Shots Back in Time: The Union Station Massacre

Directed by Terence Michael O'Malley

June 17, 1933: On Saturday morning by 7:15, Union Station Kansas City is already bustling with travelers as lawmen escort escaped convict Frank Nash through the station out to a car where he is to be driven back to Leavenworth Penitentiary. Suddenly, the group is attacked by gangsters and the resulting camage from the 30 second firestorm leaves Kansas City and the nation stunned. This film documents events giving rise to the massacre and tells the story of the complex relationship among the Pendergast machine, organized crime, and the gangsters who could feel safe laying low in Kansas City. As the FBI attempted to bring to justice the perpetrators of what J. Edgar Hoover called a "despicable and cowardly act," Kansas City and law enforcement in the United States were forever changed.