John
Dillinger
During the 1930s
Depression, many Americans, nearly helpless against
forces they didn't understand, made heroes of outlaws
who took what they wanted at gunpoint. Of all the lurid
desperadoes, one man, John Herbert Dillinger, came
to evoke this Gangster Era, and stirred mass emotion
to a degree rarely seen in this country.
Dillinger,
whose name once dominated the headlines, was a brutal
thief and a cold-blooded murderer. From September,
1933, until July, 1934, he and his violent gang terrorized
the Midwest, killing 10 men, wounding 7 others, robbing
banks and police arsenals, and staging 3 jail breaks
-- killing a sheriff during one and wounding 2 guards
in another.
John
Herbert Dillinger was born on June 22, 1903, in the
Oak Hill section of Indianapolis, a middle-class residential
neighborhood. His father, a hardworking grocer, raised
him in an atmosphere of disciplinary extremes, harsh
and repressive on some occasions, but generous and
permissive on others. John's mother died when he was
three, and when his father remarried six years later,
John resented his stepmother.
In
adolescence, the flaws in his bewildering personality
became evident and he was frequently in trouble. Finally,
he quit school and got a job in a machine shop in Indianapolis.
Although intelligent and a good worker, he soon became
bored and often stayed out all night. His father, worried
that the temptations of the city were corrupting his
teenaged son, sold his property in Indianapolis and
moved his family to a farm near Mooresville, Indiana.
However, John reacted no better to rural life than
he had to that in the city and soon began to run wild
again.
A
break with his father and trouble with the law (auto
theft) led him to enlist in the Navy. There he soon
got into trouble and deserted his ship when it docked
in Boston. Returning to Mooresville, he married 16-year-old
Beryl Hovius in 1924. A dazzling dream of bright lights
and excitement led the newlyweds to Indianapolis. Dillinger
had no luck finding work in the city and joined the
town pool shark, Ed Singleton, in his search for easy
money. In their first attempt, they tried to rob a
Mooresville grocer, but were quickly apprehended. Singleton
pleaded not guilty, stood trial, and was sentenced
to two years. Dillinger, following his father's advice,
confessed, was convicted of assault and battery with
intent to rob, and conspiracy to commit a felony, and
received joint sentences of 2 to 14 years and 10 to
20 years in the Indiana State Prison. Stunned by the
harsh sentence, Dillinger became a tortured, bitter
man in prison.
His
period of infamy began on May 10, 1933, when he was
paroled from prison after serving 8 1/2 years of his
sentence. Almost immediately, Dillinger robbed a bank
in Bluffton, Ohio. Dayton police arrested him on September
22, and he was lodged in the county jail in Lima, Ohio,
to await trial.
In
frisking Dillinger, the Lima police found a document
which seemed to be a plan for a prison break, but the
prisoner denied knowledge of any plan. Four days later,
using the same plans, eight of Dillinger's friends
escaped from the Indiana State Prison, using shotguns
and rifles which had been smuggled into their cells.
During their escape, they shot two guards.
On
October 12, three of the escaped prisoners and a parolee
from the same prison showed up at the Lima jail where
Dillinger was incarcerated. They told the sheriff that
they had come to return Dillinger to the Indiana State
Prison for violation of his parole.
When
the sheriff asked to see their credentials, one of
the men pulled a gun, shot the sheriff and beat him
into unconsciousness. Then taking the keys to the jail,
the bandits freed Dillinger, locked the sheriff's wife
and a deputy in a cell, and leaving the sheriff to
die on the floor, made their getaway.
Although
none of these men had violated a Federal law, the FBI's
assistance was requested in identifying and locating
the criminals. The four men were identified as Harry
Pierpont, Russell Clark, Charles Makley, and Harry
Copeland. Their fingerprint cards in the FBI Identification
Division were flagged with red metal tags, indicating
that they were wanted.
Meanwhile,
Dillinger and his gang pulled several bank robberies.
They also plundered the police arsenals at Auburn,
Indiana, and Peru, Indiana, stealing several machine
guns, rifles, and revolvers, a quantity of ammunition,
and several bulletproof vests. On December 14, John
Hamilton, a Dillinger gang member, shot and killed
a police detective in Chicago. A month later, the Dillinger
gang killed a police officer during the robbery of
the First National Bank of East Chicago, Indiana. Then
they made their way to Florida and, subsequently, to
Tucson, Arizona. There on January 23, 1934, a fire
broke out in the hotel where Clark and Makley were
hiding under assumed names. Firemen recognized the
men from their photographs, and local police arrested
them, as well as Dillinger and Harry Pierpont. They
also seized 3 Thompson submachine guns, 2 Winchester
rifles mounted as machine guns, 5 bulletproof vests,
and more than $25,000 in cash, part of it from the
East Chicago robbery.
Dillinger
was sequestered at the county jail in Crown Point,
Indiana, to await trial for the murder of the East
Chicago police officer. Authorities boasted that the
jail was "escape proof." But on March 3,
1934, Dillinger cowed the guards with what he claimed
later was a wooden gun he had whittled. He forced them
to open the door to his cell, then grabbed two machine
guns, locked up the guards and several trustees, and
fled.
It
was then that Dillinger made the mistake that would
cost him his life. He stole the sheriff's car and drove
across the Indiana-Illinois line, heading for Chicago.
By doing that, he violated the National Motor Vehicle
Theft Act, which made it a Federal offense to transport
a stolen motor vehicle across a state line.
A
Federal complaint was sworn charging Dillinger with
the theft and interstate transportation of the sheriff's
car, which was recovered in Chicago. After the grand
jury returned an indictment, the FBI became actively
involved in the nationwide search for Dillinger.
Meanwhile,
Pierpont, Makley, and Clark were returned to Ohio and
convicted of the murder of the Lima sheriff. Pierpont
and Makley were sentenced to death, and Clark to life
imprisonment. But in an escape attempt, Makley was
killed and Pierpont was wounded. A month later, Pierpont
had recovered sufficiently to be executed.
In
Chicago, Dillinger joined his girlfriend, Evelyn Frechette.
They proceeded to St. Paul, where Dillinger teamed
up with Homer Van Meter, Lester ("Baby Face Nelson")
Gillis, Eddie Green, and Tommy Carroll, among others.
The gang's business prospered as they continued robbing
banks of large amounts of money.
Then
on March 30, 1934, an Agent talked to the manager of
the Lincoln Court Apartments in St. Paul, who reported
two suspicious tenants, Mr. and Mrs. Hellman, who acted
nervous and refused to admit the apartment caretaker.
The FBI began a surveillance of the Hellman's apartment.
The next day, an Agent and a police officer knocked
on the door of the apartment. Evelyn Frechette opened
the door, but quickly slammed it shut. The Agent called
for reinforcements to surround the building.
While
waiting, the Agents saw a man enter a hall near the
Hellman's apartment. When questioned, the man, Homer
Van Meter, drew a gun. Shots were exchanged, during
which Van Meter fled the building and forced a truck
driver at gunpoint to drive him to Green's apartment.
Suddenly the door of the Hellman apartment opened and
the muzzle of a machine gun began spraying the hallway
with lead. Under cover of the machine gun fire, Dillinger
and Evelyn Frechette fled through a back door. They,
too, drove to Green's apartment, where Dillinger was
treated for a bullet wound received in the escape.
At
the Lincoln Court Apartments, the FBI found a Thompson
submachine gun with the stock removed, two automatic
rifles, one .38 caliber Colt automatic with twenty-shot
magazine clips, and two bulletproof vests. Across town,
other Agents located one of Eddie Green's hideouts
where he and Bessie Skinner had been living as "Mr.
and Mrs. Stephens." On April 3, when Green was
located, he attempted to draw his gun, but was shot
by the Agents. He died in a hospital eight days later.
Dillinger
and Evelyn Frechette fled to Mooresville, Indiana,
where they stayed with his father and half-brother
until his wound healed. Then Frechette went to Chicago
to visit a friend--and was arrested by the FBI. She
was taken to St. Paul for trial on a charge of conspiracy
to harbor a fugitive. She was convicted, fined $1,000,
and sentenced to two years in prison. Bessie Skinner,
Eddie Green's girlfriend, got 15 months on the same
charge.
Meanwhile,
Dillinger and Van Meter robbed a police station at
Warsaw, Indiana, of guns and bulletproof vests. Dillinger
stayed for awhile in Upper Michigan, departing just
ahead of a posse of FBI Agents dispatched there by
airplane. Then the FBI received a tip that there had
been a sudden influx of rather suspicious guests at
the summer resort of Little Bohemia Lodge, about 50
miles north of Rhinelander, Wisconsin. One of them
sounded like John Dillinger and another like "Baby
Face Nelson."
From
Rhinelander, an FBI task force set out by car for Little
Bohemia. Two of the rented cars broke down enroute,
and, in the uncommonly cold April weather, some of
the Agents had to make the trip standing on the running
boards of the other cars. Two miles from the resort,
the car lights were turned off and the posse proceeded
through the darkness. When the cars reached the resort,
dogs began barking. The Agents spread out to surround
the lodge and as they approached, machine gun fire
rattled down on them from the roof. Swiftly, the Agents
took cover. One of them hurried to a telephone to give
directions to additional Agents who had arrived in
Rhinelander to back up the operation.
While
the Agent was telephoning, the operator broke in to
tell him there was trouble at another cottage about
two miles away. Special Agent W. Carter Baum, another
FBI man, and a constable went there and found a parked
car which the constable recognized as belonging to
a local resident. They pulled up and identified themselves.
Inside the
other car, "Baby Face Nelson" was holding
three local residents at gunpoint. He turned, leveled
a revolver at the lawmen's car, and ordered them to
step out. But without waiting for them to comply, Nelson
opened fire. Baum was killed, and the constable and
the other Agent were severely wounded. Nelson jumped
into the Ford they had been using and fled.
When
the firing had subsided at the Little Bohemia Lodge,
Dillinger was gone. When the Agents entered the lodge
the next morning, they found only three frightened
females. Dillinger and five others had fled through
a back window before the Agents surrounded the house.
In
Washington, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover assigned Special
Agent Samuel A. Cowley to head the FBI's investigative
efforts against Dillinger. Cowley set up headquarters
in Chicago, where he and Melvin Purvis, Special Agent
in Charge of the Chicago office, planned their strategy.
A squad of Agents under Cowley worked with East Chicago
policemen in tracking down all tips and rumors.
Late
in the afternoon of Saturday, July 21, 1934, the madam
of a brothel in Gary, Indiana, contacted one of the
police officers with information. This woman called
herself Anna Sage, however, her real name was Ana Cumpanas,
and she had entered the United States from her native
Rumania in 1914. Because of the nature of her profession,
she was considered an undesirable alien by the Immigration
and Naturalization Service, and deportation proceedings
had been started. Anna was willing to sell the FBI
some information about Dillinger for a cash reward,
plus the FBI's help in preventing her deportation.
At
a meeting with Anna, Cowley and Purvis were cautious.
They promised her the reward if her information led
to Dillinger's capture, but said all they could do
was call her cooperation to the attention of the Department
of Labor, which at that time handled deportation matters.
Satisfied, Anna told the Agents that a girlfriend of
hers, Polly Hamilton, had visited her establishment
with Dillinger. Anna had recognized Dillinger from
a newspaper photograph.
Anna
told the Agents that she, Polly Hamilton, and Dillinger
probably would be going to the movies the following
evening at either the Biograph or the Marbro Theaters.
She said that she would notify them when the theater
was chosen. She also said that she would wear a red
dress so that they could identify her.
On
Sunday, July 22, Cowley ordered all Agents of the Chicago
office to stand by for urgent duty. Anna Sage called
that evening to confirm the plans, but she still did
not know which theater they would attend. Therefore,
Agents and policemen were sent to both theaters. At
8:30 p.m., Anna Sage, John Dillinger, and Polly Hamilton
strolled into the Biograph Theater to see Clark Gable
in "Manhattan Melodrama." Purvis phoned Cowley,
who shifted the other men from the Marbro to the Biograph.
Cowley
also phoned Hoover for instructions. Hoover cautioned
them to wait outside rather than risk a shooting match
inside the crowded theater. Each man was instructed
not to unnecessarily endanger himself and was told
that if Dillinger offered any resistance, it would
be each man for himself.
At
10:30 p.m., Dillinger, with his two female companions
on either side, walked out of the theater and turned
to his left. As they walked past the doorway in which
Purvis was standing, Purvis lit a cigar as a signal
for the other men to close in. Dillinger quickly realized
what was happening and acted by instinct. He grabbed
a pistol from his right trouser pocket as he ran toward
the alley. Five shots were fired from the guns of three
FBI Agents. Three of the shots hit Dillinger and he
fell face down on the pavement. At 10:50 p.m. on July
22, 1934, John Dillinger was pronounced dead in a little
room in the Alexian Brothers Hospital.
The
Agents who fired at Dillinger were Charles B. Winstead,
Clarence O. Hurt, and Herman E. Hollis. Each man was
commended by J. Edgar Hoover for fearlessness and courageous
action. None of them ever said who actually killed
Dillinger. The events of that sultry July night in
Chicago marked the beginning of the end of the Gangster
Era. Eventually, 27 persons were convicted in Federal
courts on charges of harboring, and aiding and abetting
John Dillinger and his cronies during their reign of
terror. "Baby Face Nelson" was fatally wounded
on November 27, 1934, in a gun battle with FBI Agents
in which Special Agents Cowley and Hollis also were
killed. Dillinger
was buried in Crown Point Cemetery in Indianapolis,
Indiana.
TOP OF PAGE