George Kelly Barnes Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
Memphis-born George "Machine Gun" Kelly (born George Kelly Barnes) was unlike most of his contemporary "celebrity" gangsters in that he didn't come from a poverty-stricken background--his father was a well-to-d0 insurance company executive and George was raised in very comfortable circumstances. Kelly graduated high school and actually attended ...
His "fearsome" reputation as a hardened criminal and gunman was wholly an invention of his second wife, a former prostitute and suspected murderess named Kathryn Thorne. She was obsessed with making him more famous than real killers like John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd and waged what amounted to a successful marketing campaign to convince the underworld, the public and lawmen that her husband was a cold-blooded, dangerous killer. He was, in fact, nothing of the sort--a fleshy, heavyset, meek man, he was terrified of the machine gun he was supposed to be an expert with and totally under the thumb of his domineering wife, and went along with her schemes because he was unable to stand up to her. Amazingly enough, her campaign worked--the FBI made him "Public Enemy #1" and the newspapers of the day built him up to be almost a super-criminal. The underworld looked up to him and the public couldn't get enough of him. His one true distinction, however, was that he invented the word "G-Man" for federal cops--when the FBI cornered him in a Memphis rooming house, he threw up his hands and screamed, "Don't shoot, G-Men!". The name stuck.
2
Although he was known by his infamous nickname "Machine Gun" Kelly, he didn't like machine guns--the noise they made scared him--it's almost certain that the only time he ever actually fired one was during target practice. He never did learn to shoot well and he certainly never killed anyone.
3
Was incarcerated in Alcatraz from August 1934 to 1951.
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Big House
1998
TV Series documentary
Himself ("Machine Gun" Kelly)
The American Gang Busters
1940
Documentary as 'Machine Gun' Kelly
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
Codes and Conspiracies
2014
TV Series documentary
Himself - Machine Gun Kelly
Crime Wave: 18 Months of Mayhem
2008
TV Movie documentary
Himself - Machine Gun Kelly
Undercover History
2007
TV Series
Himself, gangster, aka 'Machine Gun Kelly'
The Magic of David Copperfield IX: The Escape from Alcatraz
1987
TV Special
Himself (uncredited)
Killers All
1945
Documentary
Machine Gun Kelly
Known for movies
The American Gang Busters 1940 as Actor
The Big House 1998 as Himself ("Machine Gun" Kelly)
$700,000