On this day in 1934: The Battle of Barrington and the death of "Baby Face" Nelson

"Baby Face" Nelson

In the 2009 film Public Enemies, gangster Lester M. Gillis, better known as George "Baby Face" Nelson, is gunned down by Bureau of Investigation agents at a Wisconsin resort before the movie's main character, John Dillinger, is shot by G-men outside Chicago's Biograph Theatre.

The Bureau was the predecessor of the FBI, which was formed in 1935.

The movie was right about Dillinger but wrong about Nelson. The Chicago-born Gillis was accurately portrayed as a mercurial hothead in Public Enemies, but died a few hours after the Battle of Barrington--four months after Dillinger's death.

FBI.gov explains what happened:

Northwest Highway, May, 2011

Inspector Samuel P. Cowley of the FBI's Chicago Office had been assigned to search for Nelson. On November 27, 1934, Cowley received word that Nelson had been seen driving a stolen car. Two special agents spotted the vehicle near Barrington, Illinois. Nelson brought his car around behind the agents, and Chase fired five rounds from an automatic rifle into the agents' car. One of the agents returned fire and one shot pierced the radiator of Nelson's car, partially disabling it.

Inspector Cowley and Special Agent Herman Edward Hollis approached in another automobile and began pursuing Nelson and Chase. Suddenly, Nelson veered off Northwest Highway at the entrance to the North Side Park in Barrington and stopped. Before Cowley and Hollis could get out of their car, Nelson and Chase began firing automatic weapons at them.

Special Agent Hollis was killed during the gun battle which lasted only four or five minutes. Inspector Cowley, mortally wounded, died early the next morning.

Hollis, Cowley, Baum memorial,
Langendorf Park, Barrington

Nelson, also critically injured, was helped into Cowley's automobile by Chase. Many guns and other articles were transferred from Nelson's car to the agents' car. Helen Gillis [Nelson's wife] had been lying in a field during the battle. She jumped into the government vehicle as Chase was driving it away.

"Baby Face" Nelson died about 8:00 that evening. In response to an anonymous telephone call, FBI agents found his body the next day near a Niles Center, Illinois, cemetery.

That cemetery, St. Paul Lutheran, is three blocks from my home in Morton Grove--Niles Center changed its name to Skokie in 1940. After I conducted some research, I can say with confidence Nelson's body was dumped on the north side of the tiny cemetery, along Conrad Street.

St. Paul Lutheran Cemetery, Skokie

North Side Park is now called Langendorf Park. There you will find a memorial plaque that honors not only Hollis and Cowley, but also Bureau agent W. Carter Baum, whom Nelson killed during a failed raid earlier that year in northern Wisconsin--the one incorrectly recreated in Public Enemies.

Where Nelson's body
was found

Hollis was part of the team that shot Dillinger, Cowley was also on duty at the Biograph that night. "Pretty Boy" Floyd, another gangster killed at the wrong time in Public Enemies, was shot to death by a Bureau agent, possibly Hollis, a month before the Battle of Barrington.

There are two movies about Nelson, appropriately named Baby Face Nelson. I haven't seen either of them, but this YouTube clip of Mickey Rooney playing Nelson in 1957 looks pretty good. It was directed by another Chicagoan, Don Siegel, best known for Dirty Harry and the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers.The 1997 film, starring C. Thomas Howell, appears to be a complete mess. In that one, Nelson is gunned down at the Canadian border, far from Barrington and far from reality.