Special Agent Nelson Klein was shot and killed while he and another special agent attempted to arrest a man for car theft and interstate transportation of stolen vehicles in West College Corner.

   The agents went to the area after receiving information the suspect was visiting his brother at his residence. When Special Agent Klein saw the suspect walking down an alley and instructed him to surrender, he ran behind a garage. The suspect opened fire, striking Agent Klein five times. The other agent returned fire and wounded the suspect.

   Agent Klein was taken to Fort Hamilton Hospital in Hamilton, Ohio where he died.

   The 48-year-old man was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. On March 24, 1936, he was executed by hanging at the Marion County Jail in Indianapolis. He was the second person to be tried and the first person sentenced to death under a federal law allowing the death penalty for the murder of a federal agent.

   Special Agent Klein, from Cincinnati, was assigned to the Cincinnati, Ohio, field office. He was survived by his wife, 6- and 8-year-old sons and 2-year-old daughter. His oldest son, Special Agent Nelson B. Klein Jr., 42, was killed on duty in a single-vehicle accident on May 29, 1969 in Bulloch County, Georgia while serving with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Military Service New York National Guard World War I

Memorial Tributes • When it opened in 2011, the new Indianapolis field office has an address of 8825 Nelson B. Klein Parkway to recognize him. • In 2013, a plaque honoring Special Agent Klein was dedicated in the lobby at the Cincinnati field office in his honor. • In 2017, an Indiana State Historical Marker was erected at Stateline Ballpark near the site where Special Agent Klein became the first special agent killed since the agency, the Division of Investigation (1933–1935), was renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation on July 1, 1935.