Prior to Robert E. Howard owning an automobile it was his
custom when no ride was available, and he wanted to go somewhere, to simply
start walking down the road until he could hitch a ride with a willing
passerby. This practice is confirmed by his father, Dr. I.M. Howard, in a June
21, 1944 letter to E. Hoffman Price. Dr. Howard told Price, “[I] have known him
to start hitchhiking to Ft. Worth or Brownwood to see a fight before he owned a
car of his own. And when he was just [a] slender youth.”[1]
Going to fights was not the only reason Robert would take off down the road
attempting to hitch a ride to his destination. He also hitched when he wanted
to go see friends, movies, and on occasions when he just wanted to explore.
East Pecan Street Coleman, Texas; circa late 1920s |
While at this bootleg joint, Howard ran into an old-timer,
who was around 80 years old, whom Howard had known for some time. Howard bought
the old-timer a beer and listened to his stories while everyone else did their
own thing. The place was probably hopping with a few locals who knew the joint
existed. When I initially read Howard’s account it struck me as odd. First, in
Central and West Texas in the middle of Prohibition, bootlegging operations
were simple and small, located in areas in the sticks away from any town and
difficult to reach. Second, these operations typically contained only a small
distillery run by one or two people. And they were intentionally located in
hard to reach places to keep others away, such as a small hole in the sides of
hills, or the walls of creek and/or river beds. This was also to keep the
outfit hidden from the Texas Rangers who were busy shutting these small
operations down. Moreover, the alcohol that was made at these small operations
were bottled on site and distributed away from the operation itself. So, for
Howard and his friends to be at a bootleg joint that was large enough to serve
people on site was extremely rare. It also probably meant the local police were
aware of the place and were paid in cash and alcohol to look the other way. I
found this interesting enough to include it in a research road trip I was doing in
and around Coleman, Texas. What I managed to dig up is, to say the least, quite
intriguing.
Robert E. Howard did not give the exact date for this road
trip to Coleman. Even so, it had to be sometime prior to September 5, of 1928
(the date of his letter to Harold Preece). My best guess is that it probably happened
in the middle of August 1928, just a few weeks prior to the date on the letter.
This also meant the event was still fresh on Howard’s mind. I had two questions
on my mind as I was researching the facts surrounding this bootlegging joint:
“who owned the place?” and “how did they—Howard and his companions—know about
it?”
Bootleggers in the early 1930s |
Just a few months before Howard and his companions arrived at
this bootleg joint, some interesting things occurred in Coleman, Texas.
However, to understand these ‘interesting things,’ we must go further back in
time. I did just that, and this is what I discovered.
In 1904, Lera Cleo Brooks (who eventually went by the name
Kathryn[5])
was born in Saltillo, Mississippi. By the age of 15 she married a laborer named
Lonnie Frye. While the marriage did not last, they nonetheless had a daughter
named Pauline. The couple divorced, and it was around this time Lera Cleo
Brooks began calling herself Kathryn. She thought the name sounded glamorous,
though it was probably for different reasons pertaining to crime.[6]
Kathryn then briefly married a man named Allie Brewer, ending in another
divorce. “Around this time Kathryn's mother, Ora Coleman Brooks, also divorced,
married Robert. G. Shannon. Nicknamed
"Boss" Shannon. He was a political power in the Democratic Party in
Wise County, Texas.”[7]
Apparently Ora Coleman Brooks (Kathryn’s mother) and Robert G. “Boss” Shannon
used Shannon’s political clout and took up bootlegging to earn extra cash. This
was around Paradise, Texas where the couple also owned a ranch “which they
rented out to criminals on the run for $50 a night.”[8]
Divorced from her second husband, Kathryn helped her mother and step-father in
their bootlegging operations. By this time Prohibition was in full swing and “Boss” Shannon’s bootlegging business was thriving. Sometime in 1927,
Kathryn met a fellow bootlegger named Charles G. Thorne. Thorne owned a small
restaurant in downtown Coleman, Texas called the American Café, and a ranch
just outside the city limits of Coleman where he had a small bootlegging
operation or “joint.” He also owned a home in Coleman and in Fort Worth, Texas.
Kathryn (Thorne) Kelly |
From all accounts I’ve managed to dig up, Charlie and Kathryn
had a tumultuous relationship. Charlie Thorne’s history is almost nonexistent,
on paper anyway. He was born in 1900 to a poor family in Coolidge, Texas (in
Limestone County). He was also uneducated and therefore illiterate. It is not
known where Charlie and Kathryn met, and it is unlikely they were married in
Coleman, Texas.[9]
The marriage only lasted a year, from sometime in 1927 until May of 1928.
In an attempt to collect as much information as I could about
Charles and Kathryn Thorne, I traveled to the Coleman County Courthouse, in
Coleman, Texas on October 26, 2016.[10]
It just so happened that the 2016 presidential primaries were in full swing, so
voting booths were set up at the courthouse, and a table was being operated by
several locals to help voters. As I searched through files in the County
Clerk’s office, I struck up a conversation with the Coleman County Clerk. She
took an interest in my research and suggested places to look in their records.
She also mentioned that one of the town historians was helping operate the
table where the voting was taking place just outside her office, and
recommended I go speak with this person. After digging up all the information I
could find, I went and spoke with an 89-year-old woman about Charles Thorne.
She knew right away about the bootlegging joint that was outside of town on a
man’s property, she thought she remembered her elders calling it a ranch. She
explained that the place had a strong but well-guarded reputation in the area,
she just could not recall the name of the man who owned the land and ranch.
When I mentioned Charlie Thorne’s name she said she thought that was correct.
All she could remember was that the man who owned the place supposedly killed
himself. She then told me about another local historian, Ralph Terry, who she
thought would know more about Charlie Thorne than she did.
1920s Street/Building schematic of Pecan/Commerce in Coleman, TX |
It wasn’t too long before I called Ralph Terry and, sure
enough, he knew about Charles Thorne. In fact, he established the page for
Charles G. Thorne at the Find A Grave website. He also had several newspaper
clippings about Thorne and confirmed that he was a bootlegger. So, one of my
questions got answered: who owned the land? Charlie Thorne owned the land and
according to the recorded land deed, it was located Northwest of what was then
the town limits of Coleman, Texas. Today, the land is within the city limits
because Coleman has grown since the 1920s. The American Café was located just
south of the courthouse at 200/202 South Commercial Avenue. Back then the
building was a single large unit.
1929 Building Schematic of the American Cafe South Commercial, Coleman Texas. |
As my research unfolded, another item of importance popped
up. Charles G. Thorne had supposedly died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to
his temple on Sunday, April 30, 1928, only four months prior to Howard and his
crew showing up to Thorne’s bootlegging joint. I say “supposedly” since there
is more to this situation than what is recorded on Thorne’s death certificate.
Based on the 89-year-old town historian at the voting table just outside the
County Clerk’s office, this confirms Charlie Thorne was the man she had in mind
but could not remember his name. Ralph Terry told me, when he gave me several
pieces of information about Thorne, that he allegedly died of suicide, but that
was probably an inaccurate report. Terry mentioned that it had been suggested
by Thorne's friends and family members that Kathryn, Charlie’s wife, probably
killed him.
Thorne's new headstone (as of 2016). No one knows who or exactly when it was placed |
It is at this point in the history of Charlie and Kathryn
Thorne where things get very interesting. The death certificate for Charles G.
Thorne indicates the cause of death was a gunshot wound, self-inflicted. The
incident took place at the Thorne’s home on South Frio Street. A hand-written
suicide note was found on or near him. These are the “facts” recorded for Charles
G. Thorne’s death. However, family and friends who knew the couple testified
that Charlie Thorne did not know how to read or write, so how could he have
“written” a suicide note? Moreover, the occupation listed for Thorne was
“stockman,” which seems odd since he at least owned the America Café in
Coleman. In an historical account written by Charlie Royall, a relative in
Kathryn’s family, based on newspaper articles, family stories, and researched
books about Kathryn (who will later become a famous outlaw married to a well-known
gangster), Royall cites crime historian Rick Mattix: “While Kathryn was away
visiting relatives once, she got word that Charlie was cheating on her. On the
way back home she stopped to get gas and told the station attendant, ‘I'm bound
for Coleman, Texas, to kill that God-damned Charlie Thorne.’ The next day
Thorne was found shot to death.”[11]
Today, this account is circulated widely in the research about Kathryn and her
fourth infamous husband. It is also located in the FBI archives. Over the decades, family and friends have testified to
the idea that Kathryn killed Charlie, and his death was wrongly documented as a
suicide.
Shortly after Charlie Thorne’s death, Kathryn put her husband in an unmarked grave in the Coleman City Cemetery and began selling
off their property, businesses, and land. This took her a little over a year to
accomplish. When Howard and his companions arrived at Thorne’s bootlegging
joint just outside Coleman, Kathryn was actively working the joint and trying
to sell it. This means it is highly likely that Howard and Smith crossed paths
with Kathryn Thorne. By early 1929, Kathryn managed to sell the American Café
on South Commercial Street to C.M. Henderson and J.T. Lane of Coleman. It is
unclear when she sold the 15.54 acres along with the ranch and bootlegging
joint. Piecing together the evidence I collected, she probably managed to sell it
toward the end of 1928, possibly to Clay Huffman with a down payment of
$6500.00 following four payments of $250 each.[12]
By mid to late 1929, Kathryn lived in Fort Worth, where she and Charlie Thorne
owned a house, and she was working as a manicurist. A few months later, she got
involved with another bootlegger in Oklahoma, through whom she met and married
her fourth husband, who was none other than George Kelly Barnes (a.k.a “Machine
Gun” Kelly).
George "Machine Gun" Kelly handcuffed & shackled, being led under heavy guard from Shelby County Jail to the Memphis airport |
I pored through the FBI archives, and several things about
Kathryn (Thorne) Kelly, surfaced. Shortly after she left Coleman in 1929 and
lived in Fort Worth, a businessman got involved with Kathryn. This businessman told the FBI about his experiences with her. “J. Edgar Hoover quoted the businessman
years later as telling a friend: ‘Remember that innocent little girl I was
going to show a good time? She took me to more speakeasies, more bootleg dives,
and more holes in the wall than I thought existed in all of Texas. She knows
more bums than the Police Department. She can drink liquor like water. And
she's got some of the toughest women friends I ever laid eyes on!’”[13]
One of the speakeasies Kathryn and this businessman frequented is located just
down the road from where I live, called Top O’ Hill Terrace. Today tours are
currently provided of the place. Something I have added to my “things to do
list."
Kathryn Thorne Kelly FBI ID Card |
Little did Howard and Smith know at the time that the bootleg
joint just outside of Coleman, Texas was owned by none other than the infamous
Charlie Thorne and his soon to be notorious wife Kathryn (Thorne) Kelly. And
while there is no hard and fast evidence that they did in fact cross paths, the
circumstances certainly indicate they probably did. Of course, if they did,
they would have not known her at the time, she would have been just another woman to them.
The last question I was wanting to answer—how did Howard and his companions know about the place?—Thorne's bootlegging joint was apparently popular enough for those who needed to know such things. The way Howard described the man who picked him and Clyde up, it's likely he knew about the place. In his letter to Preece, Howard did not seem concerned at all, at the height of Prohibition, about getting caught at the place, which may also indicate that Howard might have heard about the place, and knew it was not a lawful threat to hang out there.
_______________________
Notes:
[1] Howard,
Isaac M., Dr. "Loose Ends 1939-1944." In The Collected Letters of Doctor Isaac M. Howard, edited by Rob
Roehm, 205. Plano, Texas: Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, 2011.
[2] Howard,
Robert. "1928." In The
Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard, edited by Rob Roehm, 223. Vol. 1:
1923-1929. Sugar Land, TX: Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, 2007.
[3]
Ibid.
[4]
Ibid. 224.
[5]
Kathryn has also been spelled “Cathryn” on official court documents I
discovered in Coleman, Texas.
[6]
See details about this here: http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/th/read/ARFAULKN/2007-04/1177336375,
this link was given to me by Kathryn’s son, Glen Horn. Kathryn’s identity will
be revealed a little later in this article. It has also been suggested that Lera
Cleo Brooks had been called “Kate” or “Kathryn” from an early age.
[7]
Ibid.
[8]
Ibid. There is some debate amongst local historians about the truth of these
bootlegging claims regarding “Boss” Shannon and his wife Ora. Unfortunately,
bootleggers did not keep records, for the most obvious reasons of incrimination
if caught at their craft.
[9] I
found no record of marriage for them at the Coleman, County Courthouse, so they
were likely married elsewhere.
[10] I
was in the middle of researching information for my upcoming REH biography, so
Coleman, Texas was just one of the places I visited in a 4-day period in and
around Central Texas. I spent two days in Coleman at the Coleman County
Courthouse.
[11]
See the article here: http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/th/read/ARFAULKN/2007-04/1177336375
[12]
This information is based on a land deed I found that has several dates on it
from 1923 to 1928. It seems Charlie Thorne’s land changed hands several times
between those two dates. The land deed indicated that Charlie and Kathryn were
the last owners of the property before Kathryn sold the land to Huffman.
[13]
Ibid.
__________________
Afterword
As is to be expected, there is so much more interesting information about George "Machine Gun" and Kathryn Kelly. I certainly recommend, especially if you have an interest, poking around the available sources (a few are listed below) and reading more about them. While doing my research, I corresponded with Kathryn Kelly's son, Glen Horn. Glen gave me contact information for a man who was writing a biography about Karthryn Kelly, this researcher's name is Richard H. Mullins and he is the author of the book, Real Oklahoma Outlaws: Major Crimes, Prison Time & Jail Breaks—The True Story of the Justice & Davis Crime Families. Mullins and I exchanged information and data we had collected and he pointed me in several directions I did not think to look. The issue with Charles G. Thorne's headstone is a mystery. The Coleman City Cemetery does not keep records of headstones, so anyone can place a stone on a grave site without their permission. This seemed odd to me, but that is what the managing groundskeeper at the cemetery told me. He told me that it was possible the state may have provided the headstone, but that seems unlikely.
FBI archives for 1920s and 30s high profile criminals, gangsters, etc. have been available to the public for some time now. Much of it is dry and boring standard desk documents, but there are a few really good criminal cards with fingerprints, and historical records that are worth the time and effort to pore over. Below are some books and internet sites of interest about George and Kathryn Kelly.
Links:
FBI Archives for George "Machine Gun" Kelly
Links:
FBI Archives for George "Machine Gun" Kelly
Books:
Gangster Tour of Texas by T. Lindsay Baker (Texas A&M Press 2011)
This was one of the best books I found on George and Kathryn Kelly (Charlie Thorne and a small amount of those details are included) The only issue I had with the section on George and Kathryn was Baker's claim that Kathryn's family had moved to Coleman, Texas when she was a child. I found no proof for this whatsoever, so I am uncertain where Baker got this information (it is not cited).
J. Edgar Hoover and His G-Men by William B. Breuer (Praeger Publishing, 1995)
This book is very interesting but must be read with several grains of salt. Breuer plays loose with several facts. Breuer claims that Kathryn Killed Charlie Thorne at their ranch with her gun. All local reports say Charlie died at his house on Frio Street.
Kathryn Kelly: The Moll Behind Machine Gun Kelly (Gangland Mysteries) by Barbara Casey (Strategic Media Books February 1, 2016)
Author and researcher Richard H. Mullins told me about this book. It is apparently the reason he is writing his account. He warned me that the material in it is not too trustworthy but recommended I read it. Glen Horn (Kathryn's son) also told me Casey played loose with some of the facts and speculated too often without evidence. So, keep all that in mind if you decide to read this one.
Below are two newspaper clippings. The one on the left, provided by Ralph Terry, is the local account of Charles G. Thorne's death in 1928. The one on the right, provided to me by Richard H. Mullins, is from The Waco News Tribune in 1933, shortly after George and Kathryn were captured by the FBI. It is J.F. Thorne declaring that Kathryn killed his son, Charles G. Thorne.
Gangster Tour of Texas by T. Lindsay Baker (Texas A&M Press 2011)
This was one of the best books I found on George and Kathryn Kelly (Charlie Thorne and a small amount of those details are included) The only issue I had with the section on George and Kathryn was Baker's claim that Kathryn's family had moved to Coleman, Texas when she was a child. I found no proof for this whatsoever, so I am uncertain where Baker got this information (it is not cited).
J. Edgar Hoover and His G-Men by William B. Breuer (Praeger Publishing, 1995)
This book is very interesting but must be read with several grains of salt. Breuer plays loose with several facts. Breuer claims that Kathryn Killed Charlie Thorne at their ranch with her gun. All local reports say Charlie died at his house on Frio Street.
Kathryn Kelly: The Moll Behind Machine Gun Kelly (Gangland Mysteries) by Barbara Casey (Strategic Media Books February 1, 2016)
Author and researcher Richard H. Mullins told me about this book. It is apparently the reason he is writing his account. He warned me that the material in it is not too trustworthy but recommended I read it. Glen Horn (Kathryn's son) also told me Casey played loose with some of the facts and speculated too often without evidence. So, keep all that in mind if you decide to read this one.
Below are two newspaper clippings. The one on the left, provided by Ralph Terry, is the local account of Charles G. Thorne's death in 1928. The one on the right, provided to me by Richard H. Mullins, is from The Waco News Tribune in 1933, shortly after George and Kathryn were captured by the FBI. It is J.F. Thorne declaring that Kathryn killed his son, Charles G. Thorne.
8 comments:
Wonderful! I love all this stuff. Good detective work, Todd.
Great sleuthing, Todd!
Todd, this is an excellent bit of sleuthing, and a great write-up of the speakeasy and the surrounding situation. The whole set of events absolutely speaks to the kind of environment that was rural Texas in these "fast and loose" times. Well done, sir.
Thanks, guys. This article was a blast to research.
Todd,
Thank you for your wonderful article. My mother lived in Coleman,TX from 1921-1930. Have several relatives buried there, Coleman City Cemetery. She, her mother, father and her mothers brother and wife all lived at 208 W. College Ave. My great uncle & his wife had a clothing store at 211 S. Commercial Ave. According to my great uncle the "speakeasy" was located at the upstairs portion of 110 E.Pecan St. My mother lived in Coleman with her parents until 1930, when my grandfather was killed and her and her mother relocated to Paint Rock TX. She was 11 yrs. of age in 1930. According to my family, Coleman was a rough and tumble place in that time period, much petroleum operations near by in that era and those persons that went with that trade. Thank you for bringing Coleman, a place many have never heard of to the present day in history.I still live not too far south of Coleman today, on the Llano uplift. Todd, thank you again for the opportunity to reminisce the past, best regards, Rick
Hello, Rick.
Thank you for your kind words about the article, glad you liked it. Also, thanks for the information about the "speakeasy." Based on discussions with the older locals and court documents, I always thought the bootlegging joint was on Thorne's land just outside of town. If there was a speakeasy in the upstairs portion of 110 E.Pecan St., that would place it in the same locale as the building that housed Thorne's cafe, which is quite interesting. It's always nice to hear from locals about my research and articles. Thanks again!
Great article. Very fun to read when I have read Robert's and his father's letters. Thanks for all the investigating.
I appreciate yer research here . My great uncle was boss Shannon. I heard many stories but just that...fact and fiction rarely align. On a more proverbial note ..I hope folks keep in mind the hard times that were on all u.s. folks and what they did to survive. My grandpa was the only 1 of 3 sons that didn't bootleg and worked/retired from brown n root as a road crew boss. Great uncle Wylie was subdued by the k.k.k. for assaulting his wife and being a bootleggers. Dislocated his jaw,stripped naked and told if the sun shined on his bare ass in the morning he will be hanging by a rope!...hard times...hard peepl
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