(George Barnes)

Born: 1897
Died: 1954

A likable—although none-too bright—small-time crook, Kelly became a legend in his own time. With the prodding of his image-conscious wife, Kathryn, the non-violent bootlegger was molded into a gun-toting gangster known as “Machine Gun” Kelly. Guilty of only one major crime, a kidnapping, he was eventually captured and imprisoned for life.

A bootlegger named Barnes

Born and raised in an impoverished Tennessee community, George Barnes received little schooling. A petty (small-time) crook as a teenager, he sometimes produced illegal alcohol. When Prohibition (when the Eighteenth Amendment outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcohol) went into effect, he began a full-time bootlegging business (the illegal manufacture and sale of alcohol). Operating in Memphis, Tennessee, he provided wealthy individuals and clubs with liquor that had been smuggled from Canada—where U.S. Prohibition laws did...