At age of fourteen Lester Joseph Gillis, more commonly known as Baby Face Nelson, was already involved in crime, accused of stealing and joy riding, (. Being a criminal through the 1920’s to the mid 1930’s, during Prohibition, the stock market’s crash, and into the Great Depression. Today we will answer the question: Why was Baby Face Nelson so famous? During this essay we will go over the three main points, his own Crime, his crime with John Dillinger Crime, and finally, his Death. The first topic we’re discussing is Nelson’s crime. According to the FBI(1934), “Six white men, one identified as Theodore Bents and one identified as Earl Doyle, now serving a life sentence in Michigan State Prison. Theodore states that robbers were Homer Van Meter, Edward Jents, “Baby Face” Nelson, Chuck Conners, Earl Doyle and Ralph or Joe Mongo.” “Nelson graduated to adult prison in 1931 after robbing a bank in Chicago. Sentenced to a year in jail, he escaped from custody while being transported to be tried on another bank robbery charge in February 1932.”(Biography.com, 2016). Nelson was involved with many crimes at the …show more content…
The Kansas Star Newspaper(1934) said “Body Riddled With Bullets. When the body was found today by federal men it was found Nelson had been shot five times in the stomach and twice in the chest and five times in each leg.” Shortly after John Dillinger’s Death, Baby Face was moved to Public Enemy Number One, the top criminal for the government to find. Nelson was shot by government officials multiple times in a car chase, his wife Helen Gillis, and John Paul Chase, another bank robber, were also in the car. Baby Face was found later near Niles Center III, about fifteen miles from Chicago, (Kansas City Star, 2016). People like a good story, and Nelson's story was definitely an interesting one, a young boy off on adventure, having fun, furthermore, an epic death was a perfect end to Baby Face’s