora's daughter from her first marriage was Cleo Lera Mae Brooks (named after Cleo Epps, Tulsa bootlegger), who changed her name to the more elegant-sounding "Kathryn" (or "Kit") while still in the eighth grade. After three brief marriages (or possibly four if, R.L. "Little Steve" Stephens is to be believed, the first being Lonnie Clyde Fry, then L.E. Brewer, and Charlie Thorne), Kathryn married George Frances Barnes, who was going by George R. Kelly by this time. George Francis Barnes (1895-1954) was raised in an upper-middle class Memphis household. He made money while still in high school by bootlegging during Prohibition. In his second semester of college, he eloped with the daughter of a Memphis contractor. He worked for his father-in-law, drove a cab, started a goat farm, but eventually returned to bootlegging. His wife filed for divorce when he did so. After he became known to Memphis police, he changed his name to George R. Kelly and drifted to New Mexico. There he was convicted of bootlegging and spent a few months in a New Mexico prison. After his release, he moved to Oklahoma (Tulsa, mostly), where he continued running liquor (including onto Indian Reservations) and robbed a few stores for supplemental income. Eventually he was convicted of bootlegging there and sentenced to Leavenworth. Some have called this time a "two-year tutorial in bank robbing." His fellow prisoners included Harvey Bailey ("King of the Heist men") and Frank "Jelly" Nash (last Oklahoma train robbery). After his release in 1930, he hooked up with Bailey and began working with him in "banking." Either George got tired of robbing banks, or his marriage to Kathryn propelled him to "greater things." In January 1932, George snatched Howard Woolverton and his wife in South Bend, Indiana. Howard was the son of the local bank president, but the Woolvertons claimed to have no available cash. The younger man gave Kelly a promissory note to pay $50,000 after three days of captivity. The note, not surprisingly, was never paid, and the Woolvertons never responded to George and Kathryn's demands for payment. It was Kathryn who then went out to buy a Thompson machine gun in Feb. 1933 and forced George, who seems to have not really liked guns, to practice with the weapon every day before cocktail hour could begin. After some prominent (and successful) kidnappings, the Kellys and Albert Bates decided to try again, even though a second attempt had failed. Kathryn was involved in planning every detail, and scanned the society pages of the paper looking for appropriate targets. They settled on oil tycoon Charles Urschel. Kelly and Bates burst into the Urschel home on the evening of July 22, 1933, while Charles and his wife were playing bridge with Walter Jarrett and his wife. When the group refused to identify Urschel, the kidnappers took both men. During the ride, Kelly and Bates picked up enough conversation between the men to figure out who was whom, and released Jarrett with enough cab fare to get home. Unfortunately for