Where Machine Gun Kelly's Stage Name Really Comes From (& Why He's Ditching It)

Long before Colson Baker became known by the name, there was a different Machine Gun Kelly on the scene. The original Machine Gun Kelly was actuallyGeorge "Machine Gun" Kelly, whose legal name was George Kelly Barnes. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) writes that Barnes was a criminal who was active in the United States

Long before Colson Baker became known by the name, there was a different Machine Gun Kelly on the scene. The original Machine Gun Kelly was actually George "Machine Gun" Kelly, whose legal name was George Kelly Barnes. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) writes that Barnes was a criminal who was active in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, but he's become most famous for the 1933 kidnapping of oil magnate Charles F. Urschel and his friend Walter R. Jarrett.

Fortunately, the FBI reports that both men were later released, and Barnes was among 21 individuals who were ultimately convicted in association with the case. The Tennessee-born criminal died in 1954 while imprisoned at the Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Decades after his death, Barnes's name has lived on in a way we doubt he could have ever imagined, but even the rapper now known as Machine Gun Kelly is leaving the moniker behind. Well, sort of.

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