Baby Face Nelson

Lester Joseph Gillis, known as George Nelson and Baby Face Nelson, was an American bank robber born on December 6, 1908, in Chicago, Illinois, to Flemish Belgian immigrants. He died on November 27, 1934. His nickname came from his short stature and youthful looks. He became a criminal partner of John Dillinger, though he was not involved in Dillinger's escape from prison in Crown Point, Indiana, on March 3, 1934. After Dillinger's death, the FBI designated Nelson individually as 'Public Enemy Number One.' Nelson killed more FBI agents than any other criminal. He was fatally wounded by FBI agents in the Battle of Barrington, a suburb of Chicago.

At age twelve, on July 4, 1921, Nelson accidentally shot a playmate in the jaw with a pistol he had found, leading to his arrest and over a year in a state reformatory. He later worked at a Standard Oil station that also served as a base for young tire thieves known as "strippers." Through them, he met local criminals, including one who hired him to drive bootleg alcohol around Chicago suburbs, and he eventually joined the Touhy Gang.

Within two years, Nelson and the gang turned to armed robbery. On January 6, 1930, they broke into the home of magazine executive Charles M. Richter, tied him up with adhesive tape, cut phone lines, and stole about $205,000 in jewelry. Two months later, they robbed Lottie Brenner Von Buelow's bungalow on Sheridan Road, netting roughly $50,000 in jewelry. Chicago newspapers dubbed them "The Tape Bandits."

On April 21, 1930, Nelson robbed his first bank, taking about $4,000. A month later, he and his gang stole $25,000 in jewelry from home invasions. On October 3, he robbed the Itasca State Bank of $4,600; a teller later identified him. Three nights later, he stole $18,000 in jewelry from the wife of Chicago mayor Big Bill Thompson. She described him as having a "baby face," good looking, hardly more than a boy, with dark hair, a gray topcoat, and a brown felt hat. On November 23, 1930, a botched roadhouse robbery in Summit, Illinois, left three dead and three wounded. Three nights later, Nelson's gang robbed a tavern on Waukegan Road, and he committed his first notable murder, fatally shooting stockbroker Edwin R. Thompson.

During the winter of 1931, most of the Tape Bandits, including Nelson, were captured. The Chicago Tribune called their leader "George 'Baby Face' Nelson"