The Year of fear

In 1933 Prohibition gave rise to the American gangster. Local cops were unauthorized to cross state lines in pursuit of criminals and kidnappers and there was no national police force. George "Machine Gun" Kelly and his wife, Kathryn, were two of the most celebrated gangsters of the era. When other sources of income dried up, they decided to cash in on the easy-money racket of kidnapping. J. Edgar Hoover needed a successful Justice Department prosecution to save his job. Hoover's agents were given the sole authority to follow the kidnappers across state lines. The twenty-thousand mile chase over the back roads of Depression-era America, across sixteen state lines, produced results and launched the FBI.