In my last American crime blog, I wrote about John Dillinger, as the Michael Mann film about him, Public Enemies, is in the theaters.
Dillinger was paroled in 1933. With his gang Dillinger began robbing small stores, businesses and banks. He was later arrested and jailed. While Dillinger was in jail, Harry Pierpont and his crew broke out of prison. Pierpont and the gang then broke Dillinger out of jail, killing the sheriff in front of his wife during the break-out.
Dillinger, a natural leader, led the gang as they robbed more than 30 banks in only a few months. Dillinger and members of his gang were arrested in Arizona and he was transferred to a jail in Indiana. Legend has it that Dillinger broke out of jail with a gun carved from a block of wood, but in fact a bribed official gave him a gun.
The escape made headlines and Dillinger’s reputation. He became the most wanted man in the country and the FBI, under agents Samuel P. Cowley and Marvin Purvis, hunted him and his gang across several states.
As the Dillinger gang was hiding out at the Little Bohemia Lodge in Wisconsin, Purvis and the FBI moved in. There was a full-scale shootout, but Dillinger and five others managed to escape through a back window before the FBI could surround the lodge.
Dillinger later had plastic surgery on his face to alter his looks and he moved in with a young woman named Polly Hamilton in Chicago. Hamilton had a roommate named Anna Sage. Sage, who was facing deportation to Romania, discovered who Hamilton’s friend was. In exchange for dropping the deportation proceedings, she offered to assist the FBI in capturing Dillinger.
Purvis accepted the deal and Sage told him that Dillinger plans to take her and Hamilton to the movies at the Biograph or the Marbro Theater the following day.
Although legend identifies Sage as “The Lady in Red,” she actually wore an orange dress in order to be recognized.
On Sunday, July 22, 1934, Purvis saw Sage enter the Biograph with a man and another woman. The film was Manhattan Melodrama starring Clark Gable.
Purvis and his fellow agents waited until the film ended and the trio came back outside. He lit a cigar to let the other agents know it was Dillinger. According to the FBI, Dillinger reached for his gun and the agents opened fire. Five agents fired five shots and four bullets hit Dillinger. He collapsed and died on the street.
Burrough wrote that people who met Dillinger remembered him for years afterward – “the courtesy, the easy wink, the whiff of manly joie de vivre.”
Burrough also wrote that Dillinger craved respect. He wanted to be the type of outlaw people admired. Many people today still regard Dillinger as a modern-day Robin Hood.
Others, me included, see Dillinger as a murderer and armed robber who terrorized countless innocent people during his short-lived crime spree.
You can read more about the film Public Enemies in Jay Wertz’s GreatHistory piece, “Public Enemies: The Lore and Lure of 20th Century Outlaws.”
Paul Davis also writes an espionage blog for GreatHistory. His website is http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/site/. He can be reached at daviswrite@aol.com. Click here to read Part I of his “Due Dillinger” article.
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July 8th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
kristian said:
“Legend has it that Dillinger broke out of jail with a gun carved from a block of wood, but in fact a bribed official gave him a gun”
Do you have a verifiable source for that?
August 11th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Paul Davis said:
Ernest Blunk, a deputy sheriff at the Crown Point jail stated that Dillinger used a real gun to escape and I’ve read other accounts that claim the same thing as well.
However, upon rereading the section of the Crown Point jail break in Bryan Burrough’s “Public Enemies,” I see that he offers conflicting views on the subject, including John Toland’s idea that Dillinger used both a wooden replica and a real gun.
As Burrough notes in his book, “the truth is lost to history.”
I like Woody Allen’s take on the subject in his film “Take the Money and Run.” While in jail Allen craves a gun out of a bar of soap and then colors it black with shoe polish.
But when he takes a guard outside it is raining and the gun made from soap starts to bubble and melt. Very funny scene, I thought.
Thanks for asking the question.
Paul Davis
August 12th, 2009 at 5:01 am