Herman Edward Hollis

Herman Edward Hollis (January 27, 1903 – November 27, 1934) was an American law-enforcement officer who worked as special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As an FBI special agent in the 1930s, Hollis worked with agents Melvin Purvis, Samuel P. Cowley and others fighting bank robbers, gangsters and organized crime in the Chicago area during the Great Depression. Hollis was also one of the three FBI special agents who shot John Dillinger near the Biograph Theater earlier that year, resulting in Dillinger's death. One controversial account also implicates Hollis in the death of Pretty Boy Floyd. Hollis served as a special agent for the FBI's field offices in Kansas City, Cincinnati, and Chicago for over seven years; at the time of his death, he was 31 years old.

Career Hollis began his service with the FBI almost immediately after finishing law school in August 1927. Over the years, Hollis repeatedly requested that the Bureau transfer him to a field office in California or Arizona; doctors insisted that a warmer climate would help improve his wife Genevieve's nervous condition. At least one account states that Purvis then approached Dillinger from behind and said, "OK, Johnnie, drop your gun." Dillinger fled toward a nearby alley and reached in his pocket for a pistol. According to one source, Winstead fired his .45 pistol three times, and both Hollis and Hurt fired once. At least one other source discredits Smith's version, stating that although Smith's story received wide currency, Hollis was not at the orchard that afternoon. Hollis's FBI profile does not mention his participation in this incident. On November 27, 1934, Cowley received a tip that Nelson had been recognised in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, driving a stolen car. Cowley and Special Agent Hollis left the FBI's Chicago office heading northwest on Northwest Highway to intercept Nelson; Hollis drove. The occupants of the two cars recognized each other, and Agents Ryan and McDade began a pursuit. Nelson had struck Hollis in the forehead. Chase was aware of the pending indictment for Hollis's murder but took no action for approximately twenty years. Then, in April 1955, Chase or his attorneys filed a motion demanding that prosecutors either seek an immediate trial on Hollis's murder or dismiss the indictment altogether. Prosecutors opposed the motion, but later that year, the United States District Court dismissed the indictment, holding that Chase was entitled to a speedy trial on the indictment for Hollis's murder and that Chase's mere knowledge of the indictment and his failure to take action did not waive this right. With this indictment dismissed, Chase became eligible for parole; he was eventually paroled in 1966 and died of cancer in 1973.