Frank "Jelly" Nash was born on February 6,1887, in Birdseye, Indiana.
24 Facts About Frank Nash
1.
2.
Frank Nash worked in his father's hotels and served in the US Army from 1904 to 1907.
3.
Frank Nash later served three prison sentences for various crimes, including robbery and murder.
4.
Frank Nash is thought to have participated in roughly 200 bank robberies and was often considered the "mastermind" of several groups of criminals.
5.
Frank Nash planned various escapes from prison, both from within the prison and while free.
6.
In spite of his criminal record, Frank Nash was widely considered friendly, likeable, and charming.
7.
Frank Nash's first known run-in with the law occurred in 1910, when he was charged with burglary in Comanche County, Oklahoma.
8.
Frank Nash was sentenced to life for the murder in August 1913.
9.
On March 28,1918, Nash's sentence was reduced to ten years after he convinced the warden he wanted to join the army and fight in World War I Nash signed his military registration card on June 12,1918, and was released on August 16,1918.
10.
Frank Nash saw action in Belleau Wood, France, before the end of the war.
11.
Two years later, Frank Nash was convicted of burglary using explosives, known as safe-cracking, and sentenced to twenty-five years in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
12.
Frank Nash became a trusty, and his sentence was reduced to five years.
13.
On December 29,1922, Frank Nash was released, and he joined the Al Spencer gang, a group of bank robbers.
14.
Frank Nash fled to Juarez, Mexico, where he married a local woman.
15.
Many sources claim that Frank Nash hoped to falsify the date on the marriage license to provide him an alibi for the time of the train robbery.
16.
In 1930, Frank Nash was appointed the deputy warden's chef and general handyman, a position that brought privileges.
17.
On October 19,1930, Frank Nash was sent outside the prison on an errand and never returned.
18.
Frank Nash escaped to Chicago, Illinois, where he fell in love with a barmaid named Frances Luce and continued his criminal activities, now in the major cities of the United States.
19.
Frank Nash visited Hot Springs with Frances Luce and her daughter in the spring of 1932 and returned with them the following spring.
20.
On June 15,1933, two Oklahoma City Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, Joe Lackey and Frank Smith, learned that Nash was in Hot Springs.
21.
That night, Frank Nash, accompanied by Lackey, Smith, and Reed, boarded a Missouri Pacific train bound for Kansas City, Missouri.
22.
However, word of Frank Nash's capture had gotten around, as well as the destination of the agents, and plans were apparently made to attempt to free him.
23.
The body of Frank Nash was claimed by his sister, Alice Long, and is buried in Linwood Cemetery in Paragould, Arkansas.
24.
Frank Nash's funeral brought many strangers, assumed to be gangsters, to town.