Death Of John Dillinger
John Dillinger received mixed reviews in the
general public. Many cheered him on in the privacy of
their homes, huddled around the radio in the evenings.
They scanned the morning papers hoping to discover a
new story on their favorite bad guy. Then there were the
people who lost money to him during one of his daring
bank robberies and the ones that lost a family member
indirectly or directly because of him. The times were ripe for Dillinger,
the country had been hit hard by the Great Depression, many
were out of work; their homes and been foreclosed, they
basically had lost everything. Then there were outlaws like
John Dillinger who laughed at society, robbed the banks that
had foreclosed on the depression ridden people. He gave them
the revenge they sought. Where they could not lash out, Dillinger
did this for them. If they could afford the price for a newspaper,
he gave them entertainment...and hope. When he was killed, they
wrote, scorning the FBI for shooting him down. They belittled the
fact so many men had Dillinger surrounded, but they failed to take
him alive. These are the attitudes that helped Dillinger survive
as long as he did. He made a laughing stock out of the FBI and
the local police departments with his magical escapes. He told
one of his hostages after his famous wooden gun breakout,
“You wouldn't think a guy could make a break with a pea-shooter
like this.“ Everyone was laughing, except the authorities. Why
Dillinger caught the publics imagination is not so difficult to
conceive. He was not one of the last great bank robbers, but he
was one of the first to receive top billing in the newspapers.
Dillinger made headlines like the celebrities of modern times
do...and everyone that read the papers knew of him. The name
struck terror across the land and he was reported everywhere.
He was the bad guy the law loved to hate and society loved to
love...and there has never been anyone like him since. And
with the present day and even into the future...there never will be.
John Dillinger was killed July 22, 1934 at the Biograph Theater on 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue in Chicago by the FBI with Special Agent Melvin Purvis in charge. Agent Charles Winstead is believed to be the man that fired the fatal shot that brought down the Indiana outlaw. The trap had been laid by Anna Sage (The Lady In Red) and East Chicago police officer Martin Zarkovich. Dillinger had taken Sage and his girlfriend Polly Hamilton to the Biograph on that evening, when he emerged, the FBI closed in on him and basically shot him from behind as he attempted to pull a gun from his pocket.
The legend of the red dress is just that...a legend. Anna wore a orange skirt that appeared red under the theater marquee.
Supposedly a day or two later someone scribbled a poem in chalk along the alleyway where Dillinger fell dead.
"Stranger stop and wish me well,
Just say a prayer for my soul in hell.
I was a good fellow most people said,
Betrayed by a woman all dressed in red."
Biograph Night John Was Shot
