Number 1410: Baby Face, you've got the deadest little baby face...

Lester Gillis, AKA Baby Face Nelson, died after a shootout with FBI agents in November, 1934. I heard the story of Baby Face early in my life from my father. It helped form my fascination with the early ’30s motor-gangsters who robbed banks and ran wild. The best account I’ve read of this lawless era is Public Enemies by Bryan Burrough. The book was made into a movie but focused mostly on John Dillinger (and got a lot of details wrong, including Baby Face’s death).

This particular version of the death of Baby Face, drawn by Jack Kirby for Headline Comics #23 (1947), is also loose with the details, editing the story considerably. But the thing that makes this particular crime comic so desirable is it is all Simon and Kirby, full of action, guns and gangsters,