Dillinger

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Biography

John Herbert Dillinger, Jr. (June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934) was an American bank robbery|bank robber of German American|German descent in the Great Depression|Depression-era United States . He was charged with, but never convicted of, the murder of an East Chicago|East Chicago, Indiana police officer during a shoot-out. This was his only alleged homicide, and was likely not his action. His gang robbed two dozen banks and four police stations. Dillinger escaped from jail twice.

In 1933–34, seen in retrospect as the heyday of the Depression-era outlaw, Dillinger was the most notorious of all, standing out even among more violent criminals such as Baby Face Nelson , Pretty Boy Floyd , and Bonnie and Clyde . Media reports were spiced with exaggerated accounts of Dillinger's bravado and daring and his colorful personality. The government demanded federal action, and J. Edgar Hoover developed a more sophisticated Federal Bureau of Investigation as a weapon against organized crime and used Dillinger and his gang as his campaign platform to launch the FBI.Elliott J. Gorn, ''Dillinger's Wild Ride: The Year That Made America's Public Enemy Number One (2009)

After evading police in four states for almost a year, Dillinger was wounded and returned to his father's home to recover. He returned to Chicago in July 1934 and met his end at the hands of police and federal agents who were informed of his whereabouts by Ana Cumpanas (the owner of the brothel where Dillinger sought refuge at the time). On July 22, the police and Division of InvestigationAs detailed in the previous citation, the former US Bureau of Investigation lapsed and was termed the Division in 1933. Later, in the 1935 Department of Justice appropriation, Congress officially recognized the Division as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI. The name became effective on March 22, 1935, when the President signed the appropriation bill. closed in on the Biograph Theater . Federal agents, led by Melvin Purvis , moved to arrest him as he left the theater. He pulled a weapon and attempted to flee but was shot three (four according to some historians) times and killed.

Early life

Family and background

John Herbert Dillinger, Jr. was born on June 22, 1903, in the Oak Hill section of Indianapolis, Indiana , the younger of two children born to John Wilson Dillinger (July 2, 1864& nbsp;– November 3, 1943) and Mary Ellen "Mollie" Lancaster (1860–1907).According to some biographers, his grandfather, Matthias Dillinger, emigrated to the United States in 1851 from Metz , in the region of Alsace-Moselle|Alsace-Lorraine , then under French Second Republic|French sovereignty ., citing The Untold Story by G. Russell Giradin and William J. Helmer; and Dary Matera’s John Dillinger Matthias Dillinger was born in German-Prussian Gisingen, near Dillingen, Saarland . Dillinger's parents had married on August 23, 1887. Dillinger's father was a grocer by trade and, reportedly, a harsh man. In an interview with reporters, he said that he was firm in his discipline and believed in the adage "spare the rod and spoil the child". Dillinger's older sister, Audrey, was born March 6, 1889. Dillinger's mother died in 1907 just before his fourth birthday.
Audrey married Emmett "Fred" Hancock in 1907, had seven children and resided in Maywood, Indiana. She died in Indianapolis in March 1987 at the age of 98 years. Dillinger was cared for by his sister during his early life until his father remarried on May 23, 1912, to Elizabeth "Lizzie" Fields (1878–1933). Initially, Dillinger disliked his stepmother but reportedly eventually came to love her.Dillinger: the untold story By G. Russell Girardin, William J. Helmer, Rick Mattix, pp. 11, 21. Dillinger's father and stepmother had three children, Hubert Dillinger, born c. 1913, Doris M. Dillinger (December 12, 1917& nbsp;& ndash; March 14, 2001) and Frances Dillinger (born c. 1922).Doris's married surname was Hockman. Frances's married name was Thompson.

Formative years and marriage

As a teenager, Dillinger was frequently in trouble with the law for fighting and petty theft; he was also noted for his "bewildering personality" and bullying of smaller children. He quit school to work in an Indianapolis machine shop. Although he worked hard at his job, he would stay out all night at parties. His father feared that the city was corrupting his son, prompting him to move the family to Mooresville, Indiana , in about 1920. Dillinger's wild and rebellious behavior was resilient despite his new rural life. He was arrested in 1922 for Motor vehicle theft|auto theft , and his relationship with his father deteriorated. His troubles led him to enlist in the United States Navy where he was a Fireman 3rd Class assigned aboard the battleship USS Utah (BB-31)|USS Utah , but he Desertion|deserted a few months later when his ship was docked in Boston . He was eventually Dishonorably discharge|dishonorably discharged .Dillinger then returned to Mooresville where he met Beryl Ethel Hovious."Certificate of Birth: Beryl Hovious." Morgan County Health Department, Martinsville, Indiana. Filed 9-1923. The two were married on April 12, 1924. He attempted to settle down, but he had difficulty holding a job and preserving his marriage. The marriage ended in divorce on June 20, 1929.Stewart, Tony. Xlibris Corporation, 2002. ISBN 1-4010-5373-4.

Dillinger was unable to find a job and began planning a robbery with his friend Ed Singleton. The two robbed a local grocery store, stealing $50. Leaving the scene they were spotted by a minister who recognized the men and reported them to the police. The two men were arrested the next day. Singleton pleaded not guilty, but Dillinger's father convinced him to confess to the crime and plead guilty. Dillinger was convicted of assault and battery (crime)|battery with intent to rob, and conspiracy (crime)|conspiracy to commit a felony . He was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison for his crimes. His father told reporters he regretted his advice and was appalled by the sentence. He pleaded with the judge to shorten the sentence but with no success. En route to the prison, Dillinger briefly escaped his captors but was apprehended within a few minutes.

Criminal career

Prison time

Dillinger embraced the criminal lifestyle behind bars in the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana|Michigan City . Upon being admitted to the prison he is quoted as saying, "I will be the meanest bastard you ever saw when I get out of here." His physical examination upon being admitted to the prison showed that he had gonorrhea . The treatment for his condition was extremely painful. He became embittered against society because of his long prison sentence and befriended other criminals, such as seasoned bank robbers like Harry Pierpont|Pete Pierpont , Charles Makley , and Russell Clark (criminal)|Russell Clark , who taught Dillinger how to be a successful criminal. The men planned heists that they would commit soon after they were released. John Dillinger studied Herman Lamm 's meticulous bank-robbing system and used it extensively throughout his criminal career.

His father launched a campaign to have him released and was able to get 188 signatures on a petition. Dillinger was parole d on May 10, 1933, after serving nine and a half years. Dillinger's stepmother became sick just before he was released from prison, and she died before he arrived at her home. Released at the height of the Great Depression , Dillinger had little prospect of finding employment. He immediately returned to crime and on June 10, 1933, he robbed his first bank, taking $10,000 from the New Carlisle National Bank, which occupied the building which still stands at the southeast corner of Main Street and Jefferson Street (state routes 235 and 571) in New Carlisle, Ohio. On August 14, Dillinger robbed a bank in Bluffton, Ohio . Tracked by police from Dayton, Ohio , he was captured and later transferred to the Allen County jail in Lima, Ohio|Lima to be indicted in connection to the Bluffton robbery. After searching him before letting him into the prison, the police discovered a document which appeared to be a prison escape plan. They demanded Dillinger tell them what the document meant, but he refused.

Dillinger had helped conceive a plan for the escape of Pierpont, Clark and six others he had met while previously in prison, most of whom worked in the prison laundry. Dillinger had friends smuggle guns into their prison cells, with which they escaped, four days after Dillinger's capture. The group known as "the First Dillinger Gang" included Harry "Pete" Pierpont, Russell Clark, Charles Makley , Edward W. Shouse, Jr., Harry Copeland, John Hamilton (gangster)|John "Red" Hamilton , James "Oklahoma Jack" Clark , and Dillinger's mentor Walter Dietrich, a member of the Herman Lamm Gang. Pierpont, Clark, and Makley arrived in Lima on October 12, where they impersonated Indiana State Police officers, claiming they had come to extradite Dillinger to Indiana. When the sheriff, Jess Sarber, asked for their credentials, Pierpont shot him dead, then released Dillinger from his cell. The four men escaped back into Indiana where they joined the rest of the gang. Sheriff Sarber was the gang's first police killing of an estimated 13 lawmen deaths by Dillinger gang members.

Bank robberies

The Bureau of Investigation (BOI), a precursor of the Federal Bureau of Investigation , was brought into the investigation to help identify the criminals, although the men had not violated any federal law. It was one of the first cases in which the BOI intervened in matters outside its jurisdiction. Using their superior fingerprint matching technology, they successfully identified all of the suspects and issued national bulletins offering rewards for their capture.

Dillinger and his gang began a streak of bank robberies across Indiana. Among Dillinger's more celebrated exploits was his pretending to be a sales representative for a company that sold bank alarm systems (and then "testing" the bank's security by carrying out an actual robbery). He reportedly entered a number of Indiana and Ohio banks and used this ruse to assess security systems and bank vaults of prospective targets. Another time, it was alleged, the men pretended to be part of a film company that was scouting locations for a "bank robbery" scene. Bystanders stood and smiled as a real robbery ensued and Dillinger's gang fled. There seems to be little evidence to back up any truth to these claims. In fact, it is not mentioned in any normal accounts of Dillinger researchers that these ruses were used. If untrue, these stories are likely just another product of criminal folk-lore. Dillinger was believed to have been associated with gangs who robbed dozens of banks and accumulated a total of more than $300,000. Banks allegedly robbed by Dillinger and his associates include:

Before Lima

*The Commercial Bank, Daleville, Indiana of $3,500 on July 17, 1933;

*Montpelier National Bank, Montpelier, Indiana of $6,700 on August 4, 1933;

*Bluffton Bank, Bluffton, Ohio , of $6,000 on August 14, 1933;

*Massachusetts Avenue State Bank, Indianapolis, Indiana, of $21,000 on September 6, 1933;

After Dillinger was broken out of Lima

*Central National Bank And Trust Co., Greencastle, Indiana , of $74,000 on October 23, 1933;

*American Bank And Trust Co., Racine, Wisconsin , of $28,000 on November 20, 1933;

*Unity Trust And Savings Bank, Chicago, Illinois, of $8,700 on December 13, 1933;

*First National Bank, East Chicago, Indiana , of $20,000 on January 15, 1934;

After Crown Point

*Securities National Bank And Trust Co., Sioux Falls, South Dakota , of $49,500 on March 6, 1934;

*First National Bank, Mason City, Iowa , of $52,000 on March 13, 1934;

*First National Bank, Fostoria, Ohio of $17,000 on May 4, 1934;

*Merchants National Bank, South Bend, Indiana , of $29,890 on June 30, 1934.

One possibly true urban legend is that Dillinger robbed 1,000 coin bags of Peace Dollar s in December 1933.

On December 11, 1933, a member of the Dillinger gang killed San Antonio Detective Henry C. Perrow.

To obtain more supplies, the gang attacked the state police arsenals in Auburn, Indiana|Auburn and Peru, Indiana|Peru , stealing machine gun s, rifles, revolvers, ammunition and bulletproof vests. They then headed to Chicago to hide out. On December 14, 1933, gang member John "Red" Hamilton shot and killed CPD Detective William Shanley, who was following up on a tip on the gang. A month later, Dillinger, Pierpont and Hamilton led another robbery, holding up the First National Bank in East Chicago, Indiana|East Chicago , where Dillinger appeared to lose his temper and gunned down police officer William Patrick O'Malley. Dillinger was officially charged with the murder although the identity of the actual killer was debatable, and it is in question whether Dillinger participated in the robbery at all. As police began closing in again, the men left Chicago to hide out first in Florida ; later at the Gardner Hotel in El Paso, Texas , where a highly visible police presence dissuaded Dillinger from trying to cross the border at the Santa Fe Bridge in downtown El Paso to Ciudad Juárez , Mexico ; and finally in Tucson, Arizona .

On the run

A fire broke out at the Hotel Congress in Tucson where members of the Dillinger gang were staying. Forced to leave their luggage behind, they were rescued through a window and down a fire truck ladder. Charles Makley and Russell Clark tipped a couple of firemen $12 to climb back up and retrieve the luggage, affording the firefighters a good look at several members of Dillinger's gang. The firemen later recognized Makley, Pierpont, and Ed Shouse while thumbing through a copy of True Detective and informed the police, who arrested Harry Pierpont, Charles Makley, Russell Clark, Ed Shouse and Dillinger at a second hideout. Makley was the first to be arrested. Clark was the next one to be arrested at the hideout. To arrest Pierpont, the police staged a routine traffic stop and lured him to the police station, where they took him by surprise and arrested him. Dillinger was the last one to be arrested.Webb, Janet. Arizona Highways . January 8, 2006. They found them in possession of over $25,000 in cash and several automatic weapons. Tucson celebrates the historic arrest with an annual "Dillinger Days" festival, the highlight of which is a reenactment.Mori, Brian. Tucson Citizen . January 21, 2009.

The men were extradited to the Midwest - Dillinger to the Lake County Jail in Crown Point, Indiana|Crown Point for Officer O'Malley's murder in East Chicago, while the others were shanghaied to Ohio to stand trial for Sheriff Sarber's murder. Shouse's testimony at the March 1934 trials of Pierpont, Makley and Clark led to all three of the men being convicted. Pierpont and Makley received the death penalty, while Clark received a life sentence (he ultimately was released in 1968, and died of cancer a few months later).

The police boasted to area newspapers that the Crown Point jail was escape-proof and posted extra guards to make sure. What happened on the day of Dillinger's escape is still up to some debate. Deputy Ernest Blunk claimed that Dillinger had escaped using a real pistol, but FBI files make clear that Dillinger carved a fake pistol from a piece of wood. How he acquired such a thing is still subject of controversy. Sam Cahoon, the janitor that Dillinger first took hostage in the jail, believed that Dillinger had carved the gun using a razor and some shelving in his cell. However, according to an unpublished interview with Dillinger's attorney, Louis Piquett and his investigator, Art O'Leary, it was later revealed that O'Leary claims to have snuck the gun in himself. As there has been very little evidence to corroborate any one story, it seems that the truth may never fully be revealed. Dillinger's wooden pistol was modeled after a Colt .38. He tricked a guard into opening his cell, took two men hostage, used Deputy Blunk to lure the guards back to the cell block one at a time, locked them in his cell, and fled with another inmate, Herbert Youngblood. Before leaving, Dillinger ran the wooden pistol along the bars of the cell in which the people were held and cracked that he had broken their escape proof jail with nothing but a wooden gun. Dillinger stole Sheriff Lillian Holley's new Ford Motor Company|Ford car, embarrassing her and the town, and traveled to Chicago.DeBartolo, Anthony. Chicago Tribune . November 4, 1988. In so doing, he crossed the state line in a stolen car, breaking the federal Motor Vehicle Theft Act. Some Dillinger historians have remarked that this was simply an excuse for the Bureau to want to get involved in the case after Hoover had calculated the chance of success if they became involved. It seems that Dillinger's crimes before this were severe enough to merit federal interaction into the case. The crime was under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Investigation who immediately took over the Dillinger case after the car was found abandoned in Chicago. Dillinger's fellow escapee, Youngblood, went on his way, but was killed in a police shootout two weeks later.

Dillinger was indicted by a local grand jury , and the BOI organized a nationwide manhunt for him. After escaping Crown Point, Dillinger began living with his girlfriend Evelyn Frechette|Evelyn "Billie" Frechette . They proceeded to Saint Paul, Minnesota , met up with "Red" Hamilton, and mustered a new gang, adding Baby Face Nelson , Homer Van Meter , Tommy Carroll (criminal)|Tommy Carroll , Joseph Fox, Joe Burns, James Jenkins, John Paul Chase , Charles Fisher, and Eddie Green (criminal)|Eddie Green . Three days after Dillinger's escape, the gang robbed the Security National Bank and Trust Company in Sioux Falls, South Dakota , where Nelson gunned down a traffic cop through a plate-glass window with a submachine gun. A week later, they robbed the First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa . In the second robbery, Dillinger and Hamilton were both shot and wounded, but were treated shortly thereafter.

The landlord of the apartment Dillinger rented in St. Paul became suspicious and on March 30, 1934, reported his suspicions to a federal agent. The building was placed under surveillance by the federal agents who soon determined Dillinger was in the apartment. When Van Meter was questioned, he opened fire on the agents before escaping behind a closed door. The entire gang then opened fire on the agents and fled out of a back entrance before back-up could arrive. They commandeered a truck and drove to Eddie Green's home. Dillinger was wounded in the escape and required medical attention. Federal agents later closed in on the building, and the gang opened fire as they escaped and split up. Eddie Green was killed in the escape. Dillinger and his girlfriend traveled to the home of Dillinger's father in Mooresville, where they remained until the wound healed. When Frechette returned to Chicago to visit a friend, she was arrested but refused to reveal Dillinger's whereabouts.

Dillinger and Van Meter next robbed the police station in Warsaw, Indiana , stealing guns and bulletproof vest s. After separating, Dillinger picked up Hamilton, who was recovering from a wound sustained in a heist in Mason City, Iowa . The two then traveled to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan , where they remained for a short time. Upon his return to Chicago, Dillinger again ran into the law in Port Huron, Michigan following a tip that he was checking in on one of his bootlegging operations. Dillinger received a bullet to the left shoulder while avoiding capture. Dillinger received a tip that federal agents were headed there and left just days before they arrived.

Final months

Little Bohemia Lodge

In April, the Dillinger gang settled at a lodge hideout called Little Bohemia Lodge , owned by Emil Wanatka, in the northern Wisconsin town of Manitowish Waters . The gang assured the owners that they would give no trouble, but they monitored the owners whenever they left or spoke on the phone. Emil's wife Nan and her brother managed to evade Baby Face Nelson , who was tailing them, and mailed a letter of warning to a U.S. Attorney's office in Chicago, which later contacted the Division of Investigation. Days later, a score of federal agents led by Hugh Clegg and Melvin Purvis approached the lodge in the early morning hours. Two barking watchdogs announced their arrival, but the gang was so used to Nan Wanatka's dogs that they did not bother to inspect the disturbance. It was only after the federal agents mistakenly shot a local resident and two innocent Civilian Conservation Corps workers as they were about to drive away in a car that the Dillinger gang was alerted to the presence of the BOI.Toland, John. The Dillinger Days. Da Capo Press, 1995. ISBN 0-306-80626-6. Gunfire between the groups lasted only momentarily, but the whole gang managed to escape in various ways despite the agents' efforts to surround and storm the lodge. Agent W. Carter Baum was shot dead by Nelson during the gun battle. Officer Down Memorial Page . odmp.org.

The next day, Dillinger, Van Meter and Hamilton were confronted by authorities in Hastings, Minnesota in a rolling gunfight. Hamilton was mortally wounded in the encounter. He was taken by Dillinger and Van Meter to see Joseph P. Moran|Joseph Moran , though Moran refused to treat Hamilton. He died in Aurora, Illinois on April 30, 1934. Dillinger, Van Meter and members of the Alvin Karpis|Barker-Karpis gang buried him. Dillinger and Van Meter then met up with Carroll. Four days after Hamilton died, the three robbed the First National Bank of Fostoria, Ohio . Dillinger and Van Meter spent most of May living out of a red panel truck with a mattress in the back. On May 24, it is alleged that Van Meter killed two East Chicago police detectives who had tried to pull them over. On June 7, Tommy Carroll was shot and killed by police in Waterloo, Iowa . Dillinger and Van Meter reunited with Nelson a week later and went into hiding.

On June 30, Dillinger, Van Meter, Nelson, and at least one (or two) unidentified individual robbed the Merchants National Bank in South Bend, Indiana . The identity of the "fat man" has never been confirmed, although who it was has been suggested to be one of Nelson's associates, or, as suggested by Fatso Negri to the BOI, Pretty Boy Floyd . What is known is that in the robbery, Van Meter shot and killed police officer Howard Wagner as he walked towards the bank from a nearby intersection after being drawn by the sound of gunfire inside the bank. Van Meter would be shot in the head during a shootout with police that followed the robbery.

By July 1934, Dillinger had dropped completely out of sight, and the federal agents had no solid leads to follow. He had, in fact, drifted into Chicago and went under the alias of Jimmy Lawrence, a petty criminal from Wisconsin who bore a close resemblance to Dillinger's real self. Taking up a job as a clerk, Dillinger found that, in a large metropolis like Chicago, he was able to lead an anonymous existence for a while. What Dillinger did not realize was that the center of the federal agents' dragnet happened to be in Chicago. When the authorities found Dillinger's blood spattered getaway car on a Chicago side street, they were positive that he was in the city.

Cubs games

Dillinger had always been a fan of the Chicago Cubs , and instead of lying low like many criminals on the run, he continued to attend Cubs games at Wrigley Field during the months of June and July 1934.

Woman in red

Division of Investigations chief J. Edgar Hoover created a special task force headquartered in Chicago to locate Dillinger. On July 21 a madam from a brothel in Gary, Indiana , Ana Cumpanas , also known as Anna Sage, contacted the police. She was a Romanian immigrant threatened with deportation for "low moral character" and offered the federal agency information on Dillinger in exchange for their help in preventing her deportation. The agency agreed to her terms. Cumpanas told them that Dillinger was spending his time with another prostitute, Polly Hamilton, and that she and the couple would be going to see a movie together on the following day. She agreed to wear an orange dress, which is believed to have appeared red in the artificial lights of the theater, so that police could easily identify her. She was unsure which of two theaters they would be attending but told the agency their names: the Biograph and the Marbro.

A team of federal agents and officers from police forces outside Chicago was formed, along with a very few Chicago police officers. Among them was Sergeant Martin Zarkovich, to whom Sage had informed of Dillinger. Federal officials felt that the Chicago police had been compromised and could not be trusted, and Hoover and Purvis also wanted a Federal coup for their own reasons. Not chancing another embarrassing escape, the police were split into two teams. On July 22, one team was sent to the Marbro Theater on the city's west side, while another team surrounded the Biograph Theater at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue on the north side. During the stakeout, the Biograph's manager thought the agents were criminals setting up a robbery. He called the Chicago police who dutifully responded and had to be waved off by the federal agents, who told them that they were on a stakeout for an important target.

Biograph Theater and death

Dillinger attended the film Manhattan Melodrama at the Biograph Theater in Chicago's Lincoln Park, Chicago|Lincoln Park neighborhood . Dillinger was with Polly Hamilton and Ana Cumpanas. Once they determined that Dillinger was in the theater, the lead agent ( Samuel P. Cowley ) contacted J. Edgar Hoover for instructions, who recommended that they wait outside rather than risk a gun battle in a crowded theater. He also told the agents not to put themselves in harm's way and that any man could open fire on Dillinger at the first sign of resistance. When the movie let out, Special Agent Melvin Purvis stood by the front door and signaled Dillinger's exit by lighting a cigar. Both he and the other agents reported that Dillinger turned his head and looked directly at the agent as he walked by, glanced across the street, then moved ahead of his female companions, reached into his pocket but failed to extract his gun, and ran into a nearby alley. Other accounts state Dillinger ignored a command to surrender, whipped out his gun, then headed for the alley. Agents already had the alley closed off, but Dillinger was determined to shoot it out.The Story of the FBI, E.P. Dutton and Co., Inc. New York, Copyright 1947, p. 195
Agents Cowley, Charles Winstead , and Herman Hollis|Herman "Ed" Hollis opened fire, firing five shots. Dillinger was hit from behind and he fell face first to the ground. The New York Times . July 22, 1934. Two female bystanders took slight flesh wounds in the legs and buttocks by flying bullet and brick fragments. Dillinger was struck three (or four, according to some historians) times, with two bullets entering the chest, one actually nicking his heart, and the fatal shot, which entered the back of his neck and exited just under his right eye. Although three agents shot Dillinger, Winstead was believed to be the man who fired the fatal shot, and he received a personal letter of commendation from Director Hoover. An ambulance was summoned, though it was clear that Dillinger had quickly died from his gunshot wounds. At 10:50 p.m. on July 22, 1934, Dillinger was pronounced dead at Alexian Brothers Hospital. According to the investigators, Dillinger died without saying a word.May, Allan, and Marilyn Bardsley. John Dillinger: Bank Robber or Robin Hood? - Crime Library . trutv.com. There were also reports of people dipping their handkerchiefs and skirts into the blood pool that had formed as Dillinger lay in the alley in order to secure keepsakes of the entire affair. . Dillinger's body was displayed to the public at the Cook County, Illinois|Cook County morgue after his death..

Dillinger was buried at Crown Hill Cemetery (Section: 44, Lot: 94) in Indianapolis . Crown Hill Cemetery and Funeral Home . Accessed July 6, 2009. His gravestone has had to be replaced several times because of vandalism by people chipping off pieces as souvenirs. WKOW-TV . June 29, 2009. Accessed July 6, 2009.

Probable Escape

Author Jay Robert Nash in his book "the Dillinger Days" (later "the Dillinger Dosiers") maintains that Dillinger escaped death at the Biograph simply by not being there. In his stead was a "Jimmy Lawrence", a local Chicago petty criminal whose appearance was similar to Dillinger's. Nash uses evidence to show that Chicago Police officer Martin Zarkovich was instrumental in this plot. Nash theorizes that the plot unraveled when the body was found to have fingerprints that didn't match Dillinger's (the fingerprint card was missing from the Cook County Morgue for over three decades), it was too tall, the eye color was wrong, and it possessed a rheumatic heart. The F.B.I., a relatively new agency whose agents were only recently permitted to carry guns or make arrests would have fallen under heavy scrutiny, this being the third innocent man killed in pursuit of Dillinger, would have gone to great lengths to ensure a cover up. In shooting this dupe, F.B.I. men were stationed on the roof of the theater and fired downward, causing the open cuts on the face which were described through the media as "scars resulting from inept plastic surgery." The first words from Dillinger's father upon identifying the body were "that's not my boy." The body was buried under three feet of concrete and chicken wire to prevent any exhumation. Nash produces photos that were sent to Melvin Purvis just prior to his 1960 suicide (more probably an accident) along with fingerprints of Dillinger as he would appear in 1960- he was apparently living and working in California as a Machinist- under what would have been an early form of witness protection program. Although skeptics abound, no one has been able to refute Nash's theories and evidence. Jay Robert Nash, The Dillinger Dossiers, M Evans and Company, New York, 1969

Film depictions

1945: Lawrence Tierney played the title role in the first film dramatization of Dillinger's career; Dillinger (1945 film)|Dillinger .

1957: Director Don Siegel 's film Baby Face Nelson (film)|Baby Face Nelson , starred Mickey Rooney as Nelson and Leo Gordon as Dillinger.

1959: The FBI Story starring James Stewart , Jean Willes plays Anna Sage and Scott Peters plays Dillinger. Peters, a small-time actor, went uncredited in this role.

1969: Director Marco Ferreri 's film Dillinger Is Dead includes documentary footage of real John Dillinger as well as newspaper clips.

1973: Dillinger (1973 film)|Dillinger , directed and written by John Milius with Warren Oates in the title role, presents the gang in a much more sympathetic light, in keeping with the anti-hero theme popular in films after Bonnie and Clyde (film)|Bonnie and Clyde (1967).

1979: Lewis Teague directed the film The Lady in Red (1979 film)|The Lady in Red , starring Pamela Sue Martin as the eponymous lady in the red dress. However, in this film, it is Dillinger's girlfriend Polly in red, not the Romanian informant Anna Sage ( Louise Fletcher ). Sage tricks Polly into wearing red so that FBI agents can identify Dillinger ( Robert Conrad ) as he emerges from the cinema.

1991: A TV film Dillinger (1991 film)|Dillinger , starring Mark Harmon

1995: Roger Corman produced the film Dillinger and Capone , featuring Martin Sheen as Dillinger and F. Murray Abraham as Al Capone . Dillinger survives the theater stakeout when the FBI mistakenly gun down his brother and is then blackmailed by Capone into retrieving $15 million from his secret vault.

2009: Director Michael Mann (director)|Michael Mann 's film Public Enemies (2009 film)|Public Enemies is an adaptation of Bryan Burrough's book ''Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34. The film features Johnny Depp as John Dillinger and Christian Bale as FBI agent Melvin Purvis , but is inaccurate in some major historical details, such as the timeline of deaths of key criminal figures including Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson .

2012: British actor Alexander Ellis portrays Dillinger in the first Dollar Baby screen adaptation of Stephen King's The Death of Jack Hamilton . .

Copyright Citations

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