Talk:Machine Gun Kelly (gangster)

Barnes?

I just removed the name Barnes... then put it back :S. The only mention of Barnes on the FBI page is that it was his fathers name, but I see no other evidence it was used, even in the court case against him(??). Then I found this link: http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/outlaws/kelly/2.html anyhow, I found it confusing, and feel it needs further explanation as to why he is mostly refered to as Machine Gun Kelly. Maybe move it into a description of his father similar to the FBI bio Dwxyzq 22:33, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

The article says:

To protect his family and escape law enforcement officers, he changed his name to George R. Kelly.

But looking back at the first sentence, we see that he was born as "George R. Kelly"

I have not researched this enough to know what his name was at birth, but if his name was other than George R. Kelly at birth, the article should say that, even if it was only his name for a day, and even if no one ever called him that.

Maybe we could say something like

George R. Kelly, born as George Kelly Barnes, aka George "Machine Gun" Kelly Barnes (July 18, 1895 - July 18, 1954) was a notorious American gangster during the prohibition era. ... (or whatever his name was at birth)

--VegKilla 22:16, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Well it looks like the contradiction has been cleared up. I am still not sure why the part that talks about his name at birth is not in the first sentence, since that seems to be the standard for Wikipedia biographies, but he was never famous by his birth name so it is fine the way it is. I added "citation needed" to the part that talks about him changing his name, since it would be nice to be able to look at the source and see when he changed his name, and how we know it was to protect his family name, but that is minor.

Nickname

There is an obvious omission from this article: how did he get his nickname? Sure, the reader can assume the obvious - that he used machine guns in his crimes - but it would be much better to have some details in the article. Does anyone have any info on this? -- Hux 21:01, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

-- Did they give him life imprissonment just for kidnapping? how many murders does he have? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.235.225.76 (talk) 21:35, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Marriage

"The couple were married..." What couple? This section should be expanded or deleted. Otherise it's pretty pointless. NickQ 21:43, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Significance

The article states, "Most historians agree that it marked the end of the gangster era in America." What is it? The preceding sentences talk of the kidnapping of Urschel and the two trials. Sounds like the sentence should read "they" instead of "it." Perhaps, most historians would agree that the gangster era ended in America with the death of John Dillinger in July of 1934. L. Thomas W. (talk) 17:07, 7 January 2008 (UTC) L. Thomas W.

Disputed

Some information was disputed via m:OTRS Ticket:2009050510074752. I've asked the person to either edit the article, or to let me remove all the unsourced challenged info. -- Jeandré, 2009-05-06t11:58z

Ransom?

The article includes the sentence

At the time it was the largest ransom ever paid in the United States

but nowhere else is a ransom mentioned. I presume the ransom concerns Kelly's kidnapping of Urschel and Jarrett, but there's no mention of the result of that kidnapping other than Kelly being captured after "56 days on the run". What actually happened?

-- Dan Griscom (talk) 20:29, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Requested move

Machine Gun Kelly → George "Machine Gun" Kelly — per all 4 <ref>s - all use multiple variations, but George "Machine Gun" Kelly is used by all and (apart from simply "Kelly") is the most frequently used name. 58.8.209.249 (talk) 16:30, 8 July 2009 (UTC)