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As soon as he got the news about Little Bohemia, he called Hoover
who promised to fly in reinforcements from the St. Paul office.
Along with them came Assistant FBI Director Hugh
Clegg. Clegg, an FBI superstar, would be first in command,
Purvis, second. The agents from Chicago would meet them at the
airport in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, which was the nearest airport to
Little Bohemia.
Just as the federal forces were gathering for the attack,
Dillinger and company were getting ready to move on. Dillinger
asked for an early dinner so that they could all get on the
road. It was a Sunday afternoon and the bar was filled with
patrons. Upstairs, Dillinger was studying a road map.
Around 4 P.M., Nan's sister, Mrs. Voss, drove up to tell her
sister that her husband Henry had gotten in touch with the
FBI. Nan whispered that the gangsters were leaving early that
evening. Mrs. Voss left soon after to relay the information to
her husband who was going to meet the FBI forces at Rhinelander
airport.
The FBI got an unexpected break due to Dillinger's
cautiousness. Earlier in the day Dillinger sent Pat Reilly,
described as a gang-hanger-on, to St. Paul to purchase more
ammunition. He took one of the gang's girls with him.
While he was gone, Dillinger moved the other two cars out of sight
into a garage. Dillinger and the rest of the gang were waiting
for the two to return so they could leave. However, when
Reilly pulled into the driveway and didn't see the other cars, he
got spooked. Thinking the gang had left or, worse, had been
captured and the authorities were lying in wait, Reilly backed out
and decided not to return until after dark.
It was past 6 P.M. when the FBI agents landed at
Rhinelander. They had planned to conduct the raid at 4 A.M. the
next morning, but now everything changed and the attack had to
proceed immediately.
The agents commandeered five cars. Along the way, two of
the vehicles became disabled on the severe winter pocked
roads. Eight agents were forced to ride on the running boards
of the three remaining automobiles, wind whipped by the icy northern
Wisconsin coldness. Clegg and Purvis formulated a plan,
"Three agents wearing bullet-proof vests would storm the
main door of the lodge. A group of five would flank the
lodge on the left in a line all the way to the lake and intercept
anyone who tired to break through. A similar group would do
the same on the right. Thus the gang would be trapped on three
sides. The fourth side, the lake, was impassable.
"The plan was good but it did not take into consideration
three key terrain factors, all missing from Voss's map: a ditch on
the left of the lodge, a barbed-wire fence on the right, and the
steep bank near the lake which could mask an escape along the
shore. Nor did it occur to Voss to warn Purvis about Wanatka's
two watchdogs." (Toland)
As the agents quietly approached the brightly lit lodge, they got
a real surprise. The two watchdogs barked
furiously. The agents ran to their positions, believing that
the element of surprise was gone. But as it turned out, the
dogs had barked so frequently that the gang members were used to the noise.
Three of the bar's customers chose that particular moment to pay
up and go home. At the same time, two bartenders went
out on the porch to see what was bothering the dogs. The three
customers walked to their car in the parking lot.
Inside the car were John Hoffman, a gas station attendant and
two CCC workers from a nearby camp -- John Morris and Eugene
Boiseneau. As Hoffman started the automobile, the radio, which
had been left in the on position, blared loudly. Clegg and
Purvis, believing the three men to be members of the gang attempting
to flee, ordered the agents to shoot out the tires. Numb and
nervous, the agents blasted away at the automobile, hitting all
three occupants with their fire. Hoffman ran bleeding from the
car into the woods. Morris staggered back into the
lodge. Boiseneau was going nowhere -- he was killed
instantly.
If the dogs didn’t alarm the Dillinger gang, the gunfire
surely did. Return fire from the lodge was instantaneous, but lasted
for only a few seconds. The gang had laid out a careful escape plan
the day they arrived. Dillinger and gang members Homer Van Meter,
John “Red” Hamilton and Tommy Carroll followed the plan to
perfection, running down to the back of the lakeshore and turning
right. “Baby Face” Nelson turned left. The agents, trying to
execute their plan, fell into the drainage ditch on one side or
became entangled in the barbed wire on the other side.
Meanwhile, the injured John Morris crawled across the
lodge floor to the telephone and picked up the receiver. Alvin
Koerner, the local exchange operator came on the other end. Morris
said, “Alvin, we’re at Emil’s! Everybody has been knocked
out!”
Nelson would soon arrive at Koerner’s. Ironically, so
would Wanatka, along with the two bartenders, after escaping from
his own lodge. Nelson, Wanatka and Koerner left and got into an
automobile just as a vehicle containing FBI Agents W. Carter Baum
and J. C. Newman, and local constable Carl Christensen arrived.
Nelson stepped out of the car and moved toward the one with the
lawmen.
“I’m looking for Mr. Koerner,” Newman stated unaware of
the carnage that was about to be unleashed.
Nelson aimed his automatic at the men and ordered them out of
the car. “I know you bastards are wearing bulletproof vests so
I’ll give it to you high and low."
With that he shot Newman in the forehead. Miraculously, the
agent lived. Baum wasn’t as fortunate. He was killed instantly and
Christensen was wounded eight times, but would survive.
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The funeral of W. Carter Baum
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