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Identification Order No. 1223 headed WANTED and MURDER for Lester M. Gillis, with ten fingerprints, profile and front photographs numbered 5437, relatives, description and criminal record.
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Identification Order No. 1223: Lester M. Gillis, "Murder" (25 April 1934)

Division of Investigation wanted notice for Lester M. Gillis, with the aliases George Nelson and Baby Face Nelson, wanted for the murder of Special Agent W. Carter Baum near Rhinelander, Wisconsin. A copy is stored here.

Date
1934-04-25
Kind
case-file
Source
Federal Bureau of Investigation, History: Cases and Criminals (Lester Gillis, "Baby Face" Nelson)
Retrieved
2026-10-12
Rights
A wanted notice issued by the Division of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, over the name of J. Edgar Hoover, Director. A United States government work, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The order is a federal publication; the photographs printed on it carry a Chicago police number (5437) and were not separately rights-checked. The stored copy was captured from the image on the FBI's Gillis history page.

The order is headed “Identification Order No. 1223, April 25, 1934,” Division of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, with the word “MURDER” at right. It names “Lester M. Gillis, with aliases George Nelson, Baby Face Nelson, Alex Gillis, Lester Giles, ‘Big George’ Nelson, ‘Jimmie’.” The photographs are captioned “Photograph taken July 17, 1931” and the profile placard reads 5437. The criminal record lists a Chicago arrest of January 15, 1931 for robbery, receipt at the State Penitentiary at Joliet on July 17, 1931, and an escape on February 17, 1932.

The statement at the foot reads: “Lester M. Gillis is wanted for the murder of W. Carter Baum, Special Agent, Division of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, near Rhinelander, Wisconsin, on April 23, 1934.” The FBI’s history page and its memorial page give the date of Baum’s death as April 22, 1934. This page records both dates as the sources give them.

The order also lists relatives with Chicago street addresses. Those are the private addresses of family members and are not repeated or mapped here. The charge printed on the order is the Division’s allegation as of April 25, 1934.

itemLester Gillis ("Baby Face" Nelson): FBI history pageThe FBI's history essay on Lester M. Gillis, known as George "Baby Face" Nelson: the killing of Special Agent W. Carter Baum near Little Bohemia Lodge in April 1934, the November 1934 gun battle at Barrington, Illinois, and the prosecution of John Paul Chase.itemUnited States of America vs. John Herbert Dillinger, et al. (Little Bohemia Lodge, Wisconsin, 1934)Federal criminal case charging Dillinger and others with concealing the fugitive Thomas Carroll and resisting Division of Investigation agents at the Little Bohemia Lodge, Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin, on 22 April 1934.itemBody armor recovered after the Barrington, Illinois, shootout of 27 November 1934 (FBI artifact)FBI photograph of body armor the Bureau says was recovered on 27 November 1934 after a shootout in Barrington, Illinois, in which Special Agent Herman Edward Hollis and Lester Gillis ("Baby Face" Nelson) were killed.itemAlcatraz warden's notebook page for John Paul Chase, No. 238Bureau of Prisons notebook page with the identification photograph of John Paul Chase, received at Alcatraz on 31 March 1935 by direct commitment from the court at Chicago for "Killing Federal Officer," life sentence. A copy is stored here.