Charles Batsell "Charlie" Winstead (May 25, 1891 – August 3, 1973) was an

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

agent in the 1930s–40s, famous for being one of the agents (along with Clarence Hurt and Herman "Ed" Hollis) who shot and killed

John Dillinger John Herbert Dillinger (June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934) was an American gangster during the Great Depression. He led the Dillinger Gang, which was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations. Dillinger was imprisoned several times an ...

on July 22, 1934, in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Biography

Early life

Charlie Winstead was born in

Sherman, Texas Sherman is a U.S. city in and the county seat of Grayson County, Texas. The city's population in 2020 was 43,645. It is one of the two principal cities in the Sherman–Denison metropolitan statistical area, and it is part of the Texoma region ...

on May 25, 1891. Before joining the FBI he engaged in various occupations, including decorated service with the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, working as a deputy sheriff in several Texas jurisdictions, and just before joining the Bureau, as a law clerk in the US Attorney's office in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

. He joined the Bureau in July 1926. As a member of the

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Field Office, Winstead took part in several unsuccessful manhunts targeting outlaws

Bonnie Parker Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910May 23, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut (Champion) Barrow (March 24, 1909May 23, 1934) were an American criminal couple who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression. The co ...

and

Clyde Barrow Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910May 23, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut (Champion) Barrow (March 24, 1909May 23, 1934) were an American criminal couple who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression. The co ...

, and played a key role in the manhunt for kidnapper

George "Machine Gun" Kelly Machine Gun Kelly most often refers to: * Machine Gun Kelly (gangster) (1900–1954), American gangster. * Machine Gun Kelly (musician) (born 1990), American rapper. Machine Gun Kelly may also refer to: * ''Machine-Gun Kelly'' (film), 1958 film a ...

; along with Agent Gus Jones, Winstead arrested Kelly's associate

Harvey Bailey Harvey John Bailey (August 23, 1887 – March 1, 1979), called "The Dean of American Bank Robbers", was an American criminal who spanned a long career and was one of the most successful bank robbers during the 1920s, walking off with over $1 mill ...

in Rhome, Oklahoma, which set the FBI manhunt for Kelly in motion.

John Dillinger

In May 1934, Winstead and several other Western agents, including former

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

policemen Jerry Campbell and Clarence Hurt, were assigned to the Chicago Field Office to help apprehend John Dillinger and his gang of bank robbers. After the Little Bohemia fiasco in April, in which agents led by

Melvin Purvis Melvin Horace Purvis II (October 24, 1903 – February 29, 1960) was an American law enforcement official and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent. Given the nickname "Little Mel" because of his short, frame, Purvis became noted for leadi ...

and Sam Cowley had killed a civilian and lost an agent in a failed ambush of Dillinger's gang, FBI Director

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation � ...

brought in the experienced Texans to augment Purvis's still-relatively inexperienced agents. Winstead is widely believed to have been the agent who fired the fatal shot into Dillinger during the FBI's ambush at the

Biograph Theater The Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, was originally a movie theater but now presents live productions. It gained early notoriety as the location where bank robber John Dillinger was ...

, shooting him in the back of the head at close range. For this, he received a personal letter of commendation from Hoover. After Dillinger's death, Winstead helped track down Dillinger's former gang mate Lester Gillis/

Baby Face Nelson Lester Joseph Gillis (December 6, 1908 – November 27, 1934), also known as George Nelson and Baby Face Nelson, was an American bank robber who became a criminal partner of John Dillinger, when he helped Dillinger escape from prison, in Crown P ...

, narrowly missing a confrontation with Nelson when he and Nelson drove past each other on a rural Illinois road. Winstead's encounter with the outlaw ultimately led to Nelson's showdown with the FBI outside Barrington, Illinois, in which both Nelson and Agents Cowley and Hollis were fatally injured.

Later career

Winstead returned west after Nelson's death, serving at the El Paso and

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

offices. While in El Paso he took under his wing a rookie special agent named William C. Sullivan, mentoring him and helping to launch a career that would ultimately make him one of the top figures at FBI headquarters in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

. Sullivan later characterized Winstead as a man with a "naturally probing mind" which could readily "absorb, retain, and use information." Although his formal education was minimal, the college-educated Sullivan remembered Winstead as "so well read that he stood out in sharp contrast to most men with college and graduate degrees, those who stopped learning when they left school." In an organization which demanded blind obedience to its iron-fisted leader, Winstead was privately dismissive of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, confidentially telling William Sullivan never to initiate a meeting with him for any reason, since the mercurial Hoover was known to end careers on the slightest pretext. He told Sullivan:

"If Hoover ever calls you in, dress like a dandy, carry a notebook, and write in it furiously every time Hoover opens his mouth. You can throw the notes away afterward if you like. And flatter him. Everyone at headquarters knows Hoover is an egomaniac, and they all flatter him constantly. If you don't, you'll be noticed."

Shortly thereafter in 1942 Winstead himself came under the spotlight's glare, earning Hoover's stern disapprobation for having insulted a female reporter and accused her of Communist sympathies."Charles B. Winstead, Veteran FBI Agent, Ends Long Service,"
''Albuquerque Journal,'' Dec. 11, 1942, p. 11. Hoover demanded an apology and as punishment ordered Winstead's transfer to the Oklahoma City field office. Winstead instead refused this forced relocation, telling Hoover to "go to hell" and resigning on December 10, 1942 — four years short of having accrued sufficient tenure for government retirement. According to Winstead, who told the story in a December 15, 1942 letter to Sullivan, he had made "perfectly proper statements...in a private conversation" in which he had "contradicted he reporter'sstatement that 'Russia is fighting our battles'" in the World War. Winstead's comment had been passed along to J. Edgar Hoover by the reporter, Winstead wrote, prompting an overreaction which "shocked" him. "I knew better than anybody that after doing my little bit from 1917 to 1920 to save the world for Democracy, and so many of the boys doing it again now, that I wasn't going so far as Oklahoma City as a penalty for exercising my rights of free speech," Winstead declared.

Life after the FBI

After resigning from the FBI, he served as an Army intelligence and security officer in the later years of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. For a time, he was in charge of security at Los Alamos during the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

, when the first atomic bomb was being constructed by the US Army. Winstead returned to law enforcement after the war, serving various part-time jobs as a sheriff's deputy in New Mexico and a private investigator, before retiring and taking up horse ranching. In the 1950s, he began work on a memoir of his years with the FBI, but never finished; the manuscript was discovered in 2008 and is now kept in a museum in Sherman.

Death and legacy

Winstead died on August 3, 1973, in the Albuquerque Veteran's Hospital of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

.Sullivan with Brown, ''The Bureau,'' p. 33. He was 82 years old at the time of his death. In his will Winstead left his

.357 Magnum The .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum, .357 S&W Magnum, .357 Magnum, or 9×33mmR as it is known in unofficial metric designation, is a smokeless powder cartridge with a bullet diameter. It was created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, and Douglas B. ...

sidearm, Stetson hat, boots, saddles, and rope to William C. Sullivan — his former protégé who had risen through FBI ranks before himself coming to career grief at the hands of imperious FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover. Winstead was portrayed by actor

Stephen Lang Stephen Lang (born July 11, 1952) is an American actor. He is known for roles in films including '' Manhunter'' (1986), '' Gettysburg'', '' Tombstone'' (both 1993), '' Gods and Generals'' (2003), '' Public Enemies'' (2009), ''Conan the Barbaria ...

Michael Mann Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television who is best known for his distinctive style of crime drama. His most acclaimed works include the films ''Thief'' (1981), ...

's film '' Public Enemies'' (2009).

References

External links

Biographical sketch of Winstead, including links to his memoirs and pertinent FBI documents

His memories on the same page as PDF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Winstead, Charles Federal Bureau of Investigation agents 1891 births 1973 deaths John Dillinger People from Sherman, Texas Military personnel from Texas United States Army personnel of World War I United States Army personnel of World War II United States Army officers Deaths from cancer in New Mexico