November 27, 2019

On Nov. 27, 1934, 85 years ago today, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents gunned down the notorious gangster George “Baby Face” Nelson in Barrington, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Nelson had been the FBI’s “Public Enemy Number 1,” a label reserved for the most wanted violent criminal in the United States.

George “Baby Face” Nelson was just 25 years old when his life of crime came to a violent end 85 years ago today on Nov. 27, 1934. Credit: © Everett Historical/Shutterstock

George Nelson was the alias of Lester Gillis, who was born in Chicago on Dec. 8, 1908. Gillis had a rough childhood, leading a criminal gang of juveniles and spending time in reformatory schools. His tender age, slight build, and youthful looks earned him the nickname “Baby Face.” At age 14, he was arrested for car theft and confined in a boys’ home for two years. After his release, his criminal activity intensified. Now known as “George Nelson,” he began robbing banks. Nelson’s bad habits led to prison time in 1931, but he eventually escaped and ran away to the West Coast.

John Dillinger, the leader of a criminal gang that included “Baby Face” Nelson, was the FBI’s original “Public Enemy Number 1.” Federal agents killed him on July 22, 1934. Credit: © Everett Historical/Shutterstock

Nelson worked with bootleggers (alcohol smugglers) in California before returning to the Midwestern state of Indiana in 1933. There, he took up with the infamous criminal John Dillinger, who had the dishonor of being the FBI’s very first Public Enemy Number 1. Nelson worked with Dillinger’s gang, and he was believed to have killed a number of people, including several police officers and federal agents.

After Dillinger was killed in Chicago on July 22, 1934, the FBI eventually turned its “Number 1” sights on Nelson. On November 27, federal agents cornered Nelson and his partner in crime, John Paul Chase, as they were driving a stolen car in the Chicago suburb of Barrington. Refusing to surrender, the gangsters began a gun battle that killed two agents and left Nelson severely wounded. Nelson died of his wounds that night, and his body was left for the police to recover. Chase got away, but he was arrested a month later and spent the next 31 years in prison.

The 1920′s and 1930′s were years of rising violent crime in the United States. The prohibition of alcohol, enacted in 1920, had encouraged the creation of organized crime to transport and sell illegal liquor. The Great Depression, a global economic slump that started in 1929, saw many people out of work and desperate to make a living—often beyond the limits of the law. The FBI created its highly publicized “Public Enemy” and “Most Wanted” lists in hopes that ordinary citizens could help agents locate dangerous criminals. Aside from Dillinger and Nelson, only two other Depression-era outlaws were named Public Enemy Number 1 by the FBI: Charley “Pretty Boy” Floyd (killed in October 1934) and Alvin “Creepy” Karpis (arrested in May 1936).

October 2, 2017

Last night, on October 1, in Las Vegas, Nevada, a gunman killed at least 58 people at an open-air concert near the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. The gunman fired from the window of his hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay, shooting into a crowd of 22,000 people attending a music festival across the street. Armed with numerous automatic weapons, the gunman poured hundreds of bullets into the crowd until police reached his hotel room. The gunman then committed suicide. The attack—which has also resulted in over 500 injuries—is the deadliest mass shooting in United States history. The death toll from the domestic terror attack will most likely rise.

People run for cover as a gunman fires into a crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Oct. 1, 2017. Fifty-eight people died in the domestic terror attack. Credit: © David Becker, Getty Images

The attack began just after 10 p.m. local time, not long after country music star Jason Aldean had taken the stage at the Route 91 Harvest music festival, a three-day event held in an open-air venue across the Las Vegas Strip from the Mandalay Bay. The Las Vegas Strip, a portion of Las Vegas Boulevard, is famous for its large resort hotels and casinos. Many people in the concert crowd did not react immediately to the attack, as the popping of gunshots was confused with the sound of firecrackers and drowned out by the music being played on stage.

People soon realized the horror of what was taking place, however, and began running for cover and searching for loved ones in the chaos. The shooting paused occasionally as the gunman reloaded his automatic weapons, but the rapid fire then resumed as bullets ricocheted around the concrete concert ground and inflicted further injuries. Police responding to the attack saw gun flashes coming from the Mandalay Bay, and soon zeroed in on the gunman’s locked hotel room. As police used explosives to burst into the room, the gunman shot and killed himself.

Thus far, the shooter, identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, has not been tied with any militant or terrorist groups, and his motive remains unclear. Paddock lived in Mesquite, a small city northeast of Las Vegas. His dead body was found with 23 guns, many of which are readily available in Nevada, a state with some of the least stringent gun laws in the United States. Police found another 19 guns at Paddock’s home in Mesquite.

The previous worst U.S. mass shooting occurred just last year, in June 2016, when a gunman killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. That shooter, who was killed by police, had professed his allegiance to an Islamic terrorist group.