A Final Tomb For Frank ’Jelly’ Nash

about A Final Tomb For Frank ’Jelly’ Nash

This Robert Morris print explores the relationship of text to art by discussing the death of Frank "Jelly" Nash and the artist's rendering of a supposed burial and memorial for the legendary bank robber Frank Nash.

Text reads - A 1933 Chevrolet and a 1932 Dodge sedan are found and fully restored. They are placed in the parking lot of the Kansas City, Missouri, Union Station in precisely the places they occupied the morning of June 17, 1933 (with the help of UPI photographs and old police records this can be determined). Frank "Jelly" Nash's body --whereever it now is-- is disinterred and buried beneath the 1933 Chevrolet. Mr. Nash, who had reputedly robbed with the Barkers, was being transferred from a train, the Missouri Pacific Flyer, to the Chevrolet, for transport to Leavenworth Penitentiary, when he was machine-gunned to death by unknown assailants. Also killed in or around the two cars in what was to become known as the "Kansas City Massacre" were FBI agent Raymond Caffrey, police chief Otto Reed, detectives W.J. "Red" Grooms and Frank Hermanson. Plaster casts of still existing groups of bullet holes in the station walls can be made and sold inside the station, together with a pamphlet describing the event.