Especially at a time and place when “the fairer sex” were supposed to be quietly satisfied with their lot in life, six crime-linked women refused to abide by the expectations of both the law-abiding and law-breaking worlds.
Kathryn Kelly was a farm girl whose criminal husbands were her means to the good life; she gave the last one, “Machine Gun” Kelly, his nickname and weapon. Bonnie Parker was a baby-faced honor-roll student who fell hopelessly in love with Clyde Barrow and their star-crossed love affair propelled the pair into legend. Black, female, and foreign, Stephanie St. Clair had three strikes against her when she arrived in New York, but she rose to become queen of Harlem’s underworld.
Virginia Hill fought her father’s abuse as a child and that fearlessness helped her handle other brutal men as she worked her way through three Mafia organizations, turning sexual power into just plain power. Showgirl Geri Rosenthal married Las Vegas’ most powerful mobster and had an affair with its most vicious hitman, helping to bring down the Mafia’s empire in Sin City. High-spirited bombshell Liz Renay became an actress, artist, and author, but her time as mob courtesan threw a shadow into the spotlight she craved.
Like most men, criminals have rules about how women are expected to behave. But some, like the six portrayed at length in Shameless, used their innate abilities to make an indelible mark on a world where they were supposed to leave no trace.
