Matt Kimes, Oklahoma Outlaw

During the 1920s Matt Kimes began his outlaw career as a petty thief and quickly moved up to bank robbery. His first one was in Depew, Oklahoma on June 30^th, 1926 just a day after he finished serving a jail term for burglary.

A couple of months later he and his gang robbed another bank in Beggs, Oklahoma and a few days after that in Covington, where they looted two banks in simultaneously. They almost robbed a third one but were foiled because the outside bank clock was a few minutes off from the clocks on other two.

On August 13^th, 1926 Kimes took time off from robbing banks to marry a 14-year-old girl named Bertha Bozart.

On August 27^Th he killed a deputy in a shootout but surrendered to officers after being wounded. He was given 30 years for killing the deputy.

On November 21^th, 1926 six members of the gang helped Matt escape and on January 10^th, they robbed another bank in Sulpulpa, Oklahoma.

On May 27^th, 1927 Kimes and eleven members of the gang returned to Beggs and looted two banks of $18,000. During their getaway Kimes gunned down a town marshal. The law caught up with him in Flagstaff, Arizona and he was given a life sentence at the state pen at McAlester.

After several years behind bars authorities must have figured Kimes was reformed as he was given a leave in November, 1945. Unable to resist the temptation he robbed a bank in Texas.

Before lawmen could re-capture him Matt Kimes, one of the 1920s most notorious bank robbers and escape artists was run over and killed by a truckload of chickens.