Usa today on tv. Leading a team of historians and journalists the museum of news events and history from pennsylvania avenue washington d. C. And as the executive director from 2011 the former chairman of the Foster Peabody award will to serve as a member of the Advisory Board the journalism honors from the National Association of newspaper columnist in winning the award that they wrote a and coproduced lets welcome jow urschel to the national archives. [applause] one there is no line of for whiskey is in this event. Had i known i would have brought my own. Thank you for coming out today i appreciate you stopping by. I will refrain myself from turning on for too long. We have 45 minutes time. About 30 minutes into this you can flag me of a like to explain how i got into this story and into the book coming here in 1982 for the launch of usa today. And very excited to be in washington. Taking in the tourist sites and this is 1982 day just converted the card catalog system that patrons could use while they were visiting. So i typed in my last name which is fairly uncommon and tell the Baltimore Ravens drafted herschel who was now not only more famous but a lot smarter probably the only person working on his ph. D. While he is playing in the nfl. When i put in my name there was one entry that popped up. Of the herschel kidnapping victim. There was one book written about it with. Host ticket inside story of the herschel kidnapping. Intrigue i called the band sat down reading it cover to cover. It was the most remarkable story i had ever read more than you can possibly imagine and i was flabbergasted because ive never heard of this guy. I havent heard of any herschels other than what i was related to. After i read the book i called up my dad to say i read this incredible book about Charles Urschel and oil millionaire in texas that was kidnapped in the 30s are related . He said no. Ice that have a you know, . Host we are not. So like any good son i set out to prove my father wrong. To embark on Genealogical Research looking all over the country for urschel but i never did friday a connection that they could find within the United States if there is any connection it dates back centuries which is germany. So with that i decided still a good story over the last 30 years. The more i learned the better the story got. It is an incredible story one of the most remarkable kidnappings in American History to produce the largest manhunt in the nation up to that time covering 16 states states, 20,000 miles. Resulting in a sensational trial in to put on Motion Picture carries and then turning to the cameras of of the next 50 years. Was and to give that agents their nickname that resulted in the establishment of alcatraz does of federal penitentiary as a whole for criminals deemed vicious and the redeemable, of the worst of the worst. Instead of the passage of the federal crime bill 1934 that made kidnapping of a federal crime punishable by death and expanded the power of the fbi. All this was made possible by the cooperation of the urschel kidnap victim. And i deem to 1933 the year of fear because it has a confluence of events that are taking place. In 1933, three years into the Great Depression depression, probably the worst economic consequences to be played out across the nation as the economy sinks further and further. In the year since the 29 crash the market lost almost 90 percent of its value the unemployment nonfarm was 40 percent and in some cities as high as 80 percent thousands of banks were closed, of loss of tax revenues with draconian cuts and only a few social services did exist police and teachers were laid off schools closed in millions dropped out. Catastrophic dash storms were beginning to pick up in the southwest later what we now refer to as the dust bowl incredible storms started in oklahoma or a texas or new mexico and with blows so hard and so strong that the people who lived in that area would have to drape the child beds and carriages with wet sheets to prevent the sill to come in and chokes them to death because it would kill the livestock in the field and turn the stowe read and ships at sea coming into new york harbor could not see the skyline. You can see some of the effects from local farms. As they were taking up a sense of lawlessness was beginning to develop throughout the country when for Law Enforcement officers were killed in broad daylight and the user id grey gropper operated with virtual impunity along the criminal corridor from dallas texas to seen paul minnesota. The mayor of chicago standing next to fdr and a political event when he was assassinated in miami. The al think it was directed at fdr but at the time they thought that the attempt was successful and he was the victim. Because he had just unseeded the mayor of chicago to form the unholy Alliance Without capone and a criminal empire in chicago and he caved in on of bowel to rid the city of capone and though way to do that is to align himself with another getting operating on the north side of the city and literally had hired them to be his Police Officers said body guards. Just weeks earlier the chief attendant while this is all going on with the elimination of prohibition of the criminal empires with the banks drying up with prohibition coming to an end so into the market failure and estimated 2000 kidnappings had occurred between 1930 and 1933 when a bird case was probably the most famous. So with no money left it in the banks and kidnap being wealthy individuals and the way these operations would work across the county line where county sheriffs so is relatively easy to hide out on a remote farm for a certain amount of money with the ransom then release with the caveat everything would be fine unless they go to the authorities and if they do and then it was working up through 1933 eric and armor plated limousines with the passenger Seat Companies were issuing kidnapping and while all of this is going on fdr kicks off to announce we have nothing to fear but fear itself at the same time adolf hitler was the chancellor in germany. And with tougher times coming so in the midst of this incredible scenario george kelly and his glamorous wife decide theyre going to kidnap the richest oil man in the southwest. With an almost remarkable lack of planning burst into the earth shall home while theyre playing bridge with their friends so armed with a machine gun runs up to the bridge gave is suddenly discovers it and know which of the two guys is urschel. [laughter] said to make all kinds of threats they demand that urschel reveal himself which he does not do and just sits there. As theyre getting increasingly belligerent deciding he will stand up biddy a hero. At which point urschel stands up also so kelly says we will take both of you. They speed off into the night a couple of miles out of town they realize they could probably identify which was urschel by looking at their wallets. [laughter] they stopped the car they give him 10 to get a cab back to town and they take off with urschel. They take him to the farm just outside of dallas that was owned by Kathryn Kelley fatherinlaw is day brokendown car with a few animals where the boss lives with his wife and his son and his sons wife. So they stick urschel he has been blindfolded the entire ride and for the next eight days he is blind and deaf and change to a bedframe at various times of the day but nevertheless the kind of guy who does not part with money willingly. And if he ever gets back he will get his money back so he begins collecting information and he knows how long the car ride took he also realizes that was designed to confuse him known as the king of the wildcatters. There were finding oil all over oklahoma and texas some of urschel who grew up on a farm begins to count the number of different animals by how many they are. The information on the farm itself he is held at various times to collect information from the People Better holding about the buildings and how big the farm is the local prostitute and while he is doing all of this year realizes that 930 in the morning of play and is passing overhead. He puts back into the database and leaving his fingerprints river he can in the meantime his wife has collected money for the ransom. So at the point they are about to release urschel Katherine Kelley new was the tougher of the to insist they have to kill him. And george says recant kill him because if we do they will come after us with the marines and we will never get away in recant kidnap anybody else because our threats will be empty. So the plan was kidnapped five more people to get about cater 10 million in contemporary dollars and they go to mexico. Everybody has their dreams. [laughter] so that plan is thwarted and urschel returns to his home in Oklahoma City which by then is for the press around the world in various members of the bureau of investigation of j. Edgar huge hoover as well as local police. Urschel comes in and immediately debriefed by the fbi agents whod just listens having starting off telling him it is like finding a needle in a haystack after 90 minutes he said we just found a really small haystack. [laughter] but consequently urschel borrowed a plane they go up in the air with the airline they have identified they look down using urschel sketch and identify a form that looks exactly like the drawing and put together a Raiding Party and urschel insists he is in the lead car with a sawedoff shotgun on his lap their arrest them and of fellow who was at the farm hiding out from the state prison in kansas. Harvey bailey is an incredible character and just so happen to stumble into this story consider the most Successful Bank robbery in American History. Which involves careful planning to have multiple backup plans if there is the most money in the bank to be robbed by studying the of local economy with the Police Activity is like how far away the Police Station is what color cars and basically it would go well and nobody would know who did it and then and then having to take credit for anything. And then successfully robbing the denver mint and the Lincoln National bank so much money that the bank failed the next day. And he did so well in the 20s that he retired from the bank robbing business opening a series of gas stations and car washes in chicago with his money in the market crash then because he did so well. He worked with george kelly on a number of bank jobs and actually gave him a thousand dollars when he was low on funds. And to collect the money that he sustained but he just happens to be sleeping in the backyard on a cot with their arrive with a squadron of Law Enforcement. Even though Georgiana Catherine had already fled they had gone up to st. Paul to launder their money. The fbi agents still score an important victory that was not only of a proper but a prisoner. The raid is considered a huge success in the rise justin thyme for j. Edgar hoover who in 1933 was not yet director of the fbi barely holding on to his job with the bureau of investigation was given a job to solve the lindbergh kidnapping he had done a miserable job with almost no progress in the 18 months since it happened. When fdr took office as first choice for attorney general was the senator from wyoming. Also had a bad history with j. Edgar hoover during the harding administration. Hoover and the bureau were instructed to besmirch both walsh and his fellow senator. And there were trying to launch investigations. They tapped his phone and read his mail and tried to trap him in a hotel room with women to get incriminating evidence and it did not succeed but it did succeed to make a lifelong enemy of mr. Walsh that was announced as fdr his first choice as attorney general and after that announcement he vowed to get rid of that miserable son of a. Unfortunately he was 72 years old when he got two grammy to marry a cuban debutante on the trade ride back to washington when the train stopped at one dash a North Carolina his wife lookup but he did not subsequently the next attorney general was named homer cummings as the brain trust originally slated for the ambassador from the Justice Department and he figures the way he can raise the profile that was held fairly low of the time through the department of easy virtue to prosecute the war on crime. It really liking the sound of that do basically taken up one dash break up whenever he could do. J. Edgar is under pressure to bring and of big score in the Machine Gun Kelly case could be the one. Then the other leading character in the story, charles was a farm kid whos grew up and enlisted in the army during the first world war. When he got out the last thing he would do is to hard work it did not pay off as well as he was hoping that it starts off that he decides to make his fortune the oil business. He has a head for numbers and a great memory as you know, and hooks up with tom who becomes king of the wildcatters who makes their fortunes together. Unfortunately, right at their peak tom slick at age 47 has a massive heart attack and dies. Charros marys his widow for being the urschel slick oil company which is even bigger then of course, that generates a lot of headlines in the paper how rich they are and what the oil holdings and tail. Also be interesting reading about kidnapping urschel so urschel and select had no great love for the press before the kidnapping because they always talk about their Business Affairs suddenly has even more reason to despise them. So charles those in to an alliance with j. Edgar hoover where the kidnapping ochres and hoover prosecutes a nationwide search for catherine and george. The fbi was just given the sole responsibility to chase kidnappers said they were the only organization to bring this to fruition. But to problems one is that they were not armed and there were not trained most were lawyers and accountants would have been in municipalities prosecute so hoover looked around his agencies to find people who would be skilled enough to go up against machine guns and murderers and bank robbers. And discovers he has fewer than and to lung dash man to and he puts them together with this and he puts them together with this investigation in order then this is a document produced by the bureau after the successful prosecution which they used to further demonstrate their need for expanded powers in all cities where they suspected the kellys might be and where they had tracked them and they had been the most of those places they tried to close the borders because it thought there would be leaving. And not a bad assumption. This is another document produced by the fbi mapped out the most prominent members of society who were kidnapped. This is the davis melvyn purchase the special agent in charge of the Chicago Office to captured and killed a cylinder bringing great fame to the bureau however on the urschel casey let kelley slip through his fingers in chicago the fbi discovered that kelly was using michigan tavern as his personal address where he was paying out to enjoy a special protection from the police and assigned him to stake out the tavern but literally he forgot to do it. By the time he remembered there were two agents but they never went inside then that very day kelly was inside arranging to get a new automobile to escape to memphis, tennessee. This did not make the director happy and then purchase left the agency of the few years after these events occurred. Ultimately they choose between six and seven weeks on the road they find kelly in memphis, tennessee and successfully pressed him. There he is walking out of the courthouse and chains guarded by machine gunners the fbi now has quite an arsenal the interesting thing is that kelly started out in memphis, tennessee a child of the upper middleclass parents, of caddie at the local country club, a smart kid, but he did not enjoy a Good Relationship with his father. He hated him. He caught his father in interest with another woman in basically black one dash blackmailed him and said i will not tell mom if you give me the family car and increase my allowance by x amount of dollars so that he used his money and transportation though liquor running business because tennessee was a dry state a young of entrepreneur and highschool. It went downhill from there. Here is kathryn and a georgia in federal court from several weeks on the road going through to your for gin bottles a day and kelly already has been pistol whipped in the courtroom by the fbi by spectators when he attempted to defend catherine from an perceived advance from an agent for preconceived and not on his forehead. Over comings and j. Edgar hoover had a special contempt for the federal prison system which they thought was too fluid too easy to escape coverage to corruptive, it too much coddling of prisoners or whatever. They wanted to create a prison nobody could escape from that only the worst of the worst could be sent to and no attempt at rehabilitation solely for confinement cut off from the outside world and could not talk to one another, a special kind of hell for these prisoners that are the worst of the nation. Like al capone or various midwestern murderers and thieves. Sova george kelly and zepa in the introductory class going to alcatraz most of the rest of his life. And then to be said to the womens prison and then georges later released from the state prison and by that Point Charles had softened on though whole affair and went to the fdr to say he had nothing to do with this kidnapping and we ought to let him out so he agrees to probation and sets him up in joplin, missouri with a job as a cabinet maker and gets him of room at the ymca where he lives the rest of his life without committing another crime. The urschel family and up in tact the fairly rattled. The rest of their lives are spent running the wailes business they set up a number of foundations and then tried to live happily ever after. But part of what charles experi