John Dillinger: The Millionaire Bank Robber of the Great Depression

Yoel Feinberg

Period 1

John Dillinger: The Millionaire Bank Robber of the Great Depression

Childhood:

John Dillinger, the infamous bank robber was born June 22, 1903 in Indianapolis. In his early years he was known as “Jonnie” , but as an adult he will be known as “Jackrabbit”. Dillinger’s childhood was far from innocent. He joined a gang by the name of “the Dirty Dozen” and began to commit petty crimes and pranks. Dillinger’s mother died when he was just 4 years old and his father remarried in the year 1912. When Dillinger was 16 he dropped out of school out of boredom and the yearn to make money on his own. His father was not pleased with John’s choices and Dillinger grew into a rebellious force as he began to drink, fight, and visit prostitutes at night.

Prison:

1923, Dillinger was sent to prison for an attempted armed robbery from a local grocery store. He was expected to serve a long sentence of decades. It was in prison where Dillinger met professional bank robbers like Pierpont, Van Meter, and Walter Dietrich. Although these people had long sentences they had no plans on staying in prison and were already planning major heists. When Dillinger was finally given parole he began to make moves to escape the prison. The police, however, saw this and arrested him and took him to a jailhouse. However, hope was not lost for Dillinger as Pierpont and his associates successfully escaped prison. Pierpont came to break Dillinger free. The process involved killing the sheriff of the jailhouse in order to retrieve the keys.

The Heists and the Gang:

Once the crew was free from prison, they began a long string of elaborate bank robberies in the city of Chicago. There bank robbery gang became known as the Pierpont or the Dillinger gang by the newspapers and local sources. Their gang hierarchy was egalitarian which basically argued for complete equality among members. The gang moved from state to state committing major crimes all the while completely evading police. The Chicago police force was so angry as to create a task force known as the Dillinger task force. Their private lives were filled with wealth yet extremely quiet to avoid unwanted attention. Eventually Dillinger’s luck ran out and in Arizona the police caught him.

Prison (Again):

Dillinger was moved to a high security prison that was deemed inescapable by anyones standards. Dillinger escaped without causing and conflict. It is rumored that he escaped using a fake gun carved from wood that he then painted black with shoe polish. Dillinger stole a sheriff's car and drove away to continue his life as a criminal.

Gang (A new one):

Dillinger went back to his way of life as he organized a new crew and began where he left off with all the bank robberies. He eventually became Number 1 must wanted by the FBI and had to go into hiding. He underwent a botched and gruesome plastic surgery to look unidentifiable and he was given the alias Jimmy Lawrence. He later decided to one final heist with his associate Van Meter and he was successful

Death:

Due to a tip off from a girl by the name of Anna Sage, who was romantically involved with Dillinger, the FBI organized a special secret group that would stake out a movie theater that Dillinger was expected to show up at. Purvis an FBI agent recognized Dillinger walking and exited his car and unsheathed his pistol. Dillinger began to ran as Purvis fired shots. 4 shots hit Dillinger, the fatal one being the one that hit him directly in the back of the neck hitting his second vertebra. He was declared dead at the hospital and over 15,000 speculators came to the funeral to try to get a look at the famous outlaw.

Dillinger stole a total of over $300,000 worth of money which is equivalent to more than $5 million dollars in today's cash. He was considered to be one of the richest people during the Great Depression

Sources:

http://www.history.com/topics/john-dillinger