Famed bank robber Frank 'Jelly' Nash had home in Paragould

By Terry Austin

Feature Writing Student

hrldoff@astate.edu

He was arguably the most successful bank robber in U.S. history.

He possessed an affable, only-in-the-movies "criminal charisma" that enabled him to escape from federal prison by ambling out the front door armed only with his favorite volume from the prison library.

His cohorts included some of the most infamous and hotly pursued gangsters of the 1930s.

He was the prize over which federal agents and gangsters battled in the bloody Union Station Massacre in Kansas City, Mo., a shootout that birthed the FBI as it exists today.

His remains, along with the evidence that might reveal his killer's identity, lie entombed in a mausoleum in Paragould

He was Frank "Jelly" Nash, by most accounts an amiable, charming man who just happened to rob banks and trains.

The Paragould Connection

In 1893, John "Pappy" Nash moved his family to Paragould, leaving his business interests in Oklahoma. John Nash became such a recognized and popular businessman in the area that when he died in 1931, scores of visitors descended on the mausoleum of Paragould's Linwood Cemetery for the funeral. Frank Nash, already notorious and targeted by law enforcement, was also expected to sneak into town, so many members of the Bureau of Investigation - as the FBI was known in its early days - as well as a large number of reporters were on hand, too. According to the book Heritage of an Outlaw, written by Clyde Callahan and Byron Jones, Frank Nash did indeed sneak into Paragould for his father's funeral, but he spotted the lawmen and contented himself with watching the funeral from a distance.

Paragould resident Ester Scott, a distant relative of the Nash family, discounted rumors that Nash stole into the funeral in disguise. Rather, she said in Callahan's book, he waited in Paragould until the authorities and press left town, and then slipped into the mausoleum for a final viewing of his father.

Today, several Nash family members are entombed in the mausoleum, including Alice (Long) Nash, John Nash's second wife; Perry and Hattie (Long) House, the son-in-law and daughter of Alice; and Carrie Nash, John Nash's third wife.

In July 1931, only John Nash was buried there. But less than two years later, another flood of visitors - this time in a wave of long, black cars - rolled into Paragould for the funeral of another man named Nash.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Gangster

"Frank Nash was, perhaps, the most successful bank robber in history," Callahan wrote. "Though this dubious claim to fame has never been publicized in the manner of the wild exploits of the James', the Daltons or the Wild Bunch, his saga was more noteworthy than any appearing on the outlaw scene, past or present."

Nash committed more than 20 successful bank robberies in less than two years, Callahan said. Nash also participated in more than 100 robberies of banks and trains as a part of the Al Spencer Gang and as the leader of his own gang. But despite his growing notoriety as a criminal, Nash enjoyed a reputation as a kind, polite man.

"It was rare to find anyone who didn't have something nice to say about him," Callahan said. "His personality was such many hometown friends never faced the fact he was really a criminal."

Though he could never substantiate it, Callahan learned of a legend that Nash, during one of his train heists, recognized several passengers from his hometown and comforted them while allowing them to stay on the train unaccosted.

Nash apparently charmed more than just his neighbors. In his book, The Union Station Massacre: The Original Sin of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, author Robert Unger said that even prison and law enforcement officials frequently befriended Nash.

During Nash's numerous prison or jail stays, Unger said, he invariably ingratiated himself to guards and other officials. Nash was typically made a trusty, and this was the case when he was imprisoned in the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan. in 1924. While serving a 25-year sentence for robbing a U.S. mail train, Nash was given the privilege of working in the inmates' library. On Oct. 19, 1930, Nash picked up his favorite book - a collection of works by William Shakespeare - and strode unimpeded, still dressed in his prison uniform, through the main gates of the penitentiary and into freedom.

Hotfooting from Hot Springs

Nash's sentence at Leavenworth was his third stint in prison. Convicted of murder and sentenced to life in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in 1913, Nash received a pardon a few years later. In 1920, he was sentenced to a 25-year term in the same Oklahoma prison for robbery, but was again pardoned a short time later. Nash's third conviction, however, was not likely to end prematurely.

Upon his escape from Leavenworth in 1930, Nash apparently fled to the Chicago area, where he got married, joined the Barker Gang and participated in several bank robberies in Illinois. In 1933, Nash, his wife Frances and her 8-year-old daughter Danella headed for a vacation in Hot Springs, which was at the time a place of refuge for gangsters and organized crime figures. The city was controlled by crime boss Richard Galatas, Unger wrote, and Galatas provided safe haven for those seeking protection from the law.

However, law enforcement officials were tracking Nash's movements, and in the early hours of June 16, 1933, three officials - Bureau of Investigation agents Joe Lackey and Frank Smith and McAlester (Okla.) Police Chief Otto Reid - arrived in Hot Springs. In a five-minute confrontation at Galatas' White Front Cigar Store, a shop frequented by underworld figures, they found Nash and forced him at gunpoint into their car.

Because Hot Springs' law enforcement was controlled by Galatas, and also because of the confusion caused by the actions of the three law enforcement officials who were apparently working outside of their jurisdictions, several roadblocks were set up between Hot Springs and Little Rock to capture the men who had "kidnapped" a man in Hot Springs. After successfully negotiating each of the roadblocks, the agents drove to Fort Smith, where they boarded a train headed for Kansas City. In Kansas City, they were to board another train bound for Leavenworth.