Herbert Allen Farmer

Who was Herbert Allen Farmer?

Herbert Allen "Deafy" Farmer was an American criminal who, with his wife Esther, operated a safe house for underworld fugitives from the mid-1920s to 1933.

In the 1920s his farm in southwest Missouri was safe harbor for bank robbers and other criminals of the Cookson Hills region such as Harvey Bailey, Jelly Nash, Wilbur Underhill, "Big Bob" Brady and the Holden-Keating Gang. In the Public Enemy era, as organized crime strengthened and expanded in the United States, the farm became part of a network of safe houses for gangsters along "the midwest crime corridor."

On June 16, 1933, Herbert and Esther Farmer were involved in the plan which set into motion the Kansas City Massacre, "a pivotal event in Depression-era crime." With five others, they were convicted of conspiracy to free a federal prisoner, Frank "Jelly" Nash, in January 1935.