Lester Joseph Gillis, famously known as Babyface Nelson, was one of the most violent criminals of the 1930s. A bank robber and partner of John Dillinger, Nelson killed more FBI agents than any other criminal in history before meeting his own end in a bloody gunfight with federal agents in a Chicago suburb. Born in Chicago on December 6, 1908, Nelson’s criminal career began early. At just 12 years old, he was arrested for accidentally shooting a playmate in the jaw with a pistol he had found.
He spent over a year in reform school. By 13, he was arrested again for car theft and joyriding, sentenced to 18 months in a penal institution. Through his mid-teens, Nelson joined a gang and eventually rose to become its leader. He married Helen Morziniak in 1928, and the couple had two children.
Nelson’s gang became heavily involved in organized crime, particularly armed robbery. The gang’s first major heists came in early 1930. On January 6, they broke into the home of magazine executive Charles M. Richter, tying him up with adhesive tape, cutting his phone lines, and stealing approximately $205,000 in jewelry.
Two months later, they committed a similar robbery at the bungalow of Lottie Brenner Von Buelow, netting an additional $50,000 in jewelry. Chicago newspapers quickly dubbed the crew the “Tape Bandits. ”
Nelson committed his first bank robbery on April 21, 1930, taking approximately $4,000. A month later, he and his gang stole $25,000 in jewelry from home invasions.
By October 3, he robbed the Itasca State Bank of $4,600. Three nights later, Nelson stole $18,000 in jewelry from the wife of Chicago Mayor Big Bill Thompson. She described her assailant as having a child’s face, attractive but little more than a boy. The gang’s violence escalated on November 23, 1930, when they were linked to a botched robbery of a roadhouse in Summit, Illinois.
Three people were killed and three others injured in the ensuing gunfight. Three nights later, Nelson’s gang robbed a tavern on Waukegan Road, and Nelson committed his first murder. By the winter of 1931, most of the Tape Bandits were apprehended. The Chicago Tribune dubbed their leader George “Babyface Nelson,” and he was sentenced to life in the state penitentiary in Joliet.
However, Nelson escaped in February 1932 during a prison transfer. He fled to Reno, where he was housed by William Graham, a well-known crime boss and gambler. Nelson’s criminal notoriety grew when he assisted John Dillinger in his escape from prison in Crown Point, Indiana. Afterward, the FBI declared Nelson and the remaining bank robbers Public Enemies Number One.
Nelson committed a major bank robbery in Grand Haven, Michigan, on August 18, 1933. Convinced he was ready to lead his own gang, he enlisted Homer Van Meter, Tommy Carroll, Eddie Greene, and two other local thieves. On October 23, 1933, he robbed the First National Bank of Brainerd, Minnesota, of $32,000. On December 9, 1933, a local woman alerted San Antonio police to the presence of high-powered Northern gangsters nearby.
Two days later, Tommy Carroll was cornered by two detectives and opened fire, killing Detective H. C. Parent and injuring Detective Al Hartman. Nelson and the remaining gang members fled San Antonio, leaving Carroll behind.
Nelson and his wife traveled to the San Francisco Bay area, where he enlisted the help of John Paul Chase and Fatso Negri. Eventually, the gang moved to northern Wisconsin. On April 22, 1934, the FBI learned of the gang’s location and dispatched special agents to the Little Bohemia Lodge. The gangsters were alerted by barking dogs and fled into the dark, leaving behind female associates, including Helen Gillis.
Nelson fled to a nearby house and took hostages. When special agents J. C. Newman and W.
Carter Baum arrived with a local constable, Nelson shot all three men before they could exit their vehicle. Baum was killed, and the others were injured. Following the death of John Dillinger, killed by federal agents on July 22, 1934, Nelson, Helen Gillis, and Chase left Chicago with two associates for California. FBI Inspector Samuel P.
Cowley was tasked with finding Nelson. On November 27, 1934, Cowley received word that Nelson had been seen driving a stolen car. The vehicle was discovered by two special agents near Barrington, Illinois. Nelson maneuvered his car behind the agents, and Chase fired five rounds from an automatic rifle into their vehicle.
One agent returned fire, and a bullet pierced Nelson’s radiator, temporarily crippling the car. Inspector Cowley and special agent Herman Edward Hollis approached Nelson and Chase in another vehicle and began pursuing them. Nelson abruptly veered off the road and came to a halt. Nelson and Chase opened fire on Cowley and Hollis before they could get out of their car.
In the four-to-five-minute gun battle, Agent Hollis was killed, and Inspector Cowley was mortally wounded. Wounded, Chase assisted the critically injured Nelson back to Cowley’s vehicle. Machine guns and other items were transferred from Nelson’s car to the agent’s vehicle. Babyface Nelson died around 8 PM that night.
The next day, responding to an anonymous phone call, FBI agents discovered Nelson’s body near a cemetery in Niles Center, Illinois. His death ended the reign of the most violent bank robber of the era, a man who had outgunned and outran the law until the very end.