After Nelson died and Chase and Helen stripped the body and left it at the cemetery, the pair separated. It's not known what they might have said to one another, but most likely Helen wanted to stay in the area and Chase wanted to run. Her family and her children were there, and without Nelson at her side she lacked the emotional support she needed at the time. Despite everything, there is little doubt she and Nelson geniunely loved one another.
Still using the agents' bullet-ridden car, it's interior covered with Nelson's blood, the pair drove back to Chicago. Sometime during the early morning hours Helen left the vehicle. It's unlikely they planned to stay in touch throught third parties. Helen wasn't a fighter or a robber, and Chase needed both.
Helen walked the streets for several hours and eventually spent the rest of the night in a doorway. The following morning she walked into a police station and surrended. She was subsequently sentenced at Madison, Wis., to serve a year and a day at the Women's Federal Reformatory in Milan, Mich., for having violated the terms of her parole. She had been placed on parole following her capture at Little Bohemia.
After her release she faded into history. She eventually died in a nursing home in Chicago at age 79. She rarely spoke about Nelson. Not out of shame, but out of respect. "Just let him rest," she would say.
Nelson's sister, Juliette G. Fitzsimmons and her husband, raised the Nelson's children, Ronald and Darlene. They lived in various states including Illinois, Uath and California. The children were kept out of the limelight of their infamous father, and they lived normal lives. Ronald died in the 1970s; Darlene in the mid-1990s.
After he and Helen separated, Chase drove the blood-stained car to an area near Winnetka, Ill., where it was abandoned. He then walked along the highway and eventually made his way to Chicago where he remained until Nov. 30 when he answered a newspaper to drive a vehicle to Seattle, Wash. From Seattle he traveled to Butte, Mont., and then to California where he was arrested on Dec. 26, 1934
And what of Nelson's body?
Sometime during the early moring hours of Nov. 28, Sadowski's Funeral Home in Chicago received a strange call. A woman refusing to identify herself told Philip Sadowski where he could find a body. It was in a small ditch near the gate of a cemetery. She also declinded to give Sadowski the name of the deceased, but said "You'll know who it is when you find him." She said money would be sent to him to cover funeral expenses. She also urged Sadowski to do his best because "he at least deserves that. And don't tell the police." She hung up. Sadowski called a friend on the police department.
Later that day Nelson's body was discovered on the side of the road near St. Paul's Cemetery - right where Helen said it would be. The body was identified through fingerprints.
Lester Joseph Gillis was late taken to Haben's Funeral Home in Niles Center, Ill. He is buried in St. Joseph Cemetery in Fox River Grove, Ill. He was buried on Dec. 1, 1934, five days short of his 26th birthday. He rests beside his parents and several siblings. His funeral was attended by family members, police and the curious. Helen wasn't there. |
