Public Enemies_ America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI - Bryan Burrough [215]
At the sound of gunshots, people on the sidewalks turned their heads. It sounded like firecrackers. Out in the intersection, Officer Wagner heard it, too. He strode toward the bank, his traffic whistle dangling from one hand. Van Meter saw him coming. He raised his rifle and fired. His bullet hit Wagner flush in the chest. The policeman staggered backward, slumping to the pavement even as he grabbed at his holstered pistol. He would be dead in half an hour.
Panic broke out. Everywhere, people were running and screaming. A few doors down Wayne Street, a jeweler named Harry Berg emerged onto the sidewalk carrying a pistol. Spying Nelson holding a submachine gun on the corner, he opened fire. His first bullet hit Nelson square in the chest; Nelson’s career might have ended there if not for the bulletproof vest he wore. Stunned, Nelson turned and fired a burst that sent Berg scurrying back into his store. Most of his bullets raked a parked car, shattering the windshield and wounding the man inside. Another man was struck in the stomach by a ricochet. He staggered into the jewelry store and collapsed, badly wounded.
Nelson swung the gun menacingly as people ran for cover. Just then a seventeen-year-old boy named Joseph Pawlowski ran across the intersection and leaped onto Nelson’s back. The two grappled for a moment before Nelson swung his gun butt into Pawlowski’s temple, stunning him. The teenager fell to the sidewalk, then ran off.
Alone and vulnerable outside the bank, Van Meter stepped into the Nisley Shoes store and ordered a half-dozen people out onto the sidewalk, where he lined them up before him as a human shield. Three traffic cops, hearing the shots, hustled up Wayne Street and saw the group, their hands in the air. Van Meter fired, sending the cops running for cover behind parked cars.
Just then Dillinger and his unidentified partner emerged from the bank, carrying cloth sacks containing more than $28,000 in cash. With them were three hostages, including the bank president, Delos Cohen. From across the intersection the patrolmen opened fire. Cohen fell, hit in the ankle. Another hostage, a cashier, was hit in the leg.
“I’m shot!” he yelped.
“Keep going,” Dillinger said, shoving him forward.
As Dillinger, Van Meter, and the fat man herded the hostages toward the getaway car, a furious gun battle broke out. Shielded by parked cars, the three patrolmen fired again and again. Standing beside the waiting Hudson, Nelson swung his submachine gun, firing wildly, bullets striking store windows and the State Theatre’s marquee.
Suddenly Van Meter fell. Dillinger turned and saw blood gushing from his head. Abandoning the two hostages, he grabbed Van Meter beneath the armpits and dragged him into the Hudson. The car was riddled with bullets, and more struck it as it sped away.31 A half-dozen policemen claimed to have chased the car as it fled west out of South Bend. It was later found abandoned outside the town of Gibsland.
Van Meter was bleeding badly when the gang returned to their rendezvous point at the white schoolhouse that afternoon. Fatso Negri was called, and when he arrived he found Van Meter lying on the ground, covered with blood. As Negri later described the scene to the FBI, “Van Meter is lying down, he is in agony and I think he is dying.” Negri wanted to get a doctor, but Nelson said no. Someone suggested they “yaffle,” or kidnap, a doctor. Dillinger and Nelson got into a heated argument. Eventually, Dillinger decided to take Van Meter back to Jimmy Probasco’s. They could get a doctor there.
Dillinger drove the bleeding Van Meter back into Chicago, pulling up behind Probasco’s house after nightfall. Probasco tried to reach the anesthetist, Harold Cassidy, but couldn’t. In the doctor’s absence, Probasco bandaged Van Meter’s wound. The next evening O’Leary and Piquett came by. They found Probasco