Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1934-12-14

Suddenly they heard the roar of rae
ing motors. The two Kramers and
their customer stared down the high
way. Toward them sped Ford sed-
an. Just behind it raced blue Hud-
son. Bullets spatterd back and forth
between the two machines.
The trio Of spectators rushed inside
the brick filling station and watched
the battle in safety. AS the two cars
drew abreast they saw the Ford slow
down, turn into side road and screech
to a stop. Bullets had wrecked it's
gasoline pump. The Hudson stopped a
few feet beyond on the main highway.
Like a flash a woman dived from
the Ford into a grass covered ditch.
Her two male companions crouched
behind their car and leveled machine
guns. Two pursuers leaped out on
the far side of the Hudson, one with
machine gun, the other with shot
gun. Crossfire barked sharp STAG
cato.
Soon one of the pursuers slumped
into ditch. Then his companion fell.
Quickly the woman sprang to the
wheel of the Hudson. The shorter of
her two companions, limping badly,
clambered after her. The other paused
to pour another stream Of bullets in
to one Of the vanquished pursuers.
Then the three drove slowly away in
their victims car.
While Mrs. Kramer telephoned po-
, lice, neighbors, and motorists crowded
round to examine the two slumped
figures. Under the coat of each they
found badge: ~. S. Department of
Justice" Special Agent Herman E.
Hollis died Immediately. Later in an
Elgin hospital Inspector Samuel p.
Cowleys gasped the word "Nelson."
Then he too died.
Around the world flashed the news
that "Baby Face" Nelson, had again
gotten away-again leaving death in
his wake.
Crime had been the diminutive Nell
sons career since the age of Is, when
he matriculated in Chicago reform
school after stealing an auto. Later
thefts, robberies and shootings kept
him bobbing in and out of jails. In
1882, he escaped from a taxicab in
which he was being taken to trial and
joined the Dillinger gang. Last Spring
Nelson became Public Enemy No. 2
after numbering w. Carter Baum, one
of the Federal agents who surrounded
! a Dillinger hideout near Rhinelander
Wis. Dillinger's death boosted him to
Public Enemy No. /.
After months of pursuit, Justice
agents last week thought they had the
cold-blooded killer trapped. Riding two
in a car, the agents took different
roads to harrington house where
Nelson was reported hiding. En- route
Cowley and Hollis spotted Nelson and
his companions in the Ford. Then
came the battle near the filling sta
ton.
The death of the two crack agents
was the cue for a sweeping man-hunt.
I'll get Nelson if it's the last thing
I dol" exclaimed Melvin Purvis, spec
ial agent in charge at Chicago and ne
mesis of John Dillinger and "Pretty
Boy" Floyd. Agents, police and scores
of special deputy sheriffs rushed to
the harrington region. They were
told to "get" Nelson and his two con-
federates, believed to be his 21-year
old wife and John Hamilton, only 9TH
err member of the Dillinger gang still
unaccounted for.
Shortly after dawn the day after the
battle, a phone rang in the undertake
ing parlor of Philip Sadowski at Niles
Center, on the outskirts of Chicago,
twenty miles from harrington. A
mysterious voice-presumably one of
Nelson's gang-told Sadowski where
to pick up the body of "Mr. Gillis."
The undertaken reported to police.
Nelson's real name was Lester M.
ellis.
Near Niles detectives and agents
found the Hudson, abandoned and
bloodstained. A few miles away they
discovered a bundle of blood-soaked
clothes. In a ditch beside the road
was "Baby Face" Nelson's nude body.
He had grown a mustache and had
used acid in an attempt to obliterate
his fingerprints. Amateurish ban
dages on eight gun wounds in his legs
and one in his abdomen told how his
companions had tried to save his life.
His riddled body was placed on the
same slab, in the same niche, in the
/ same Chicago morgue where Dillinger
l.