John Dillinger Public Enemy No I: GREAT CRIMES AND TRIALS

COMING SOON!

Discover the story behind a man who turned to crime out of boredom but then found it too addictive to give up. John Dillinger blazed a trail of crime across the States, robbing banks with a violent and authoritative ease.

Biography

Curious

Quotes

<< BACK

1 2 3 4 5 6

NEXT >>

John Dillinger
born: 22-06-1903
birth place: Indiana, USA
died: 22-07-1934

If Dillinger wasn’t the hardened criminal, intent on a life of crime when he first went into prison, there is no doubting that his experiences inside the Indiana State Prison did far from rehabilitate him. He was now a bitter, angry creature, and soon schooled up on the skills of robbing banks from the likes of Harry Pierpont, Homer Van Meter, Charles Makley, John Hamilton, Walter Dietrich and Russell Clark. All of who were to become members of the Dillinger gang when they finally broke out of prison.

On May 22nd, 1933, Dillinger was paroled. After having spent most of his youth incarcerated, the now hardened ex con decided he was going to become a professional bank robber. On the outside he was now in a position to help smuggle in guns to his mates via Harry Pierpont’s girlfriend, Mary Kinder. On September 22nd, ten prisoners, Dillinger’s new disciples, escaped from the Indiana State Prison.

Bank Sprees
Just before their escape, Dillinger himself had been arrested and imprisoned at the Allen County Jail in Lima. Like a scene out of a Western the escaped convicts, including best friend Harry Pierpont, sprang Dillinger from jail but in the process killed Sheriff Jesses Sarber. It is alleged that Dillinger was angered by the death, as he felt it unnecessary. But such regrets didn’t stop him from planning raids on several banks using rigorous methods that involved meticulous planning and trial-runs before undertaking the actual attack. Part of his master plan entailed memorising the interior and layout of a bank, also noting its distance from the local police station.

As Dillinger and his gang’s bank sprees went from state to state, their reputation with the public - enhanced by the fact the Depression had meant banks had foreclosed on millions of people – became almost Saint like. Unwittingly perhaps, Dillinger began to cultivate a ‘Robin Hood’ hero-like status, acting as avenger for the way millions of ordinary American citizens had been treated.

Public Enemy No 1
In April 1934, Warner Brothers studios released a newsreel showing the Division of Investigation manhunt of John Dillinger, one of the nation's most notorious criminals. Movie audiences cheered when Dillinger's picture appeared on the screen. Conversely they hissed at pictures of D.O.I. special agents. When D.O.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover heard the news that movie audiences, particularly in Dillinger’s hometown of Mooresville, were applauding the mobster he was outraged. Hoover put the town of Mooresville under surveillance, and threatened to prosecute the Dillinger family unless they cooperated with the D.O.I.
Aside from Dillinger’s busy schedule robbing banks he wasn’t averse to letting his love life suffer and began a relationship with Evelyn Billie Frechette, a girl of mixed French and Native American ancestry. His fellow hoods had girlfriends too, but apart from sex there were few other indulgencies as Pierpont, a stickler for discipline believed that drink and drugs would make them less alert to the danger of being caught.

<< BACK

1 2 3 4 5 6

NEXT >>

Links relating to this biography:
Crime & Investigation Network