DILLINGERS ROOTS:
John Herbert Dillinger was born on June 22, 1903 in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father was a stern grocer and tried without success to curb his son’s restless and aggressive nature. Young John was very intelligent and loved to read and was an avid baseball fan.
He became a dropout and got into trouble with the law for stealing a car and enlisted in the U.S. Navy to avoid going to jail. John went AWOL within three months and returned home and married a 16 year old girl and made a minor attempt to work in Indianapolis but fell in with a bad crowd.
THE GREAT DEPRESSION:
It was during this period of time in American history that gangsters like Dillinger thrived. Work was scarce, the stock market had crashed and crop prices were at an all-time low. John Dillinger committed his first major felony in1924 by taking part in an armed robbery and was caught and made an example of.
John received a sentence of 2-14 years and 10-20 years in the Indiana State Prison. He actually served eight 1/2 years in prison but it was during his incarceration that his attitude bittered and he truly became a hardened criminal. He met other like minded people in prison and made plans to form a gang and specialize in bank robbery.
THE DILLINGER GANGS CRIME SPREE BEGINS:
In May of 1933 Dillinger was paroled from prison and promptly robbed a bank in Ohio and was caught, jailed, and awaiting trial. While awaiting trial, four of his jailhouse friends escaped from prison and arrived in Ohio and broke Dillinger out of jail, killing a law enforcement officer in the process.
The gang then went on a crime spree, robbing several more banks, and raiding police arsenals in Auburn, and Peru, Indiana. The gang went to Chicago and robbed the First National Bank of East Chicago and during this splurge of crime several police officers were gunned down by the gang.
The gang had attracted much national acclaim and had their pictures plastered all over the nations newspapers. People suffering from hard economic times came to view these cold-hearted killers as folk heroes. In January of 1934 Dillinger and gang hiding out in Arizona were recognized and captured during a hotel fire.
DILLINGERS FAMOUS WOODEN-GUN ESCAPE:
Dillinger’s gang was decimated and only Dillinger would escape to continue his famous exploits. He was locked up in the Crown Point Jail in Indiana. The jail was reputed to be escape proof, but John Dillinger would soon prove that a boastful claim.
In March of 1934 Dillinger planned a daring escape by somehow whittling a block of wood to resemble a gun and painted it black with shoe polish. He made his fast escape in a stolen car and made a fatal mistake by doing so. By crossing state lines in a stolen car he had committed a Federal Offence and his case took the notice of the FBI.
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIONS:
F.B.I Director J. Edgar Hoover was determined to end the career of Dillinger and bring his string of bank heists and murders to a screeching halt. Dillinger had assembled an even more desperate and deadly gang which even included part-time affiliations with “Baby Face Nelson”, and “Pretty Boy Floyd.”
Hoover assigned special agent Samuel Cowley to lead the campaign against Dillinger. Cowley teamed up with Melvin Purvis who was in charge of the Chicago office. The Dillinger gang continued their daring robberies and the body count mounted. Purvis knew the only way to bring Dillinger down was by relying on greed and betrayal.
THE LADY IN RED:
The reward for John Dillinger was huge and Melvin Purvis finally got his hands on somebody close to Dillinger in the person of prostitute Anna Cumpanas (alias Anna Sage) who was having immigration issues due to her undesirable profession.
She was the friend of John’s girlfriend Polly Hamilton and agreed to help set Dillinger up in exchange for help with her legal problems. On the evening of Sunday, July 22nd 1934 Anna told F.B.I agents the whereabouts of Dillinger .
Anna agreed to wear a bright colored dress to help agents recognize them and as Dillinger, Polly, and Anna exited the Biograph Theatre, agents surrounded the trio and being startled by the sudden approach of armed men, Dillinger went for his weapon out of instinct and was riddled with bullets.
PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE:
The F.B.I’s most feared and hunted fugitive John Dillinger was dead, but not before his gang had robbed and stole thousands and thousands of bank dollars and had been responsible for the deaths of at least ten men. In the end he had been betrayed by an immigrant prostitute who was eventually deported back to her native Romania.
Dillinger’s death ended an era of depression time bank robbing gangs who terrorized the country with hopes of easy money and excitement. But the F.B.I made a bold statement that these so-called “Folk Heroes” and murderers would not be tolerated.
For more on the life & times of Dillinger visit TRUTV.COM
And also visit the FBI Gov history site
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