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Manage subscription. Subscribe to the Monitor. For months, as Dillinger wreaked havoc across the Midwest, the Feds were powerless to do anything. But when he drove a stolen car across state lines, Dillinger sealed his own fate. The action violated a federal law and the G-men seized the opportunity to act. On July 22, , after weeks of trying to track Dillinger down, FBI agents were waiting for him as he left a Chicago movie theater. The outlaw died in a blaze of bullets. That night Dillinger's legend was transformed.
While he was living, he was the adventurous outlaw, a man to be admired. When he died, newspapers reveled in the FBI's victory. CAST E. Archives Grinberg Film Libraries, Inc. Russell Rebekah Suggs. Precisely planned, meticulously executed, it was the work of a master at his craft, John Dillinger.
Tom Smusyn, Dillinger researcher: In all his bank robberies, almost everyone said he was the coolest guy they ever saw. They called him "Jack Rabbit" because some of those cages were feet high, and he just would vault over them.
Claire Potter, historian: He was handsome, really funny. He would tip his hat at people. He would joke with them, was a very social, very charming guy. Narrator: Working in the midst of the great depression, when debt and foreclosures were a fact of life, Dillinger exploited the public's resentment toward banks. Thomas Doherty, Historian: He is representing a kind of rebellious impulse that many people in the Great Depression have good reason to feel, that is, the dissatisfaction with the status quo.
Richard Gid Powers, Historian: Crime had become a symbol during the early Depression that something had gone wrong with America. Narrator: Though his career AS a desperado was brief, HE would challenge the highest authority of the state. Narrator: The government's answer to a national crime wave was the agency that would become the FBI. Its director, J. Edgar Hoover, would stake his reputation on hunting down Dillinger.
Narrator: In the 's, the central Indiana farmtown of Mooresville was a tight-knit community. John Dillinger Sr. He hoped John jr. Jeff Scalf, Grandnephew: John was not cut out of the same cloth of his father in a way of being a farmer. That was not a life that John would choose. Narrator: At the age of twenty, John was caught stealing a car. He returned to Mooresville and within weeks got married. Smusyn: Dillinger was married. When he was 20 years old and his bride was And she was a waitress.
And basically she supported him. He did odd jobs. He was a machinist. He -- he was very mechanically inclined. But he didn't work. Narrator: Instead, John played on the local baseball team, where he became friends with Ed Singleton, 10 years older and an ex-convict. Scalf: And after one particular game, they got together and got-- they both got intoxicated to some degree on some homemade brew. Narrator: Frank Morgan, who ran the local grocery store, was a good friend of John Dillinger's father.
On Saturday evenings, he'd walk to town with the week's earnings. Smusyn: Singleton had a car in the alley in back of a church, and Dillinger had a handkerchief with a big bolt in it. Smusyn: Dillinger got scared, and Singleton, waiting in the car, got scared and took off on Dillinger.
Scalf: and asks some people in the pool hall, "Hey, have you heard about Frank Morgan? Is he okay? The next day, the sheriff put two and two together, and brought Frank Morgan to the Dillinger farm to identify his assailant.
Scalf: Frank Morgan doesn't believe that it's John. And, in fact, says "I know John, he wouldn't do that. Johnnie, you didn't do that to me, did you? Morgan, I did that and I'm very sorry. Narrator: John Sr. HE advised his son, "Plead guilty and take your punishment But the judge threw the book at him. Dillinger got years. Singleton, who knew the system and had hired a lawyer, would serve only two years. At the local reformatory, John grew up quickly.
After 5 years, his young wife asked for a divorce. Smusyn: Dillinger took it bitter And he wanted to get away from everybody.
He didn't want to even be.. Narrator: Michigan City, was the home of the Indiana state penitentiary, a facility for hardened criminals. Dillinger's request for a transfer was a decision that changed the course of his life. Scalf: I think, he went to Michigan City with all intent to gain an education and to be a criminal. Narrator: His mentor would become "handsome" Harry Peirpont, an experienced bank robber who had all ready served 8 years.
Scalf: There are already a list of banks that Harry has given John, of some banks that they know are ripe. And they trust John a great deal. These guys believed in him. John could have just taken these banks and let those guys rot in prison.
But, there was already an understanding there. Narrator: Dillinger promised he would come back to spring his friends. In May , just before his 30th birthday, he embarked on his new career. While John Dillinger was in jail, others were enjoying the raucous, fun-filled 20's, at least in the heart of the Midwest, Chicago.
I know that there wasn't Prohibition in Chicago, because you could find a speakeasy in every block. Narrator: As the authorities tried to stem the flow of liquor, prohibition gave rise to organized crime. Rival gangs fought for territory, with the bloodiest battles being led by a young pimp named Al Capone..
Narrator: Under Capone, violence reached its peak On St. Valentine's Day, Photographer Tony Berardi followed police when they were called to a liquor warehouse. Berardi: The first thought in my mind as a photographer should, is to find the best spot to take his first photograph. So I climbed up on top of a truck. Berardi: I shot a couple of shots from that position. Then I got off and shot completely around the place.
Potter: The St. Valentine's Day Massacre becomes this focal point around which something needs to be done. It becomes clear that federal policing around Prohibition is not working. Powers: The public and the media and the authorities were cast in a position where a stand has to be taken.
Enough is enough. Narrator: But the public and the media shared an ambivalent view of crime. Hollywood glorified Capone's career in a movie called Scarface. The depression brought poverty to millions of Americans, who felt abandoned by their government. When the gangster genre burst onto the screen, it played on the growing belief that success was no longer won through honest hard work.
Doherty: The gangster genre emerges not coincidentally with the first full year of the Great Depression, And a lot of people see the gangster figures being sort of a twisted version of the American success ethic;. Doherty: Cagney, especially in this archetypal performance as Tom Powers in The Public Enemy, represents a kind of virile, upwardly mobile masculinity.
He's ambitious, resourceful; he's a witty conversationalist; he's a stylish dresser. Cagney: "Going south? Girl: "Yes, but I'm not accustomed to riding with, uh, strangers Potter: Most Americans in the Depression have a very conflicted relationship to the state. On the one hand crime is what everybody's worried about. But anger with the government about that leads people in many ways to enjoy seeing someone take his fate into his own hands, attack capitalism, get the money he wants, and disappear successfully.
Narrator: In June , two years after the first gangster film, Dillinger began making armed withdrawals throughout the Midwest. If his plan worked, no bank would be safe. In Washington the government reacted to the crime wave by strengthening its federal police force. Edgar Hoover was modernizing the agency with a new kind of law enforcement. Powers: Hoover tried to identify the bureau of investigation with science. He founded an FBI laboratory which would allow clothing samples, tire treads, hairs to identified and used as forensic evidence.
Potter: They're not allowed to make arrests independently of local officers or carry their weapons in federal enforcement unless they are accompanied by local officers. Narrator: Tracking desperadoes like Dillinger was still the province of local authorities, and lawmen like Matt Leach.
Leach had just been named head of the newly formed Indiana State police. Olsen: Leach is a very serious police officer. He's way ahead of his time. He's studied police psychology, and -- and he's made his way up through the ranks in the Gary Police Department, and now he has this opportunity for a big job.
Olsen: So here he is, thinking that this is really going to be a wonderful -- wonderful deal, and all of a sudden he -- his first -- right off the bat he gets John Dillinger. Olsen: Leach had a lot of informants there. They're always sending them off somewhere.
And he gets there like 2 minutes after -- after Dillinger's left. At one point they get there and there's still a cigarette burning in the ashtray. Dillinger calls him up and says things like, "Hey, Leach, you stuttering bastard, this is old John.
I bet you would like to know where I am. He sends him postcards saying, "Wish you were here. Narrator: In September, Matt Leach finally got a break.
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