The Quiet Couple Gets Loud
The police watched the Lincoln Court Apartments for suspicious activity all night. In the morning, FBI agents R. C. Coulter and Rosser Nails, with St. Paul police officer Henry Cummings approached unit 303, where the low-key couple resided, and knocked on the door. The woman, Dillinger’s girlfriend Evelyn Frechette, asked the officers for a minute so she could dress before speaking with them. As they waited, Dillinger gang associate Homer Van Meter sauntered toward the apartment. Cummings and Coulter requested identification from the young man. Van Meter claimed he was a soap salesman and walked with Coulter to the first floor of the building. Instead of handing over his wallet, Van Meter pulled out a pistol. Coulter fled the building, Nails following, exchanging gunfire with Van Meter. Van Meter encountered a garbage collector, stole the collector’s horse and hat, and fled the scene.