Union Station Massacre, Kansas City

Ok, we've re-hashed Newhall and Miami a few times over, and apparently North Hollywood is beaten to glue. Let's discuss the one that got swept under the rug, but deserves a lot more attention: the Union Station Massacre in Kansas City, June 17, 1933. This is the one that the BOI used to sway public and bureaucratic opinion about arming agents, effectively launching Hoover's FBI to usurp elected Sheriffs as the 'highest' armed law-enforcement authority in the nation. There is perhaps even more in the aftermath of this event in the persecution of Pretty Boy Floyd and the rise of the FBI's police powers, but just in the events of June 17th there is plenty to discuss -- from .38 revolvers versus Thompsons to the unique action of an Winchester Model 1897 that was loaded with special steel ball-bearing cartridges.

If you're not familiar with this event, watch out for the "official" version of events that reads like 1930's style government propaganda.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_massacre

https://kchistory.org/week-kansas-city-history/mess-massacre

So agent Francis Joseph Lackey is carrying a Winchester Model 1897 shotgun. It's 16 gauge and is full of cartridges handloaded with steel ball bearings. The gun and cartridges belonged to Orrin Henry "Ott" Reed, the chief of police of Oklahoma City who was with agents Lackey and Frank Smith. Ott Reed had a 12 gauge shotgun, and agent Smith was armed with a 38 Special revolver. They had just arrived in Kansas City by train from Forth Smith Arkansas with Frank "Jellybean" Nash in their custody who was wearing handcuffs.

Lackey met Reed E. Vetterli, Special Agent in Charge, of the Kansas City bureau office, on the platform who was with agent Raymond J. Caffrey and officers W. J. Grooms and Frank Hermanson of the Kansas City Police Department. Nash was escorted off the train and through Union Station. Lackey and Reed had shotguns, but none of the other officers or agents had anything but a revolver. They exited the station and got into a Chevrolet sedan. Nash was seated in the front behind the wheel, while Lackey with the 16 gauge Model 1897, Smith with a .38, and Reed with a 12 gauge took seats in the back with the two shotguns. Agent Caffey was about to take a seat in the front of the car when gunmen appeared from behind a sedan, armed with Thompsons. They were reported to have said, "Up, up!"

In the back seat of the Chevrolet, agent Lackey was trying to work the Winchester 1897 he held to chamber a cartridge. Anyone who's used an '97 before understands the slide is locked until you push it forward. You also know it lacks a trigger disconnect. So Lackey tries to pump the slide back, but it's stuck. Witness Harry Orr, just feet away in his taxi, testified, "I saw one man with a shotgun, and he was trying to fire it." So Lackey's holding the trigger to try to fire the shotgun or release the slide and when he finally manages to chamber a round, the Winchester 1897 slam fires a load of ball bearings into the back of Frank Nash's head. In the photos of the scene, we can see the glass blown out of the car and onto the hood. One of the ball bearings also hits agent Caffey in the head.

Agent Lackey isn't finished yet. He's startled at the blast from Ott Reed's Winchester 1897 that he just fired and that he's unfamiliar with. He chambers another round which also slam fires and he hits officer Hermanson who is in the line of fire between Lackey and the gunmen armed with Thompsons.

This is when one of the gunmen shouts, "Let 'em have it!" and they open fire with the submachine guns. Agent Smith and officer Grooms would die in the firefight. Chief Reed would also die, from a wound inflicted by a .38.

Well, there's no evidence the revolvers versus submachine guns was the problem here. Instead, we have 60% of the dead from friendly fire mostly due to difficulty an agent had operating an unfamiliar shotgun with somewhat unusual features that resulted in unintentional discharges. I mean, he may have intended to fire the shotgun or at least ready it, but apparently not at the two times he did whilst trying to work the slide and having the muzzle pointed at the prisoner and two other lawmen.

It's not clear how Chief Reed was shot with the .38, but it seems he somehow got in the way of agent Smith's revolver.

Whatever the explanation is, this was a colossal screw up. The BOI wasn't willing to let it go to waste though. They blamed a few people they wanted anyway. They would go on to kill Charles Floyd, Johnny Lazia and Vernon Miller. Only Adam Richetti received a trial before he was executed. Hoover would always maintain his assertion that the United States did not have any kind of organized crime syndicates, the mafia, or whatever you want to call it, and would later say, "The FBI has much more important functions to accomplish than arresting gamblers all over the country."

This was 1933 and federal agents didn't have authority to carry guns or arrest people independent of the police or Sheriff. This is why Lackey and Smith were accompanied by Orrin Reed, the chief of police of Oklahoma City, and why SAC Vetterli was accompanied by KCPD officers Grooms and Hermanson.

This is one interesting aspect of the story that can get lost now that we've had generations of people that are accustomed to "G-men" with guns. When J. Edgar Hoover took over the Bureau of Investigation in 1924, he began his crusade against the kind of persisting anti-federalist style ideology that cherished a "republic" where the Federal government didn't have extensive police powers, but where the authority to enforce laws were vested primarily in Sheriffs elected by the people, and the State judiciaries. When this incident was over, Hoover had the BOI transformed into the FBI and given statutory authority to carry firearms and make arrests. They acquired Thompsons and Winchester 1907's and Remington 81's besides handguns like Hoover's own Registered Magnum.