Lester Gillis was born in Chicago in 1908. He started out as a petty criminal but in 1929 began working for Al Capone. He assumed the name Baby Face Nelson and developed a reputation for a willingness to carry out vicious killings.

In 1934 Nelson joined the John Dillinger gang and took part in several bank robberies before being killed in a police shoot-out with FBI agents on 27th November, 1934.