About an hour earlier Purvis ordered Newman and Baum to the Voss lodge where they were instructed to call the lone agent in Rhinelander and report the situation at the lodge and then check on the progress of the additional agents still en route by car from Chicago and St. Paul. Those agents didn't know what had happened at the lodge and believed Purvis was awaiting their arrival before any action was taken. Meanwhile, Purvis was preparing for another assault, still believing the outlaws were inside the lodge.
When Newman and Baum reached Birchwood Lodge, owned by Voss, they learned of the Packard's theft in Manitowish Waters. Correctly assuming the car was stolen by a gang member, they went there and enlisted the help of local constable Carl C. Christensen, who agreed to go with them. They then headed back to Voss' lodge passing the Little Bohemia and Koerner's house where Nelson was already inside.
Arriving at Voss' lodge a few minutes before 11 p.m., they learned that Koerner had called only minutes before about the suspious car without headlights in his driveway. The two agents and the constable headed back down Highway 51 - for the third time that night.
Agent Newman, a Mormon lay preacher, was driving. He wore glasses and had a reputation for being quiet and devoted to his work and his church. Christensen, elected to his post in March, sat in the passenger seat. Baum, a big, good-natured man of 29, sat in the middle. He had a wife and two children. His wife objected when he took a job with the FBI, but he assured her it involved far more paperwork than gun work. Both he and Newman had been on the Dillinger case for several months and had spent many long days and nights following false leads. They didn't expect much to come of this night either. They had already learned that Purvis had most of the gang trapped at the lodge.
When they spotted the Lang car at the end of the lane, Newman told Baum to take down the license plate. They then turned off the highway and into Koerner's lane. As they came upon the Ford containing Nelson and the others, Christensen remarked that it looked like George La Porte's. Newman stopped his vehicle just to the right and rear of La Porte's and rolled down his window. "I'm looking for Mr. Koerner."
Before anyone answered Nelson jumped from the car and leveled his gun at the agents. He told them to get out. As Newman opened the driver's door and stepped onto the running board, Nelson shot him in the forehead. The agent fell. Christensen opened his door and tried to get out but Nelson began shooting and the officer fell into a ditch wounded. Baum started to reach for his gun but Nelson shot and killed him instantly. Nelson seemed to lose control. He began firing wildly. He either reloaded or had a second gun. He fired once at Wanatka and then fired again at Christensen who already had eight bullets in him.
As quickly as the shooting started it stopped, and Nelson jumped into the agents' car and sped off heading south on Highway 51. Newman, although hit in the head and only semiconscious, managed to fire at Nelson as he drove off. Newman then stumbled to the house. He banged on the door and called for help but Koerner, fearing it was a trick by Nelson, refused to open the door.
Wanatka, meanwhile, began running back toward the Little Bohemia for help.
Half a mile away, at the Voss lodge, Nan Wanatka had heard about the strange car at Koerner's and the situation at the Michell house. Convinced the gang had escaped and was looking for her, she became hysterical and convinced her 66-year-old mother, her sister and her young niece to hide in the woods with her. They made their way to the shore of Spider Lake where they could see lights from the Koerner house. They then heard the shots from Nelson and, certain the gang was killing everyone in search of Nan Wanatka, ran back into the woods where they eventually stumbled onto a deserted cabin. Within a few minutes, however, they became convinced the cabin was exactly the kind of place the gang needed to hide, so they returned to the woods. It wasn't until sometime later they heard Henry Voss calling to them. "It's all over with, come on back." But it wasn't over. For many years Nan Wanatka lived in fear that friends of the gang would kill her and her family in revenge.
When Emil Wanatka finally arrived at his lodge, he was so winded he could hardly talk. When Purvis asked him what had happened, all Wanatka could say was "All your men are dead at Koerner's."
But Purvis seemed not to have heard and kept looking back at the lodge. There had been no activity since Wanatka and the two bartenders emerged. The three girls who worked in the kitchen were still inside, as well the three women who came with the gang. Teargas was still pouring from the windows and a large crowd of self-appointed armed deputies had arrived, adding to the general confusion. Occasionally someone fired a shot at the house.
Wanatka and one of his bartenders who had followed him back to the lodge from Koerner's, decided to return to Koerner's and see what could be done. When they arrived, the house was still locked. There was no one around. Baum lay dead in the road. They lifted the body into one of the vehicles and Wanatka, taking the agent's .45, drove the body to the CCC camp.
By the time Wanatka returned to the Little Bohemia it was dawn, but the firing had not stopped. A young boy announced he would get Dillinger and the reward and began firng into the house. Wanatka pulled out Baum's weapon and shouted that the next person who fired a bullet into his house would get one in return. He then turned to the agents and screamed that the gang had left at 8 the night before, and that there were bodies and damage all along Highway 51.
He looked back at his lodge. Shutters were shot off or heavily damaged; nearly every window was broken; the walls were peppered with bullet holes both outside and in; the grounds trampled. A heavily damaged car sat in the driveway, a body still inside.
Nearby, Purvis finally accepted the fact he missed the gang.
The seige at the Little Bohemia was over.
Final tally: One federal agent dead and another with a head wound; several agents with multiple cuts from barbed-wire, another with a brused arm from falling into a drainage ditch; one police officer heavily wounded; one private citizen dead and two others with multiple gunshot wounds (by the hand of federal agents); more than a dozen people terrorized; three cars stolen and a private home extensively damaged by gunfire. Found: numerous weapons and pieces of luggage with personal belongings of the outlaws; Captured: Two wives and a girlfriend of the outlaws (none armed). Caught: One head cold by Van Meter from running through the wet snow without a coat. |
