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.
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 not apply. Barnes changed his name to Kelly during his bootlegging days.
Criminal gangs fought viciously to retain control of their territories and to expand their profitable bootlegging operations. When Memphis gangsters learned that Kelly was moving in on their territories by selling to speakeasies (drinking clubs), they threatened his life. A non-violent man, he promptly abandoned his bootlegging activities and moved out of state.
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