American gangster whose robberies and daring escapes during 1933-1934 made him the most famous of all U.S. bank robbers. The FBI considered him Public Enemy Number One and he captured the imagination of the American public for years.
Dillinger was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and grew up on a farm in nearby Mooresville. In 1923, he joined the Navy but after serving for only a few months on the USS Utah, he deserted, and in September 1924, he attempted to rob a grocery store in his hometown. Caught in the act, he spent 1924-33 in prison, first in the reformatory at Pendleton and later in the Indiana State Prison. During his incarceration there, he perfected his education in skills as a bank robber, and by mid-1932, he was part of a group of prisoners planning their escape. He was paroled on 22 May 1933 and embarked on his career as a flamboyant, sharply dressed gunman. His crime spree was purposeful, with his ultimate goal being the financing of the escape of his companions back at the prison, and after his arrest on 22 September 1933 in Dayton, Ohio, they did just that, escaping on 12 October 1933.
The first order of business for his “gang,” which included Harry Pierpont, Charles Makley, John Hamilton, Russell Clark, Walter Dietrich and James Jenkins, was to affect Dillinger’s rescue. They broke him out of the Lima jail shortly thereafter, beating and shooting the sheriff who later died. Running from the manhunt that ensued, they headed to Chicago, robbing police arsenals along the way. With growing fame, they committed robberies in Wisconsin, but eventually they decided to go underground. Dillinger reportedly dyed his hair red and grew a mustache as a disguise.
They returned to their life of crime with the 15 January 1934 robbery of the First National Bank of East Chicago, Indiana. Wearing a bulletproof vest, Dillinger survived gunshots fired by Patrolman William O’Malley, but the police officer wasn’t as lucky, and he died during their exchange of gunfire. Fleeing south to Florida, the gang ultimately ended up in Tucson, Arizona, where local police arrested them. Dillinger was taken back to Indiana and arrived at the airport there, cheerfully making jokes with the reporters. On 3 March 1934, the scheduled date for his trial, he engineered his most famous escape. Using a razor and a piece of wood, he carved a fake pistol, used bootblack to color it and then forced his way past a dozen guards, singing as he left, “I’m heading for the last roundup.” He made his getaway in the sheriff’s V-8 Ford, which violated a law that brought in FBI involvement in the chase.
For the next few months, he and his gang members terrorized the citizens of the Midwest, robbing banks throughout the area. While robbing the First National Bank of Mason City, Iowa, Dillinger was shot in the shoulder. Narrowly escaping police chases right and left, they hid out in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. By this time, the public saw Dillinger as a Robin Hood-like figure, and the police were inundated with sightings. One of these, in fact, pinpointed the very apartment where Dillinger was recovering from his wounds. Arriving at the door, the police were stalled by his girlfriend long enough for Dillinger to escape, despite a leg wound of gunshot.
Things continued to heat up, and in an attempt to evade the authorities, Dillinger had a plastic surgeon operate on his face. They worked on his fingertips as well, attempting to remove his fingerprints, but the end results were less than perfect. The police were closing in again. Allegedly, Dillinger was gunned down in a shoot-out with the FBI on 22 July 1934, having been betrayed by Anna Sage, a friend and brothel manager known as “The Lady in Red.” Although pronounced dead at 10:30 PM at the Alexian Brothers Hospital, Dillinger’s biography presents evidence that he escaped, stating that the man who died with 70 bullets in his body was a “ringer.” Due to this enduring rumor, John Dillinger, Sr. arranged for three feet of reinforced concrete to be poured into the ground above his son’s grave, thereby thwarting any attempts to dig up the coffin.
Link to Wikipedia biography