The Battle of Barrington is an intense and deadly firefight between federal agents and gangsters The famous Depression Age, Baby Face Nelson, which took place on November 27, 1934 in the town of Barrington, outside Chicago, Illinois. It resulted in Nelson's death, Federal Agent Herman "Ed" Hollis and Agent/Inspector Samuel P. Cowley.
Video The Battle of Barrington
Public Enemy Number One
With the death of John Dillinger's "No. 1 Public Enemy" in July 1934, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, known at the time as the Investigation Division, focused on removing what remained of the notorious Dillinger Gang. Lester "Baby Face Nelson" Gillis, whose epoch-era newspaper dubbed "Dillinger's help," managed to avoid a federal net. In late November 1934, the new Public Enemy Number One was hiding in the isolated pine forests of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Backed by his newfound status, the tiny Nelson boasted that he would rob, "... a day bank for a month."
Maps The Battle of Barrington
Shot on Highway 12
On the morning of November 27, Nelson, wearing a thin mustache on his young face, Helen Gillis (Nelson's faithful wife), and John Paul Chase, Nelson's rightful man, left Lake Geneva and traveled south to Chicago in the US. Route 12 (now US 14). Nelson plans to meet two underground world figures in Chicago and has reasoned daylight a safer time to travel as an agent would expect a night departure.
Near the village of Fox River Grove, Illinois, Nelson observes vehicles being pushed in the opposite direction. Inside the car were federal agents Thomas McDade and William Ryan. McDade and Ryan travel to Lake Geneva to support fellow agents who have delivered a meeting with Nelson. Agents and gangsters recognize each other simultaneously and after several reversals by agents and by Nelson, Nelson finally catches up with a federal car.
As the powerful Nelson V-8 Ford, driven by Helen Gillis, caught by a weaker federal sedan, Nelson and Chase shoot the agents. Incredibly, McDade and Ryan were not killed or wounded. Agents shot back, drove forward and ran off the highway. Taking a defensive position, McDade and Ryan wait for Nelson and Chase. The agents, however, did not realize that a shot fired by Ryan had pierced the water pump and or the Ford radiator Nelson. With Ford losing its powers quickly, Nelson is now being chased by Hudson cars driven by two more agents: Herman Hollis (who allegedly sent a fatal shot to John Dillinger) and Samuel P. Cowley.
Fight with Hollis and Cowley
With his new pursuer trying to pull on the side, Nelson instructs Helen Gillis to drive to the entrance of Barrington's North Side Park, just across the line from Fox River Grove, and stop. Hollis and Cowley beat Ford Nelson for more than 100 feet (30 m). With their car stopping in a corner, Hollis and Cowley exit, taking a defensive position behind the vehicle and, as Helen Gillis escapes into the trench, fires at Nelson and Chase.
Within seconds the gun battle began, a lap from Cowley's Thompson lightweight rifle attacked Nelson over his belt line. The.45 caliber bullet pierced Nelson's heart and pancreas and out of his lower back. Nelson grabbed his side and leaned against the Ford board. Chase, meanwhile, kept firing from behind the car. When Nelson returned, he suddenly stepped into the line of fire and advanced toward Cowley and Hollis. Cowley was hit by an explosion from Nelson's machine gun, after retreating to a nearby trench. The pellet from Hollis's rifle hit Nelson at his feet and momentarily drank it. Hollis, probably already hurt, retreated behind a power pole. With his empty rifle, Hollis pulled his service revolver only to be struck by a bullet to the head of Nelson's gun. Hollis slid to the post and fell face down. Nelson stood beside Hollis for a moment and hobbled toward the bullet-riddled cars. Nelson supported the dealer's car to Ford, and, with Chase's help, loaded an agent vehicle with weapons and ammunition from a defective Ford. After the transfer of weapons, Nelson, who was too hurt to drive, fell into the Hudson. Chase was behind the wheel and, along with the severely injured Helen Gillis and Nelson, fled from the scene.
Nelson had been shot nine times; a single (and ultimately fatal) machine gun bullet had hit his stomach and eight of Hollis's gun pellets had hit his feet. After telling his wife, "I'm done," Nelson gave directions as Chase drove them to the safe house on Walnut Street in Wilmette. Nelson died in bed there, with his wife by his side, at 7:35 pm that night. Hollis, with a large head injury, is declared dead soon after arriving at the hospital. At a different hospital, Cowley survived long enough to negotiate with Melvin Purvis, telling him, "Nothing will bring down [Nelson]." He underwent unsuccessful surgery before succumbing to a stomach wound similar to Nelson's.
Following an anonymous phone tip, Nelson's body was found wrapped in a Native American flavored blanket in front of St. Lutheran Cemetery. Paul on Skokie, who still exists today. Helen Gillis then states that she has placed a blanket on Nelson's body because, "She always hates to be cold..."
The fate of Helen Gillis and John Paul Chase
The newspaper reported, based on the questionable words of an order from J. Edgar Hoover ("... find the woman and give her not a quarter"), that the Bureau of Investigation has issued a "death order" for the young widow of Nelson, who wanders on the streets of Chicago as a fugitive for several days, depicted in print as the first female "public enemy". After giving up on Thanksgiving Day, Helen Gillis, who had been released after being arrested at Little Bohemia Lodge, served a year in prison for saving her deceased husband and died in 1987. Chase was arrested later and served a sentence in Alcatraz and died in 1973.
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Further reading
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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