The true although fictionalized account of the story of Machine Gun Kelly (the OG one) and his wife/stage manager, Kathryn Kelly, which reads like the best of hard-bitten film noir. Want snappy dialogue? Ya got it.
“An exciting life for a farmer,” Mrs. Quigley said, raising her eyebrows.”
“You can bet on it, sister,” Kathryn said, turning for the door. “See you in the funny papers.”
The FBI was a new thing, and this was a test. Gus T. Jones had been assigned to crack this case, and he had a lot of resources. It was a kidnapping case, and in the wake of the Lindberg case, all penalties for kidnapping had been raised. The victim was not a child this time though, but a wealthy oil tycoon, Charles F. Urschel. That was Kelly’s mistake. Urschel was not a helpless victim, but very much aware of his situation. Although he was blindfolded and held in a remote ranch of a relative of Kelly, he kept track of the planes that flew overhead during the day. And during a severe storm, he realized what he had not heard. Researching what flights had been cancelled that day led to the conclusion of where he had been held, and who had him. And even though he had been released, he wanted his ransom back and J. Edger Hoover wanted to show what his boys could do.
Kelly had never been who he was set up to be (Kathryn bought the machine gun and plopped it in front of his face), but that was now his persona. He was just this dumb mug set up by a dame looking for the main chance, and that was how it went down.
What was telling, though, was the portrait of a desperately poor Midwest. The 30s were some hard times indeed for many.