Robert Carey

Gangster. Robert Carey was born and raised in St. Louis. He became embroiled in the early gang wars there between the Egan’s Rats and the Hogans, fleeing to Detroit after the murder of Harry “Cherries” Dunn in September 1916. Thereafter Carey commuted across the Midwest commiting crimes with his childhood friends Fred “Killer” Burke, Gus Winkler, and James Ray. Carey was known as a chameleon in the underworld, able to change his appearance and demeanor at will. He used many aliases during his career, including Robert Conroy, Robert Newberry, and Robert Sanborn. He was suspected by Detroit Police of committing a double murder in March 1927, as well as the murder of Toledo police officer George Zientara in 1928, a Cincinnati police officer around the same time, and a gangster in Los Angeles in late 1929. There is a large body of evidence to indicate that Carey was one of the triggermen in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. With nationwide alerts out for him for his various murders as well as the Chicago massacre, Bob Carey fled to New York City with his girlfriend Rose, where they intended to blackmail well-known Washington politicians with compromising pictures of them with Rose. On July 31, 1932, both Bob Carey and his girlfriend were discovered dead in their flat at 220 W. 104th Street in Manhattan, having been dead about 48 hours. Police announced that Carey had shot his girl to death and then turned the gun on himself. Since Carey had no family to claim his body, his corpse in all likelihood ended up being sent to an autopsy class somewhere in the New York City area.