Family members of some criminals of the day went on carnival like road tours called, “Crime Does Not Pay.” It was not something they enjoyed but if they could educate future generations about the consequences of crime, and hopefully deter them from choosing a criminal career, something good would have come out of their loss. They were paid for their speaking engagements. It was hard for some of them to talk about their outlaw family members, who most likely were dead by then. They were paid pretty well for their time. They all needed the money since they were still in the later years of the great depression. It was a matter of survival for most. Work was hard to come by especially if you were related to public enemies during this time. Some had been fired from jobs once their employers found out who they were. They might as well have been hardened criminals themselves.

Many of them served prison time for harboring their loved ones that were on the run from the law. The parents of Clyde Barrow and mother of Bonnie Parker went on the “Crime Doesn't Pay” show with Charles Stanley, the “Crime Doctor”. John Dillinger's father as joined a similar “Crime Does Not Pay” show by Johnny J. Jones shows.

Evelyn Frechette was in prison when she wrote a booklet about crime that would later sell for twenty five cents each at this same show which she joined upon her release from prison in 1936. (Gun Molls poster courtesly of William J. Helmer.)

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