Albert Bates
Albert Bates was the partner for many years of the far more well-known George Kelly, who is usually referred to as Machine Gun Kelly. Bates in his lifetime earned the distinction of being held in Alcatraz both in the military prison there and later in the criminal justice prison. The Army sent him there after convicting him of desertion in 1911. By 1916 Bates was in Nevada, where he was convicted of burglary and sent to Nevada State Prison at the age of 23. When released he quickly was arrested again, convicted and enjoying the hospitality of the state of Utah. By 1930, Bates had been arrested, convicted, and incarcerated for burglary at least three times, and had committed an unknown number of burglaries.
After being released yet again from prison in 1930, this time in Colorado, Bates was introduced to George Kelly, himself a recent resident of the federal prison at Fort Leavenworth. Bates and Kelly were soon planning, with accomplices, a bank robbery, old hat for Kelly but a new type of crime for Bates. Their first robbery, in February 1932, was successful and led to another later that year in Washington, and then yet another, in November, in Tupelo Mississippi. The three robberies had netted them well over $100,000, but after dividing the money among the other members of the gang it was evident that they would have to keep working, as there was little cash left.
Like the Barker gang, Kelly and Bates began to consider roving bank robbery to be a little too dangerous for their taste, considering the shootouts which were becoming more and more a common greeting for many of the gangs throughout the Midwest. The sensationalized kidnaping of William Hamm was read about by the gangsters, who paid particular attention to the amount of the ransom paid, widely reported in the press. Bates and Kelly selected an oilman from Oklahoma City, Charles Urschell, as a potential victim. The successful kidnaping brought them a ransom of $200,000 and they released their victim in July 1933.
In 1933 bank robbery was not yet a federal crime. Kidnaping was. The FBI was soon involved in the investigation into the Urschell kidnaping. Bates and Kelly had held their captive on a ranch in Texas owned by Kelly’s family, and FBI agents soon identified and raided the location, arresting several of Kelly’s relatives. Bates and Kelly had split up and Kelly was later arrested in Memphis, Tennessee. Bates was arrested in Denver on August 12, the same day of the raid on the ranch, charged with attempting to pass stolen checks.
Both Bates and Kelly were eventually convicted of the kidnaping as were Kelly’s relatives at the ranch. Bates was sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to the federal prison at Alcatraz, where he had learned the basics of his criminal career two decades earlier. He died at Alcatraz in 1948.