Emil Wanatke and the Shootout at Little Bohemia

Forced to shut his Chicago saloon by National Prohibition, Emil Wanatke, shown here, relocated with his family in 1929 to the tiny town of Manitowish Waters, Vilas County, in Northwoods Wisconsin. There he built a lodge he called “Little Bohemia.”  Five years later Little Bohemia would become nationally famous, some would say infamous, as the site of a gun battle between gangsters headed by the notorious John Dillinger and an inept FBI squad out to capture them. 

Wanatke’s Chicago attorney also was Dillinger’s lawyer and it was he who is believed to have arranged for Dillinger and his associates to spend a few days in a relaxed hideout at Little Bohemia, known for its good food and drink.  Prohibition had just ended.  Wanatke had opened a bar and hired bartenders.  We can presume that the gang also brought along their own bootleg booze.

It was the middle of the Great Depression, business had been slow, and Wanatke was struggling to pay his mortgage.  Dillinger, pledging that his men would cause no trouble, paid him $500 for the gang’s three day weekend stay, the equivalent today of almost $6,000.   Although this money was welcome in hard times.  Warantke also appears to have had other things in mind.  The gangsters, who included the ruthless killer “Pretty Boy” Floyd, were themselves worth a great deal of money.  The reward for Dillinger alone was $10,000 (equiv. $178,000 today).  Moreover, Wanatke knew he could be charged with harboring criminals.  “Dropping the dime” on them, i.e. alerting authorities, would help absolve him of blame. 

Moreover, as time wore on and the guests grew more and more aggressive,  Wanatke’s wife, Nan, became apprehensive about family safety.  Wanatke wrote a letter to the police in Milwaukee about the situation but did not know how to get it out of the lodge and mailed.  He knew the letter would not be delivered before Monday, when the gang was leaving, but he wanted officials to know details of the weekend in case something violent happened.

Nan, shown here with the family dogs, provided an answer.  She asked for and got permission from Dillinger to attend a birthday party for a family member at the home of her brother, George La Porte, who lived a few miles away.  While driving there with their son she became aware of being followed.  It was the ever suspicious “Baby Face” who eventually turned back.  When Nan told her family of the situation, a plan was hatched to contact the FBI in Chicago.

 

Leaving her son behind in safety, she returned home and told Wanatke of the scheme.  He agreed and when La Porte arrived the next day was able to slip him a note in a cigarette pack with the names of the gang and the license plate numbers of their cars.  La Porte left without attracting notice and notified the FBI.  After confirming with Washington headquarters the legitimacy of the lead, on April 23, 1934, the FBI flew in agents from Chicago and St. Paul to the nearby Rhinelander Airport.

Purvis

The agents, led by Special Agent Melvin Purvis, had little time to plan the raid and little experience at executing one.  They had only a single automobile for the agents.  As they approached the lodge a car exiting containing three people mistakenly was identified and shot up.  Not only was an innocent passenger killed, the noise alerted the gang lounging in the Little Bohemia’s bar, shown below.  Immediately Dillinger and two henchmen gathered up their money and guns.  After a brief firefight with agents, the three on foot ran to a neighboring resort, commandeered an automobile, and escaped.

Nelson

‘Baby Face’ Nelson was also able to avoid capture, albeit with a bloodier trail. He killed one FBI agent, critically injured another, and stole the FBI vehicle for his getaway.  The entire gang had eluded capture in the botched raid. An FBI agent and an innocent bystander had been killed, two other FBI men had been serious wounded.    Although a Hollywood movie starring Ward Bond as Purvis later attempted to put a positive spin on the shootout, at the time it was seen as a black eye for the FBI and its director J. Edgar Hoover.  

A new book by Beverly Gage on Hoover called “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century” relates: “Hoover recognized the bloodbath at Little Bohemia as a crisis of major proportions….At best, Little Bohemia might be seen as a nightmarish series of mistakes.  At worst it could be interpreted as an indictment of Hoover’s entire system….”  Demands were raised in Congress and the press for dissolution of the FBI.  Popular Humorist Will Rogers commented:   “Well they had John Dillinger surrounded and was all ready to shoot him when he come out.  But another bunch of folks came out ahead, so they just shot them instead.”

But Hoover’s headaches meant nothing to Wanatke.  In the depths of the Great Depression, he had hit a bonanza.  The shootout at Little Bohemia had made headlines all across the Nation.  With gangster-mania at its peak, thousands of Americans were keen on seeing the the place where it all played out.  Wanatke’s business boomed.

 

In response, the lodge owner kept the bullet-ridden wall panels in place and created a mini museum of the event in Little Bohemia.  He displayed news clippings and items left behind by gang members as they fled the scene.  Wanatke also produced for tourists a bulletproof vest and .38 caliber handgun he claimed had belonged to the slain FBI agent, Carter Baum.  Grilled by the FBI, he confessed that he had made up the story.   Wanatke also sold an autographed photo showing him standing with his arm around Dillinger.  He later admitted that the picture, reproduced below, was a fake and that he had superimposed Dillinger’s photo on his own. 

Eventually law enforcement agents caught up with the gang members.  Some like Dillinger and Nelson died in a hail of bullets.  Others were captured and sent to prison.  Melvin Purvis later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, some said an accident, others suicide.  J. Edgar Hoover went on to become a feared power figure for decades in Washington, D.C. 

Meanwhile Little Bohemia has continued in business down to the present day, until recently operated by Wanatke’s son, who would relate to visitors his experience as a boy playing catch with two of the most dangerous men in America, John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson.  

Note:  This post is the result of my 60-year fascination with the events of 1934 at Little Bohemia. It began in 1959 when I was a reporter on the Vilas County News Review and several times drove past the lodge — but regretfully never went in.  In lieu of a personal encounter, I have found multiple accounts of the shootout online that are distilled in the account here.