Natural Born Outlaws

Chicago in the 1920s: Despite Prohibition, the town is drunken, promiscuous, and violent. Anything can be bought for enough cash: booze, women — even public officials. For mobster Al Capone, nicknamed "Scarface" from wounds got in a bar brawl, it's a great time to be alive. He is America's best-known gangster and perhaps the single greatest symbol of the collapse of law and order in the United States during the Prohibition era. The FBI branded the bootlegging kingpin America's "Public Enemy #1. For agents Elliot Ness and Frank Wilson, taking down Capone is the biggest prize there is, and the two become determined to capture him any way they can.

George Francis Barnes J, better known as "Machine Gun Kelly," was an Irish American gangster during the Prohibition era. His nickname came from his favorite weapon, a Thompson submachine gun. He is most widely known for the kidnapping of oil tycoon and businessman Charles F. Urschel in July 1933, from which he and his gang collected a $200,000 ransom.

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are among the most famous outlaws in history. Murderers and hold-up artists, the pair robbed numerous banks, gas stations, and stores in rural areas and killed at least nine people during their spree. They took photographs of themselves posing together with the weapons they used during armed robberies. These photos were shown in the newspapers to give the impression the duo were enjoying a lavish lifestyle, when in fact, they lived under immense stress and were constantly on the run.

John Dillinger was the most brazen of the infamous criminals of the Great Depression, and probably the most brutal. In 1933, Dillinger rampaged through the state of Indiana, stealing thousands from banks and murdering a dozen people.

Notorious criminal "Pretty Boy" Floyd was involved in over 30 bank robberies and perhaps as many as 20 murders. A folkloric hero to some, he became "Public Enemy #1" after John Dillinger was shot.

Lester M. Gilis, aka "Baby Face Nelson," began his crime career at an early age in a street gang in the Chicago slums. He was given the nickname "Baby Face" by his gang members because he looked much younger than he actually was.

Barker-Karpis is known as one of the most ruthless gangs of the 1930s.

Bruce Reynolds was a career criminal who, looking for his defining moment, planned a daring train robbery in 1963. Reynolds secretly organised a gang of 15 men to bring down a Royal Mail train carrying over two million pounds in cash. 

Twin brothers Ronald "Ronnie" Kray and Reginald "Reggie" Kray were English gangsters who were the foremost perpetrators of organized crime in the East End of London during the 1950s and 60s.

Charlie Richardson was the head of the notorious Richardson gang who built up a lucrative empire by extortion, fraud and torture. Enter Gerald MacArthur who began a painstaking investigation at a time when corruption was rife in the Metropolitan Police.