On this day 63 years ago...

The notorious American gangster George Kelly Barnes, better known as Machine Gun Kelly, passed away. Also born on July 18th in Nashville, Tennessee, Barnes' childhood was unremarkable. He attended Mississippi State University where he was known as a poorly performing student with a penchant for trouble. Dropping out of college was inevitable, and precipitated by Barnes discovering his first true love, Geneva. At a young age, Barnes was a married with two children, driving taxis for little money. With financial struggles weighing heavily on him, Barnes took a risk to join the bootlegging market, and teamed up with a nearby criminal; his career took off from there! After becoming known to the local authorities, he and his mistress skipped town for Oklahoma City. He wasn't completely terrible- he changed his name to to George R. Kelly so as not to shame his wife and children. 

One arrest after another solidified his status in darker social circles. It was perhaps, this newly inflated ego that led to his demise. Barnes fell in love with a fellow gangster's mistress, Kathryn Thorne (who coincidentally was an even more infamous gangster known for murdering her second husband). Thorne and Barnes married and she endowed him with his famous moniker, Machine Gun, after pushing him to become more adept with the weapon. Thorne could actually be considered the architect of Barnes' celebrity. He became so notorious, in fact, that in 1933 he became the FBI's Public Enemy Number 1! His life of crime came crumbling down after the kidnapping of an oil tycoon. Fingerprints left at the crime scene led to his arrest. He lived out the remainder of his life in prison (partially at Alcatraz and also Leavenworth) where he coincidentally succumbed to a heart attack on his 59th birthday.