1934 : Dillinger gunned down
Outside Chicago's Biograph Theatre, notorious criminal John
Dillinger--America's "Public Enemy No. 1"--is killed in a hail of
bullets fired by federal agents. In a fiery bank-robbing career that
lasted just over a year, Dillinger and his associates robbed 11 banks
for more than $300,000, broke jail and narrowly escaped capture
multiple times, and killed seven police officers and three federal
agents.
John Dillinger was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1903. A juvenile
delinquent, he was arrested in 1924 after a botched mugging. He
pleaded guilty, hoping for clemency, but was sentenced to 10 to 20
years at Pendleton Reformatory. While in prison, he made several
failed escapes and was adopted by a group of professional bank robbers
led by Harry Pierpont, who taught him the ways of their trade. When
his friends were transferred to Indiana's tough Michigan City Prison,
he requested to be transferred there too.
In May 1933, Dillinger was paroled, and he met up with accomplices of
Pierpont. Dillinger's plan was to raise enough funds to finance a
prison break by Pierpont and the others, who then would take him on as
a member of their elite robbery gang. In four months, Dillinger and
his gang robbed four Indiana and Ohio banks, two grocery stores, and a
drug store for a total of more than $40,000. He gained notoriety as a
sharply dressed and athletic gunman who at one bank leapt over the
high teller railing into the vault.
With the help of two of Pierpont's women friends, Dillinger set up the
jailbreak. Guns were bought and arranged to be smuggled into Michigan
City Prison. Prison workers were bribed, and a safe house was set up.
On September 22, however, just days before the jailbreak was scheduled
to occur, Dillinger was arrested in Dayton, Ohio. Four days later,
Pierpont and nine others broke out of Michigan City. Pierpont's gang
robbed a bank in Ohio for $11,000 and on October 12 came to Ohio to
free Dillinger from the Lima city jail. The Lima sheriff was killed
during the successful breakout. On October 30, the gang robbed a
police arsenal, acquiring weapons, ammunition, and bulletproof vests.
The Pierpont/Dillinger gang robbed banks in Indiana, Wisconsin, and
Chicago for more than $130,000, a great fortune in the Depression era,
and eluded the police in several close encounters. In January 1934,
the gang headed to Tucson, Arizona, to lay low. By this time, four
police officers had been killed and two wounded, and the Chicago
police had established an elite squad to track down the fugitives.
They were recognized in Tucson and on January 25 captured without
bloodshed.
Dillinger was extradited to Indiana, arraigned for his January 15
murder of Indiana police officer William Patrick O'Malley, and held at
Crown Point prison. On March 3, while still awaiting trial, he
executed his most celebrated escape. That morning, he brandished a gun
and methodically began locking up the prison officials. The legend is
that the weapon was a wooden gun carved by Dillinger and blackened
with shoe polish, but it may also have been a real gun smuggled into
the prison by an associate. Whatever the case, Dillinger raided the
prison arsenal, where he found two sub-machine guns, and then enlisted
the aid of another prisoner, an African American man named Herbert
Youngblood. Dillinger and Youngblood then made their way to the prison
garage, where they stole a sheriff's car and calmly drove off--after
pulling the ignition wires from the other vehicles parked there.
Parting ways with Youngblood, Dillinger traveled to Chicago and formed
a new gang featuring "Baby Face" Nelson, a psychopathic killer who
used to work for Al Capone. The new Dillinger gang robbed banks in
South Dakota and Iowa, netting $101,500 and wounding two more police
officers. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) joined the manhunt
for Dillinger after he escaped from Crown Point, and on March 31 two
FBI agents closed in on him at an apartment in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Dillinger and an accomplice shot their way out.
In April, the Dillinger gang went to hide out at a resort in
Wisconsin, but the FBI was tipped off. On April 22, the FBI stormed
the resort. In a disastrous operation, three civilians were mistakenly
shot by the FBI, one of whom died; Baby Face Nelson killed one agent,
shot another, and critically wounded a police officer; the entire
Dillinger gang escaped.
With two other gang members, Dillinger traveled to Chicago, surviving
a shoot-out with Minnesota police along the way. In Chicago, he lived
in a safe house and got a facelift to conceal his identity. At some
point, he also used acid to burn off his fingerprints. On June 30, he
participated in his last robbery, in South Bend, Indiana. The gang got
away with about $30,000 at the cost of one officer killed, four
civilians shot, and one gang member shot.
In July, Anna Sage, a Romanian-born brothel madam in Chicago and
friend of Dillinger's, agreed to cooperate with the FBI in exchange
for leniency in an upcoming deportation hearing. She also hoped to
cash in on the $10,000 bounty that had been put on his head. On July
22, Sage and Dillinger went to see the gangster movie Manhattan
Melodrama at the Biograph Theatre around the corner from her house.
Twenty FBI agents and police officers staked out the theater and
waited for him to emerge with Sage, who would be wearing an orange
dress to identify herself.
At 10:40 p.m., Dillinger came out. Sage's orange dress looked red
under the Biograph's lights, which would earn her the nickname "the
lady in red." Dillinger was ordered to surrender, but he took off
running. He made it as far as an alley at the end of the block before
he was gunned down, allegedly because he pulled a gun. Two bystanders
were wounded in the gunfire. Public Enemy No. 1, as FBI Director J.
Edgar Hoover had deemed him, was dead.
Some researchers have claimed that another man, not Dillinger, was
killed outside the Biograph, citing autopsy findings on the corpse
that allegedly contradict Dillinger's known medical record.
history.com/tdih.do
1916 : The Preparedness Day bombing
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5198
1933 : Wiley Post flies solo around the world
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5199
2003 : Qusay and Uday Hussein killed
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6966
#########################################
Outside Chicago's Biograph Theatre, notorious criminal John
Dillinger--America's "Public Enemy No. 1"--is killed in a hail of
bullets fired by federal agents. In a fiery bank-robbing career that
lasted just over a year, Dillinger and his associates robbed 11 banks
for more than $300,000, broke jail and narrowly escaped capture
multiple times, and killed seven police officers and three federal
agents.
John Dillinger was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1903. A juvenile
delinquent, he was arrested in 1924 after a botched mugging. He
pleaded guilty, hoping for clemency, but was sentenced to 10 to 20
years at Pendleton Reformatory. While in prison, he made several
failed escapes and was adopted by a group of professional bank robbers
led by Harry Pierpont, who taught him the ways of their trade. When
his friends were transferred to Indiana's tough Michigan City Prison,
he requested to be transferred there too.
In May 1933, Dillinger was paroled, and he met up with accomplices of
Pierpont. Dillinger's plan was to raise enough funds to finance a
prison break by Pierpont and the others, who then would take him on as
a member of their elite robbery gang. In four months, Dillinger and
his gang robbed four Indiana and Ohio banks, two grocery stores, and a
drug store for a total of more than $40,000. He gained notoriety as a
sharply dressed and athletic gunman who at one bank leapt over the
high teller railing into the vault.
With the help of two of Pierpont's women friends, Dillinger set up the
jailbreak. Guns were bought and arranged to be smuggled into Michigan
City Prison. Prison workers were bribed, and a safe house was set up.
On September 22, however, just days before the jailbreak was scheduled
to occur, Dillinger was arrested in Dayton, Ohio. Four days later,
Pierpont and nine others broke out of Michigan City. Pierpont's gang
robbed a bank in Ohio for $11,000 and on October 12 came to Ohio to
free Dillinger from the Lima city jail. The Lima sheriff was killed
during the successful breakout. On October 30, the gang robbed a
police arsenal, acquiring weapons, ammunition, and bulletproof vests.
The Pierpont/Dillinger gang robbed banks in Indiana, Wisconsin, and
Chicago for more than $130,000, a great fortune in the Depression era,
and eluded the police in several close encounters. In January 1934,
the gang headed to Tucson, Arizona, to lay low. By this time, four
police officers had been killed and two wounded, and the Chicago
police had established an elite squad to track down the fugitives.
They were recognized in Tucson and on January 25 captured without
bloodshed.
Dillinger was extradited to Indiana, arraigned for his January 15
murder of Indiana police officer William Patrick O'Malley, and held at
Crown Point prison. On March 3, while still awaiting trial, he
executed his most celebrated escape. That morning, he brandished a gun
and methodically began locking up the prison officials. The legend is
that the weapon was a wooden gun carved by Dillinger and blackened
with shoe polish, but it may also have been a real gun smuggled into
the prison by an associate. Whatever the case, Dillinger raided the
prison arsenal, where he found two sub-machine guns, and then enlisted
the aid of another prisoner, an African American man named Herbert
Youngblood. Dillinger and Youngblood then made their way to the prison
garage, where they stole a sheriff's car and calmly drove off--after
pulling the ignition wires from the other vehicles parked there.
Parting ways with Youngblood, Dillinger traveled to Chicago and formed
a new gang featuring "Baby Face" Nelson, a psychopathic killer who
used to work for Al Capone. The new Dillinger gang robbed banks in
South Dakota and Iowa, netting $101,500 and wounding two more police
officers. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) joined the manhunt
for Dillinger after he escaped from Crown Point, and on March 31 two
FBI agents closed in on him at an apartment in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Dillinger and an accomplice shot their way out.
In April, the Dillinger gang went to hide out at a resort in
Wisconsin, but the FBI was tipped off. On April 22, the FBI stormed
the resort. In a disastrous operation, three civilians were mistakenly
shot by the FBI, one of whom died; Baby Face Nelson killed one agent,
shot another, and critically wounded a police officer; the entire
Dillinger gang escaped.
With two other gang members, Dillinger traveled to Chicago, surviving
a shoot-out with Minnesota police along the way. In Chicago, he lived
in a safe house and got a facelift to conceal his identity. At some
point, he also used acid to burn off his fingerprints. On June 30, he
participated in his last robbery, in South Bend, Indiana. The gang got
away with about $30,000 at the cost of one officer killed, four
civilians shot, and one gang member shot.
In July, Anna Sage, a Romanian-born brothel madam in Chicago and
friend of Dillinger's, agreed to cooperate with the FBI in exchange
for leniency in an upcoming deportation hearing. She also hoped to
cash in on the $10,000 bounty that had been put on his head. On July
22, Sage and Dillinger went to see the gangster movie Manhattan
Melodrama at the Biograph Theatre around the corner from her house.
Twenty FBI agents and police officers staked out the theater and
waited for him to emerge with Sage, who would be wearing an orange
dress to identify herself.
At 10:40 p.m., Dillinger came out. Sage's orange dress looked red
under the Biograph's lights, which would earn her the nickname "the
lady in red." Dillinger was ordered to surrender, but he took off
running. He made it as far as an alley at the end of the block before
he was gunned down, allegedly because he pulled a gun. Two bystanders
were wounded in the gunfire. Public Enemy No. 1, as FBI Director J.
Edgar Hoover had deemed him, was dead.
Some researchers have claimed that another man, not Dillinger, was
killed outside the Biograph, citing autopsy findings on the corpse
that allegedly contradict Dillinger's known medical record.
history.com/tdih.do
1916 : The Preparedness Day bombing
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5198
1933 : Wiley Post flies solo around the world
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5199
2003 : Qusay and Uday Hussein killed
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6966
#########################################
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