Outlaws, Machine Gun Kelly, and Robert E. Howard

by Gary Romeo

There is a scene in the Robert E. Howard biopic, The Whole Wide World, where Novalyne Price discovers REH carries a gun in his car. REH justifies its presence saying that this is dangerous country. ”Outlaws, vagrants, they’re all here.”

REH, vivid in imagination, was not being overly hyperbolic in that instance. The 1930s were a dangerous time. ”The 1930s might also, with a century’s hindsight, seem almost funny today, full of bad guys wielding tommy guns they pulled out of violin cases, knocking over banks, hauling liquor, fleeing in clunky sedans pursued by cops driving clunky roadsters, talking tough even on their ways to prisons, which often proved unable to hold them.”

Front Cover

Back Cover

That preceding quote comes from a new book, Under Penalty of Death by Kevin E. Meredith with David W. Hendry, Red Lighting Books, 2023. I bought this book having recently been reminded that REH discussed Texas violence and the Urschel kidnapping with H. P. Lovecraft in a letter ca. September or October 1933: 

“As for lawlessness, possibly you base your argument on the rather lengthy list of homicides Texas furnishes each year.” REH, is aware that Texas can be a dangerous place (hence his gun-toting). But in this particular letter, he feels compelled to defend Texans as a whole:

“Take this recent business of the Urschel kidnapping; how many of the outlaws are Texans? Bailey is a Missourian; Machine Gun Kelly is a Tennesean; Bates is, so far as I know, a native of Colorado; Kelly’s wife is an Oklahoman; and the Shannons are also Oklahomans, originally at least, to the best of my knowledge.”

REH discussed outlaws quite often in his letters. Going through them all is a possible future article. This article is going to be mainly about the events discussed in this new book. And shedding some light on the people named in the above excerpt.

Under Penalty of Death is concerned mainly with the kidnapping of Howard Woolverton in January 1932 but eventually discusses kidnapping in general and how Woolverton’s kidnapping along with the more famous Lindbergh kidnapping led to federal oversight for these crimes.

All in all, the book is a worthy read, but the author (the primary author, Mr. Meredith is a journalist; David Hendry Jr. is a descendant of Mr. Woolverton and provided important family documents) has definitely padded the story and writes in that “scroll-bait” internet style that keeps you reading but frustratingly makes you anxious for the author to get to the point.

Howard Woolverton’s kidnapping was big news at the time but slowly faded from memory. The main reason for that is Woolverton, during his kidnapping, agreed to pay a reduced ransom (8K instead of 50K) and was released unharmed by his captors. Nevertheless, the shock of an upstanding (well-off but not extremely wealthy) citizen being kidnapped shocked his neighbors in South Bend, Indiana. 

After the Woolverton kidnapping requests for gun permits increased in South Bend. REH’s gun ownership was certainly not a strange thing in west Texas. People everywhere have the instinct for self-preservation. But, as REH knew, civilization clouds things. The police chief in South Bend said: “Speaking of the number of permits to carry guns, I would say they are better off without them, for if a professional crook goes after them and they make a move towards their guns, it is suicide, that’s all.” The same discussion continues today…

After being released Woolverton was reluctant to talk about the event with police or the press. He feared retribution. The kidnapping was never completely solved. J. Edgar Hoover, years later, was most likely correct when he said it was Machine Gun Kelly and his gang. Keith Meredith goes on several detours in the book to suggest other possible perpetrators. It is interesting to a point. I became more involved with the book when the Urschel kidnapping was discussed.

Charles Urschel along with his wife and another couple were playing bridge when machine gun armed gangsters burst from their car and Urschel and his friend Walter Jarret were kidnapped. Mrs. Urschel immediately called the police. Jarret was later released on the side of a highway. Nine days later Urschel was released after the 200K ransom was paid. Urschel cooperated fully with the authorities. This kidnapping was definitely the work of Machine Kelly and his gang.

After the Woolverton and Lindbergh kidnappings, kidnapping (across state lines) became a federal crime. More resources were now applied to capture these criminals. The FBI determined that Urschel had been held at a farm in Paradise, Texas and raided the place within a month of Urschel’s release. ”Among the arrested were the farm’s owner, R. G. Shannon and his wife, Ora, their son Armon, and his wife. Ora Shannon was Kathryn Kelly’s mother, and mother-in-law to George “Machine Gun” Kelly. Also nabbed was Harvey Bailey, who’d escaped from state prison in Lansing, Kansas. […] Albert Bates, who was with George Kelly [when Urschel was kidnapped] was flown into the Oklahoma City airport for trial.”

Although beyond the scope of this short article, it is interesting to note that Kathryn Kelly has been cited as the creator of “Machine Gun” Kelly. Apparently, George Kelly was “a weak loud-mouthed, overdressed bootlegger” before Kathryn built his image and bought him the machine gun.

Kathryn and George Kelly

To summarize, this book could be of interest to REH fans interested in the happenings that REH refers to in his letters. And finally, REH’s gun ownership (on its own merits and 1930s violence) isn’t really indicative of anything. As always, more study is needed.

After completing this article, I was reminded that REH biographer Todd Vick had written about Kathryn Kelly on his blog. In a letter to Harold Preece, dated September 5, 1928, REH writes “[Tevis Clyde Smith and I] spent some time at a bootleg joint just outside the outskirts of [Coleman], both going there and returning thence.”

The “bootleg joint” was owned by Charles Thorne until his death on April 30, 1928.

According to Kevin Meredith, Kathryn Kelly was born Cleo Mae Brooks (Todd Vick says Lera Cleo Brooks). Meredith writes: “[She] changed her name to Kathryn before she married for the first time at fifteen and […] might have killed her third husband. She took the name Kathryn Kelly when she married for the fourth time, in September 1930, to George Kelly Barnes – the man she single-handedly turned into Machine Gun Kelly.”

Todd Vick, in his post, writes: “Sometime in 1927, Kathryn met a fellow bootlegger named Charles G. Thorne. [Meredith says Kathryn married Charles Thorne in 1924.] Thorne owned a small restaurant in downtown Coleman, Texas called the American Cafe, and a ranch just outside the city limits of Coleman where he had a small bootlegging operation or “joint.””

Thorne is the third husband whom Kathryn most likely murdered. Kathryn ran the “joint” for a short while after his death.