John Dillinger

John Herbert Dillinger was a Depression-era American gangster who led a crew accused of hitting two dozen banks and four police stations. He did multiple stints behind bars and managed two escapes. Though charged with killing East Chicago officer William O’Malley—who shot Dillinger in his bulletproof vest during a firefight—he was never convicted; that was the only homicide charge he ever faced. Dillinger liked the spotlight, and the press played up his swagger and charm, painting him as a kind of Robin Hood. J. Edgar Hoover, head of the Bureau of Investigation, used Dillinger’s notoriety to push for turning the BOI into the FBI, building up more advanced investigative methods to fight organized crime. After dodging police across four states for nearly a year, Dillinger got wounded in a shootout and holed up at his father’s place to heal. He also had a hideout in Charlevoix, Michigan. By July 1934 he was back in Chicago, staying at a brothel run by Ana Cumpănaș, who later tipped off the authorities. On July 22, 1934, local and federal officers closed in on the Biograph Theater. As Dillinger left the theater, BOI agents moved to arrest him; he tried to run but was shot dead. The use of lethal force was later ruled justifiable homicide. **Early life**

**Family and background** Dillinger was born June 22, 1903, at 2053 Cooper Street in Indianapolis, Indiana, the younger of two children of John Wilson Dillinger and Mary Ellen “Mollie” Lancaster. His paternal grandfather, Mathias Dillinger, had come to the U.S. in 1854 from Gisingen, a village in the Saar region of Prussia, fleeing poverty and the threat of conscription. Dillinger’s parents married on August 23, 1887. His father, a grocer, was reportedly strict; Dillinger later told reporters his dad believed in “spare the rod and spoil the child.” His mother died in 1907, just before his fourth birthday. That same year, his older sister Audrey married Emmett “Fred” Hancock, and the couple had seven children. Audrey looked after her brother for several years until their father remarried in 1912 to Elizabeth “Lizzie” Fields, with whom he had three more children. **Formative years and marriage** As a teen, Dillinger was often in trouble for fighting and petty theft, known for a “bewildering personality” and bullying smaller kids. He quit school to work in an Indianapolis machine shop. Worried the city was ruining his son, his father moved the family to Mooresville, Indiana, in 1921. But the rural life didn’t change Dillinger’s wild streak. In 1922 he was arrested for auto theft, and his relationship with his father soured. In 1923 he joined the U.S. Navy, serving as a petty officer third class machinery repairman on the battleship USS Utah. He deserted a few months later while docked in Boston and was eventually dishonorably discharged. Back in Mooresville, he met Beryl Ethel Hovious, and they married on April 12, 1924. Dillinger tried to settle down but couldn’t find steady work. So he plotted a robbery with his friend, ex-convict Ed Singleton. Hovious divorced him on June 20, 1929, while he was in prison—a split Dillinger later said broke his heart and pushed him deeper into crime. Dillinger and Singleton robbed a Mooresville grocery store, stealing about $50. During the heist, Dillinger hit a victim on the head with a machine bolt wrapped in cloth; his gun went off but hit no one. A minister who recognized them tipped off police, and they were arrested the next day. Singleton pleaded not guilty, but Dillinger’s father—a local deacon—talked to the prosecutor, Omar O’Harrow, and convinced his son to confess and plead guilty without a lawyer. Dillinger expected probation but got ten to twenty years. His father later told reporters he regretted his advice and begged the judge for a lighter sentence, without success. On his way to testify against Singleton, Dillinger briefly escaped but was caught within minutes. Singleton got two to fourteen years; he died on September 2, 1937, after falling asleep drunk on railroad tracks. **Prison time** Locked up at Indiana Reformatory and Indiana State Prison from 1924 to 1933, Dillinger turned to a criminal life. Upon entering prison, he reportedly said, “I will be the meanest bastard you ever saw when I get out of here.” A physical exam found he had gonorrhea, and the treatment was painful. Bitter over his long sentence, he befriended seasoned bank robbers like Harry “Pete” Pierpont, Charles Makley, Russell Clark, and Homer Van Meter, who taught him the ropes. They planned heists for after their release.