Was a famous gangster shot in Kansas City during the thirties?

The Kansas City Massacre, or Union Station Massacre, occurred on June 17, 1933. Frank "Jelly" Nash, a convicted mail train robber and sometime member of the Barker-Karpis Gang, was being returned to Leavenworth, from which he had escaped three years earlier, when would-be underworld rescuers attacked the two carloads of lawmen guarding him with machine guns. A federal agent, Raymond J. Caffrey, two Kansas City police detectives, Frank Hermanson and William J. Grooms, and Orrin H. (Ott) Reed, Chief of Police of McAlester, Oklahoma, were all killed in the attack, as was Nash himself.

The shooting only lasted a minute or so and was witnessed by many people, with myriad confusing accounts as to what actually happened. Some witnesses claimed that one of the officers in the car actually shot Nash, rather than hand him over, which would possibly explain the sudden and otherwise unnecessary machine gun attack. Ballistic and photographic evidence has also been cited by author Robert Unger to suggest that some of the damage was actually done from within the car by an inexperienced young federal agent attempting to operate an unfamiliar shotgun. Nash was also, for some unexplained reason, sitting in the driver's seat of one of the cars and it is also possible he was not recognized by his rescuers, as his appearance had been somewhat altered over many months in hiding.

The Massacre spurred new legislation from Congress resulting in increased federalization of crime control and largely creating the modern FBI, which hastened the end of the marauding interstate bands of bank robbers then terrorizing the nation.

The alleged gunmen in the Kansas City Massacre were Verne Miller (murdered by other gangsters in Detroit, November 29, 1933), Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd (killed by FBI agents near East Liverpool, Ohio, October 22, 1934), and Adam Richetti (captured in Ohio just before Floyd and subsequently executed, October 7, 1938, in the gas chamber of the Missouri State Penitentiary at Jefferson City, Missouri).

Note to "advocate": The Union Station Massacre occurred in Kansas City, Missouri, not Kansas. What's more there have been plenty of murders in Kansas. Ever heard of "In Cold Blood"? The BTK Killer? The Dalton Gang? Just a few well known examples.

Kansas City Union Station Massacre

The Kansas City Massacre was the shootout and murder of four law enforcement officers and a criminal fugitive at the Union Station railroad depot in Kansas City, Missouri on the morning of June 17, 1933. It occurred as part of the attempt by a gang led by Vernon Miller to free Frank "Jelly" 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 three years earlier.

The shootout ultimately led to the death of Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, who was identified by the FBI as one of the gunmen. However, there is some evidence to suggest that Floyd wasn't actually involved.

Frank Jelly Nash

I don't know how famous he was, but his name was Frank Nash. It's called the Union Station Massacre. Nash was in federal custody when some of his buddies, including "Pretty Boy" Floyd, tried to free him. Nash and four federal agents were killed in the attempt.

No, and Kansas is the only state that has never had a murder in the entire history of the U S A.