Personality
Nelson was the antithesis of popular, Robin Hood-like gangsters of the Depression era, which included Dillinger. A hot-tempered man, Nelson did not hesitate to kill lawmen and innocent bystanders alike. For example, in the March 6, 1934 robbery of the Security National Bank & Trust Company in Sioux Falls, Nelson was enraged by the sound of the alarm, demanding to know who set the alarm off, setting him apart from Dillinger and Van Meter, who continued working to the alarm as if it hadn't gone off. Upon seeing a motorcycle cop, Hale Keith, pull up alongside the bank, Nelson leaped onto a railing and fired a deafening burst through a plate glass window, striking Keith four times and severely wounding him. He reportedly screamed "I got one!" after shooting Keith.
One of the high profile outlaws of that era, Nelson and Clyde Barrow were accused of killing more than 50 police officers between them. Paradoxically, Nelson was also a devoted family man who often had his wife and children with him while running from the law. After Dillinger's death in July 1934, Nelson became Public Enemy Number One.
Read more about this topic: Baby Face Nelson
Famous quotes containing the word personality:
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“It is in our interests to let the police and their employers go on believing that the Underground is a conspiracy, because it increases their paranoia and their inability to deal with what is really happening. As long as they look for ringleaders and documents they will miss their mark, which is that proportion of every personality which belongs in the Underground.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)
“Western man represents himself, on the political or psychological stage, in a spectacular world-theater. Our personality is innately cinematic, light-charged projections flickering on the screen of Western consciousness.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)