On June 17, 1933, the criminal career of 46-year-old White male Frank 'Jelly' Nash came to a violent conclusion outside Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri. Known as one of the most prolific bank robbers in American history, Nash had been apprehended just the day before in Hot Springs, Arkansas, by FBI agents and local police. He was being transported back to the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, from which he had escaped three years prior. The journey required a train ride to Kansas City, where a transfer to a car was scheduled for the final leg of the trip.
Upon the train's arrival at Union Station on that Saturday morning, a team of law enforcement officers, including FBI agents and local detectives, surrounded Nash to escort him to a waiting Chevrolet. As the group loaded Nash into the front seat of the vehicle, armed men suddenly ambushed them in an attempt to free the prisoner. In the ensuing chaos, known as the Kansas City Massacre, machine gun fire erupted from the assailants. Instead of escaping, Nash was struck in the head by a bullet and died instantly inside the car. The attack also claimed the lives of four officers: FBI Agent Raymond Caffrey, Oklahoma Police Chief Otto Reed, and Kansas City detectives William Grooms and Frank Hermanson.
The investigation into the massacre identified three primary suspects believed to have orchestrated the botched rescue: Vernon Miller, Adam Richetti, and the notorious Charles 'Pretty Boy' Floyd. Vernon Miller, a former sheriff turned hitman, was identified as the ringleader but was found murdered in a ditch near Detroit later that year, reportedly killed by his own criminal associates. The FBI launched an intense manhunt for the remaining suspects. Charles Floyd was eventually tracked down and killed by agents in an Ohio cornfield in October 1934, having consistently denied his involvement in the Kansas City shootings until the end.
Adam Richetti was captured in Ohio after a shootout with police and was subsequently returned to Missouri to face charges. He was tried and convicted for the murders of the officers, resulting in a death sentence. Richetti was executed in the gas chamber on October 7, 1938. In addition to the gunmen, federal authorities pursued those who had aided in the conspiracy. Four other men—Richard Galatas, Herbert Farmer, Louis Stacci, and Frank Mulloy—were arrested and convicted of conspiring to cause the escape of a federal prisoner, receiving maximum prison sentences and heavy fines for their roles in the plot that led to the deadly tragedy.
