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Mar 19
Tuesday

Bonnie and Clyde

At this moment, Agents Jay Newman, W. Carter Baum and a local constable named Christiansen pulled into the driveway. As they pulled next to his car, Baby Face jumped out and ordered the agents and the officer out at gunpoint. He then proceeded to open fire on all three, killing Baum on the spot. The hostages dove for cover. After unloading his weapon at everything in sight, Nelson took the Ford the agents had been using and headed south at high speed.

Back at the lodge, the three gangster's women, who had been hiding in the basement, surrendered and were arrested. As Dillinger, Van Meter and Hamilton raced toward St. Paul after the battle, they were spotted by waiting lawmen, who began chasing the stolen Packard the gang was driving. As they exchanged fire one of the police bullets caught Hamilton in the back.
Eventually eluding their pursuers, they hijacked another car and headed for Chicago with the wounded Hamilton. Nelson holed up at the Lac Du Flambeau Indian Reservation until a few days had passed, then made his way to Marshfield, Wisconsin, and obtained a car. The women were jailed in Madison.

The entire raid came to be seen by the public as a disaster, bringing heavy criticism on the FBI and Hoover. As the controversy raged, five days later, Dillinger and Van Meter finally found medical attention for Hamilton, through Doc Barker of the equally notorious Barker gang. In the end, Hamilton died of his wound and was buried in a gravel quarry.

On May 5, 1934, spurred on in part by the lawlessness of the likes of Dillinger, The House Of Representatives passed numerous laws covering crimes typical of those committed by the motorized bandits of the time. While Dillinger went into hiding in Calumet City, Illinois, Bonnie and Clyde were killed by a posse outside Gibsland, Louisiana, on May 23, 1934.

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