Helen ran from the car and hid in a large drainage ditch. Nelson and Chase grabbed weapons and ran to the side of their vehicle just as Cowley and Hollis sped by. The federal car traveled almost 200 feet past Nelson and Chase before screeching to a stop. As bullets thudded into their car, the two agents jumped from the vehicle. Hollis ran behind his vehicle. Cowley jumped into another drainage ditch. The four men exchanged gunfire for several minutes until Nelson, firing a machine gun, simply stood up and started walking toward the agents. A nearby road crew that witnessed the gun fight, said Nelson looked like a gangster in the movies as he walked toward the agents firing his machine gun from his hip.
One of Cowley's bullets hit Nelson in the side, but Nelson kept coming. Another bullet hit him and still he kept walking toward the agents. Nelson sprayed bullets along the ditch until he finally mortally wounded Cowley. He died the following morning. Hollis, meanwhile, continued to fire at Nelson. Several shots hit Nelson but still he kept coming. As Nelson came around the agent's car, Hollis ran for the protection of a telephone pole. He never made it. Nelson fired and the back of Hollis' head exploded. He was dead. The gun battle was over in less than five minutes.
Nelson, the barrel of his machine gun smoking, staggered over to the agents' car and backed it up to his. Chase quickly transferred weapons and personal belongings into the agents' car. Helen ran to the car and it began to move, but stopped a few yards down the road. Chase, in the passenger seat, got out and ran around to the driver's seat. He pushed Nelson out of the way, took the wheel and the car sped off.
The next morning, Nelson's nude body was found wrapped in a blanket in a ditch near a cemetery.
Here's where the official FBI version ends.
But what happened to Helen? To Chase? What really happened that day in the hours before the fight, and where was Nelson during those few hours after he was mortally wounded? How did the FBI find Nelson's body so easily? And, most importantly, what about that off-duty policeman who was lost to history?
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