BABY FACE NELSON Ep. 6 | “Public Enemy No. 1”

2024-01-17 00:36:38

Historical True Crime — assassins, gangsters, mobsters and lawmen; manhunts, scandals and unexplained phenomena. Stories of the wildest and darkest chapters of America's past.

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Attention mystery lovers, we're back. And not just with an update on my personal love of mystery stories in all forms,

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which now includes a murder mystery comedy production at a theater here in Phoenix, Arizona.

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But also with an update about June's Journey, the free hidden object mobile game that allows you to take a mystery adventure with you

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everywhere you go. In the game, you experience the captivating journey of June Parker, a

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self-proclaimed detective who's on a quest to unravel the mystery of her sister's untimely death.

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It's set in the glitz and glamour of the roaring 20s.

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You play as June and you decipher clues and uncover secret plots, all set against the backdrop of thousands of beautifully

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illustrated scenes.

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New chapters are added to the game each week and you can personalize and decorate your very own Orchid Island, where the story takes place.

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Download June's Journey on your Android or iOS device or play online via Facebook games.

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Your detective journey awaits.

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The plan of ditching Chicago and getting some rest in the North Woods of Wisconsin had not worked out well for Babyface Nelson, John Dillinger, and their gang.

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A man who owned a roadhouse that was a well-known haven for criminals had recommended the Little Bohemia Lodge as a place to relax.

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The secluded Lodge was nestled in the woods beside a lake and it should have been the perfect place to hide.

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But with Dillinger's face constantly in the newspapers, hiding was pretty hard.

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At first, the Lodge's owner, Earl Winotka, had been thrilled to see three cars with ten guests pull up to his establishment.

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It was the third week of April and still cold outside, and still five weeks before the summer season kicked off on Memorial Day weekend.

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But when the crew arrived,

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Nelson handed Winotka a letter from the owner of the roadhouse. The letter, in essence, told Winotka to accept the guests.

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Winotka noticed that Nelson and the other men in the group were sporting shoulder holsters under their jackets.

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Winotka's son, Earl Jr., commented on the heavy weight of their bags.

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Winotka could only assume that the weight was the group's additional firepower.

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His suspicions and concerns were elevated to full-on fear when he saw Dillinger's picture on the front page of the Chicago Tribune newspaper.

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It was confirmed. The most wanted man in America was a guest at Earl Winotka's Lodge.

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Winotka and his wife, Nan, first planned to simply ride out the long weekend.

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The group had arrived on Friday and planned to leave on Monday morning.

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The men were all very polite and they tipped well.

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Their female companions offered to help in the kitchen and cleared the dishes.

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But as the weekend dragged on, the Winotka's started to fear that the visit from the out-of-towners would end in a hail of gunfire.

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Nan Winotka slipped a note to her brother-in-law, who eventually got word to senior agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago office, Melvin Purvis.

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On Sunday afternoon, every agent in the region was headed for Wisconsin.

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By 8 p.m., more than a dozen agents surrounded the Little Bohemia Lodge.

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But just as the plan for a relaxing weekend didn't work out well for the gangsters,

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the plan for a raid on the Lodge didn't work out well for Melvin Purvis and the FBI.

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The agents accidentally fired on locals whom they mistook for members of the gang,

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leaving two men injured and one man dead.

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The raid turned into a wild, blazing shootout that accomplished none of its goals.

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Somehow, all the gang members, John Dillinger, Homer Van Meter, Red Hamilton, and Babyface Nelson, escaped into the woods.

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Nelson had been separated from the others. He was the only man who wasn't staying in the main Lodge.

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He and his wife Helen had been given a small cabin next to the Lodge,

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and he had escaped the ambush by running down to the edge of the lake and following the coastline to a nearby house.

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He took two sets of hostages before he was inadvertently cornered by two FBI agents and a local constable.

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The lawmen weren't tracking Nelson.

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They were just rushing to the nearest house to use a phone, and they stumbled into the fleeing outlaw.

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Nelson opened fire, killing Agent Carter Baum and Constable Carl Christensen and wounding Agent Jay Newman.

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Nelson stole their car and began the journey out of Wisconsin.

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The adventure to get home would be nearly as crazy as the adventure to get away from the Little Bohemia,

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and Dillinger and the others experienced similar chaos, and from that point forward,

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time was running short for all the celebrity outlaws of the early 1930s.

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A month after Little Bohemia,

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former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer and his posse would ambush Bonnie and Clyde.

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Six weeks later, the FBI would close in on John Dillinger, and then it would be pretty boy Floyd's turn, and after that,

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Lester Gillis, the short blonde-haired young man from Chicago nicknamed Babyface Nelson,

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would finally achieve the notoriety he always wanted.

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He would be the third of four men to hold the dubious title of the FBI's public enemy number one,

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and his reign would end exactly as expected.

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From Black Barrel Media, this is Infamous America.

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I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the story of Lester Gillis,

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better known as Babyface Nelson, one of the wildest and most intriguing gangsters of the Depression era.

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This is Episode 6, Public Enemy Number One.

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After killing an FBI agent in front of a lakeside home,

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Nelson had stolen the agent's car and sped away from the area of the Little Bohemia Lodge.

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But after just one hour of driving, the car blew a rod and stranded him on the side of US Route 51.

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Nelson considered trying to commandeer a vehicle,

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but it was the dead of night, and there was a good chance that any car on the road would be filled with law enforcement.

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So, Nelson grabbed his weapons and set out into the woods.

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He hiked in the direction he hoped was south for nearly 12 hours.

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After covering about 20 miles, Nelson found a cabin on a Native American reservation.

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It belonged to Ollie and Maggie Catfish, and they lived there with their daughter and granddaughter.

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The family was shocked to find a well-dressed and well-armed man plodding through the forest.

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But Nelson was also well-mannered.

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He asked to buy a cup of coffee, and the family offered him a full breakfast.

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Nelson paid them generously.

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Soon, he had made arrangements to stay with the family for a few days.

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The fact that the remote cabin had no phone and no electricity worked in his favor.

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The family knew nothing of the gunfight at the Little Bohemia, and possibly had never heard the name Babyface Nelson.

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After a few nights with the family, Nelson asked Ollie to lead him out of the woods to a main road.

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At 8 p.m. on August 27th, five days after the shootout,

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Nelson and his guide came out of the woods onto Highway 47 near the banks of Fence Lake.

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The two found a group of men who were heading out for some night fishing.

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At gunpoint, Nelson demanded the keys to the group's car.

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He grilled the men about law enforcement in the area.

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They assured Nelson there were no nearby roadblocks.

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Nelson left with Ollie Catfish, who guided him through the reservation's back roads.

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Once Nelson felt he was clear of the FBI search area, he let Ollie go.

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Nelson hit Highway 41 and made haste for Louis Cernachie's Roadhouse north of Chicago.

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Nelson needed someplace to lay low, and, to his surprise,

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the FBI was not surveilling the Roadhouse, which was a well-known haunt for criminals on the move.

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While Nelson regrouped, information about what had happened to the rest of the group began to trickle in.

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All the members of the gang had escaped.

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The women who had been traveling with them, including Helen, Nelson's wife,

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had been questioned and then charged with aiding and abetting fugitives. Helen was now in jail.

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Nelson then found out that the authorities had nearly captured Dillinger,

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Red Hamilton, and Homer Van Meter, but they shot their way out.

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However, the gunfight had left Hamilton mortally wounded.

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He hung on for a few days, but gangrene set in.

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Dillinger buried him in a quarry 30 miles outside of Chicago.

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While Nelson debated who he should reach out to and when, the FBI was in crisis mode. The total

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mismanagement of the Little Bohemia raid was a career-jeopardizing failure for Melvin Purvis.

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The posse had killed a civilian and terrorized a small town worse than any outlaw had.

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A petition of local citizens demanded an investigation into the raid and the ouster

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of Melvin Purvis. Then there was the matter of Agent Carter Baum. Purvis could handle the public

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criticism. After all, he worked for the blustery, unpredictable J. Edgar Hoover for nearly seven

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years. But the cold-blooded murder of an agent on his watch weighed on Purvis.

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Though it was babyface Nelson who killed Baum, John Dillinger remained the name in the headlines

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and the primary focus of the FBI's manhunt. Agents scoured Chicago looking for Dillinger,

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who had been on the move since escaping the Little Bohemia. They were also trailing anyone

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known to associate with Dillinger. Nelson soon learned that many of his friends were under

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surveillance. In some instances, the FBI had tried to buy information. In others,

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agents had resorted to more intense forms of intimidation and interrogation.

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Nelson knew he had to stay out of Chicago, but he also needed to stay close. He reconnected with

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an old friend to find a place to hide while he tried to figure out what was happening with the

2Speaker 2
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In early May 1934, Nelson met up with his old pal from Sausalito, California,

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John Paul Chase. The two had become close in the San Francisco area while running rum for bootlegger

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Joe Parente. Nelson hadn't seen Chase in quite a while, but he was happy to have an old friend

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around. An associate in Chicago gave the two men the use of a cabin about 50 miles outside the city,

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which also happened to be less than 10 miles from Louis Cernachie's roadhouse. At the roadhouse,

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Nelson caught up with Tommy Carroll, whom he hadn't seen since the last night at the Little Bohemia.

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Nelson found out that John Dillinger and Homer Van Meter were hiding in a small town nearby.

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The search for Dillinger was so intense that he could barely leave the house.

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A few times a week, Nelson or Carroll would make a run to deliver food and supplies to Dillinger.

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This secluded life was how the gang spent most of the month.

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Dillinger found himself replaced in the headlines for at least a few days when a posse of Louisiana

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lawmen and Texas Rangers finally caught up with Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. On May 23,

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a group of six lawmen ambushed the sweetheart outlaws on State Highway 154 in Bienville Parish,

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Louisiana. Bonnie and Clyde were dead within seconds, and their legends were cemented just as fast.

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While in hiding, Dillinger underwent surgery to change his appearance.

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Once he had recovered from the painful procedure, it was said he could roam the streets of Chicago

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unnoticed. Some stories report that Dillinger was so brazen he would walk right into police

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stations and chat with the officers. By mid-June, Nelson had grown restless.

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When he learned his wife Helen had been released but was being routinely followed, he began to

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think that he should give the West Coast another chance. But that kind of move was going to require

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more cash than he had on hand. He floated the idea of an out-of-state bank robbery to Dillinger

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and Van Meter, and they agreed. But none of them seemed particularly enthusiastic about it.

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Nelson had spent the weeks since the Little Bohemia fiasco fuming at every reference in

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the newspapers to the search for the quote, Second Dillinger Gang. And while Nelson grew

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more aggravated, the rest of the crew grew tired of his attitude and aggression. Tensions

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escalated when the gang gathered to put the final touches on the plan for the heist.

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Nelson resented Dillinger's cavalier attitude about going out in public, and if Nelson needed

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any more ammunition for his argument, he received it on June 22, 1934. The FBI officially crowned

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John Dillinger public enemy number one and put up a $10,000 reward for his capture.

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Even so, Dillinger dined out in downtown Chicago and went to the movies at crowded cinemas.

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Nelson's anger wasn't reserved exclusively for Dillinger. He was also mad at Homer Van Meter.

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While Nelson had wisely remained isolated from his wife and children,

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Van Meter was allegedly running around with his old girlfriend.

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She had been arrested along with Nelson's wife, and no one in the gang trusted her.

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But even with all the hostility in the gang, they went through with the hastily planned robbery

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of the Merchants National Bank in South Bend, Indiana. They got away with $28,000,

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but the job was anything but smooth. Several civilians were injured. Homer Van Meter shot

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and killed a police officer, and Van Meter himself was shot. The gang rushed back to

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Chicago to get him on the operating table. No one thought he would make it, but Van Meter

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toughed it out and survived. And Van Meter wasn't the only close call in the gang.

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During the melee outside the bank, Nelson was shot point blank in the chest but was saved by

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a bulletproof steel vest. He was grateful to be alive, but still furious with Dillinger and Van

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Meter, and the resentment was mutual. The South Bend job on June 30, 1934,

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was the last known heist that Nelson pulled with Dillinger. As June became July, Nelson

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was finally able to see Helen. They continued to plan to move west, and Nelson's pal John Paul

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Chase was eager to join them. But before they made the trip, Nelson wanted one more big score.

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He and Dillinger put aside their mutual contempt and discussed another job, a train robbery of all

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things. But it never happened, and by the end of the month, the first public enemy number one would

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be dead. On July 26, 1934, Babyface Nelson, his wife Helen, and John Paul Chase loaded into Nelson's

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car and left Chicago. They were followed by an old associate of Nelson's named Jack Perkins.

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In Perkins' car were his wife and son, and Joe Negri. Negri had been part of the bootlegging

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team with Nelson and Chase when Nelson had first tested the waters of the West Coast. Negri had

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been working in Chicago, but he decided to join the group and head back to his hometown of San

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Francisco. While Negri was bound for San Francisco, Nelson and the rest of the group weren't sure

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where they were headed. Maybe Reno, Nevada. Maybe Sausalito, California. Maybe San Francisco.

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The exact destination wasn't the priority. Getting out of Chicago was. The urgency began

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four days earlier, around 1030 at night on Lincoln Avenue, in front of the Biograph Theater.

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John Dillinger, without fear of capture, had gone to the Biograph to take in a new film

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called Manhattan Melodrama. The movie starred Clark Gable as Blackie Gallagher,

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a well-connected debonair gangster who seemed destined to be done in by his murderous deeds.

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Dillinger attended the movie with two women, Polly Hamilton and Anna Kampanas,

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and he was about to have a real-life experience like Clark Gable's character.

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Anna Kampanas ran a brothel where she was known as Anna Sage. She had been threatened with

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deportation to her native Romania, so she made a deal with Melvin Purvis and the FBI to identify

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Dillinger after the movie. The feds would know her in the crowd by the color of her dress,

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either red or orange depending on the account, and she would be clutching the arm of public

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number one as they left the theater. Shortly after Polly, Anna, and Dillinger exited the venue,

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FBI agents closed in. Two agents, Charles Winstead and Ed Hollis, fired at Dillinger,

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hitting him four times. John Dillinger stumbled forward a few steps and fell dead in the alley

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beside the theater. The coroner's cause of death read, justifiable homicide by officers of the

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government. And even while J. Edgar Hoover, Melvin Purvis, and the entire bureau celebrated

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their victory, Hoover announced Charles' pretty boy Floyd was elevated to public enemy number one.

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Floyd, a bank-robbing outlaw known to many as a Robin Hood of Oklahoma,

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was thought to be one of the assassins at Union Station in Kansas City one year earlier.

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Several members of law enforcement, including an FBI agent, had been killed in a daylight gun

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battle. Agents around the country hunted for Floyd, but in the Chicago office, the priority

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was to tighten the grip on the city and track down the remaining members of the second Dillinger gang.

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It was the final push Nelson had needed to leave town and head west. The group that drove out on

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July 26th spent several weeks living a nomadic life across the western United States. They moved

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from tourist camp to tourist camp, taking careful precautions to keep a low profile.

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Finally, they reached Reno, Nevada. The last time Nelson was there, he was greeted like a

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returning hero. But things had changed. His rap sheet now contained more than home invasions,

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a couple small bank robberies, and a bloodless prison escape. He was now known as a trigger-happy

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gangster who had run with the most famous gang in the land. He had been involved in several

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high-profile robberies, and he was wanted for the murder of a federal agent. He was turned away by

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one of his old employers because he was too much of a risk. Connections closer to San Francisco

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refused to assure Nelson's safety in the city. The group was forced back onto the road, bouncing

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from town to town in northern California. Along the way, Nelson's friend John Paul Chase met a

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girl named Sally Backman. Chase warned Backman that the group might run into trouble with the law,

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but she promised she was up for it. Nelson was against it from the start. He'd already had enough

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drama, but against his better judgment, Nelson agreed that Sally could travel with him. He was

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frustrated with Chase, but then again, his list of trusted friends was getting shorter and shorter.

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The new travel companion proved to be a headache right from the start. Backman complained about

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their destinations and humble accommodations, and Nelson didn't know that Chase had revealed

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Nelson's true identity to his girlfriend. Tension rose in the group in the late summer of 1934,

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to the point where Nelson openly threatened violence against Backman and nearly came to

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blows with Chase. They worked their way back to the Midwest, and outside Chicago, the group agreed

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it was time to split up. Nelson and his wife separated from everyone else. The rest of the

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group headed into Chicago, but the Nelsons turned around and made the long drive back to Reno, Nevada.

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For a brief time, John Paul Chase and Sally Backman enjoyed a good life in Chicago,

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but when Backman traveled to San Francisco, she was identified by FBI agents and taken into custody.

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In return for a promise that no harm would come to her boyfriend, Backman told the FBI everything

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she knew. Babyface Nelson was living in relative anonymity in a two-room cabin

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in Wally Hot Springs, Nevada. Like Dillinger at the Biograph Theater,

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Nelson had no idea the walls were closing in around him.

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Law enforcement missed Nelson in Nevada, and by the time he returned to the Midwest,

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a lot had changed. Officers in St. Paul, Minnesota, had killed Homer Van Meter. Nelson didn't exactly

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shed tears over Van Meter's death, but he was wary that it happened in St. Paul. The city had once

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been a safe harbor for criminals with the consent of the local cops, but if Van Meter wasn't safe

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there, Babyface Nelson knew he wouldn't be either. Whether he admitted it to himself or not, Nelson

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wasn't safe anywhere. Agent Melvin Purvis, the man credited with catching Dillinger, and fellow

24:58.48 – 25:03.72

agent Ed Hollis, one of the men credited with killing Dillinger, had tracked down Pretty Boy

25:03.72 – 25:11.18

Floyd. They shot and killed Floyd while he ran through a field in Ohio. With Dillinger and Floyd

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dead, the first two men to wear the label of the FBI's public enemy number one, Babyface Nelson

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moved up to the top spot. He was now the FBI's most wanted man in America,

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and he was the third public enemy number one.

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Law enforcement's focus on Nelson made it dangerous to stay in any one place too long.

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For weeks, Nelson and Helen moved around the Chicago area. They slept in their car almost

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every night as Nelson tried to rally new men and plan a job. He was desperate for money,

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and in late November, just before Thanksgiving, he made plans to go up to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

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He wanted to resurrect the idea of a train robbery that he and Dillinger had discussed.

25:59.82 – 26:05.80

By 1934, train robberies were largely a thing of the past, but they weren't completely gone.

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The final old-school train robbery in America happened in 1937, but it was such a bumbling,

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comical attempt that it barely qualifies. It would have embarrassed the likes of Jesse James

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and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. But Babyface Nelson wanted to give it a shot.

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He had never intentionally involved his wife Helen in his crimes, but he had to bring her

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on the trip this time. If she was alone, he was scared she would be grabbed by the police.

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John Paul Chase reunited with Nelson after Nelson's return to the Midwest,

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and Nelson was happy to hear that Chase hadn't seen Sally Backman. But just because Chase hadn't

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seen her didn't mean she was a thing of the past. Neither Chase nor Nelson knew that Sally had made

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a list for the FBI of all the places Nelson was known to visit, including places in and around

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Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The Bureau had taken Sally on a driving tour of the region to see

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if she recognized the names of landmarks that Nelson might have mentioned. She identified the

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Lake Como Inn as one of those places. The owner of the inn quickly agreed to let agents set up

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and wait for Nelson, and they didn't have to wait long. Sally's information was right on the money.

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On the afternoon of November 27th, FBI agents spotted Nelson near the Lake Como Inn.

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They reported his license plate number to every agent in the Midwest.

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Two agents in Chicago took special notice. One was Ed Hollis, the man who helped bring down Dillinger

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and Pretty Boy Floyd. The other was Sam Cowley, who was leading the Nelson manhunt. They immediately

27:49.12 – 27:58.44

armed up and sped toward Wisconsin. At the same time, two agents who were closer to the area

27:58.44 – 28:04.20

spotted a car similar to the one Nelson was reported to be driving. It was headed south

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on Highway 12. The agents, who were driving north, pulled an aggressive U-turn and started following

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the car. Their suspicion was correct. The car held public enemy number one, his wife and his

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associate John Paul Chase. But the agents' blatant course correction caught Nelson's attention.

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Without warning Helen or Chase, Nelson pulled hard on the steering wheel. He drove the car

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over the grassy median that separated the northbound lanes from the southbound lanes,

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and then he did it again. He had been an impressive driver since he was young, and now he put all his

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skills to work. In a matter of seconds, he went from being the pursued to being the pursuer.

28:47.88 – 28:54.30

He hit the gas and caught up to the agent's car. Nelson told Helen to drop down to the floorboards.

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He shouted at Chase to grab one of the machine guns in the back seat.

28:59.38 – 29:03.66

Nelson gripped the wheel with one hand and maneuvered it alongside the agent's car.

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With his other hand, he held a .38-caliber pistol. Nelson and Chase opened fire,

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and so did the agents. They swerved away from each other, each car barely staying on the road.

29:16.38 – 29:21.62

The agent's car continued to speed down the highway, but when Nelson stomped on the gas pedal,

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nothing happened. The engine had been hit. When the agents realized they had disabled Nelson's car,

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they skidded to a stop on the side of the road. They jumped out and found cover.

29:34.52 – 29:39.52

Limping down the road in his dying car, Nelson didn't know how bad his luck had become.

29:40.16 – 29:46.56

By pure chance, agents Ed Hollis and Sam Cowley, who had been racing toward the Lake Geneva area,

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had passed the speeding gunfight. They pulled a quick U-turn and quickly closed in on Nelson's

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car. Hollis and Cowley watched Nelson guide the car onto a dirt road near the entrance to a park

29:59.68 – 30:07.02

in Barrington, Illinois, about 30 miles northwest of Chicago. The outlaw jumped out of his car with

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machine gun. Ed Hollis may have been confident, considering he had helped take down two public

30:12.98 – 30:19.14

enemies, but he had shot both of them in the back. Babyface Nelson was ready for a face-to-face

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gunfight. If this was Nelson's end, it would happen in the proverbial blaze of glory.

30:29.44 – 30:35.32

The rules and regulations of the FBI had come a long way in a short time in the age of the

30:35.32 – 30:41.78

Depression-era outlaws. Gone were the rules that stated FBI agents needed local law enforcement to

30:41.78 – 30:48.72

make an arrest, and gone were the restrictions on agents carrying firearms. Agent Hollis had a

30:48.72 – 30:55.86

shotgun, and Agent Cowley had a tommy gun as they stared down Babyface Nelson. The agents had stopped

30:55.86 – 31:02.38

in the middle of the highway, about 150 feet from Nelson's position. Agent Cowley opened up with his

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tommy gun. He hit Nelson nearly center mass with several rounds. The outlaw buckled, but gathered

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himself and returned fire. His gun roared as he struck Cowley in the stomach and chest. Agent

31:16.22 – 31:23.44

Hollis blasted away with his shotgun. Pellets tore through Nelson's legs, but he kept his feet. He saw

31:23.44 – 31:29.76

Cowley lying face down and looking lifeless, so he focused his fire on Hollis. Hollis retreated

31:29.76 – 31:36.16

away from his car, dropped his empty shotgun, and fired with his pistol. Nelson stepped out from

31:36.16 – 31:45.30

cover and unloaded on Hollis. A round struck the agent in the head and knocked him to the ground.

31:46.22 – 31:52.62

Nelson shuffled over to Hollis and stood over him, but didn't fire. At that point, Nelson started to

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realize how badly he was injured. Agent Cowley's first shots with the tommy gun had hit Nelson in

31:58.76 – 32:05.78

the stomach, and Agent Hollis' first rounds with the shotgun had hit Nelson in the legs. Nelson found

32:05.78 – 32:12.24

the strength to slide into Hollis and Cowley's car. Helen and John Paul Chase climbed in with them.

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Chase drove, Helen cried, and Nelson bled from nine gunshot wounds. They sped away from the

32:20.04 – 32:25.58

little crossroads and the event that would be called the Battle of Barrington. Behind them,

32:25.58 – 32:30.08

Hollis and Cowley were quickly transported to Barrington Central Hospital.

32:31.06 – 32:37.54

Hollis died on the way to surgery. Cowley clung to life and remained conscious long enough to

32:37.54 – 32:44.24

confirm for Agent Melvin Purvis that the shooter had been Babyface Nelson. Cowley went into surgery,

32:44.66 – 32:50.18

but he didn't make it through the night. In the morning, the newspapers made Nelson the center

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of attention, which he probably would have loved. A banner headline in the Chicago Tribune read,

32:56.24 – 33:04.16

Enemy Number One Kills U.S. Agents. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Senior Agent Melvin Purvis

33:04.16 – 33:10.96

were enraged. Nelson had now killed three agents and had escaped once again. He was injured,

33:11.34 – 33:17.42

but no one knew how badly. Purvis told reporters that he didn't care much if they took Nelson dead

33:17.42 – 33:23.34

or alive. But by the time the newspapers hit the streets with all those headlines that Nelson

33:23.34 – 33:28.38

would have loved, the outlaw was too far gone to enjoy his ill-gotten fame.

33:32.54 – 33:39.50

The initial shots that had torn Nelson's stomach apart were beyond repair. By the time Chase got

33:39.50 – 33:44.54

him to someone who could help, it was too late for even the best surgeon in Chicago to save him.

33:45.22 – 33:50.64

Nelson gripped Helen's hand and cried as he spoke of his mother, his sisters, and his children.

33:51.36 – 33:59.16

Just before 8 a.m. on November 28, 1934, Nelson told his wife that the room was getting dark.

33:59.98 – 34:07.78

Then Lester Gillis, famously known as George Babyface Nelson, slipped away. He was 25 years old.

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Chase and Helen wrapped Nelson's body in blankets and left it in a ditch in Skokie,

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Illinois. It was later discovered by the FBI. Shortly afterward, Helen turned herself into

34:21.00 – 34:26.38

federal agents. She identified John Paul Chase as the other shooter in Barrington,

34:26.62 – 34:32.24

and Chase was caught just after Christmas. He was convicted for his role in the deaths of

34:32.24 – 34:37.48

Agents Cowley and Hollis, and he was one of the first prisoners sent to the new federal prison

34:37.48 – 34:45.12

on Alcatraz Island. Nelson's son served in the Navy during World War II, and his daughter gave

34:45.12 – 34:51.46

him seven grandchildren he never met. His loyal wife, Helen, served a year in prison for harboring

34:51.46 – 34:58.32

a wanted criminal. She lived a long life after that, dying at the age of 79 in the town of Fox

34:58.32 – 35:04.96

Lake, Illinois, just a 20-minute drive from the site of the Battle of Barrington. Helen and Lester

35:04.96 – 35:09.92

Gillis are buried next to each other in a cemetery in Chicago's northwest suburbs.

35:17.02 – 35:23.26

Next time on Infamous America, we'll go from the Depression era to the Vietnam era for the story

35:23.26 – 35:28.54

of one of the craziest series of events of the time period. It's the kidnapping of Patty Hearst

35:28.54 – 35:34.10

and her controversial transformation from a wealthy college student to a wanted felon.

35:34.66 – 35:36.74

That's next time on Infamous America.

35:42.68 – 35:47.12

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They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials,

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and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes

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or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships are just $5 per month.

36:04.10 – 36:09.96

This series was researched and written by Jamie Lyko. Original music by Rob Valier.

36:10.60 – 36:16.06

I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. Find us at our website, blackbarrelmedia.com,

36:16.22 – 36:21.18

or on our social media channels. We're Black Barrel Media on Facebook and Instagram,

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and B-Barrel Media on Twitter. And you can stream all our episodes on YouTube.

36:27.00 – 36:30.66

Just search for Infamous America Podcast. Thanks for listening.

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