Little Bohemia gained fame and infamy as the setting of a botched raid by the FBI, then called the Bureau of Investigation, against the John Dillinger Gang.

[1] On the afternoon of April 20, 1934, Baby Face Nelson, John Dillinger, Homer Van Meter, Tommy Carroll, John Hamilton, and gang associate (errand-runner) Pat Reilly, accompanied by Nelson's wife Helen and three girlfriends of the other men, arrived at the secluded Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin, for a weekend of rest.

[2] The gang's connection to the resort apparently came from the past dealings between Dillinger's attorney, Louis Piquett, and lodge owner Emil Wanatka.

According to Bryan Burrough's book Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933–34, this most likely happened when Wanatka was playing cards with Dillinger, Nelson, and Hamilton.

Convinced the tip was legit, Purvis and a number of his colleagues travelled immediately to Wisconsin by plane from Chicago, calling in agents from the St. Paul office to rendezvous with them as well.

Wanatka offered a one-dollar dinner special on Sunday nights, and the last of a crowd, estimated at 75 people, were leaving as the agents arrived in the front driveway.

Dillinger, Van Meter, Hamilton, and Carroll immediately escaped through the back of the lodge, which was unguarded, and made their way north on foot through woods and past a lake to commandeer a car and a driver at a resort a mile away.

As they were preparing to leave, with Wanatka driving at gunpoint, another car arrived with federal agents W. Carter Baum and Jay Newman, and a local constable, Carl Christensen.

Back on foot, he wandered into the woods and took up residence with a Chippewa family in their secluded cabin for several days before making his final escape in another commandeered vehicle.

The incident led to calls for FBI director J. Edgar Hoover's resignation and a widely circulated petition demanding Purvis's suspension.