Infamous America - BABY FACE NELSON Ep. 3 | “The Grand Haven Heist”

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

Baby Face Nelson flees to the West Coast to avoid a manhunt in the Midwest. He works for prominent gamblers in Reno, Nevada and a bootlegger in California, but he misses his family in Chicago. He meets famous robber Alvin “Creepy” Karpis and takes Karpis’s advice to form a new crew in St. Paul, Minnesota. The crew robs a bank in Grand Haven, Michigan, but the meticulous plan falls apart almost immediately. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. To purchase an ad on this show please reach out: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By the spring of 1932, George Babyface Nelson was a bona fide gangster and wanted fugitive. He and his tape bandit gang had lifted tens of thousands of dollars off the unsuspecting Chicago elite. Their home invasion exploits, which left rich men and women bound and gagged with tape, had been front-page news during the city's crime wave in 1930. The gang had also branched out into knocking over small town banks beyond the Chicago city limits. Successful heists in Itasca and Hillside had netted thousands. Nelson and his family enjoyed the good life in their Cicero neighborhood apartment, and Nelson and his wife Helen enjoyed the nightlife in Chicago's clubs and dance halls.

But a more grim portrait of Nelson was being painted as well. There was the gut-shot stockbroker in a local town. He had merely smiled at Nelson during a hold-up, but that was enough for Nelson to punch his ticket. Then there were the three young women, all in their 20s, who were caught in the crossfire during a shootout in a restaurant robbery gone wrong. Nelson had yet to be connected to those crimes by the police or the press, but people in the underworld began to hear whispers. That kid whom everyone called Jimmy was a wild card.

He was dangerous. When the law did catch up with Nelson, it was only for the bloodless robberies and home invasions. He was convicted of two crimes and was looking at a maximum sentence of life plus 20 years. But after almost a year in prison, the 23-year-old Nelson decided he'd had enough. While being delivered back to Joliet State Prison after sentencing for a bank robbery in the town of Itasca, Nelson escaped. Somehow, someone had slipped the felon a pistol. He used it to threaten his prison guard escort and disappeared during transfer. The authorities searched the city for him, but Nelson eluded them long enough to put a plan into place.

He headed west to Reno, Nevada. There he hoped to drop some names, earn some introductions, and get back to work. For more than a year, Nelson called the West his home, working in Reno and the same. San Francisco Bay Area. Nelson proved himself to be a competent criminal, just like his Chicago connections had promised. He would partner with men like John Paul Chase and Fatso Negri, who would remain his associates for the rest of his short and wild life. And he would also meet notorious outlaw Alvin Creepy Carpus, whose gang would succeed Nelson's as the most wanted in the nation. The true beginning of the baby-face Nelson legend was on its way.

From Black Barrel Media, this is Infamous America. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the story of Lester Gillis, better known as Babyface Nelson, one of the wildest and most intriguing gangsters of the Depression era. This is episode three, The Grand Haven Heist. Babyface Nelson was distraught that he had been forced to leave the Chicago area without his wife and two children. But after his escape, he knew the authorities would be watching his home and the homes of his his mother and sisters. It was just too risky to stay in the city, let alone to maintain contact. His success at evading the authorities in the weeks following his escape was a testament to the

connections he had forged in the criminal underworld and the reputation he had built. His associates were more than happy to reach out to their out-of-town friends for one of their own, who had proved he wasn't a rat. One of them made a call to people in Reno to tell them that a solid fella named Jimmy was headed their way. The city of Reno sits on the border of Nevada and California. The state line is just 10 miles from the city's downtown area. The population had grown by 50% in the 1920s and continued to grow as the Great Depression rolled on. By the time Nelson got off a train there in the spring of 1932, about 20,000 people called Reno Home. Of course, many of them didn't stay long. Decades later, another Nevada location, Las Vegas, would become synonymous with

spontaneous weddings, but Reno in the 1930s was famous for the opposite, divorces. Contrary to most of the United States, Nevada had adopted very relaxed laws on ending a marriage. After living there for just six weeks, an unhappy couple could file for a divorce with almost no questions asked. Nevada had also taken a very progressive approach to another American institution that the rest of the country openly frowned on, gambling. The state had legalized gambling the year before Nelson arrived. Reno, the biggest little city in the world, as it was known, wasted no time capitalizing. Two men, William Graham and James McKay, led the way. Outwardly, the two men were quintessential club owners.

They were gregarious, welcoming, and intent on maximizing the opportunity the Nevada laws provided. In just the first year, they opened as many as six clubs, including the illustrious Bank Club downtown and the Calneva Lodge, which was just over the border from California. Behind the scenes, though, they had a perfect understanding of how to operate in a world that was fraught with criminals. Graham and McKay had Reno law enforcement in the their pocket and were rumored to get a cut of any action in the city. If an out-of-towner came to Reno and tried to set up shop without clearing it with Graham and McKay, they did so at their own peril. Graham and McKay were the men who had been informed of Nelson's arrival. They were told that a well-disposed,

well-dressed young man would be arriving on a Southern Pacific rail car at Reno's Center Street Station. He'd need to keep a low profile and keep his nose clean for the moment. part. Graham and McKay liked Nelson immediately. They put him up in a local hotel while he got settled and then gave him a job working for the proprietor of the Calneva Lodge. Nelson served as a chauffeur and fulfilled whatever odd jobs were needed. Going by the name James Johnson, he was basically an errand boy. But there's no evidence that Nelson was anything but grateful. If the George baby-faced Nelson of Chicago had longed to be a big shot, Jimmy Johnson of Reno was more than happy to keep his head down and make his bones in a new town. For about six weeks, Nelson got acclimated to his new

environment. He wondered if there was a way he could bring his wife and children, maybe even his mother out to join him. He worked hard and impressed his bosses. They saw the bright young man could be trusted and could do more for their organization. One day, on behalf of his own, of Graham and McKay, the manager of the Calneva Lodge, sat Nelson down. He told Nelson he may have an opportunity, but it would involve going further west to the Bay Area. The new job had some risks and some requirements. He asked if Nelson was any kind of driver. That was a yes. Nelson had been semi-famous for a short time as a dirt track race driver. He could certainly handle a car. Then the man asked if Nelson was any good with a gun.

That was another yes. Nelson could definitely handle guns. The men agreed and shook hands, and Nelson was heading to the California coast. Nelson's next stop was Sausalito, California, and his next employer was famed rum-runner, George Parenti. Parenti had a headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia, just over the U.S. border in Canada.

From there, he made it his business to supply bootleg liquor to most of the American West Coast during Prohibition. The U.S. government was committed to stopping Parenti's illegal shipments. They had indicted him twice. But Parenti's ships were fast, and there were more than 800 miles of coastline to patrol in California alone. A large portion of the rum Parenti moved into the Golden State was bound for the speakeasies, brothels, and illegal gambling. joints in San Francisco. The ships would land south of the city in Half Moon Bay, or north of it, on the rocky coastline of Sonoma County. In the dead of night, the cargo would be offloaded onto trucks and then shipped throughout Northern California. Men would work in teams of three. One man would drive the truck, and the two others would follow in a trail car for security.

Babyface Nelson worked in one of those three-man teams. Operating under the names Jimmy Burrell or Jimmy Burnett, Nelson teamed up with two men who remained part of his criminal life for quite a while, one of them to the bitter end. First, there was Joseph Negri, who was known to most by the unfortunate nickname Fatso. The short, stout Negri had done time in San Quentin prison for armed robbery. Like Nelson, Negri had tried going straight after four years behind bars, but he eventually quit trying and returned to a life of crime. Negri drove the truck. John Paul Chase had worked as a machinist for the railroads, been a chauffeur for an archbishop

in San Francisco, and had even sailed to Asia and worked there for a time. About a year before Nelson's arrival, Chase had settled into full-time work with Parenti's outfit. He was tall and handsome and a loyal soldier, but generally regarded. started as being a bit dim-witted. Chase was one of the first people whom Nelson met in California, and they bonded immediately. Chase knew San Francisco well and showed Nelson the town. Chase was one of the very few people to whom Nelson revealed his true identity and past exploits.

Whether it was out of friendship, fear, or reverence, Chase kept his mouth shut about his partner being an escaped bank robber of some repute. The pair were assigned to follow Negri in an inconspicuous car and deal with anything that impeded Parenti's shipments. For the most part, Nelson, Negri, and Chase's liquor runs through the Bay Area proved uneventful. There are no police records for Nelson during his brief bootlegging era on the coast, and few stories from the time have become part of Nelson's legend. He made roughly $300 a week and lived rather quietly.

For a short time, Nelson bought a new car and moved into a larger apartment just a few blocks from the water in Sausalito. Nelson decided that he had gone long enough without seeing his family. He had left Chicago more than six months earlier. The authorities had probably watched his family's home for some time after his escape and disappearance. However, Nelson felt enough time had passed so that his wife and daughter could leave on a long trip without raising suspicion.

They joined him in his apartment in the late summer of 1932, but their time in Sausalito would be short. Sometime in October, the San Francisco police began sniffing around Parenti's outfit after receiving a report that one of the bootleggers' drivers might be a wanted fugitive. Fatso Negri had an idea why. While flipping through a detective magazine, Negri had come across a mugshot that he was certainly, was his pal Jimmy. Except the name of the wanted man was Lester Gillis, also known as George Nelson,

nicknamed Babyface Nelson. Negri called John Paul Chase and pressed him about what he knew. Chase played dumb, and Negri didn't get a chance to ask Nelson himself. As soon as Nelson heard about the magazine, he and his family bid farewell to California and headed east back to Reno, Nevada. Nelson knew he would be safer in Reno than in the Bay Area because he had seen firsthand William Graham and James McKay's control of the city. If anyone in Reno saw Nelson's mugshot and went to the police, the cops wouldn't make a move without the approval of the city's foremost criminal czars. Nelson also knew he would have a job.

Graham was thrilled to have the street smart young man back in his ranks. On the payroll books, Nelson was employed as a job. as Graham's chauffeur, but in reality he was a great deal more. He could be found on casino floors, glad-handed gamblers, and providing another pair of watchful eyes. Nelson looked for cheaters, whether they were playing cards or dealing them. He quickly established himself as one of Graham's most respected lieutenants. Nelson also proved invaluable because of where he came from and who he knew. Many of Chicago's most notorious underworld operators spent time in Reno, lured by the promise of legal gambling. Nelson knew who to roll out the red carpet for and who to keep an eye on.

In 1932, one of those infamous men came to town and permanently altered the trajectory of Nelson's criminal career. Alvin Francis Carpus was born in Canada, but grew up in Chicago, not far from the neighborhood that Nelson called home. Nelson and Carpus knew many of the same people in Chicago, but they had never crossed paths, at least not until Carpus and his associates rolled into one of William Graham's clubs in Reno. Although only one year older than Nelson, Carpus already enjoyed a status in the criminal underworld that Nelson had yet to achieve. Carpus was part of an outfit that would become known as the Carpus Barker gang. Through the years, Dozens of different criminals would operate with the gang, but at its core it was Carpus and various members of the Barker family.

There were the brothers Herman, Freddie, and Arthur, whose nickname was Doc. Then there was the Barker matriarch, Kate, known to all simply as Maugh. The legend of the Carpus Barker gang says that the gang's leader was Ma Barker, but in reality, Alvin Carpus was the brains behind the successful outfit. The Carpus Barker gang called St. Paul, Minnesota home, a place that Carpus described as a crookshaven. But they had been busy out on the road for the previous two years. They had teamed up with other infamous criminals such as Harvey Bailey, known as the Dean of American Bank Robbers, and Frank Nash. They had robbed banks, gas stations, and jewelry stores in half a dozen states from Oklahoma to North Dakota.

Their halls totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars, but they weren't wanted for robbery alone. Carpus and Fred Barker had gunned down a sheriff in Missouri in late 1931. A year later, they added to their death toll when police arrived as the Carpus Barker gang was robbing the third Midwestern National Bank in Minneapolis. The shootout that ensued left three people dead, two of whom were police officers.

The gang had fled West to Reno to take advantage of the city's reputation as a safe haven for criminals who wished to lay low. And that was how Alvin creepy Carpus met George Babyface Nelson. Carpus and Nelson shared a mutual respect, and that led to a strong friendship between the two wanted men. In a memoir he would pen decades later, Carpus wrote, I met one kid whose company I enjoyed, a sharp young man with a team. teenagers' face and good taste in clothes. I used to go to his place and have meals with him and his wife. They were a pleasant family. But Carpus and Nelson shared more than Sunday dinners. They shared knowledge and connections. Nelson was eager to partner with the more experienced Carpice.

Nelson believed that together they could knock over any bank in the country. However, Carpus had no plans to break up the good thing he had going with the Barker family. Nelson knew that the core gang had, from time to time, added a variety of other criminals to its ranks. He pressed Carpus about joining the gang, but Carpus resisted. Some reports say that it was because Carpus had heard of Nelson's reputation as a hothead. But it's also probable that Carpus knew he needed to keep the gang's roster as small as possible for what they had planned next. Carpus didn't share details of the gang's next move, but he did share some suggestions and a name. He told Nelson that if Nelson was going to get back into the bank heist game, he needed to add some experience to

his crew. Carpus invited Nelson to come see him in St. Paul if he and his family ever headed back to the Midwest. If Nelson did, Carpus would introduce him to a savvy veteran of the bank robbing game named Eddie Bentz. By early spring of 1933, Nelson had decided it was time to make another move. Reno had been a welcome change, not only for Nelson but his family. He enjoyed working for the Reno gambling Zarr William Graham. Nelson respected the man like a father,

and Graham returned the youngster's fondness, but it was time to go home. The farewell was bittersweet, but Graham made sure Nelson knew he was always welcome out west. Nelson vowed to help Graham whenever and however he could, and that vow would be tested in the years to come. But by mid-April, Nelson was settling into his new home in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was about a seven-hour drive to Chicago, which was perfect for Nelson. St. Paul also offered a unique sort of protection that made

it much like Reno, known as the O'Connor Layover Agreement. St. Paul unofficially allowed and welcomed criminals of all kinds to its city. The agreement was named after John O'Connor, a police chief from the early 1900s. It was a simple, unspoken agreement. Gangsters, bank robbers, and even murderers were left alone in St. Paul, just as long as they committed no crimes inside the city limits.

The criminals who abided by the rule had a safe place to relax or live it up. Additionally, the unwritten O'Connor agreement said nothing about planning a crime, so St. Paul became a great place to network in the criminal underworld. Alvin Carpus made good on his promise to introduce Nelson to a well-respected bank robber named Eddie Benz. Benz was atypical for an outlaw of the time. He was tall and slim with a kind face. He appreciated fine cuisine and fine wine and collected rare books.

books and coins, and he was brilliant at robbing banks. Some historians estimate that he pulled off 150 successful heists without ever being indicted. Bence's success was tied to his meticulous planning of every aspect of a bank robbery. He cased his targets exhaustively. He learned the backgrounds of his crew and carefully assigned their roles. He studied the local police movements and checked and doubled checked a variety of escape routes. His contingencies had contingencies. Not only could Nelson learn from Bents, but Bence's methodic, cerebral approach might just balance out Nelson's temper

and quick trigger finger. Although Bens thought highly of Nelson, he was only interested in acting in an advisory role. Nelson would have to pull off the heist on his own. Nelson was disappointed, but agreed. The questions were, who would he add to his crew? And where was the best target? St. Paul offered plenty of viable recruits, and Nelson put together a crew he believed could do a job. They were hardened, but not likely to kill unless absolutely necessary. That was one of Benz's most important rules. No violence at any cost. His most important rule, however, was simple. Always stick to the plan. While Nelson dealt with personnel, Benz dealt with the target.

His choice was a small town bank in Grand Haven, Michigan, a three-hour drive from Chicago and a good eight hours from St. Paul. Even in the grips of the Great Depression, Grand Haven had little crime. Benz figured the site of a few Thompson submachine guns would scare the locals into submission. He assessed the police force to be inexperienced and ill-equipped to stand. in the way. Bence visited the bank in person and took detailed notes about the employees. He made educated guesses about which employees might have access to the bank's fault. He also made notes about which employees might try to play hero and either trip a silent

alarm or fight back. Bens left Grand Haven thinking that as long as Nelson's cronies did their jobs, the crew might be looking at a hall of $50,000. By early August, the plan for the heist was set. Nelson had put together a crew of five, which included a polished, reliable robber named Earl Doyle, Freddie Monaghan, who had been recommended by Nelson's Chicago Associates, and two other men named Fisher and Gannon. They had reviewed Benz's detailed maps and then reviewed them again.

Nelson had gathered an arsenal of weapons, including pistols, shotguns, and two machine guns. Other gang members had stolen a fast car, a 1932 Ford sedan, and a set of out-of-state plates. They were ready, but just a few days before the heist, Nelson pressured Benz into making a fateful decision. Nelson confided that he was sure something would go wrong if Benz didn't come along. Bence was aggravated, but he agreed to go, though he would only serve as the gang's driver. Nelson pressed him further. None of them knew their way around a bank as well as Bents did.

Monahan could be trusted as the wheelman, but Nelson needed Bents inside. Every bit of Bence's intuition told him he was making a mistake. He worried that the inexperienced men inside the bank would panic, and he hated the idea of not knowing the man at the wheel of the getaway car. But he gave in and agreed. He wasn't happy about it, but he would do it. Eddie Bentz walked through the front doors of the People's Savings Bank of Grand Haven just before 3 p.m. on Friday, August 18, 1933, and went directly to the head cashier's office.

He was followed by Nelson, who was carrying a picnic basket. Nelson leisurely made his way to the only remaining teller on duty. The bank was about to close, and most of the employees were finishing their final tasks before they locked up for the weekend. Doyle, Fisher, and Gannon had lingered for just a moment in front of the furniture store next to the bank. Then, one by one, they entered the bank. Doyle headed for the rear entrance, while Fisher and Gannon stayed by the front door. Nelson reached into his pocket, pulled out a $20 bill, and laid it in front of the teller.

He asked for two rolls of nickels. The teller, Arthur Welling, noticed how the young man, looked and thought it was curious that he was toting around a picnic basket. Weller provided the coins and Nelson's change and asked him if there was anything else he could do. Nelson then asked for two rolls of dimes. It may have been out of nervousness, but one of the other robbers chuckled at Nelson's interaction, which in turn made Nelson laugh. The teller, Welling, didn't find it funny. Weller looked at Nelson and then at the two men by the front door, and he suspected they were there to rob the bank.

Under Welling's workstation, there was a button on the floor that could trip a silent alarm. He slid his dress shoe forward and searched for the button with his toe. The site of the bank's head cashier being escorted out of his office at gunpoint by Eddie Bent's, confirmed Welling's suspicion. He pressed the alarm with the toe of his shoe. Then he watched Nelson reach into the picnic basket and pull out a machine gun. As Nelson tossed the basket, he screamed for everyone to get down on the floor. Having tripped the alarm, Weller complied. Benz announced that they were robbing the bank, and that as long as no one tried to be a hero,

everyone would leave with their lives. Gannon ushered everyone left in the bank behind the teller windows. He ordered them to lie down next to Arthur Welling. Benz headed to the vault with the head cashier and ordered the man to fill a bag with cash. and bonds. The other robbers started emptying all the teller drawers into another bag. Thus far, everything was going smoothly, as far as the robbers knew. But Benz's well-laid plan was about to unravel. Gannon looked out a window and saw a man come out of the furniture store with a shotgun. He was waving and shouting at another man across the street. Inside the

bank, they couldn't hear his shouts, but he was yelling that the bank was being robbed. The silent alarm was wired to go off at the Grand Haven Police Station, but it was also wired to go off at the furniture store. The owner was yelling at people on the streets to grab their guns. Gannon ran over to his compatriots and told them what he saw. Bence and Nelson conferred. They realized an alarm must have been tripped and it was time to go. The robbers began to herd the bank employees and a few patrons toward the bank's rear entrance.

The plan was to use them as human shields if local citizens began shooting. Bence had planned for this. He had instructed Monehan to park where he could see both doors to the bank, so that he could make the pickup wherever was needed. In the car, they had a map with several escape routes and plenty of extra ammunition if the police and townspeople wanted to have a shootout in the middle of downtown Grand Haven. But what Bence didn't know was that their wheelman, Monaghan,

had panicked at the first sign of trouble. The crew's well-stocked getaway car was long gone. If there was any hope to avoid violence, it vanished with Freddie Monaghan. There was about to be a gun battle in downtown Grand Haven. Next time on Infamous America, the Grand Haven robbery turns into a Hollywood movie sequence. In the aftermath, Babyface Nelson searches for new gang members, and as fate would have it, He teams up with arguably the most famous American outlaw of the 20th century, John Dillinger. That's next week on Infamous America.

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