Image: Inspectors in tent - posse

On August 20, 1923, a group of men held up and robbed a Missouri, Kansas and Texas train. After stopping the train near Okesa, Oklahoma, they overpowered mail clerks Charles Weiss and Warren Burch. The group made off with about $2,000 in cash as well as bonds, and valuables from the registered mail. A posse, led by U.S. Marshal Alva McDonald and Postal Inspector Jack Adamson and comprised of local law enforcement officials, federal agents, and railroad detectives, was organized to track down the thieves.

Courtesy of the Ron J. Pry Historical Collection

Image: Inspectors with rifles - posse

By mid September, the roundup of the train bandits had begun. Postal inspectors arrested Whitey Fallon on September 13, 1923. Two days later, McDonald and Adamson’s posse shot and killed Al Spencer. The arrests of Grover Durell and Riley Dixon followed not long after.

Frank Nash was the last to face justice. Captured by the posse, Nash was convicted and sent to prison in 1924. He escaped from Leavenworth in 1930 and was recaptured on June 16, 1933. The next day, Nash was being led out of Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, on his way to prison. The group, which included four federal agents and two city detectives, was attacked by three men armed with machine guns.

Local detectives W.J. Grooms and Frank Hermanson were killed along with federal agents Raymond Caffrey and Otto Reed. Federal agent Joe Lackey was paralyzed for life. Frank Nash, the target of either a gangland hit or a botched escape attempt, was dead, apparently the first to die in what became known as the Kansas City Massacre.