Seventy-five years ago, a shoot-out with John Dillinger and "Baby Face" Nelson in the woods of Wisconsin went horribly wrong.
Dr. John Fox, FBI Historian:
Through a series of spectacular bank robberies and jailbreaks, John Dillinger had become a nationally known criminal. Law enforcement across the country were looking for him. We had been tracking him for a while. Had a couple of near misses where we had almost had him but he got out just in time.
Our Chicago office received a call about 10 o’clock on the Sunday morning of April 22 nd that John Dillinger and several of his confederates were hiding out at a small vacation lodge in Northern Wisconsin, a place called Little Bohemia in a town near Manitowish.
We immediately began to rally our forces. Special Agent in Charge Purvis called Washington and Headquarters agreed that the lead sounded legitimate. By 6 o’clock that night our agents had arrived from St. Paul and Chicago in a couple of planes. They talked to Henry Voss, who was the man who had called them earlier that morning and told them that Dillinger was in Northern Wisconsin. Voss gave them a short map of the Little Bohemia Lodge and its layout.
Little Bohemia was a vacation lodge. Basically it was a two-story building, had several out-cabins and a large garage. Behind it there was a fair-sized lake and people could canoe or boat on it. The sign outside the front, on Highway 51 there at the entrance to the lodge, said that it had fine dining and dancing and basically a good time to be had.
Special Agent Purvis began to contact local car dealers to see if he could borrow a couple of cars to get his men and Hugh Clegg’s men up to the lodge. As they looked down the road they could just barely see the lights from the lodge and they would have been approaching in pine trees. Melvin Purvis described the atmosphere as “chilly.” It was very cold, of course, at the time, being night and the end of winter.
And so they began heading down the road, lights off, very quietly, very softly, agents hanging on the outside of the car because they couldn’t fit everybody in. And as they approached the lodge dogs began to bark.
Immediately, the agents got out of the cars and began to reconnoiter around the parking lot to try and make sure they hadn’t been discovered yet when several men came out of the lodge. Three of them got into a car and turned on the radio and began to drive off. Agents yelled “Stop! Federal Agents! Police! Stop!” But the men had been inside drinking, having a good time. They didn’t hear the agents. And because they seemed to be coming at them in a threatening manner, our agents opened up fire on the car. The driver was killed. It turned out he was a civilian Conservation Corps worker.
Dillinger and his confederates were upstairs in the lodge on the second floor began firing out one of those windows there. While our agents ducked for cover—and to try and get and better place to defend themselves and fire back—Dillinger and his men got out the back of the lodge.
They were able to do down towards the back of the lodge to the Southdown a little hill towards the lake, and using the escarpment of the hill were able to get out of the area very quietly.
The evening had even more tragedy. As we were trying to figure out who was still in the lodge, whether or not any of the gangsters were still around, and of course trying to track those who already fled. Baby Face Nelson arrived and stole a car and ended up confronting our agents, killing one of them, injuring the other and seriously wounding the local police officer who was with them.
In the aftermath of the failed raid on Little Bohemia we received a lot of criticism from press and the politicians and even other law enforcement who thought they should have been better included.
But for the Bureau it really was a learning lesson. We learned that we had to have better training and better preparation for raids, and they became integral parts of the training of new agents and the continuing training of agents. We learned that we needed to develop plans ahead of time for getting information out, for contacting. In order for a raid to be successful you have to have that planning. So it became an integral part of how we dealt with these kinds of dangerous situations. So for the FBI it really became part and parcel of more advanced training, more advanced tactics, that we developed over the years.
July 23, 2009
John Dillinger Lesson Learned by FBI at Little Bohemia
Michael Jackson’s lovechild on front row at funeral | The Sun |News - i just realized they all wore a glove
Michael Jackson’s lovechild on front row at funeral | The Sun |News
Farewell 'Dad' ... Omer (circled) sits beside Jacko's sisters Rebbie and Janet, and brothers Randy, Tito, Marlon, Jackie and Jermaine at the service on July 7
Jermaine Jackson’s promise to Michael's ‘son’ Omer | The Sun |News
Jermaine Jackson’s promise to Michael's ‘son’ Omer | The Sun |News
'Lovechild' ... Omer Bhatti was at memorial
Frode Hansen / VG / SCANPIX/Scanpix/Press
MICHAEL Jackson was NOT gay, his family insisted last night.
Dr Hoefflin, speaking on behalf of the Jacksons, said they were "outraged" at unofficial biographer Ian Halperin's claims the star met male building workers for sex sessions.
He said: "This man has caused huge upset and hurt to Michael's family, particularly to his mother Katherine at her time of grieving."
Dr Hoefflin also said he took the singer to the Playboy mansion, adding: "I know Michael Jackson was not gay. The truth is he lusted after beautiful women.
"I knew he was not gay because in all the time that I knew him that we were best friends - and i was his confidante and doctor - I never had any information that he was anything but straight.
"Also, I talked with all his security and they tell me there is no way he could ever have slipped out for sex with a construction worker. They said that it was impossible for Michael to have left the hotel and house without them around.
"Since Michael's children were born, he was always with them. It was very rare that he would go out without children. It was very rare that he would go out at all.
"We would also spend time together over the years going through books and magazines. Michael would always look at magazines of pretty girls, never boys.
"And finally, I know factually he had sexually relationships with women."
Dr Hoefflin, 63, said: "Michael loved beautiful women.
"After Thriller came out he asked me to take him to the Playboy mansion to see the stunning girls.
"I was friends with Hugh Heffner, made those arrangments and was with him when he decribed how beautiful and desirable all the women were.
"All the time I was ever with him - whether it was on tour or off tour - he would always comment to me and others about pretty girls he would see.
"Never once, did he comment about attractive men."
Dr Hoefflin said that he personally dispelled the rumours that Michael was gay in a 1984 press conference after it was also rumoured that the star had been taking female hormones.
He said: "These rumours were abolished and the issue didn't come up again."
The surgeon - who is speaking at the request and authorisation of Jackson's grief-stricken mother Katherine - yesterday furiously hit out at the star's unofficial autobiographer Ian Halperin.
He said: "It is my opinion that this man is stalking on the grave of Michael Jackson by trying to sell books. The family request a boycott of that book.
"It is my opinion that this man is telling lies when Michael cannot defend himself."
Was Jackson's Doc Snoozing? | Extra
Was Jackson's Doc Snoozing? | ExtraA new report today says Michael Jackson's personal doctor may have fallen asleep after giving the superstar a dose of the powerful IV anesthetic Diprivan, and in effect, leaving him to die.
Dr. Conrad Murray's Houston clinic was raided by the DEA on Wednesday, but he denies any wrongdoing.
"Extra" Lifechanger Dr. Zeev Kain says anyone who administers Diprivan must keep a vigilant watch on the patient. He says, "It should be used only by an anesthesiologist or qualified personnel... and hopefully monitor him while he's doing all this."
