St. Nicholas Cemetery - Chicago

Under the flight path of O'Hare Airport...

While vacationing in the Chicago area in September of 2007, my mother and I visited as many different cemeteries as we could and started a tradition that goes on to this day; visiting and photographing cemeteries. This is one of the cemeteries that we saw on that trip; a cemetery reserved for burials of Ukranian Greco-Catholics, established in 1906.

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Tombstone Tuesday

My Mom recently came home to Chicago for  a short visit. We had to take a road trip to Ohio for a family funeral, so she flew here and we drove to Ohio. While in town for such a short visit, we went to Rosehill Cemetery to visit her father and other relatives. 

When my Grandfather passed in 2000, Mom purchased her plot. She had it set that she would be buried at the feet of her parents. There was some screw up at the cemetery and the sold her plot to another family.  They compensated this mistake by giving her a marker, which has been placed on her plot since. The photo to the right is of Mom, at her plot, with her headstone. They do not make things funnier then this. I tried getting her to lie down on her plot and cross her arms like she was dead, though we all got a good laugh out of the idea. She told me I was morbid, I had to settle for this photo. She would kill me if she saw that I put this out there, but home many times do we go to the cemetery and cry over the deaths of our loved ones? We had a good laugh here, and I will remember this for a long time. 

Wordless Wednesday

Mobster Style Burials

Lester J. Gillis, aka "George Nelson" or "Baby Face Nelson" was born Dec 6 1908 in Chicago to Joseph and Mary (Douget) Gillis. 

Baby Face's criminal career started early in his teen years. He was arrested for theft and joyriding at 13 and was sent to the penal school several times. 

It has been said that he worked with the Capone organization.  This has been dismissed by his biographers Steven Nickel and William J. Helmer, due to lack of evidence. 

His career came to a short end in 1931 when he was arrested and sentenced to 1 year in state prison.  During transport, he overpowered his guard and escaped.

On 18 August 1933, he robbed his first bank in Grand Haven, MI with Eddie Bentz. This robbery is said to have been a near disaster though most made a clean getaway.

 Nelson was part of the newly formed gang that financed and helped Dillenger escape from jail in Crown Point, IN. 

Nelson was said to be a devoted husband and father, bringing his family with him while on the run.  According to the 1930 Federal Census, Helen and Lester had 1 son.

On 27 November 1937, the Battle of Barrington started when Nelson, his wife Gillis and John Paul Chase where driving in a car and spotted by the FBI. After a few U turns by both vehicles, Nelson wound up being the chased. During this battle, he killed two agents. 

Telling his wife to flea into an open field, she turned briefly to see her husband had been shot and would later prove to be fatal. After the fight was over, the three fled the scene in the agents Hudson. While fleaing the scene, Nelson told his wife "I'm done for," as he continued to give directions to Chase to get them to the safe house. He died later that evening in his wife's arms. 

An anonymous tip provided the whereabouts of Nelson's body on 28 November, 1937. He was wrapped in a blanket and thrown in a ditch in front of St. Peter's Catholic Cemetery in Skokie, Illinois.

Nelson and his wife are both buried in St Joseph's Cemetery, River Grove, Illinois.

Nelson was responsible for the deaths of:

W. Carter Baum - during the Little Bohemia Shoot out

Herman Hollis - Barrington, IL

Samuel Cowley - Barrington, IL