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George ‘Machine Gun’ Kelly

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:10,000.00 - 15,000.00 USD
George ‘Machine Gun’ Kelly

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Auction Date:2019 Mar 06 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:15th Floor WeWork, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Extremely rare People's State Bank check, 6.25 x 2.75, filled out in pencil by Robert 'Hoss' Shannon, payable to his infamous son-in-law George R. Kelley for $500, February 12, 1932. Endorsed on the reverse in black ink, "Geo. R. Kelley." Also includes a second check, filled out in pencil by Shannon and made payable to Mrs. George R. Kelley for $2, June 15, 1931, which is endorsed on the reverse in pencil by Kathryn Kelly as "Mrs. Geo R. Kelly." In overall fine condition. The $500 amount of George Kelly’s check—roughly $8,400 in today’s market—was almost certainly a case of laundering through the safe avenue of his father-in-law.

Accompanied by a pair of transcript of records booklets from the "United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit," in the Western District of Oklahoma, for appeals made by Kathryn Kelly, filed August 21, 1934, and George and Ora Shannon, filed August 23, 1933, both in regard to their indictments in the kidnapping case of oil tycoon and businessman Charles F. Urschel in July 1933; the Shannon booklet bears the unmistakable (and unexplainable) presence of a bullet hole.

On July 22, 1933, George 'Machine Gun' Kelly and Albert L. Bates kidnapped Urschel from his Oklahoma City home and drove him across state lines to the Paradise, Texas farmhouse of George and Ora Shannon, the parents of Kelly's wife and partner-in-crime, Kathryn Kelly. A record $200,000 ransom was soon paid and Urschel was released some eight days after his abduction. He spared no time in using his formidable photographic memory to aid the FBI in tracking down the Shannon farmhouse, an operation that resulted in the arrests of the Shannons and five others. Less than two months later, on September 26, 1933, George and Kathryn Kelly were captured in Memphis, Tennessee; after serving 17 years in Alcatraz, Machine Gun died behind bars in Leavenworth at the age of 59. A rare and remarkable offering with close relation to Kelly’s last and most notorious escapade, signed by both gangster and wife in their last full year of freedom.