John Herbert Dillinger ( ; June 22, 1903 - July 22, 1934) was an American gangster in the era of the United States Depression. He operates with a group of people known as the Dillinger Gang or Gang Teror, who is accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations, among other activities. Dillinger escaped from jail twice. He was also accused, but never convicted, of the murder of an East Chicago police officer, Indiana, who shot Dillinger in a bulletproof vest during an exchange of fire, so he shot back; Despite his hatred, it was just the cost of Dillinger's murder.
He wooed publicity and the media in his time running an excessive account of his courage and colorful personality, setting himself up as a Robin Hood figure. In response, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover developed a more sophisticated Bureau as a weapon against organized crime, using Dillinger and his gang as his campaign platform.
After dodging the police in four states for almost a year, Dillinger was injured and returned to his father's home to recover. He returned to Chicago in July 1934 and met his death at the hands of police and federal agents who were told of his existence by Ana Cump? Na? (the brothel owner where Dillinger sought refuge at the time). On July 22, 1934, police and the Investigation Division concluded at Biograph Theater. The federal agency, led by Melvin Purvis and Samuel P. Cowley, moved to capture Dillinger when he was out of the theater. He pulled the Model Vest Colt 1908 Pocket and tried to escape, but was killed. This is ruled as a justifiable killing.
Early life
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John Dillinger was born on June 22, 1903, in Indianapolis, Indiana, who is younger than two children born to John Wilson Dillinger (1864-1943) and Mary Ellen "Mollie" Lancaster (1860-1907).
According to some biographers, his German grandfather, Matthias Dillinger, emigrated to the United States in 1851 from Metz, in the Lorraine region, then under French sovereignty. Matthias Dillinger was born in Gisingen, near Dillingen in the current Saarland state of Germany. Parents John Dillinger was married on August 23, 1887. Dillinger's father was a wholesaler with trade and, reportedly, a rude person. In an interview with reporters, Dillinger says that he is firm in his discipline and believes in the saying "keep the stick and spoil the child".
Dillinger's sister, Audrey, was born March 6, 1889. Their mother died in 1907 just before her fourth birthday. Audrey married Emmett "Fred" Hancock that year and they had seven children together. She took care of her brother John for several years until their father remarried in 1912 to Elizabeth "Lizzie" Fields (1878-1933). They have three children, Hubert, born 1912, Doris M. (1918-2001) and Frances Dillinger (1922-2015).
Reportedly, Dillinger initially disliked his stepmother, but eventually he fell in love with her. The two eventually start a relationship that lasts 3 years.
Formative and marriage year
As a teenager, Dillinger was often in trouble with the law because of fights and petty thefts; he is also known for his "confusing personality" and the intimidation of smaller children. He quit school to work at an Indianapolis machine shop. His father was afraid that the city was destroying his son, prompting him to move his family to Mooresville, Indiana in 1921. Wild behavior and Dillinger's rebellion had not changed, despite his new rural life. In 1922, he was arrested for car theft, and his relationship with his father deteriorated.
His troubles led him to the United States Navy, where he was a Class 3 Petty Engine Officer assigned to the USSÃ warship, Utah, but he left a few months later when his ship docked in Boston.. He was finally dismissed in disrespect.
Dillinger then returns to Mooresville where he meets Beryl Ethel Hovious. Both married on 12 April 1924. He tried to stay, but he had difficulty in holding a job and preserving his marriage.
Dillinger could not find a job and started plotting a robbery with his friend Ed Singleton. Both robbed a local grocery store, stealing $ 50. When leaving the scene, the criminals 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 after Dillinger's father (local Mooresville Church deacon) discussed the matter with Morgan County prosecutor Omar O'Harrow, his father convinced Dillinger to plead guilty and plead guilty without defending the defense lawyer. Dillinger was convicted of attacks and batteries with intent to rob, and a conspiracy to commit crimes. He expects a soft sentence for probation as a result of his father's discussions with O'Harrow, but instead is sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison for his crimes. His father told reporters he regretted his advice and was shocked by the sentence. He begged the judge to shorten the sentence, but to no avail. (During the robbery, Dillinger has hit the victim on the head with a bolt of machine wrapped in a cloth and also carrying a gun which, though released, does not hit anyone). On his way to Mooresville to testify against Singleton, Dillinger escaped from his captors, but was arrested within minutes. Singleton has a change of venue and was sentenced to 2 to 14 years in prison. He was killed on August 31, 1937, by train when he collapsed, drunk, on the railroad track.
Video John Dillinger
Prison time
In Indiana Reformatory and Indiana State Prison, from 1924 to 1933, Dillinger began to engage in criminal life style. After being treated in prison, he was quoted as saying, "I will be the cruelest bastard you ever see when I get out of here." His physical examination while in prison showed that he was suffering from gonorrhea. Treatment for his condition is very painful. He became miserable to the community because of his long prison sentences and befriended other criminals, such as experienced bank robbers like Harry Pierpont's "Pete", Charles Makley, Russell Clark, and Homer Van Meter, who taught Dillinger how to be a successful criminal. People plan to rob that they will commit as soon as they are released. Dillinger studied Herman Lamm's robber bank robbery system and used it extensively during his criminal career.
His father launched a campaign to free him and managed to get 188 signatures in the petition. Dillinger was released on May 10, 1933, after serving nine and a half years. Dillinger's stepmother fell ill just before he was released from prison, and died before he arrived at his home. Released at the height of the Great Depression, Dillinger has little prospect of finding work. He immediately returned to the crime.
On June 21, 1933, he robbed his first bank, taking $ 10,000 from New Carlisle National Bank, which occupies a building on the southeast corner of Main Street and Jefferson (State Routes 235 and 571) in New Carlisle, Ohio. On August 14, Dillinger robbed a bank in Bluffton, Ohio. Traced by police from Dayton, Ohio, he was arrested and then transferred to the Allen County Prison in Lima to be charged in connection with the Bluffton robbery. After searching for him before putting him in jail, the police found a document that appeared to be a prison escape plan. They demanded that Dillinger tell them what the document meant, but he refused.
Dillinger has helped draw up plans to escape from Pierpont, Clark, and six others he encounters while in prison, who mostly work in the prison laundry. Dillinger asked friends to smuggle weapons into their cells, with which they escaped, four days after Dillinger's arrest. This group, known as the "First Dillinger Gang", consists of Pete Pierpont, Russell Clark, Charles Makley, Ed Shouse, Harry Copeland, and John "Red" Hamilton, a member of Herman Lamm Gang. Pierpont, Clark, and Makley arrived in Lima on October 12, where they mimicked Indiana State Police officers, claiming they had come to extradite Dillinger to Indiana. When the sheriff, Jess Sarber, asked for his identity, Pierpont shot Sarber dead, then took Dillinger out of his cell. The four men fled back to Indiana, where they joined other gang members.
Maps John Dillinger
Bank robbery
Dillinger is known to have participated with The Dillinger Gang in twelve separate bank robberies, between June 21, 1933 and June 30, 1934.
Relationship with Evelyn Frechette
Evelyn "Billie" Frechette met John Dillinger in October 1933, and they started a relationship on 20 November. After Dillinger's death, Billie was offered money for his story and eventually wrote memoirs for the Chicago Herald and the Examiner in August 1934.
Escape from Crown Point, Indiana
Dillinger was arrested in Tucson, Arizona on January 25, 1934. He was then escorted back to Indiana by Matthew Leach, the head of the Indiana State Police, and was imprisoned at Crown Point jail sometime after a robbery at a bank located in East Chicago on January 15, 1934 Local police boasted to local newspapers that the jail missed evidence and posted extra guards to confirm it. What happened on the day of Dillinger's run on March 3 is still open for debate. Ernest Blunk's deputy claims that Dillinger has escaped with a real gun, but the FBI file makes it clear that Dillinger carved a fake gun from a potato. Sam Cahoon, a guardian who Dillinger was first held in jail, believes Dillinger had carved the gun with a razor and several shelves in his cell. However, according to an unpublished interview with Dillinger's lawyer, Louis Piquett and his investigator, Art O'Leary. O'Leary claimed to have smuggled his own weapon.
On March 16, Herbert Youngblood, a fugitive from Crown Point, was shot dead by three police officers in Port Huron, Michigan. Deputy Sheriff Charles Cavanaugh was seriously injured in the fighting and died several hours later. Before he died, Youngblood told the officer that Dillinger was in the neighborhood of Port Huron, and soon the officers began looking for the man who fled, but no trace was found. An Indiana newspaper reported that Youngblood later retracted his story and said he did not know where Dillinger was at the time, because he parted with him as soon as they escaped.
Dillinger was charged by a local jury, and the Bureau of Investigation (the predecessor of the Federal Bureau of Investigation) organized a national hunt for him. After escaping from Crown Point, Dillinger reunited with his girlfriend, Evelyn Frechette, just hours after his escape at Jane's half sister Patsy's apartment, where he also lived (3512 North Halsted).
According to Billie's court testimony, Dillinger stayed with him there for "almost two weeks", but both actually went to Twin Cities and moved to Santa Monica Apartment Unit 106, 3252 Girard Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota on March 4 ( moved on March 19) and met Hamilton (who had recovered for the last month of his gunshot wounds in East Chicago robberies), and deployed a new gang, and both joined the Nelson Face Nelson band, composed of Homer Van Meter, Tommy Carroll and Eddie Green.
Three days after Dillinger escaped from Crown Point, the second gang robbed a bank in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. A week later they robbed the First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa.
Lincoln Court Shooting
Dillinger and Billie eventually moved to apartment 303 of Lincoln Court Apartments, 93-95 South Lexington Avenue (now Lexington Parkway South) in St. Louis. Paul, Minnesota on Tuesday, March 20, using the alias "Mr. & Mrs. Carl T. Hellman". The three-storey apartment complex (still operating) has 32 apartments - 10 units on each floor, plus two basement units.
Daisy Coffey, the owner/owner, will testify at the Frechette trial that he spends most of the night in a residence apartment in Hellmans, 310, which allows him to observe what is happening in apartment 303 just across the courtyard. On March 30, Coffey went to the FBI office in St Field. Paul to file a report, including information about the couple's new Hudson sedan parked in the garage behind the apartment. The building was overseen by two agents, Rufus Coulter and Rusty Nalls, that night, but they saw nothing remarkable, mainly because of the drawn curtains.
The next morning at about 10:15, Nalls circled the block to find Hudson, but did not observe anything. He parked, first on Lincoln Avenue (north side of the apartment), then on the west side of Lexington Avenue, in the northwest corner of Lexington and Lincoln, and stayed in his car watching Coulter and the St. John's detective. Paul, Henry Cummings, drag, park, and enter the building. Ten minutes later, according to Nalls' estimates, Van Meter parked a green Ford car on the north side of the apartment building.
Meanwhile, Coulter and Cummings knocked on the door of apartment 303. Frechette replied, opening the door two to three inches. She said she was not dressed and came back. Coulter told him that they would wait. After waiting for two to three minutes, Coulter went to the underground apartment of nannies, Louis and Margaret Meidlinger, and asked to use the phone to call the bureau. He quickly returned to Cummings, and they both waited for Frechette to open the door. Van Meter then appeared in the hall and asked Coulter if his name was Johnson. Coulter said no, and when Van Meter proceeded to the third floor, Coulter asked for his name. Van Meter replied, "I am a soap dealer." Asked where the samples were, Van Meter said they were in his car. Coulter asks if he has any credentials. Van Meter said "no", and continued down the stairs. Coulter waits 10 to 20 seconds, then follows Van Meter. When Coulter reached the lobby on the ground floor, Van Meter fired at him. Coulter hurriedly ran out, chased by Van Meter. Finally, Van Meter ran back to the front door.
Recognizing Van Meter, Nalls showed Ford to Coulter and told him to disable it. Coulter shoots out the left rear tire. While Coulter lives with the Ford Van Meter, Nalls goes to a drugstore in the corner and calls the local police first, then the St. Bureau's office. Paul, but it did not work because both channels were busy. Van Meter, meanwhile, escaped by jumping on a passing coal truck.
Frechette, in testimony of his trial, said that he told Dillinger that the police had appeared after speaking with Cummings. After hearing Van Meter shoot Coulter, Dillinger fired a shot through the door with Thompson's Thompson machine gun, sending Cummings scrambling for cover. Dillinger then stepped outside and unleashed another blast at Cummings. Cummings fired back with a pistol, but quickly ran out of ammunition. He hit Dillinger on his left calf with one in five of his shots. He then retreated down the stairs to the front door. After Cummings backed down, Dillinger and Frechette raced down the stairs, out through the back door and drove off at Hudson.
The couple went to Eddie Green's apartment at 3300 Fremont Avenue South in Minneapolis. Green is called his colleague Dr. Clayton E. May in his office at 712 Masonic Temple in downtown Minneapolis (still no). With Green, his wife Beth, and Frechette follow in the Green car, Dr. May drove Dillinger to 1835 Park Avenue, Minneapolis, to Augusta Salt's apartment, which had provided May's patient care and bedding for several years, a patient he could not risk looking at in his usual office. Can treat Dillinger wound with antiseptic. Eddie Green visited Dillinger on Monday, April 2, just hours before Green would be badly hurt by the FBI at St. Paul. Dillinger healed at Dr. May for five days, until Wednesday, April 4th. Dr. May was promised $ 500 for his services, but received nothing.
Return to Mooresville
After leaving Minneapolis, Dillinger and Billie went to Mooresville to visit Dillinger's father. Friday, April 6 was spent contacting family members, especially his half-brother, Hubert Dillinger. On April 6, Hubert and Dillinger left Mooresville around 8:00 pm. and proceeded to Leipsic, Ohio (about 210 miles away), to see Joseph and Lena Pierpont, Harry's parents. Pierponts was not home, so both returned to Mooresville around midnight.
On April 7 at around 3:30, they crashed into a car driven by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Manning near Noblesville, Indiana, after Hubert fell asleep behind the wheel. They crashed into a farm fence and about 200 feet into the forest. Both men made it back to Mooresville farm. Policemen show up at the crash site in a few hours. Found in cars are maps, machine-gun magazines, a rope, and a bullwhip. According to Hubert, his brother plans to visit the bullwhip with former solicitor "shyster" one-gun in Crown Point, Joseph Ryan, who escaped with retainer after being replaced by Louis Piquett. At about 10:30 am on April 7, Billie, Hubert and Hubert's wife bought a four-door black Ford V8, registering it on behalf of Mrs Fred Penfield (Billie Frechette). At 2:30, Billie and Hubert take the V8 and return to Mooresville.
On Sunday, April 8, the Dillingers enjoy family picnics while the FBI has fields under close supervision. Later in the afternoon, suspecting them of being watched (agents J. L. Geraghty and T. J. Donegan sailing around their cars), the group went in separate cars. Billie drove a new Ford V8, with Dillinger's two nieces, Mary Hancock in the front seat and Alberta Hancock in the back. Dillinger is on the floor of the car. He was later seen, but not acknowledged, by Donegan and Geraghty. Finally, Norman, driving a V8, went on with Dillinger and Billie to Chicago, where they parted company with Norman.
The following afternoon, Monday, April 9, Dillinger had an appointment at a tavern at 416 North State Street. Feeling a problem, Billie got in first. He was immediately arrested by the agent, but refused to reveal Dillinger's whereabouts. Dillinger waits in his car outside the tavern and then goes unnoticed. Both will never meet again.
Dillinger was reported to be desperate after Billie was arrested. The other gang members tried to talk to him to save him, but Van Meter knew where they could find the bulletproof vests. That Friday morning, late at night, Dillinger and Van Meter took over Warsaw, Indiana police prisoner Judd Pittenger. They led him at gunpoint to the police station, where they stole some weapons and bulletproof vests. After parting, Dillinger picked up Hamilton, who had just recovered from Mason City robbery. The two then travel to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where they visit Hamilton's sister, Anna Steve.
Hiding in Chicago
By July 1934, Dillinger had completely disappeared from view, and the federal agent had no firm clue to follow him. He, in fact, flies to Chicago where he goes under the alias of Jimmy Lawrence, a small villain from Wisconsin who has a close resemblance to Dillinger. Working as a clerk, Dillinger found that, in a large metropolitan city like Chicago, he was able to lead anonymity for a while. What he did not realize was that the center of the federal agency 'trap was Chicago. When the authorities found a bloody Dillinger vacation car on the Chicago side of the road, they were sure that he was in town.
Dillinger has always been a fan of the Chicago Cubs, and instead of lying low like many criminals on the run, he attended Cubs matches at Wrigley Field during June and July. He is known to have been at Wrigley on Friday, June 8, just to watch his beloved Cubs lose to Cincinnati 4-3. Also present in the game are Dillinger's lawyer, Louis Piquett, and Captain John Stege of the Dillinger Squad.
Plastic surgery
According to Art O'Leary, in early March 1934, Dillinger expressed interest in plastic surgery and had asked O'Leary to check with Piquett on such matters. At the end of April, Piquett visited his old friend. Wilhelm Loeser. Loeser had been training in Chicago for 27 years before being sentenced under the Harrison Narcotic Act in 1931. He was sentenced to three years in Leavenworth, but released on 7 December 1932, with the help of Piquett. He then testified that he performed a facial surgery on himself and removed the fingerprint traces on the tips of his fingers with a caustic soda preparation application. Piquett said Dillinger had to pay $ 5,000 for plastic surgery: $ 4,400 divided between Piquett, Loeser and O'Leary, and $ 600 to Dr. Harold Cassidy, who will perform anesthesia. The procedure will take place at the home of old friend Piquett, James Probasco, 67, at the end of May.
On May 28th, Loeser was picked up at his home at 7:30 am. by O'Leary and Cassidy. The three of them then went to Probasco. Dillinger chose to have general anesthesia. Loeser then testified:
I asked him what job he wanted to do. He wants two warts (a mole) to be raised on the lower right forehead between the eye and one in the left corner, the outer corner of the left eye; wanting depression filled nose; scar; which is large to the left of the median line of the upper lip is cut, want the dimple removed and want the corner of the mouth arranged. He did not say anything about those fingers that day to me.
Cassidy was given an ether overdose, which caused Dillinger to suffocate. She started to turn blue and stop breathing. Loeser pulled Dillinger's tongue out of his mouth with a pair of pliers, and at the same time forced both elbows into his ribcage. Dillinger gasped and breathed again. The procedure is continued only with local anesthesia. Loeser picked up some moles on Dillinger's forehead, making an incision in his nose and an incision on his chin and tying his cheeks together.
Loeser meets up with Piquett again on Saturday, June 2, with Piquett saying that more work is needed on Dillinger and that Van Meter now wants the same job done to him. Also, both now want the work done at their fingertips. The price for the fingerprint procedure is $ 500 per hand or $ 100 per finger. Loeser uses a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid - commonly known as aqua regia.
Loeser meets O'Leary the following night at Clark and Wright at 8:30, and they once again go to Probasco. Coming tonight is Dillinger, Van Meter, Probasco, Piquett, Cassidy, and Peggy Doyle, Probasco's boyfriend. Loeser testified that he worked only about 30 minutes before O'Leary and Piquett left.
Loeser testified:
Cassidy and I worked on Dillinger and Van Meter simultaneously on June 3rd. While work is underway, Dillinger and Van Meter are changing. The work that can be done when the patient is seated, the patient is in the sitting room. The work to be done when the man is lying down, the patient is sitting on the couch in the bedroom. They are changed back and forth in accordance with the work to be done. Hand sterilized, made aseptic with antiseptic, washed clean with soap and water and use sterile gauze afterwards to keep it clean. Furthermore, cutting tools, knives are used to expose the bottom skin... in other words, removing the epidermis and exposing the skin, then alternately acid and alkaloids are applied as necessary to produce the desired result.
The little work was done two nights later, Tuesday, June 5th. Loeser made the first few minor corrections on Van Meter, then Dillinger. Loeser states:
A man came before I left, which I found later was Baby Face Nelson. He came with a machine gun drum under his arm, tossed it onto a bed or sofa in the bedroom, and started talking to Van Meter. The two men then signaled for Dillinger to come and the three men returned to the kitchen.
Peggy Doyle then notified the agent:
Dillinger and Van Meter stayed at Probasco's house until the last week of June 1934; that on some occasions they will leave for a day or two, sometimes leaving separately, and on other occasions together; that at this point Van Meter usually parked his car behind Probasco's residence outside the rear fence; that he gathered that Dillinger was accompanying a young woman living on the north side of Chicago, insofar as he stated he would leave Probasco's home that he would go to Diversey Boulevard; that Van Meter apparently did not know Dillinger's friend, and he heard him warn Dillinger to be careful about attacking acquaintances with girls he did not know; that Dillinger and Van Meter usually keep machine guns in open crates under the piano in the living room; that they also keep a gun under the living room table.
O'Leary states that Dillinger expressed dissatisfaction with the work Loeser did to her face. O'Leary said that, on another occasion, "that Probasco told him, 'the bastard has come out for one of his journeys', that he does not know when he will return, that Probasco is babbling about Dillinger's madness, stating that he always goes for a walk and will likely lead the authorities to find the place where he lives, that Probasco honestly expressed on this occasion that he was afraid of having that person. "
The agency captured Loeser at 1127 South Harvey, Oak Park, Illinois, on Tuesday, July 24. O'Leary returned from a family fishing trip on July 24, the day of Loeser's arrest, and had read in the newspaper that the Justice Department was looking for two doctors and other men in connection with some of the plastic work done on Dillinger. O'Leary left Chicago immediately, but returned two weeks later, knowing that Loeser and the others had been arrested, called Piquett, who assured him that everything was okay, then left again. He's back from St. Louis on August 25 and immediately taken into custody.
On Friday, July 27, Jimmy Probasco jumped or "accidentally" fell to his death from the 19th floor of the Bankers' Building in Chicago while in detention. On Thursday, August 23, Homer Van Meter was shot and killed in a blind alley in St. Petersburg. Paul by Tom Brown, former Police Captain St. Paul, and then head, Frank Cullen.
Polly Hamilton, Dillinger's last girlfriend
Rita "Polly" Hamilton is a teenage escapee from Fargo, North Dakota. He met Ana Ivanova Akalieva in Gary, Indiana, and worked periodically as a prostitute at Anna's brothel until she married policeman Gary Roy O. Keele in 1929. They divorced in March 1933.
In the summer of 1934, Hamilton, now twenty-six, was a waitress in Chicago at S & amp; S Sandwich Shop located at 1209 Ã, ½ Wilson Avenue. He remained friends with the Sage and shared living space with Sage and the twenty-four-year-old son of Sage, Steve, at 2858 Clark Street.
Dillinger and Hamilton, like Billie Frechette, met in June 1934 at the Barrel of Fun night club located at 4541 Wilson Avenue. Dillinger introduces himself as Jimmy Lawrence and says he is an employee at the Council of Commerce. They dated Dillinger's death at Theater Biography in July 1934.
Informant betrays Dillinger
Division of Investigations chief J. Edgar Hoover created a special task force based in Chicago to find Dillinger. On July 21st, Ana Cump? Na?, A lady from a brothel in Gary, Indiana, also known as "The Woman in Red" contacted the FBI. He is a Romanian immigrant who threatened deportation for "low moral character" and offers agency information to Dillinger in return for their help in preventing his deportation. The FBI agreed to his terms, but he was later deported. Cump? Na? reveals that Dillinger spends his time with another prostitute, Polly Hamilton, and that he and the couple will be watching a movie together the next day. She agrees to wear an orange dress, so the police can easily identify her. He was not sure which of the two theaters they would attend, Biograph or Marbro.
On December 15, 1934, a pardon was granted by Indiana Governor Harry G. Leslie for Anna Sage's offense.
Sage stated that on Sunday afternoon, July 22, Dillinger asked him if he wanted to go to a show with them, he and Polly.
He asked him what show he would see, and he said he would 'like to see the theater round the corner,' which means Theater Biography. He declares he can not leave home to inform Purvis or Martin about Dillinger's plans to attend Biograph, but since they will have fried chicken for dinner, he tells Polly he has nothing to fry a chicken, and goes to the store to get butter ; that when he was in the store he called Mr. Purvis and told him about Dillinger's plan to attend Biograph that night, at the same time getting butter. He then returns home so Polly will not suspect that she goes out to call anyone.
A team of federal agents and officers from police forces from outside Chicago was formed, along with a small number of Chicago police officers. Among them was Sgt. Martin Zarkovich, officer of the Sage as an informant. At that time, federal officials felt that the Chicago police had been compromised and therefore untrustworthy; Hoover and Purvis also want more credit. Not wanting to risk Dillinger's embarrassing escape, the police were divided into two groups. On Sunday, a team was sent to Marbro Theater on the west side of the city, while another team toured the Biography Theater at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue on the north side.
Died and photographed at Theater Biography
At about 8:30, Sage, Hamilton, and Dillinger are observed entering the Biography Theater, which shows the crime drama Manhattan Melodrama, starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, and William Powell. During the reconnaissance, the Biograph manager thought that the agents were the criminals who organized the robbery. He called the Chicago police, who responded abusively and had to be rushed by a federal agent, who told them they were under surveillance for an important target.
When the movie ends, Purvis stands at the front door and gestures Dillinger out by lighting a cigar. Both he and the other agents reported that Dillinger turned and looked directly at the agent as he passed, glancing across the street, then moving ahead of his girlfriends, reaching into his pocket but failing to pull out his gun, and running into a nearby alley. Another account claimed Dillinger ignored orders to surrender, unplugged his gun, and headed for the alley. The agent already has a closed aisle, but Dillinger is determined to shoot out.
Three people chased Dillinger down the aisle and fired. Clarence Hurt shot twice, Charles Winstead three times, and Herman Hollis once. Dillinger was struck from behind and fell face first to the ground.
Dillinger was beaten four times, with two bullets grazing him and one causing a superficial wound to the right side. The fatal bullet entered through the back of his neck, cutting the spinal cord, entering his brain and coming out right under his right eye, breaking two sets of veins and arteries. An ambulance was called, though it soon appeared Dillinger died of a gunshot wounds; he was declared dead officially at the Alexian Brothers Hospital. According to investigators, Dillinger died without saying a word.
Two female spectators, Theresa Paulas and Etta Natalsky, were wounded. Dillinger smashed into Natalsky just as the shooting began. Natalsky was shot and then taken to Columbus Hospital. Winstead was then considered to have fired the fatal shooting, and as a consequence received a personal praise letter from J. Edgar Hoover.
Dillinger was shot and killed by a special agent on July 22, 1934, at about 10:40 pm, according to a report New York Times the next day. Dillinger's death came just two months after the deaths of famed bandits Bonnie and Clyde. There were reports of people dunking their handkerchiefs and skirts into a pool of blood that had formed, as Dillinger lay in the hallway, as a memento. "The souvenir hunter dips the newspaper into the blood that stains the sidewalk, and a handkerchief is whipped and used to clean the blood."
Aftermath
Dillinger's body is available for display in the Cook County morgue. An estimated 15,000 people saw the corpse for one and a half days. Four death masks were also made.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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