The Story of the Battle of Barrington [Illinois] - John Dillinger.

Lester M. Gillis, the man who came to be known as "Baby Face Nelson," married Helen Wawrzyniak when she was 16 years old. By 20, she had two babies—and a spot on the "shoot to kill" list of Public Enemies, thanks to Lester.

Helen Wawrzyniak Gillis (1908-1987)

On July 22, 1934, in America's "Public Enemy № 1," John Dillinger was gunned down by the FBI outside the Biograph Theater at Lincoln and Halsted Streets in Chicago at 10:40 PM. With the death of John Dillinger, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, known at the time as the Division of Investigation, focused on eliminating what remained of the notorious Dillinger Gang. 

Lester Gillis, whom newspapers of the era dubbed "Dillinger's aid," had managed to elude the federal dragnet. By late November 1934, the new Public Enemy Number One was hiding out in the isolated piney woods of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Bolstered by his newfound status, the diminutive Lester bragged he would rob "...a bank a day for a month."

Lester M. Gillis - "Baby Face Nelson" (1908-1934)

On the morning of November 27, Lester, sporting a thin mustache on his youthful face, Helen Gillis, and John Paul Chase, Lester's right-hand man, departed Lake Geneva and traveled south toward Chicago on U.S. Route 12 (Rt.14 today). They were making plans to start a new gang. Lester planned to meet two underworld figures in Chicago and reasoned that daylight was the safer time to travel as agents would expect an evening departure.

John Paul Chase (1901-1973)

Near Fox River Grove, Illinois, Lester observed a vehicle driving in the opposite direction. Inside the car were federal agents Thomas McDade and William Ryan. McDade and Ryan were traveling to Lake Geneva to support a fellow agent who had relayed an encounter with Lester. The agents and the gangster recognized each other simultaneously, and after several U-turns by both cars, Lester wound up in pursuit of the federal agents.

Lester and Chase opened fire on the agents as Lester's powerful Ford V-8, driven by Helen Gillis, caught up to the slower federal sedan. Neither McDade nor Ryan was injured. The agents returned fire, sped ahead, but ran off the highway. Taking defensive positions, McDade and Ryan awaited Nelson and Chase. The agents, however, were unaware a round fired by Ryan had punctured the water pump and/or the radiator of Lester's Ford. With his vehicle losing power, Lester was next pursued by a Hudson automobile driven by two more agents, Herman Hollis and Samuel P. Cowley.

A photo diagram shows a re-creation of the scene of the gunbattle between two federal agents and gangster Lester Gillis "Baby Face Nelson" and his associates on November 27, 1934, near the entrance to Barrington's North Side Park. The labels show the positions occupied by federal Agents Samuel Cowley and Herman Hollis and Lester and his associates during the battle.

With his new pursuers attempting to pull alongside, Lester instructed Gillis to steer into the entrance of Barrington's Northside Park, just across the line from Fox River Grove, and stop. Hollis and Cowley overshot Nelson's Ford by over 100 feet. With their car stopped at an angle, Hollis and Cowley exited, took defensive positions behind the vehicle and, as Helen fled toward a drainage ditch, opened fire on Lester and Chase.

An early graphic illustration shows the pursuit, gunbattle and flight of the killers.

Within seconds, a round from Cowley's Thompson submachine gun struck Nelson above his belt line. The .45 caliber bullet tore through Lester's liver and pancreas and exited from his lower back. Lester grasped his side and leaned on the Ford's running board. Chase, in the meantime, continued to fire from behind the car. When Lester regained himself, he suddenly stepped into the line of fire and advanced toward Cowley and Hollis. After retreating to a nearby ditch, Cowley was hit by a burst from Lester's machine gun. Pellets from Hollis' shotgun struck Lester in his legs and momentarily downed him. Hollis, possibly already wounded, retreated behind a utility pole. With his shotgun empty, Hollis drew his service revolver only to be struck by a bullet to the head from Lester's gun. Hollis slid against the pole and fell face down. Lester stood over Hollis for a moment, then limped toward the agents' bullet-riddled car. Lester backed the agents' car over to the Ford and, with Chase's help, loaded the agents' vehicle with guns and ammo from the disabled Ford. After the weapon's transfer, Lester, too severely wounded to drive, collapsed into the Hudson. Chase got behind the wheel and fled the scene along with Helen and the mortally wounded Nelson.

Lester had been shot nine times; a single (and ultimately fatal) machine gun slug had struck his abdomen, and eight of Hollis's shotgun pellets had hit his legs. After telling his wife, "I'm done for," Lester gave directions as Chase drove them to a safe house on Walnut Street in Wilmette. Lester died in a bed, with his wife at his side, at 7:35 that evening. With massive head wounds, Hollis was declared dead soon after arriving at the hospital. At a different hospital, Cowley hung on long enough to confer briefly with Melvin Purvis, telling him, "Nothing would bring [Lester] down." He underwent unsuccessful surgery before succumbing to a stomach wound similar to Lester's.

Following an anonymous telephone tip, Lester's naked corpse was discovered wrapped in an Indian-patterned blanket in front of St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery in Skokie. Helen Gillis later stated that she had placed the blanket over Lester's body because "He always hated being cold."

Newspapers reported, based on the questionable wording of an order from J. Edgar Hoover ("... find the woman and give her no quarter."), that the Bureau of Investigation had issued a "death order" for Lester's widow. She wandered the streets of Chicago as a fugitive for several days, described in print as America's first female "public enemy."

After surrendering on Thanksgiving Day, Helen paroled after capture at Little Bohemia Lodge, served a year and a day at the Woman's Federal Reformatory in Milan, Michigan, for harboring her late husband. Chase was apprehended later and served a term at Alcatraz. 

Lester M. Gillis died in 1934; John Paul Chase died from cancer in 1973; and Helen Gillis died in 1987, and all three are buried at Saint Joseph Cemetery in River Grove, Illinois.

The plaque commemorated the Battle of Barrington
at Barrington Park District in Barrington, Illinois.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Rogers Park Hospital, 6970 North Clark Street in Chicago and changed names four other times.

In 1881, a smallpox epidemic killed 1,180 in late 1881 and 1,292 in early 1882 Chicago. The population rose too fast for vaccination programs to keep up with it. Each year from 1871 to 1881 the city removed the carcasses of 1,500 horses and tens of thousands of dogs from the streets, while 70 teams tried to cope with “all the horse manure, garbage and rubbish  disposal, and ashes accumulating daily in massive amounts.” 

Small neighborhood hospitals began poping-up like dandelions around Chicago because getting to emergency care became life threatening the further a person had to travel to get to a hospital.

In 1891, bronchitis and pneumonia killed 4,300, typhoid fever 2,000. Every year in the early 1890s, 10,000–12,000 children under five died in Chicago. But the close of the nineteenth century brought control of disease, in a series of steps. Voters overwhelmingly approved the creation of the Sanitary District of Chicago in late 1889, and in January 1900 the city opened the Sanitary and Ship Canal, permanently reversing the flow of the Chicago River, sending sewage and refuse away from Lake Michigan and southwestward toward the Mississippi. Pasteurizing of milk began in 1909, and chlorinating of the city's water supply, in 1912. 

NOTE: In the early 1930's Al Capone and his brother Ralph, pushed milk stale dating thru the Chicago City Council. 

Rogers Park Hospital, 6970 North Clark Street, Chicago. Illinois. (1927)

Smaller hospitals, like the Rogers Park Hospital, opened in the 1927 to serve the neighborhood's sick and injured. As larger metropolitan hospitals were built and began to offer more advanced care --  transportation became easier -- the smaller neighborhood hospitals were phased out.

Rogers Park Hospital, the hospital's original name, changed names and owners many times as presented below. It was shut down for reasons unknown.


1927-1936 / ROGERS PARK HOSPITAL

Chicago Tribune Article, Sunday, May 2, 1926
BEGIN WORK ON FIRST HOSPITAL FOR ROGERS PARK
War Veteran Heads a New Project.

Work starts tomorrow morning on the first large hospital for the Rogers Park district. The new home for the sick will be located at 6970 North Clark Street and will be called the Rogers Park Hospital.

The structure will have the latest features, including a radio connection for each patient and a large solarium on the roof. The building will contain 102 beds, of which a half will be in private rooms.

The hospital will be six stories high and, when completed, will represent an investment of $402,500. The site measures 50x174 feet. There are to be two operating rooms, one delivery room, an X-ray department, a laboratory, and the other customary hospital equipment. Dwight G. Wallace is the architect.

The president of the hospital is Dr. F. Patrick Machler, who was a drummer-boy in the Spanish-American war (Apr 21, 1898 – Aug 13, 1898) and had a distinguished record during the world war [WWI]. Dr. Machler was in charge of the embarkation hospital at Camp No. 2, Newport News, during 1917 and 1918. He is now president of the 4th board of pensions and was national surgeon general for three terms of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He is a former superintendent of the Iroquois hospital.


1936-1938 / ROGERS-POST HOSPITAL (aka: ROGERS AND POST HOSPITAL)

Chicago Tribune Article, Wednesday, August 19, 1936
RETIRED MERCHANT PLUNGES TO DEATH FROM HOSPITAL

Adolph Grossman, 75 years old, 537 Aldine Avenue, retired owner of a dry goods store, leaped or fell from a window of his room on the fifth floor of the Rogers-Post Hospital, 6970 North Clark Street, where he had been a patient for 24 days.


1938-1939 / WILL ROGERS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

The following articles are about Will Rogers Memorial Hospital's illegal use of the "Will Rogers" name and the hospital running a lottery ring... right out of the hospital.

Chicago Tribune Article, Tuesday, February 8, 1938
LOTTERY CHARGE IS FILED AGAINST ROGERS HOSPITAL
Kerner Suit Discloses Charity Fund Inquiry.

Attorney General Otto Kerner filed a complaint in the Circuit court yesterday in which the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital, 6970 North Clark Street, was accused of operating a "common lottery plan" in violation of provisions contained in its charter. The hospital, under the proceeding, is required to show by what authority it is operating in alleged defiance of terms of its charter.

A finding against the hospital can result in the withdrawal of its charter or a $25,000 fine, according to Assistant Attorney General Raymond Wallenstein.

Secret Inquiry Disclosed
The attorney general's action known technically as a complaint in quo warranto, brought to light a secret investigation by attorneys and officials of the Better Business bureau into the hospital's sale of certifications in return for 50¢ donations to its charity fund. Each certificate asserts that 400 prizes amounting to $20,000 will be announced February 15th.

Dr. Frank Deacon, manager of the hospital, has insisted to investigators that the project is not a lottery but that eventual winners will be selected on the basis of competition in an essay contest on the subject "Why a Hospital is the Best Charity to Support." Despite this, Kenneth Barnard, head of the Chicago Better Business bureau, said yesterday that none of the single certificates nor any literature concerning the charity fund mentions the essay contest.


Chicago Tribune Article, Friday, February 11, 1939
HOSPITAL'S USE OF WILL ROGERS' NAME IS BARRED

Federal Judge William H. Holly signed a consent decree yesterday enjoining the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital, 6970 North Clark Street, from using the cowboy philosopher's name. All references to Rogers in the name of the hospital must be expunged within five days.

The order was issued on complaint of the Will Rogers commission, of Washington, D.C., and its affiliate, the Will Rogers Memorial Fund, of New York, that the hospital had conducted a personality contest and nation-wide lottery in the guise of a charity fund. Moreover, it was charged that the hospital incorporated under its present name without permission of the Rogers commission or of Roger's widow.

Additional action was taken on Monday when the state attorney general started quo waranto proceedings against the hospital, asserting its charity fund operation, in which tickets were offered for 50¢ donations, violated the lottery laws. The case is pending before Judge Harry Fisher. The hospital was formerly known as the Rogers Park Hospital and the Rogers-Post Hospital.


Chicago Tribune Article, Thursday, March 24, 1939
ROGERS HOSPITAL LOTTERY INQUIRY LANDS 2 IN JAIL

Investigation of a nation-wide lottery scheme allegedly conducted by the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital, whose charter was revoked here last month, resulted in the arrest of two men in St. Louis yesterday. Those held are Julius Heitz and Julius Zweig.

Postal Inspector Fred Mayer, who made the arrests, said Heitz admitted he was the St. Louis agent for Chicago promoters of the lottery, which brought in thousands of dollars. Heitz said, according to Mayer, that 60% of the collections from this and other lotteries was retained as promoters' profits and 40% was distributed as prizes.

Last February 11 Circuit Judge Harry M. Fisher revoked the charter of the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital at 6970 North Clark Street, dissolved the corporation, and removed its officers, directors, and trustees. Attorney General Otto Kerner was operating a lottery plan i violation of its charter.


Chicago Tribune Article, Friday, April 8, 1938
HOSPITAL IS REORGANIZED UNDER NEW DIRECTORSHIP

The hospital at 6970 North Clark Street, formerly known as the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital, has been reorganized as the Physicians Memorial Hospital, it was learned yesterday. New directors have taken over the lease from officers of the defunct corporation, who were ousted by a Circuit court order recently because of an alleged connection with a nation-wide lottery. The institution is under the supervision of a bond-holders' committee of Roger Park business men who took over the property when it was thrown into receivership several years ago.


Chicago Tribune Article, Thursday, November 9, 1939
COUPLE SEIZED ON INDICTMENT IN BIG LOTTERY

Federal agents last night seized two of 14 Chicagoans under indictment in Boston, Mass., on charges of participation in a lottery ring which fleeced clients of $20,000,000 in the last ten years. The ring issued "charity bonds" on the now defunct Will Rogers Memorial Hospital, 690 North Clark Street. Those under arrest are Mrs. Elizabeth Rice, former head nurse at the hospital, and her husband, David, a printing broker accused of designing the lottery tickets. At the detective bureau, where they were held over night, they gave their address as 1340 Lunt Avenue.


Chicago Tribune Article, Wednesday, May 22, 1940
DETECTIVE CHIEF GOES EAST FOR LOTTERY TRIAL

Chief of Detectives John L. Sullivan left last night for Boston, Mass., where he will testify in the federal trial of members of an alleged lottery ring. The government charges that the hospital at 6970 North Clark Street, once known as Will Rogers Memorial Hospital, was used as a base of operations in the lottery and charity bonds were issued thru it.


1938-1958 / ROGERS HOSPITAL



1959 -1966 / DOCTORS GENERAL HOSPITAL OF ROGERS PARK

Chicago Tribune Article, Sunday, January 31, 1959
116 BED DOCTORS HOSPITAL TO BE OPENED SUNDAY

The new 116 bed Doctors General Hospital at 6970 North Clark Street will be open with a reception at 4 p.m. Sunday. The hospital, in a seven story building, will be operated by Charity Hospital Association, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation.

Neilm L. Gaynes, admiistrator, said the hospital has been equipped with the newest and most modern facilities,including two major operating rooms, three minor operating rooms, an emergency room, and X-ray and clinical laboratory departments.

A closed-circuit television will be used to enable the supervising nurse to keep watch over nursing personnel attending critical patients. A two way communication system will connect rooms of patients with nursing stations.


Chicago Tribune Article, Thursday, February 26, 1959
NURSES WATCH TV ON THE JOB AT DOCTORS HOSPITAL
Closed Circuit Unit Tunes In Patients.

The only example in the midwest of television in critical wards to improve nursing supervision is claimed by the new Doctors General Hospital, 6970 North Clark Street.

The Closed Circuit television in monitored at a central point by a supervisory nurse. Cameras are situated in each of four wards, mounted in the corners to give a sweepingpicture of several beds in each room.

Mrs. Ethel Aron preforms nursing duties in ward as television camera behind her beams action to supervisory nurses' monitor.

Coordinates Nurse


The supervisor can observe the activities of critically ill patients and the nurses. The object, according to Neil Gaynes, administrator, is not to cut down on the number of nurses but to coordinate their efforts for more efficiency. "Nothing will replace the nurse as some supporters of this television system believe," Gaynes said. "It is a good supplement to the nurse, however." Gaynes said the only other hospitals in the country using television equipment in this way are one on the east coast and one on the west coast. The Doctors General Hospital has 116 beds and the latest in medical and surgical equipment. Another electronic device that has proven successful is a two-way intercommunication system, by which a supervisory nurse can converse directly with each patient on a floor.

Dr. Harold Dubner, president of hospital board, and Rep. Esther Saperstein (D-8th), member of hospital board, observe Mrs. Aron from supervisor's station over television monitor.Dr. Dubner holds device to switch to cameras in other wards.

Chicago Tribune Article, Sunday, May 29, 1966

DRESS CATCHES FIRE, WOMAN DIES OF BURNS

Miss Rose Schwartz, 57, of 1310 Lunt Avenue, died of burns yesterday when her dress caught fire while cooking in her apartment. Firemen took her to Doctors General Hospital, but she was pronounced dead on arrival.

Quick Refunds Income Tax, 6970 North Clark Street, Chicago. Illinois. (ca.2011)

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Betty Friedan, a Peoria, Illinois native, helped spark a new wave of feminism.

Betty Freidan

A women's rights leader and activist, Betty Freidan was born Bettye Naomi Goldstein on February 4, 1921, to Russian Jewish immigrants in Peoria, Illinois. She attended Peoria High School and graduated "Summa Cum Laude" from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1942. 

Friedan trained as a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, but became a suburban housewife and mother in New York, supplementing her husband’s income by writing freelance articles for women’s magazines. 

After conducting a survey of her Smith College classmates at a 15-year reunion, Friedan found that most of them were, like she was, dissatisfied suburban housewives.  After five more years of researching history, psychology, sociology and economics and conducting interviews with women across the country, Friedan charted American middle-class women’s metamorphosis from the independent, career-minded New Woman of the 1920s and '30s into the housewife of the postwar years who was supposed to find fulfillment in her duties as mother and wife.  

She married Carl Friedman, who later dropped the 'M' in his last name to create the more distinctive "Friedan," a theater producer, in 1947 while working at UE News. She continued to work after marriage, first as a paid employee and, after 1952, as a freelance journalist. 

This research turned into "The Feminine Mystique" (1963), a book regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the twentieth century as it helped ignite the women’s movement of the 1960s and ’70s, transforming American society and culture. The overwhelming response of readers who were similarly dissatisfied in that role led Friedan to co-found and become the first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966 to work towards increasing women’s rights. National Organization for Women lobbied for enforcement of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the first two major legislative victories of the movement, and forced the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to stop ignoring and start treating with dignity and urgency, claims filed involving sex discrimination.

In 1969, Friedan helped establish the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, which would later change its name to NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Billington, Friedan, Ireton, and Rawalt, 1966.

Betty divorced Carl in May 1969, later claiming to have been a battered wife. Carl died in December of 2005.

She helped found and lead other women’s groups, such as the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971. As a leader of these organizations, Friedan was influential in helping change outdated laws that were disadvantageous to women, such as sex-segregated help-wanted ads and hiring practices, unequal pay, and firing a woman who was pregnant instead of providing her with maternity leave.   

 

Within the diverse women’s movement, Friedan received criticism for focusing too much on issues facing primarily white, middle-class, educated, heterosexual women. Radical feminists also criticized Friedan for working with men. Friedan insisted that the women’s movement had to remain in the American mainstream. Otherwise, they would be dismissed, and nothing would change. In the end, Friedan’s mainstream attitude provided a balance to other women’s rights leader’s more radical attitudes.    

Since the 1970s, Friedan published several more books, taught at New York University and the University of Southern California, as well as lectured widely at women’s conferences around the world. Friedan’s vision, passion, foresight, and hard work helped created a society where women are more equal to men and have more choices when deciding how to live their lives. Friedan has made a lasting impact on American society. 

Friedan died of congestive heart failure at her home in Washington, D.C., on February 4, 2006, her 85th birthday. 

Note the "Second Class" 5¢ U.S. Postal Stamp.

VIDEO

How It Began: Betty Friedan and the Modern Women's Movement

(runtime - 1:36:10)

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.