FBI's First Most Wanted - Thomas James Holden - March 1950

The Internets | 04/07/15

[keat]

The FBI has granted 494 fugitives most-wanted status. Thomas James Holden was the first.

The Holden-Keating Gang was a bank robbing team, led by Thomas James Holden (1896–1953) and Francis Keating (1899–July 25, 1978), which was active in the Midwestern United States during the 1920s and 1930s. Holden was described by a spokesman for the FBI as "a menace to every man, woman and child in America" and was the first fugitive to be officially listed on the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted List in 1950.

Early years

Thomas Holden and Francis Keating began robbing payroll deliveries, and then train and bank robberies, before becoming one of the most notorious hold up teams by the end of the decade. Their most successful heist was the 1926 hijacking of a U.S. Mail truck at Evergreen Park, Illinois and escaping with $135,000. They eluded authorities for two years before their arrest by federal agents and, on May 25, 1928, Holden and Keating were both convicted and given 25 years each.

Escape from Leavenworth and Midwest crime spree

Sent to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, they spent two years there before escaping on February 28, 1930. They were helped by fellow inmate George "Machine Gun" Kelly who supplied them with forged passes. Holden and Keaton fled to Chicago, and from there to St. Paul, where they quickly formed a new gang from the city's thriving underworld. Among its members included Frank "Jelly" Nash, Harvey Bailey and George Kelly, who joined them following his parole four months after their escape, along with various other career criminals. The gang committed a series of major daylight robberies during 1930 and 1931, but several minor and one-time members were killed.

The gang's first robbery occurred on July 15, 1930, when they held up a bank in Willmar, Minnesota and stole US$70,000. Harvey Bailey, George Kelly, and Vernon Miller participated in the robbery along with at least four other men. Three of these alleged gunmen, Mike Rusick, Frank "Weinie" Coleman, and Samuel "Jew Sammy" Stein, were later found shot to death at White Bear Lake. Reportedly, this occurred during a dispute with the unstable and trigger-happy Verne Miller.

Lawrence De Vol joined the next robbery which netted US$40,000 from a bank in Lincoln, Nebraska on September 9, 1930. Eddie Bentz joined with the gang in its next two robberies, first stealing US$24,000 on September 19, 1930, and then, in its most successful heist, US$2.6 million in securities. The gang immediately went into hiding, but Holding and Keating resurfaced months later and robbed US$58,000 from a pair of bank messengers in Duluth, Minnesota on October 2, 1931. That same month, they joined Charlie Harmon and Frank Weber in robbing a bank in Menomonie, Wisconsin, getting away with US$130,000. James Craft, a cashier and son of the bank president, was taken as a hostage during the getaway and later found shot to death outside town. The bodies of Harmon and Weber were also found by police, both similarly shot to death, widely believed at the time to have been killed by their partners for the murder of Craft. One of the suspects of the Menomonie holdup, Bob Newbourne, was later wrongly convicted of the robbery and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Time with the Karpis-Barker Gang

Following the Menomonie heist, Holden and Keating joined the Alvin Karpis-Barker Gang. On June 17, 1932, they joined Karpis, Fred Barker, George Kelly, Harvey Bailey, Lawrence De Vol and Verne Miller in a raiding a bank in Fort Scott, Kansas for $47,000. Not only did they escape, but authorities arrested Frank Sawyer, Jim Clark and Ed Davis who were wrongly convicted for the robbery.

Less than a month later, Keating and Holden were arrested by federal agents while playing at a Kansas City golf course with Harvey Bailey on July 7. A fourth member, Bernard Phillips, quietly slipped away during the confusion; he was later killed in New York City, reportedly murdered by Frank Nash and Verne Miller who suspected him of being an FBI informant.

Return to Leavenworth and final years

Holden and Keating were returned to Leavenworth where they would remain for nearly two decades. Holden was paroled on November 28, 1947 and, two and a half years later, killed his wife and two of her brothers during a drunken family argument in Chicago on June 6, 1949.

In March 1950, he became the first fugitive to be listed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted List. Fifteen months later, Holden was spotted in Beaverton, Oregon, by a local resident and acquaintance on June 23, 1951, after his picture had been published in The Oregonian, a local newspaper, on June 20. He had been living in the area for some time under the name John McCullough and arrested that same day at his job site where he worked as a plasterer. Extradited to Chicago, he stood trial for murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison two years later.

Following his own parole, Keating quietly returned to St. Paul and lived in retirement until his death from heart failure on July 25, 1978.

[Star Traveler]

The criminals of today just don’t hold a candle to these old-timers ... :-) ...

[WorkingClassFilth]

Any relation?

[keat]

Any relation?

Might be, I'm checking.

[BenLurkin]

Francis Keating?

A friend of John Glenn?

[ConorMacNessa]

I thought the Most Wanted roster began much earlier - Ma Barker, Dillinger, etc. Am I hallucinating again?

"Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre / mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."
"Thought must be the harder, heart be the keener / mind must be the greater, as our might lessens."

[wally_bert]

I have been watching the untouchables and compare what I can to the real history. Without the tv embellishments, some bad dudes.

[keat]

thought the Most Wanted roster began much earlier

They may have kept lists earlier but the publically distributed list, as you see it today in the post office and elsewhere, was started by J. Edgar Hoover in 1950.

[ConorMacNessa]

Did not know that, FRiend.

"Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre / mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."
"Thought must be the harder, heart be the keener / mind must be the greater, as our might lessens."

[03A3]

John McCain too.

[minnesota_bound]

They should have become bankers. They could have stolen billions and gotten away with it.

[Star Traveler]

That’s a BORING criminal ... LOL ...

[arthurus]

There are not many opportunities to steal large wads of money any more. Banks only produce a few thousand of severely deflated dollars nowadays. Armored cars are about the only way to get major cash these days. And it is a lot harder to stay out of sight now. The big money for desperados is in drugs. The cartels are the equivalent of the Ma Barkers of yesterday.