My Grandfather always told us when we where young . “You need to be a good person and do good things, But you need to know bad people as they come in handy every now and then !” Cool read, thanks for sharing.
VA Medical records for my grandfather were the same way... I had completely forgotten about them and then I received about 4-5 pounds of photo copies probably 8 months later, mind boggling that they even had his medical records.
Ryan - thanks for sharing maybe a side of the family most might not. Agree with what sixinarow said - the 30's were tuff for most folks out in the small towns - Reno was far from what it would become so you kin did the best they could.
Well, I have to admit the first time I saw Ryan, aka Firebug, he had beady eyes like James Cagney. His alias didn't come from burning his enemies alive but a whole different tale. NOW, I just hope he doesn't somehow delete my membership in the Alliance, or worse ! Just kiddin', Ryan ! LOL
Each person goes through life and has to take responsibility for their own actions. That burden rest solely upon their shoulders and should not be carried by others. In addition there is just one almighty to to be the final judge of anyone.
Bankers were crooks then and today...people were smarter back then ...they could smell a rat..thats why these guys were loved by the general population even if there was collateral damage....
I would like to know as well, although the details are probably lost to time. Fascinating story, thank you Ryan for sharing with us!
According to some online inflation calculators, $200 in 1934 would be about $4,000 today. Maybe part of that was hazard pay, since it might be hard to find someone to work on an outlaw's car.
Ryan did mention He installed one of the first superchargers at the time on the Hudson's... Possible could have been to do with that..?
Believe you are right. Woody Guthrie tells Alan Lomax, in 1940, at the beginning of the recording of the song Pretty Boy Floyd: “I want to venture to say, without stretching the truth, that Pretty Boy Floyd is sung about on more lips and more mouths, and thought better of in more hearts, he’s all around more popular than any governor Oklahoma ever had.” Probably not much of a stretch to think that maybe folks thought the same of Baby Face. Robbing bankers in those days endeared you to the common folk.
I noticed in the second to last paragraph of the statement a mention of the Frisch case. This is some info about that case which was a big deal at the time, 1934. Roy J. Frisch was a cashier at a local bank (teller? unsure if they just used different terminology back then, but by all accounts, they call him a cashier. What bank has a cashier? Tellers. They have tellers. Anyhow, I digress...) who was scheduled to testify in court. And we're talking the king-of-the-Reno-underworld-and-casinos here: Jim McKay and Bill Graham. Knowing this, I suppose it's not a total shock that he goes missing just prior to the trial, on March 22, 1934. The case involved a mail-fraud scheme that bilked investors out of thousands of dollars-and it took place at the Riverside Bank. Mr. Frisch was to be the key government witness in the trial. Per Namus, on March 22, 1934, Mr. Frisch attended a 7:45 PM? showing of " Gallant Lady" at the Majestic Theater, located within walking distance of his home. Afterwards, a friend saw him at the corner of nearby Sierra and Court Streets, but Mr. Frisch never made it home, and was never seen again. (As to how reliable the eyewitness spotting of Mr. Frisch was, I'd gamble it was accurate, based on the description of his gait: He "walked very erect and had a peculiar very noticeable swing to his body when he walked, shoulders thrown back and feet swing forward ahead of his body when he walked." Pretty distinctive, enough to ID someone at a distance.) McKay/Graham ran a number of establishments frequented by the likes of Baby Face Nelson, John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, etc-they were good places to launder money, amongst other things. Which leads us to our main suspects in this case: both Baby Face Nelson and John Paul Chase were in town at the time of Mr. Frisch's disappearance. Were they hired to dispose of him, perhaps? Supposedly friends/fellow gang members of Baby Face Nelson confessed to the crime, but no body has ever been recovered, and one of the people who confessed (Chase) later recanted.
good Indiana friend of mine got married back in early 70's. he showed be a picture of his m-in-law, which had a chicago restaurant back in the 30's, had one leg on the running board of a car. there was another leg on the running board, it belonged to al capone. later on in life she had a farm. but inside was some neat stuff that a normal person couldn't get. there were persian rugs, not cheap ones, and a big fancy 2 sided desk. lot of other expensive stuff that farmers couldn't afford. she or her husband never said anything about there past life in chicago. wish the walls could talk
Apparently there are some nasty nasty skeletons on my late Sicilian mother’s side. She had a lot to say about her family’s Chicago past. Anybody remember Admiral appliances?
The banks (bankers, investors, etc.) foreclosed and repossessed a lot of real estate during and leading up to that time. Yes, a lot of them were crooked vultures, and hated by the common (broke) public. Most people adhered to the old adage "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", so they looked the other way. Also, any way to make money meant survival and I doubt the auto repair business in general was exactly booming. You do what you gotta do. He probably figured he wasn't pulling any triggers, so what the hell: his family had a roof over their heads and food on the table. We don't understand what those times were like for most people.
Hi all. New guy here. I love these kind of stories for what they are. History. Nelson robbed a bank in my hometown in central Minnesota in Aug of 1933. Him and others in his line of work were known to vacation not far from here. Still rumered there is a hide away roullette table in one of the bars in the area. One thing that crossed my mind while reading this. We all have different jobs, yet gravitate to hot rods for one reason or another. Sometimes our proffesions are directly related. Sometimes not. Nelson and others liked fast cars for obvious reasons. Like moonshiners had an influence on NASCAR, I wonder if those gangsters were ever tied to Bonneville?? Is there any pics or stories that would put any of them AT Bonneville?? Maybe for test and tune?
All I knew about that era was from the movies and all the gangsters seemed to be from New York, New Jersey or Chicago. Now, the old boys that ran liquor in NE Oklahoma when I was a kid were good old boys and several were members of various Baptist churches. If they were going to church, they couldn't have been bad guys, right?
Ryan, thanks for your investigations and sharing your family history. These are some crazy stories! Way cool!
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