Frank Nash
A federal prisoner who escaped from Leavenworth on 19 October 1930, was recaptured at Hot Springs, Arkansas, on 16 June 1933 and was killed at Union Station, Kansas City, on 17 June 1933 while being returned to Leavenworth. The FBI's photograph caption describes him as a member of the 'Keating-Holden-Nash gang.'
- Died
- 1933-06-17
- Rights
- Biography on this page is limited to what the cited federal records state.
On the record
- 1 March 1924 — W.D. Mo. indictment No. 12777 recites that Nash was convicted in the Western District of Oklahoma of assaulting a United States mails custodian, sentenced on 1 March 1924 to 25 years at Leavenworth, and escaped on 19 October 1930 (National Archives item 24734664; scan read). The FBI essay gives the sentence date as 3 March 1924.
- 16-17 June 1933 — The FBI says Nash's "criminal record reached back to 1913," that he was recaptured at Hot Springs on 16 June 1933 and was killed at Union Station on 17 June while being returned to Leavenworth (FBI History essay).
- 17 June 1933 — A memorandum of Agent in Charge Vetterli's telephone report, filed in the FBI Vault's Kansas City Massacre file, says "Frank Nash was killed first" (Part 01, viewer p. 22).
- Undated — The National Archives holds an FBI display photograph whose caption says he "Participated in Leavenworth penitentiary jail break on December 11, 1931" and "was killed on June 17, 1933, in the Kansas City Massacre" (NAID 280957346).
He was a victim and a prisoner in custody; this page keeps its descriptions factual. The photograph is an FBI display from the 75th-anniversary series held by the National Archives; the captions on it are the Bureau’s wording. No role or family is entered.
Records
itemFrank Nash (FBI photograph, 75th Anniversary series, National Archives)An FBI display photograph of Frank Nash with the Bureau's caption: member of the Keating-Holden-Nash gang, a 'burglar, bank robber and killer,' participant in the Leavenworth break of 11 December 1931, killed on 17 June 1933 in the Kansas City Massacre.itemKansas City Massacre and "Pretty Boy" Floyd (FBI history page)The FBI's history essay on the June 17, 1933 shooting in front of Union Station, Kansas City, Missouri, in which four officers and their prisoner Frank Nash were killed. It places the car directly in front of the station's east entrance.
itemFBI Vault: Kansas City Massacre, file 62-28915, Part 01 (Section 1), June 1933The first section of the FBI's Kansas City Massacre file (97 viewer pages): telegrams, letters and memoranda of 17-19 June 1933, including a memorandum of Agent in Charge Vetterli's telephone report of the Union Station shooting.
itemUnited States v. Adam Richetti (W.D. Mo.), criminal case file SS101: indictment No. 12777The first page of the 29-page W.D. Mo. case file is an indictment charging Adam Richetti, Charles Arthur Floyd alias 'Pretty Boy' Floyd, and Vernon C. Miller alias Verne Mason alias Verne Moore with conspiring to violate federal law concerning the custody of Frank Nash, an escaped Leavenworth prisoner.itemGalatas v. United States, 80 F.2d 15 (8th Cir. 1935)The Eighth Circuit's affirmance of the conspiracy convictions of Richard Tallman Galatas, Herbert Farmer, Louis Stacci and Frank B. Mulloy, arising from the plan to free Frank Nash. It sets out Nash's escape, his capture at Hot Springs, and the walk through Union Station.
itemUnited States v. Richard Tallman Galatas, et al. (W.D. Mo.), criminal case file SS100The National Archives file of the conspiracy case against Galatas and co-defendants runs 593 digitized pages; the first scan is a Leavenworth form of 7 July 1936 in which prisoner Louis Stacci states he was sentenced on 5 January 1935 to two years and a $10,000 fine.itemState v. Richetti, 119 S.W.2d 330, 342 Mo. 1015 (Mo. 1938)Missouri Supreme Court opinion affirming Adam Richetti's conviction and death sentence for killing Kansas City police officer Frank Hermanson in what the court calls the "Union Station Massacre" of 17 June 1933.
itemIdentification Order No. 1194: Charles Arthur Floyd (22 June 1933)Bureau of Investigation wanted notice for Charles Arthur Floyd, aliases Frank Mitchell and "Pretty Boy Smith," issued five days after the Kansas City Union Station shooting. Fingerprints, photographs, description and criminal record. A copy is stored here.