Criminal. He was the prisoner that was killed in the Kansas City Massacre, aka Union Station Massacre. In 1913, Frank Nash was sentenced to life at the State Penitentiary, McAlester, Oklahoma, for murder. He was later pardoned, but returned in 1920, to serve a 25-year sentence for burglary with explosives. Again he was pardoned. On March 3, 1924, Nash began a 25-year sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, for assaulting a mail custodian. He escaped on October 19, 1930. Two FBI Agents, Frank Smith and F. Joseph Lackey, and Police Chief Otto Reed of McAlester, Oklahoma, 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. 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. Two Kansas City Police Department Detectives would also meet the train, William Grooms, and Frank Hermanson. The train arrived at the Union Station in Kansas City Missouri on time, at 7:15am. Just as Nash was loaded into the car, gun fire broke out. The incident resulted in the deaths of FBI Agent Raymond Caffrey, Police Chief Otto Reed of McAlester, Oklahoma, both Kansas City, Missouri Police Detectives William Grooms and Frank Hermanson, and also Frank Nash. Actually the Bureau of Investigation at that time, they were to shortly become the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as we know them now. Because of this incident, President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted legislation to give the FBI the power of arrest, and to carry firearms at all times. Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd, Vernon C. Miller, and Adam Richetti (Ricchetti) were blamed for the crime. The mutilated body of Vernon Miller, was found in a ditch on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan on November 29, 1933. He had been beaten and strangled. Pretty Boy Floyd was shot to death by a group of law officers headed by Melvin Purvis, near Clarkson, Ohio on October 22, 1934. Adam Richetti was found guilty of the murder of Kansas City Missouri Police Detective Frank Hermanson, and executed in the gas chamber of the Missouri State Penitentiary for it on October 7, 1938. The massacre at the Union Station is the subject of several books. At least one of which says that all those killed at the massacre, were killed by shotgun pellets fired by the lawmen, instead of .45 caliber rounds of the gangsters machine guns/pistols.

Criminal. He was the prisoner that was killed in the Kansas City Massacre, aka Union Station Massacre. In 1913, Frank Nash was sentenced to life at the State Penitentiary, McAlester, Oklahoma, for murder. He was later pardoned, but returned in 1920, to serve a 25-year sentence for burglary with explosives. Again he was pardoned. On March 3, 1924, Nash began a 25-year sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, for assaulting a mail custodian. He escaped on October 19, 1930. Two FBI Agents, Frank Smith and F. Joseph Lackey, and Police Chief Otto Reed of McAlester, Oklahoma, 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. 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. Two Kansas City Police Department Detectives would also meet the train, William Grooms, and Frank Hermanson. The train arrived at the Union Station in Kansas City Missouri on time, at 7:15am. Just as Nash was loaded into the car, gun fire broke out. The incident resulted in the deaths of FBI Agent Raymond Caffrey, Police Chief Otto Reed of McAlester, Oklahoma, both Kansas City, Missouri Police Detectives William Grooms and Frank Hermanson, and also Frank Nash. Actually the Bureau of Investigation at that time, they were to shortly become the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as we know them now. Because of this incident, President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted legislation to give the FBI the power of arrest, and to carry firearms at all times. Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd, Vernon C. Miller, and Adam Richetti (Ricchetti) were blamed for the crime. The mutilated body of Vernon Miller, was found in a ditch on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan on November 29, 1933. He had been beaten and strangled. Pretty Boy Floyd was shot to death by a group of law officers headed by Melvin Purvis, near Clarkson, Ohio on October 22, 1934. Adam Richetti was found guilty of the murder of Kansas City Missouri Police Detective Frank Hermanson, and executed in the gas chamber of the Missouri State Penitentiary for it on October 7, 1938. The massacre at the Union Station is the subject of several books. At least one of which says that all those killed at the massacre, were killed by shotgun pellets fired by the lawmen, instead of .45 caliber rounds of the gangsters machine guns/pistols.

Bio by: Bill Walker