Conspiracy to Deliver a Federal Prisoner - Adam C. Richetti

Kansas City Massacre

On the morning of June 17, 1933, a mass murder committed in front of Union
Railway Station, Kansas City, Missouri, shocked the American public into a
new consciousness of the serious crime problems in the Nation. The
killings which took the lives of four peace officers and their prisoner,
are now known as The Kansas City Massacre.

The Kansas City Massacre involved the attempt by Charles Arthur "Pretty
Boy" Floyd, Vernon Miller and Adam Richetti to free their friend, Frank
Nash, a Federal prisoner. At the time, Nash was in the custody of several
law enforcement officers who were returning him to the U.S. Penitentiary
at Leavenworth, Kansas, from which he had escaped on October 19, 1930.

Nash's criminal record reached back to 1913, when he was sentenced to life
at the State Penitentiary, McAlester, Oklahoma, for murder. He was later
pardoned. In 1920, he was given a 25-year sentence at the same
penitentiary for burglary with explosives, and later pardoned. On March 3,
1924, Nash began a 25-year sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary at
Leavenworth for assaulting a mail custodian. He escaped on October 19,
1930.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched an intensive search for
Nash which extended over the entire United States and parts of Canada.
Evidence gathered by the FBI indicated that Nash had assisted in the
escape of seven prisoners from the U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth on
December 11, 1931.

The investigation also disclosed Nash's close association with Francis L.
Keating, Thomas Holden and several other well-known gunmen who had
participated in a number of bank robberies throughout the Midwest. Keating
and Holden were apprehended by FBI Agents on July 7, 1932, at Kansas City,
Missouri. Information gained by the FBI as a result of the apprehension of
these two indicated that Nash was receiving protection from his underworld
contacts in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Based on such information, two FBI Agents, Frank Smith and F. Joseph
Lackey, and McAlester, Oklahoma, Police Chief Otto Reed located and
apprehended Nash on June 16, 1933, in a store in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
The law officers drove Nash to Fort Smith, Arkansas, where at 8:30 that
night, they boarded a Missouri Pacific train bound for Kansas City,
Missouri. It was due to arrive there at 7:15 a.m. on June 17. Before
leaving, the lawmen made arrangements for R. E. Vetterli, Special Agent in
Charge (SAC) of the FBI's Kansas City Office to meet them at the train
station.

Meanwhile, a number of outlaw friends of Nash had heard of his capture in
Hot Springs. They learned the time of the scheduled arrival of Nash and
his captors in Kansas City and made plans to free him. The scheme was
conceived and engineered by Richard Tallman Galatas, Herbert Farmer, "Doc"
Louis Stacci, and Frank B. Mulloy. Vernon Miller was designated to free
Nash, and while at Mulloy's tavern in Kansas City, he made a number of
phone calls for assistance in the scheme. At about this time, two gunmen,
"Pretty Boy" Floyd and Adam Richetti, arrived in Kansas City, and they
agreed to aid in the mission.

On their way to Kansas City, Floyd and Richetti had been detained at
Bolivar, Missouri, early on the morning of the 16th, when the car in which
they were riding became disabled. While the two were waiting in a local
garage for the necessary repairs to the car, Sheriff Jack Killingsworth
entered the building. Richetti, who immediately recognized the Sheriff,
seized a machine gun and held the Sheriff and the garage attendants
against the wall. Floyd drew two .45 caliber automatic pistols and ordered
all parties to remain motionless. Floyd and Richetti then transferred
their arsenal into another automobile and ordered the Sheriff to enter
that vehicle. The two, along with their prisoner, then drove to Deepwater,
Missouri, abandoned that automobile and commandeered another. After
releasing the Sheriff, they arrived in Kansas City about 10:00 p.m. on
June 16. There Floyd and Richetti abandoned that automobile and stole
another car to which they transferred their baggage and firearms. Finally,
that same night, they met Miller and went with him to his home. There
Miller told them of his plan to free Frank Nash.

Early the next morning, Miller, Floyd and Richetti drove to the Union
Railway Station in a Chevrolet sedan. There they took up their positions
to await the arrival of Nash and his captors.

Upon the arrival of the train in Kansas City, Agent Lackey went to the
loading platform, leaving Smith, Reed and Nash in a stateroom of the
train. On the platform, he was met by SAC Vetterli, who was accompanied by
FBI Agent R. J. Caffrey and Officers W. J. Grooms and Frank Hermanson of
the Kansas City Police Department. These men surveyed the area surrounding
the platform and saw nothing that aroused their suspicion. SAC Vetterli
advised Agent Lackey that he and Caffrey had brought two cars to Union
Station and that the cars were parked immediately outside.

Agent Lackey then returned to the train and--accompanied by Chief Reed,
SAC Vetterli, Agents Caffrey and Smith, and Officers Hermanson and Grooms--
proceeded from the train through the lobby of Union Station. At the time,
both Agent Lackey and Chief Reed were armed with shotguns. Other officers
carried pistols. Frank Nash walked through Union Station with the above-
mentioned seven officers.

Upon leaving Union Station, the lawmen, with their captive, paused
briefly; and, again seeing nothing that aroused their suspicion, they
proceeded to Caffrey's Chevrolet. Frank Nash was handcuffed throughout the
trip from the train to the Chevrolet, which was parked directly in front
of the east entrance of Union Station.

Agent Caffrey unlocked the right door of the Chevrolet. When the door was
opened, Nash started to get into the back set; however, Agent Lackey told
Nash to get into the front of the car. Lackey then climbed into the back
of the car directly behind the driver's seat. Agent Smith sat beside him
in the center of the back; and Chief Reed sat beside Smith in the right
rear seat.

At this point, Agent Caffrey walked around the car to get into the
driver's seat through the left door. SAC Vetterli stood with Officers
Hermanson and Grooms at the right side near the front of the car.

A green Plymouth was parked about six feet away on the right side of Agent
Caffrey's car. Looking in the direction of this Plymouth, Agent Lackey saw
two men run from behind a car. He noticed that both men were armed. At
least one of them had a machine gun.

Before Agent Lackey had a chance to warn his fellow officers, one of the
gunmen shouted, "Up, up!" At this instant, Agent Smith--who was in the
middle of the back seat--also saw a man with a machine gun to the right of
the Plymouth. SAC Vetterli, who was standing at the right front of the
Chevrolet turned just in time to hear a voice command, "Let 'em have it!"

At this point, from a distance approximately 15 feet diagonally to the
right of Agent Caffrey's Chevrolet, an individual crouched behind the
radiator of another car opened fire. Officers Grooms and Hermanson
immediately fell to the ground. They were dead. SAC Vetterli--who was
standing beside Office Grooms and Hermanson--was shot in the left arm and
dropped to the ground. As he attempted to scramble to the left side of the
car to join Agent Caffrey, who had not yet entered the driver's seat of
the Chevrolet, SAC Vetterli saw Caffrey fall to the ground. He had been
fatally wounded in the head.

Inside the car, Frank Nash and Chief Reed were killed by bullets from the
hoodlums' guns. Agents Lackey and Smith were able to survive the massacre
by falling forward in the back seat of the Chevrolet. Lackey was struck
and seriously wounded by three bullets. Smith was unscathed.

The three gunmen rushed to the lawmen's car and looked inside. One of them
was heard to shout "They're all dead. Let's get out of here." With that,
they raced toward a dark-colored Chevrolet. Just then a Kansas City
policeman emerged from Union Station and began firing in the direction of
one of the killers, later identified as Floyd, who slumped briefly but
continued to run. The killers entered the car which sped westward out of
the parking area, and disappeared.

The three survivors--Agents Smith and Lackey and SAC Vetterli--reported
that the assault lasted possibly 30 seconds. They were uncertain if three
or four gunmen staged the assault. From their account, it was apparent
that the two Kansas City Police Officers were killed immediately, followed
seconds later by Frank Nash and Chief Reed and then by Agent Caffrey, who
was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead on arrival.

The FBI immediately initiated an investigation to identify and apprehend
the gunmen. The investigation developed evidence that the scheme was
carried out by Vernon C. Miller, Adam C. Richetti, and Charles Arthur
"Pretty Boy" Floyd. The evidence included latent fingerprint impressions
located by FBI Agents on beer bottles in Miller's Kansas City home and
identified as those of Adam Richetti, thus helping to link the latter to
the crime.

Vernon C. Miller, age 37, who had led the killings at Kansas City's Union
Station on June 17, grew up in South Dakota. He had enlisted in the U.S.
Army during World War I and received extensive training as a machine
gunner. Following his release from the Army, he appeared at Huron, South
Dakota, where he told stories of his heroism in the war. He also
demonstrated to city officials that he was a crack shot, following which
he was elected to the position of policeman in 1920. Two years later, he
was elected Sheriff and was renominated for the position. Before the
election, however, he disappeared and entered a life of crime.

Miller's criminal record indicated that he had been arrested on April 4,
1923, and received at the South Dakota Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, South
Dakota, to serve a sentence of two to ten years and to pay a $5,200 fine
for embezzling public funds. In October, 1925, he was indicted in Federal
Court, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for violating the National Prohibition
Act; the case was nolle prossed in January, 1931. Miller then moved to St.
Paul, Minnesota, and Chicago where he began his association with
underworld gangs. Miller was reported to have been a hired gunman for
Louis Buchalter early in his crime career.

Following the Kansas City Massacre, Miller, accompanied by a girlfriend,
Vivian Mathias, traveled to Chicago and reportedly arrived there on or
about June 19, 1933. For a few days, he hid out with a member of the
Barker-Karpis gang. From there Miller reportedly went to New York.

On October 31, 1933, FBI investigation disclosed that Miller was back in
Chicago at the apartment of Vivian Mathias. The next day, he escaped a
trap set for him there by the FBI. However, Mathias was taken into custody
and later pleaded guilty to charges of harboring and concealing Miller.

On November 29, 1933, during the FBI's search for Miller, his mutilated
body was found in a ditch on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan. He had
been beaten and strangled. Information received by the FBI indicated that
Miller had been involved in an altercation with a henchman of Longie
Zwillman, head of New Jersey's underworld mob, in Newark; during the
argument, Miller had shot the henchman. Another of Zwillman's associates
reportedly retaliated by killing Miller.

Meanwhile, the FBI's hunt for "Pretty Boy" Floyd and Adam Richetti
continued. Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd, about 29 years old at the
time of the Kansas City Massacre, had been arrested on numerous occasions,
the first by the St. Louis, Missouri, Police Department on September 16,
1925, for highway robbery. He pleaded guilty to that charge on December 8,
1925, was sentenced to the State Penitentiary at Jefferson City, Missouri,
and released on March 7, 1929. Two days later, on March 9, 1929, he was
arrested by the Kansas City Police Department for investigation, and on
May 6, 1929, for vagrancy and suspicion of highway robbery. In both
instances, he was released. On May 20, 1930, Floyd was arrested by the
Toledo, Ohio, Police Department on a bank robbery charge and on November
24, 1930, was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in the Ohio State Penitentiary.
Floyd escaped enroute to the penitentiary and was a fugitive when he
became involved in the Kansas City Massacre.

Adam C. Richetti, about 23 years old at the time of the Kansas City
Massacre, began his criminal career with an arrest in Hammond, Indiana, on
August 7, 1928, for a holdup. Richetti was sentenced from one to ten years
in the State Reformatory, Pendleton, Indiana, for that crime. He was
paroled on October 2, 1930, and discharged from the parole on September
23, 1931. His next arrest occurred on March 9, 1932, at Sulphur, Oklahoma,
for bank robbery; he subsequently served a sentence at the State
Penitentiary, McAlester, Oklahoma, from April 5, 1932, to August 25, 1932,
when he was released and placed on bond which he forfeited. Richetti
subsequently was sought for jumping the $15,000 bond, and was wanted at
Tishomingo, Oklahoma, for robbery.

After fleeing from the Kansas City Massacre, Floyd and Richetti made their
way to Toledo, Ohio, where they met Beulah, also known as Juanita, and
Rose Baird in early September, 1933. From there the four traveled to
Buffalo, New York. On September 21, 1933, Floyd and Beulah Baird, using
the names of Mr. and Mrs. George Sanders, and Richetti and Rose Baird,
using the names Mr. and Mrs. Ed Brennan, rented an apartment in that city.

The other occupants of the apartment building considered the two couples
very mysterious inasmuch as they seldom left the apartment, then usually
for brief visits to the grocery store. During their occupancy, Floyd
reportedly walked from the front to the rear of the apartment almost
constantly, an activity that caused much curiosity on the part of the
other building occupants. The two couples never visited with any of their
neighbors, though they were friendly toward the neighborhood children who
sometimes were permitted to enter the apartment. The women occasionally
threw money from the windows of the apartment to the children playing in
the street, or offered them candy.

In October, 1934, the couples agreed to return to Oklahoma. Rose Baird was
given money to purchase a car, and she bought a Ford sedan which was to
carry them west.

The four began the trip early on October 20, with Floyd driving. A few
hours later, near Wellsville, Ohio, he skidded the automobile into a
telephone pole. Floyd and Richetti removed their firearms from the vehicle
and remained on the outskirts of the town, while Rose and Beulah Baird
took the damaged car into a Wellsville garage for repairs.

The Wellsville, Ohio, Police Chief, J. H. Fultz, following up on reports
that two suspicious-looking men were seen on the outskirts of town, found
the two resting in a wood tract of land nearby. A gun battle ensued. Chief
Fultz apprehended Richetti after Richetti had emptied his gun at the
officer. Floyd escaped, but the Police Chief thought Floyd might have been
wounded.

The FBI and local authorities conducted an intensive search for Floyd in
eastern Ohio following the above incident. This included interviews of
numerous persons in the predominantly rural countryside, including doctors
and hospital personnel whom Floyd might approach if, in fact, he was
wounded.

Eight of the participants in this search--a squad of four FBI Agents led
by Melvin Purvis, along with a squad of four East Liverpool, Ohio, police
officers headed by Chief of Police Hugh McDermott--were jointly patrolling
a group of roads south of Clarkson, Ohio, in two cars on October 22, when
they noticed an automobile move from behind a corn crib on a farm. The
officers had been questioning all persons whom they saw; and in an effort
to question the occupants of this automobile, they stopped their cars. At
this point, the vehicle that had attracted their attention drove back to
its original position behind the corn crib, and a man whom the officers
immediately recognized as Floyd jumped from the car with a .45 caliber
automatic pistol in his right hand.

As the officers reached Floyd, he said, "I'm done for; you've hit me
twice." They took the pistol from his hand and also seized a second gun
that he carried in his belt. Then two FBI Agents left to summon an
ambulance to take Floyd to a hospital. They were accompanied by a local
citizen who had witnessed the encounter. Two other local citizens,
including the owner of the farm where the shooting took place, also were
witnesses to the action that had occurred. Floyd died about 15 minutes
after he was shot.

At the time Floyd was killed, a watch and fob, consisting of a "lucky
piece," were found on his person. Groups of ten notches were found on each
of these items - reportedly carved by Floyd as an indication of the number
of people he had killed.

Rose and Beulah Baird, who were in the Wellsville garage attending to the
repair of the wrecked automobile when they overheard the discussion of
Richetti's being taken into custody, had left immediately for Kansas City,
Missouri. Later they traveled to the home of Floyd's family in Sallisaw,
Oklahoma, where they attended the funeral of Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd.

Adam Richetti, following his apprehension, was returned to Kansas City,
Missouri, and on March 1, 1935, was indicted by the Jackson County Grand
Jury on four counts of murder in the first degree. His trial, predicated
on the indictment charging him with the murder of Frank E. Hermanson, one
of the police officers killed in the Kansas City, Missouri, Massacre,
began in Kansas City on June 10, 1935. On June 17, the jury returned a
verdict of guilty with the recommendation that Richetti be given the death
penalty. He was sentenced to be hanged. Richetti appealed his conviction,
but it was affirmed by the State of Missouri Supreme Court on May 3, 1938.
Subsequently, Richetti's lawyers alleged Richetti to be insane, and a
hearing was held at which time his sanity was clearly established. On
August 31, 1938, Richetti was again sentenced to death, this time in the
gas chamber of the Missouri State Penitentiary of Jefferson City,
Missouri. He was executed on October 7, 1938.

The four individuals - Richard Galatas, Herbert Farmer, "Doc" Louis
Stacci, and Frank Mulloy - who, investigation disclosed, had engineered
the conspiracy to free Nash, were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury at
Kansas City, Missouri, on October 24, 1934. On January 4, 1935, the four
were found guilty of conspiracy to cause the escape of a Federal Prisoner
from the custody of the United States. On the following day, each was
sentenced to serve two years in a Federal Penitentiary and pay a fine of
$10,000, the maximum penalty allowed by law.