Dillinger, John Herbert

(1903-1934)

   Notorious bank robber John Dillinger was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1923 but deserted, received a dishonorable discharge, and returned to Indiana. In 1924, he was jailed for robbery. He was released in 1933 and jailed again shortly afterward in Lima, Ohio, but escaped. Captured again in Tucson, Arizona, Dillinger was in Crown Point jail in Indiana when he escaped in March 1934, and he began robbing banks in the Midwest while on the run. His gang, including “Baby Face” Nelson, was responsible for 10 deaths during robberies and encounters with the law. Despite this, Dillinger was regarded as a “Robin Hood” character by some people for his attack on banks and several jailbreaks. Having crossed state lines, he became “Public Enemy Number One” for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In April, surrounded after a tip-off, Dillinger and his gang made yet another escape, killing an FBI agent in the process. On 22 July 1934, Dillinger was finally cornered coming out of a movie theater in Chicago and was shot dead. After his death, some doubt was cast on whether it was in fact Dillinger who had been killed, but fingerprints and other evidence pointed to him.

   See also Hoover, John Edgar.