| KCPD Memorial Lest We Forget |
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ADAM C. RICHETTI |
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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 Union
Station Massacre or the The
Kansas City Massacre.
The Union Station 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
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law enforcement officers who were returning him to the U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, from which he had escaped on October 19, 1930. |
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CHARLES ARTHUR "Pretty Boy" FLOYD |
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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 |
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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. |
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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.
Meanwhile,
a number of outlaw friends of Nash had
heard of his capture in Hot Springs.
They learned the time of the scheduled |
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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.
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. |
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VERNON MILLER ADAM RICHETTI |
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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. |
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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. |
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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 Raymond J. Caffrey and
Detectives William. 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 Detectives
Hermanson and |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. Detectives Grooms and Hermanson immediately fell to the ground. They were dead. SAC Vetterli--who was standing beside Detectives 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 Detectives 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. |
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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 unner. 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 |
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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. |
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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, an 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. |
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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 Detectives
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. |
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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.
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