The Shelton Brothers Gang was an early Prohibition era bootlegging gang based in southern Illinois. They were the main rivals of the famous bootlegger Charles Birger. In 1950, the Saturday Evening Post described the Sheltons as "America's Bloodiest Gang".
Formed by Carl (born 1888), Earl (born 1890) and Bernie "Red" Shelton (born 1898) of Geff, Illinois Wayne County, Illinois shortly after Prohibition came into effect in 1920, the gang operated in Williamson County, Illinois, making moonshine and other illegal liquor. They eventually dominated both gambling and liquor distribution in Little Egypt until a former ally, gangster Charles Birger, attempted to take over the Sheltons' bootlegging operations in 1926. This began a violent gang war, which saw both sides using homemade armored trucks and included one incident of an aerial bombing raid by the Sheltons on Birger's Shady Rest headquarters. The war was fought for control of bootlegging in all of southern Illinois.
Despite having over fifty gunmen, the Shelton Brothers were unable to defeat Birger. Based on the testimony of Birger and Art Newman, the Shelton Brothers were convicted of an unsolved 1925 mail carrier robbery of $15,000 and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The gang slowly faded, as Birger dominated bootlegging in southern Illinois, until he himself was hanged in 1928 for ordering the murder of West City, Illinois, Mayor Joe Adams, a Shelton partisan.
After their release from prison, Carl and Bernie Shelton were murdered (in 1947 and 1948 respectively) on orders from former gang member Frank "Buster" Wortman, who took over the Shelton operations and dominated St. Louis' illegal gambling and other criminal activities until his death in 1968. Earl was also ambushed and shot, but survived. After another attempt on his life the following year, Earl Shelton and his family left Illinois for Florida. Earl died there in 1986 at age 96, the last member of the Shelton Brothers Gang.