Edward J. Adams - Midwest Crime Spree

Midwest Crime Spree

While being transported to the Missouri State Prison in Jefferson City, Missouri, Adams escaped custody after jumping off the train and within several days joined Julius Finney in the robbery of a bank and general store in Cullison, Kansas on February 11, 1921. He was captured near Garden Plain by a posse six days later after wrecking a stolen car under a bridge. Convicted of bank robbery, Adams was sentenced to serve 10 to 30 years at the Kansas State Prison in Lansing, in addition to his life sentence in Missouri for murder.

On August 13, Adams once again successfully escaped imprisonment after sabotaging the prison power plant and scaling the Lansing prison walls during the night along with inmates Frank Foster, George Weisberger and D.C. Brown. The driver of the getaway car was Billy Fintelman, a World War I veteran gone bad. With the exception of Brown (who was recaptured days later) the fugitives would elude capture from state authorities and eventually formed what would become the newest incarnation of the Adams Gang.

By September of that year, joined by Fintelman, the gang robbed around $10,000 from banks in Rose Hill and Haysville, Kansas. During the Haysville robbery, Adams pistol-whipped 82-year-old James Krievell for no apparent reason, who later died of a fractured skull.

On October 8, police attempted to trap the gang near Anoly, Kansas, however the gang managed to escape after a gunfight which left Deputy Benjamin Fisher wounded. The gang was spotted eleven days later after stealing $500 in silver from a bank near Osceola, Iowa This was followed by another attempt by a posse to apprehend the gang just south of Murray, IA. The gang rested for several hours along a gravel road just a few miles from town. Upon suspicion of the vehicle, farmer C.J. Jones contacted sheriff Ed West of Murray and a group was formed to investigate and intervene. Upon approaching the vehicle, Sheriff West was met at point blank range with a revolver to his face that failed to fire. He was able to take cover and a shootout followed in which several members of the posse were seriously injured. Jones, having heard the gun battle from his farm up the road, grabbed his shotgun and ran to aid the posse. The gang, who had by now fled from the original site, drove up the road and exchanged fire with Jones which left him mortally wounded.

Heading for Wichita, the gang's crime spree continued robbing 11 stores in Muscotah, Kansas and abducting and later robbing two motorcycle officers outside Wichita, where their motorcycles were set on fire.

Back in Wichita, on November 5, 1921, Adams shot and killed Patrolman A.L. Young in cold blood while Young was on duty. The motive behind the killing was said to be a mutual love interest who had chosen the company of the officer over the outlaw.

The gang then committed their most successful robbery with the theft of $35,000 after robbing a Santa Fe express train near Ottawa, Kansas.