Elite Facts Presents
8 Historical Criminal Shootouts
8. John Paul Chase John Paul Chase was associated with just about
every famous underworld figure of the Prohibition Era. Chase’s track record was quite impressive
as he was a member of Alvin Karpis’ and Ma Barker’s gang, Was an associate of George
“Baby Face” Nelson, and eventually became a member of John Dillinger’s gang, One of
the most notorious gangsters of that era next to Al Capone. Chase miraculously survived
the shootout that killed Nelson which in turn made Chase one of the longest-serving inmates
at Alcatraz . After Dillinger and and associate Homer Van Meter were killed by the FBI during
the late summer of 1934, Chase and Nelson jumped around the country for a while looking
for a safe place. Unfortunately for them, they were unable to find anywhere safe. The
pair were then ambushed by federal agents in Illinois in November 1934. Nelson was killed
in the ensuing gunfight, but Chase escaped. This did not sit well with Nelson’s widow,
Helen as she would soon after the shootout give Chase’s name to the feds, who until
then had not known who they were looking for. He was sentenced in March of 1935 and served
31 years in prison.
7. The Fleagle Gang Yet another gang of outlaws from the Prohibition-Era
makes the list as the Fleagle gang consisting of brothers Jake and Ralph along with Howard
Royston and George Abshire were infamous for robbing banks. The gang was active for well
over 10 years and is said to have gotten away with over $1 million, which by today’s standards
is somewhere around 10 Million dollars. Yeah that is crazy! After robbing a bank in Lamar,
Colorado in 1928, the gang became the first case in which a conviction was based on fingerprint
evidence. The robbery took an almost instant nosedive as the bank’s president managed
to duck into his office and grab a .45. As you’d expect, chaos ensued which resulted
in casualties such as Howard Royston getting shot in the jaw and several bank employees
being killed in the process, including the bank’s president and his son. They were
able to escape to a Kansas farm owned by Jake, but were understandably forced to seek out
a doctor for Royston’s wound.
6. George Anderson and Gerald Chapman In 1919, George “Dutch” Anderson and Gerald
Chapman were paroled from auburn state prison. It was in that prison that these two decided
to become acquaintances. The two men formed one of the earliest Prohibition-Era criminal
gangs, specializing in bootlegging, counterfeiting, and robbery. Gerald Chapman was the first
criminal to be labeled “Public Enemy Number One,” and Anderson met his end in a gruesomely
dramatic shootout in 1925 in which both participants died. Chapman was turned in by an informant
in January 1925, and sentenced to death for the killing of a cop. Although law enforcement
had no idea where Anderson was, his involvement was suspected when the informant who gave
his name up to the police along with his wife were found dead several months later. In October
of the same year as his disappearance, his counterfeit currency was traced to Muskegon,
Michigan. Local Law Enforcement of Muskegon eventually discovered his location. Officer
Charles Hammond confronted Anderson about a counterfeit bill he had passed at a cafe.
Not certain that the man he had in his custody was Anderson, Hammond wasn’t prepared when
the gun came out in an alley next to city hall. Anderson fired two wild shots, fled
for a short distance with the officer pursuing, then managed to hit Hammond in the chest.
Hammond proceeded to wrestle the gun from Anderson and shoot him in the heart with it,
at which point both men collapsed. Anderson died at the scene whereas hammond died at
hospital.
5. James “Oklahoma Jack” Clark James “Oklahoma Jack” Clark was a member
of the Lamm gang, A gang ran by Herman “Baron” Lamm who was a pioneering bank robber whose
techniques were studied by previously mentioned gangster, John Dillinger. Following what would
be a legendary bank robbery, Clark and a fellow gangster survived a massive shootout in 1930.
By that time, bank holdups were becoming increasingly common, and the newly formed FBI didn’t
exactly have a blueprint for dealing with crime of this nature. In Indiana, police decided
to band together groups of vigilantes to look over banks within the state. One of these
men, a local barber, came to investigate the presence of four strange men at the bank with
a shotgun. just as the robbers returned to the getaway car. Unfortunately for the group
of robbers, the driver panicked and made a U-Turn which swung the vehicle to the point
where it blew one of the tires, leading to an outrageous string of automotive bad luck:
The next car they grabbed had a governor installed and chugged along at a fraction of its normal
maximum speed. Deciding the vehicle wasn’t fit for their getaway, they ditched it for
a truck with a radiator that was dry as a bone—it soon began blowing steam and overheating.
So they jacked yet another car which only had one gallon of gas in the tank. Thanks
to the many delays they had with vehicles, this allowed a couple hundred heavily armed
police and vigilantes to catch up with them, and as you’d expect, an extremely one-sided
firefight ensued. Clark and fellow gang member Walter Dietrich surrendered, and Clark spent
the rest of his life in prison.
4. Larry Philips and Emil Matasareanu So oddly enough, this shootout was completely
inspired by the epic shootout scene from the 1995 film, ‘Heat’. Larry Philips and Emil
Matasareanu attempted to rob the North Hollywood Bank of America in February of 1997. These
two men were heavily armed with fully automatic AK-47s, homemade body armor, and medication
known as Phenobarbital to calm their nerves. To hide their identities, they put on their
ski masks and entered the bank at 9:17. The shootout between the robbers and the police
took 44 minutes with casualties including 10 police officers and 7 civilians seriously
wounded. In the end however, the two robbers were gunned down by police reinforcements,
despite having heavier artillery.
3. California Security Bank On May 9, 1980, five armed robbers stormed
a Security Pacific Bank in Norco, a California where they would take around $20,000. Unfortunately
for them, they were almost instantly spotted by a teller at a bank across the street who
took it upon himself to call for help. Armed with assault rifles, handguns, shotguns, pipe
bombs, and hollow-point ammunition, they engaged Deputy Glyn Bolasky in a shootout where he
sustained serious injuries that include the face, forearms, left elbow and left shoulder.
They were also involved in a car chase which resulted in the destruction of 33 police cruisers
and civilian cars and a shot down helicopter. The result of this chase also saw the death
of another officer as well as two officers injured. The robbers fled with one fatality,
while another was killed in a shootout the next day, while the rest were later arrested.
2. Jules Bonnot When three police officers confronted anarchist
Jules Bonnot in an apartment In April of 1912; he almost instantly opened fire killing the
vice-chief of the Surete Nationale before fleeing across rooftops. Because of this crime,
He had become France’s most wanted criminal with a reward of 100,000 francs. On April
28, he was cornered in a Paris suburb and the shootout ended with the police bombing
the building where Bonnot was taking cover.
1. Marvin and Blanche Barrow Although Bonnie and Clyde’s 1934 ambush
by police is iconic, a shootout a year earlier not only makes the Bonnie and Clyde ambush
seem minor in comparison but also marked the beginning of the end for the gang. In July
of 1933, Bonnie, Clyde, Buck and Blanche, along with a outside associate W. D. Jones,
were tracked and engaged by police in Platte City, Missouri twice over the course of five
days. While Bonnie, Clyde and Jones escaped, Buck and Blanche were captured by law enforcement.
Buck died from his wounds and Blanche survived to serve six years in prison. She served her
time and was released in 1940 and died of cancer in 1988 at the age of 77.
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