Evening star., 1934-11-29
NELSON EMPLOYED
WIFE AS A SHIELD
Federal Agents Met End by
Delaying Fire to Save
Woman.
BY REX COLLIER.

OpCAatA WILL SlCu0Coe cSSASSy
under personal orders of J. Edgar
Hoover, director of the Justice Depart
ments Division of Investigation, Fed
eral agents had trailed Baby Face"
Nelson to San Francisco and back to
Chicago before they caught up with
him.
During much of that undercover
chase the nervous. boastful Dillinger
machine gunner used his wife, Helen,
and a 5-year-old son for protective
purposes. it was revealed at the De-
partment of Justice. His reason for
taking his family with him was two
fold. He hoped to throw of his pur-
suers by Disgusting himself as
family man"-and he wished to use
his wife and child as a shield in the
event OF gun battle.
The presence of Mrs. Nelson-her
real name Is Mrs. Lester NJ ellis
had the desired effect on the Federal
men when they overlook Nelson at
Darlington, Ill. They withheld their
fire, officials here declared, until they
themselves were fired upon
Other Children in Chicago.
The son and another child. a four
year-old girl. are believed to be in the
vicinity of Chicago.
Now that Nelson has gone the way
of Dillinger and Pretty Boy" Floyd,
some of the details Of the search by
the &c" men for the man who mur-
dered their comrade, Special Agent
Carter Baum, can be disclosed.
Gillis, alias Nelson, did not rate as
big time" gangster until he joined
the Dillinger organization last year.
Before that he had been a bootlegger
and hoodlum in Chicago, aSSociating
at times with Tommy Touhy and other
racketeers. The Department Of JUS
tice was not looking for him in those
days
Police had encountered him on nu-
merouS occasions. however. Chicago
authorities first arrested him in 1922,
when he was only Is years old. He
was sent to reform school for steal
ing an automobile. He was released
from the reformatory three times on
parole and on the first two occasions
was returned for violation OF his
parole.
From stealing automobiles and tires
Nelson drifted into illicit distilling.
burglaries and hold-ups. He learned
how to handle Tommy machine
gun with such flnesse that the big
shot" gangsters began to take notice
of him.
Robbed Bank at Fl.
He was just 2l years old when he
robbed the State Bank of Hillside,
Ill, a crime which brought him his
first prison sentence-one year to
life. Six months after going to Joliet
prison he was removed to stand trial
at Wheaton, Ill. for another State
bank robbery He received another
year-to-life sentence. He escaped
while being returned from court to
Joliet, on February II, 1882
In 1888 Nelson went in for bank
robbery in a big way He was one
of two machine gunners who robbed
the Brainerd, Mimi, Bank of $4,000
in october of that year.
1t was in the Fall OF 1893 that
Nelson succeeded in gaining the favor
Of John Dillinger and his gang. Under
the name of Jimmie Williams he
joined with Homer Van Meter and
Tommy Carroll, lieutenants of Dill
linger, in trip to the Southwest to
seek special arms and ammunition
for the gang.
In San Antonio Tex, the trio en-
ployed an underworld gunsmith to
convert a number Of Colt automatics
into pocket-Size machine guns-which
Dilllnger desired to replace the more
cumbersome submachine guns. Two
of these guns, taken from captured
members Of the Dillinger mob, now
partment's crime museum.
Gang Captured in West.
Early in January of this year
Dillinger and others of his band also
went to the Southwest-and ran into
grief. Dillinger, Russell Clark, Charles
Makley and Harry Pierpont were cap
tured in Tucson. Ariz.. by alert po-
lice. Dulinger was flown to Indiana
and lodged in the famous Crown
Point jail
Nelson rejoined Dillinger imme-
diately after the latter's wooden gun
flight from the Crown Point jail
Others who gathered around the No.
l Public Enemy" were Van Meter,
Carroll and John Hamilton.
The day after Dillinger's escape a
man believed to have been Nelson
murdered Theodore W. Kidder in Min
neapolis, MINI. Two days after this
Nelson aided Dillinger and his gunner
in the S50,000 robbery of the Securities
National Bank at Sioux Falls, S. Oak.
Exactly a week later Baby Face"
again Joined with the Dillinger crowd
in a $4,000 robbery at the First Ma
tional Bank in Mason City, Iowa.
The Department of Justice in the
meantime had launched a hunt for
Dillinger because he had made the
mistake Of stealing an automobile at
Crown Point and driving it across a
State line-a Federal offense. The
Federal authorities did not officially
add Nelson to their list of wanted
outlaws until the night of April %
of this year.
Agent Baum Slain.
On that night Federal agents raided
the Little Bohemia Inn, near Mercer,
Wis In an exchange of gunfire with
Dillinger and his gangsters c. c. c.
worker who was leaving the inn was
killed. The firing from the gang hide
out ceased, and Agent Baum went
down the road to nearby farm house
to investigate suspicious activities
there. With Baum were Agent j. C.
Newman and Constable Carl Christen-
berry.
AS the officers drove up in front of
the farm they saw a car, without
lights, parked at the side of the road.
The constable recognized the car as
that Of a local resident. Thus re-
assured, the officers pulled alongside
and a man stepped from the parked
car and confronted the officers.