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John Dillinger
| John Dillinger |
|
| Born |
John Herbert Dillinger
June 22, 1903
Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. |
| Died |
July 22, 1934 (aged 31)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
|
|
Bank robbery, murder, assault, assault of an officer, grand theft auto |
|
|
Imprisonment from 1924 to 1933 |
| Spouse(s) |
Beryl Hovius (divorced) |
| |
John Herbert Dillinger was born on June 22, 1903, in the Oak Hill section of Indianapolis, Indiana,[4]
the younger of two children born to John Wilson Dillinger (July 2,
1864 – November 3, 1943) and Mary Ellen "Mollie" Lancaster (1860–1907).[5]:10 According to some biographers, his grandfather, Matthias Dillinger immigrated to the United States in 1851 from Metz, in the region of Alsace-Lorraine, then under French sovereignty.[6] Matthias Dillinger was born in Gisingen, near Dillingen, Saarland. Dillinger's parents had married on August 23, 1887. Dillinger's father was a grocer by trade and, reportedly, a harsh man.[5]:9
In an interview with reporters, Dillinger said that he was firm in his
discipline and believed in the adage "spare the rod and spoil the
child".[5]:12
As
a teenager, Dillinger was frequently in trouble with the law for
fighting and petty theft; he was also noted for his "bewildering
personality" and bullying of smaller children.[5]:14
He quit school to work in an Indianapolis machine shop. Although he
worked hard at his job, he would stay out all night at parties. His
father feared that the city was corrupting his son, prompting him to
move the family to Mooresville, Indiana, in 1921.[5]:15 Dillinger's wild and rebellious behavior was resilient despite his new rural life. In 1922 he was arrested for auto theft, and his relationship with his father deteriorated.[5]:16–17 His troubles led him to enlist in the United States Navy where he was a Fireman 3rd Class assigned aboard the battleship USS Utah,[9] but he deserted a few months later when his ship was docked in Boston. He was eventually dishonorably discharged.[5]:18–20 Dillinger then returned to Mooresville where he met Beryl Ethel Hovious.[10]
The two were married on April 12, 1924. He attempted to settle down,
but he had difficulty holding a job and preserving his marriage.[5]:20 The marriage ended in divorce on June 20, 1929.[7]
[11]
His father launched a campaign to have him released and was able to get 188 signatures on a petition. Dillinger was paroled
on May 10, 1933, after serving nine and a half years. Dillinger's
stepmother became sick just before he was released from the prison, and
she died before he arrived at her home.[5]:37 Released at the height of the Great Depression, Dillinger had little prospect of finding employment.[5]:35 He immediately returned to crime[5]:39
and on June 21, 1933, he robbed his first bank, taking $10,000 from the
New Carlisle National Bank, which occupied the building at the
southeast corner of Main Street and Jefferson (State Routes 235 and 571)
in New Carlisle, Ohio.[12] On August 14, Dillinger robbed a bank in Bluffton, Ohio. Tracked by police from Dayton, Ohio, he was captured and later transferred to the Allen County jail in Lima
to be indicted in connection to the Bluffton robbery. After searching
him before letting him into the prison, the police discovered a document
which appeared to be a prison escape plan. They demanded Dillinger tell them what the document meant, but he refused.[7]
Dillinger
had helped conceive a plan for the escape of Pierpont, Clark and six
others he had met while previously in prison, most of whom worked in the
prison laundry. Dillinger had friends smuggle guns into their prison
cells, with which they escaped, four days after Dillinger's capture. The
group, known as "the First Dillinger Gang," comprised Pete Pierpont,
Russell Clark, Charles Makley, Ed Shouse, Harry Copeland, and John "Red" Hamilton, a member of the Herman Lamm
Gang. Pierpont, Clark, and Makley arrived in Lima on October 12, where
they impersonated Indiana State Police officers, claiming they had come
to extradite Dillinger to Indiana. When the sheriff, Jess Sarber, asked
for their credentials, Pierpont fatally shot him, then released
Dillinger from his cell. The four men escaped back into Indiana where
they joined the rest of the gang.[7] Sheriff Sarber was the gang's first police killing, of an estimated 13.[13]
- Before Lima
- New Carlisle National Bank, New Carlisle, Ohio, of $10,000 on June 21, 1933;[12]
- The Commercial Bank, Daleville, Indiana, of $3,500 on July 17, 1933;
- Montpelier National Bank, Montpelier, Indiana, of $6,700 on August 4, 1933;
- Bluffton Bank, Bluffton, Ohio, of $6,000 on August 14, 1933;
- Massachusetts Avenue State Bank, Indianapolis, Indiana, of $21,000 on September 6, 1933;
- After Dillinger was broken out of Lima
- Central National Bank And Trust Co., Greencastle, Indiana, of $74,802 on October 23, 1933;
- American Bank And Trust Co., Racine, Wisconsin, of $28,000 on November 20, 1933;
- First National Bank, East Chicago, Indiana, of $20,000 on January 15, 1934;
- After escaping Crown Point
- Securities National Bank And Trust Co., Sioux Falls, South Dakota, of $49,500 on March 6, 1934;
- First National Bank, Mason City, Iowa, of $52,000 on March 13, 1934;
- First National Bank, Fostoria, Ohio, of $17,000 on May 3, 1934;
- Merchants National Bank, South Bend, Indiana, of $29,890 on June 30, 1934.[7]
To obtain more supplies, the gang attacked the state police arsenals in Auburn and Peru, stealing machine guns, rifles, revolvers, ammunition and bulletproof vests.[7] On October 23, 1933, the gang robbed the Central National Bank & Trust Company in Greencastle, Indiana, making off with $74,802. They then headed to Chicago to hide out. On November 20, the gang traveled to Racine, Wisconsin
and robbed the American Bank and Trust Company, making off with
$28,000. On December 14, 1933, CPD Detective William Shanley was killed.[15]
The police had been put on high alert and suspected the Dillinger gang
of involvement in the robbery of the Unity Trust And Savings Bank of
$8,700 the day before. The robbery was eventually determined to have
been the work of another outfit. Shanley was following up on a tip that
one of the gang's cars was being serviced at a local garage. John "Red"
Hamilton showed up at the garage that afternoon. When Shanley approached
him, Hamilton pulled a pistol and shot him twice, killing Shanley, then
escaped. Shanley's murder led to the Chicago Police Department's
establishment of a forty-man "Dillinger Squad."
Dillinger and Frechette arrived at 901 South Atlantic Avenue, Daytona Beach, Florida,
on Tuesday, December 19, renting a two-story house from realtor J.M.
Green. A day or two later they were joined by the rest of the gang:
Pierpont, Makley, Russell Clark and Opal Long. According to a statement
given to the FBI by Beth Green, she was told by Billie that the house
had a beautiful round living room, with four fireplaces situated in the
center of the room. Frechette had indicated to Green that Opal Long
usually was the one who liked to putter around in the kitchen and would
sometimes cook, but on this trip she made it known to everyone that she
was on vacation and would not be doing any cooking.
While Makley, Clark, and Pierpont extended their vacation by driving west to Tucson, Arizona,
Dillinger left Florida on January 12 and met up with Hamilton in
Chicago at noon on Monday, January 15, a meeting that had been arranged
between the two men while Dillinger was in Daytona Beach. Later that
afternoon they robbed the First National Bank in East Chicago.
East Chicago marked the first time serious violence occurred at a
Dillinger robbery, a trend that would continue through South Bend, the
last job. Killed by Dillinger was East Chicago patrolman William Patrick
O'Malley, the outlaw's first and only murder victim. At approximately
2:50 p.m., 10 minutes before closing time, Dillinger and Hamilton, and
an unidentified driver, pulled up in front of the bank on Chicago Avenue
on the wrong side of the street, facing east in the westbound lane,
double parked, and exited the vehicle, leaving the driver to wait in the
idling car. Hamilton waited in the bank's vestibule, while Dillinger
entered the main room of the bank. Once inside, Dillinger leisurely
opened up a leather case containing a Thompson, pulled it out, and
yelled to the 20 to 30 people in the bank, "This is a stickup. Put up
your hands and get back against the wall." The bank's vice president,
Walter Spencer, while hiding, kicked a button which touched off the
burglar alarm. Dillinger then went to the door of the vestibule and told
Hamilton to come in. Hamilton produced a small leather bag and began
scooping up the cash cage by cage. Dillinger told him, "Take your time.
We're in no hurry."
Meanwhile,
the first police contingent arrived on the scene after receiving the
alarm at police headquarters. Four officers arrived: Patrick O'Malley,
Hobart Wilgus, Pete Whalen, and Julius Schrenko. After a quick look
through the windows of the bank, the officers could see a holdup was in
progress and that one of the men was carrying a submachine gun. Shrenko
ran to a nearby drugstore and called for more backup. While Schrenko was
calling headquarters, Wilgus entered the bank by himself, but was soon
covered by Dillinger. The outlaw "relieved" him of his pistol, emptied
the cartridges, then tossed it back to the officer. Referring to his
Thompson, Dillinger told Wilgus, "You oughtn't be afraid of this thing. I
ain't even sure it'll shoot." Turning his attention to Hamilton,
Dillinger said, "Don't let those coppers outside worry you. Take your
time and be sure to get all the dough. We'll take care of them birds on
the outside when we get there." Dillinger then discovered the hiding VP,
Spencer, and ordered him up against the wall with everyone else.
Schrenko's call for backup emptied the station of all but its phone
operator. Four more officers arrived: Captains Tim O'Neil and Ed Knight,
and Officers Nick Ranich and Lloyd Mulvihill (murdered by Van Meter
four months later). These four officers joined the other three in
positions on either side of the Chicago Avenue entrance to the bank.
Apparently, not one of them noticed the bandit car double parked on the
wrong side of the street right outside the bank door, with its driver
sitting unconcerned in the seat with the motor running.
Dillinger
then ordered Spencer and Wilgus to lead the way out of the bank, acting
as shields. The four walked down the sidewalk toward the car. O'Malley,
standing about 20 feet from the front door, saw an opening and fired
four times at Dillinger, the bullets bouncing off the outlaw's
bullet-proof vest. Dillinger pushed Spencer away with the barrel of his
Thompson and yelled, "Get over. I'll get that son of a bitch."[17]
O'Malley fell, with eight holes in a line across his chest. As Hamilton
made his way into the street, he was observed to take a round in his
right hand. He dropped his pistol in the gutter. The bloody pistol was
soon recovered by the police. Hamilton had emptied the entire magazine
before dropping it. Dillinger kept firing until he climbed into the rear
seat of the car. Two game wardens who had driven up to the scene
emptied their guns into the car as it started to pull away. The car
actually started to pull away before Hamilton had closed the left rear
door, and the door was partly torn off as it caught on the rear of
another vehicle. The same Ohio plates used at the Greencastle heist were
used on the East Chicago getaway car. Police believed the car "may have
been a Plymouth," but was actually a 1934 Ford Tudor Sedan. The
abandoned car was found the following day at Byron Street and California
Avenue, Chicago.[16]
On Sunday, January 21, 1934, a fire broke out at the Hotel Congress
in Tucson where members of the Dillinger gang were staying. Forced to
leave their luggage behind, they were rescued through a window and down a
fire truck ladder. Makley and Clark tipped a couple of firemen $12
(each, according to a bureau report) to climb back up and retrieve the
luggage, affording the firefighters a good look at several members of
Dillinger's gang. One of them, William Benedict, later recognized
Makley, Pierpont, and Ed Shouse while thumbing through a copy of True Detective
and informed the police, who traced Makley's luggage to 927 North
Second Avenue. Officers from the Tucson Police Department went to the
address on the afternoon of Thursday, January 25, and there arrested
Clark after a struggle. They found him in possession of $1,264.70 in
cash.
[21]
These amounts, along with a leather money bag found, totaled over
$25,000 in cash, as well as a cache of machine guns and several
automatic weapons. The men were extradited to the Midwest after a debate
between prosecutors as to where the gang would be prosecuted first. The
governor compromised, and ordered that Dillinger would be extradited to
the Lake County Jail in Crown Point
for Officer O'Malley's murder in the East Chicago bank robbery, while
Pierpont, Makley and Clark were sent to Ohio to stand trial for Sheriff
Sarber's murder. Shouse's testimony at the March 1934 trials of
Pierpont, Makley and Clark led to all three men being convicted.
Pierpont and Makley received the death penalty, while Clark received a
life sentence. On September 22, Makley would be shot dead by guards when
he and Pierpont attempted to escape with fake pistols that were carved
from bars of soap and painted black with shoe polish. Pierpont was
wounded, and executed on October 17. Clark would ultimately be released
in 1968, dying of cancer a few months later.
Dillinger's
flight itinerary from Douglas Airport, Tucson, to Midway Airport,
Chicago: with Lake County Chief Deputy Carroll Holley (Sheriff Lillian
Holley's nephew), and East Chicago Chief of Police Nick Makar escorting
the outlaw, the plane departed Tucson at 11:14 p.m. on Monday, January
29. After stops in Douglas, AZ (plane change), El Paso, Abilene, Dallas
(another plane change), Fort Worth, Little Rock and Memphis (another
plane change, a Ford Tri-Motor),
there was yet another stop in St. Louis, where Chicago Times
reporter/photographer Sol Davis boarded the aircraft and was obliged by
Dillinger to take a few photos and ask some questions. After a while,
growing weary of the questions and being photographed, the outlaw told
Davis, "Go away and let me sleep." Dillinger's brutal flight schedule
ended at about six p.m. January 30 when the plane finally touched down
at Midway. Waiting for him on the ground were 32 heavily armed Chicago
policemen. A 13-car caravan consisting of 29 troopers from Indiana was
ready to escort Dillinger to Crown Point, 30 miles away, to be tried for
the O'Malley killing.[22]
Dillinger was indicted by a local grand jury, and the BOI organized a nationwide manhunt for him.[25] After escaping from Crown Point, Dillinger reunited with his girlfriend, Evelyn "Billie" Frechette,
just hours after his escape at her half-sister Patsy's Chicago
apartment, where she was also staying (3512 North Halsted). According to
Billie's trial testimony, Dillinger stayed with her there for "almost
two weeks," but the two actually had traveled to the Twin Cities and
moved into the Santa Monica Apartments, Unit 106, 3252 South Girard
Avenue, Minneapolis, on March 4 (moving out Monday, March 19)[26]
Three
days after Dillinger's escape, Tuesday, March 6, at about 9:45 a.m., a
green 1934 Packard Super 8, 1934 Kansas license 13-786, filled with six
men pulled in front of Mr. and Mrs. L.O. Richardson at the intersection
of Dakota Avenue and 9th Street and stopped. Richardson blew his horn at
the car to move. The couple watched the car begin to move forward, then
park near the curb at the Security National Bank and Trust Company.
Mary Lucas, bookkeeper for the bank, was applying some lipstick when she
looked out the window and saw the big green Packard roll up the street.
"If I ever saw a holdup car, that's one," she said to a bank
stenographer next to her. The stenographer laughed, saying that she'd
been hearing too much lately about bank robberies. Before they could get
back to their desks, Dillinger, Nelson, Green and Van Meter "were in
the bank lobby, cursing and yelling for the money." Hamilton, the
driver, stayed with the car, while Tommy Carroll patroled outside the
bank with a Thompson (all six men would be shot to death within eight
months by federal agents or police). Inside, Nelson spotted motorcycle
patrolman Hale Keith who was approaching the bank on foot. He fired his
Thompson at Keith through a plate glass window while standing on an
assistant cashier's counter. Keith, who survived his wounds, was hit in
the abdomen, in the right leg, about six inches below the hip, the right
wrist, and the right arm, just below the elbow. Nelson was reported to
have laughed when Keith fell, then saying, "I got one. I got one."
H.M.
Shoebotham, a reporter for the Daily Argus-Leader, happened to be in
the office of Sheriff Mel Sells when the phone rang. Shoebotham: "His
eyes bulged. 'What? They're robbing the Security bank,' he shouted. Mel
grabbed a machine gun and a riot gun, handing the riot gun to me, of all
people. We climbed into his coupe and headed for the robbery scene,
three blocks away. On the way to the bank, Mel figured his strategy.
Across from the bank stood the Lincoln Hotel. He planned to reach a
second floor window, stick his gun out and let the bandits have it. When
we reached the bank, scores of spectators were watching the bizarre
spectacle. In the center of the street in front of the bank stood one of
the bandits (Carroll) with a machine gun. Now and then he would fire a
few volleys to keep the people impressed (There exists a photograph
taken of Tommy Carroll from across the street during the robbery, an
"action" photo that is most likely unique to prewar bank robberies). Mel
had backed his coupe into the alley behind the Lincoln Hotel and had
taken the riot gun to the second floor," leaving the Thompson with
Shoebotham.
Surrounding
themselves with bystanders, the robbers backed out of the bank to the
Packard. No officers dared to shoot. The outlaws picked out five people
to go with as hostages and commanded them to stand on the running
boards. The hostages were Leo Olson, teller; Mildred Bostwick, Alice
Biegen, Emma Knabach, stenographers; and Mary Lucas. "They made us stand
on the running boards," said Lucas. "They rolled down the windows and
held onto our arms." As the Packard sped away from the bank, Patrolman
Harley Chrisman got off one rifle round to the hood of the car, hitting
the radiator. Lucas: "Someone shot from the street at the car. The
bullet hit the radiator. The gangsters cursed. Dillinger told them,
'Keep driving.' They drove fast and it was cold. I had on a suit. The
other girls wore dresses. Just out of town we saw two horse-drawn milk
wagons, each headed in a different direction. The milkmen stood in the
street visiting. The driver swerved the car up over the curb and we went
around them without losing speed. Then they slowed down. Dillinger told
Olson to get off. 'We don't need you anymore. Get going. You won't be
hurt.' They made us girls get inside the car. It was crowded with six
men, machine guns, cans of extra gas, sacks of money. I don't remember
whose lap I sat on, but I was behind the driver. He had the biggest,
thickest neck I ever saw."
Bill
Conklin of the Wilson service station on South Minnesota Avenue saw the
Packard coming down the street with smoke pouring from the hood and
assumed the car was on fire. He ran into the station, grabbed a fire
extinguisher and ran back out. "Get back in there" was the response from
the car as they had slowed up for him. Conklin said that he noticed the
hood, radiator and spare tire were punctured with bullet holes. The car
had begun to slow down right outside of town, giving three pursuing
police cars time to catch up. Two miles outside of the "Lakeland farm"
the gang got out of the Packard and made the hostages stand around them,
then opened fire on their pursuers. The three squad cars retreated.
Lucas: "The car radiator was leaking and they couldn't get up enough
speed to suit Dillinger. He said they'd get another car. There was one
coming toward us, a farmer's car loaded with cans of cream and cartons
of eggs (Alfred Muesch in a Dodge sedan). The bandit driver swerved the
Packard across the highway, blocking it. We got out and stood in the
highway. One man held a machine gun on us. Another sprayed bullets at
pursuing cars. Dillinger told the farmer to walk across a field. The
rest of the gang took out the cream and eggs and loaded the gas cans and
money into the farmer's car." Meanwhile, the sheriff and Shoebotham had
gotten back in the sheriff's coupe and were following the Packard.
Shoebotham: "We drove south on Main, swung over on Minnesota Avenue, and
Mel spotted the exhaust smoke of the bandit car. A few blocks farther
on Minnesota Avenue, Sells climbed into a car driven by Deputy Sheriff
Lawrence Green, leaving me with the sheriff's coupe. A few blocks south
of 26th Street on Minnesota Avenue, the bandits tossed out the first of a
long trail of roofing nails to block pursuit. I drove slowly until I
reached the abandoned green Packard holdup car, which was left parked
across the highway, serving as a makeshift roadblock. Speeding south in a
car hijacked from farmer Alfred Muesche, the bandits swung east on a
country road and there was a second fusillade from the bandit machine.
They continued with machine-gun blasts as they sped away. Along Highway
77 at various spots stood crippled cars, their tires flattened by the
bandits' roofing nails."
[29]
Seven
days later, on Tuesday, March 13, at 2:40 p.m., the same six
(Dillinger, Nelson, Hamilton, Green, Van Meter, and Carroll), plus an
added seventh man as the probable driver, either Joseph Burns or Red
Forsythe, drove down State Street in a 1933 blue Buick 90 series sedan
(with the rear window removed) and parked in front of Mulcahy's
prescription shop. All sources tell a different story as to who went in
the bank and who patrolled outside, but it's nearly certain that
Dillinger took a position outside the front entrance, with Nelson on the
north side of the street near the alley behind the bank, and at least
Hamilton and Green entered the bank, with probably Van Meter. From
descriptions by witnesses later, Tommy Carroll was also positioned
outside. Carroll stood in the doorway of the prescription shop on State.
Freelance
photographer H.C. Kunkleman happened to be filming the bank when the
robbery began. Kunkleman was told by one of the bandits to turn the
camera off, that they would be the ones doing all the shooting. He began
filming again once the gang made their getaway (the five-minute film
still exists). Green and Hamilton (and probably Van Meter) entered the
bank shouting profanities and firing their weapons into the walls and
ceiling. Thirty-one employees and approximately 25 customers were
ordered to put their hands up. Tom Walters, a bank guard positioned in
an elevated bulletproof observation booth near the front entrance, fired
a teargas cartridge, according to procedure, which hit one of the
bandits in the back. Walters' teargas gun then jammed. One of the
robbers sprayed the booth with machine-gun fire, which shattered the
glass, but left Walters unharmed. Tom Barclay, a clerk, threw a teargas
bomb over the balcony of the lobby. While the tellers' cash drawers were
being emptied (drawers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7, missing 5, about $5,000),
Hamilton grabbed assistant cashier Harry Fisher and brought him back to
open the vault. About a week earlier, Eddie Green (most likely) had
appeared at Fisher's door asking for directions, then peered attentively
at Fisher's face, something Fisher would later remember. Directions for
alternate routes for the getaway were also mapped out at this time.
Meanwhile,
crowds began to form outside after word had spread that a robbery was
in progress at the bank. James Buchanan, an off-duty officer, who had
grabbed a sawed-off shotgun when he heard about the robbery, hid behind
the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) monument. Unable to fire because
of the crowd of people, he instead exchanged barbs with Dillinger.
"Come out from behind there, you so-and-so," barked Dillinger, who
witnesses said was sharply dressed in a light gray suit, dark overcoat
and dark hat (the only robber whose clothing was described). Buchanan
called back for him to get away from the crowd and he would fight it out
with him. Buchanan said that Dillinger's upper lip turned into a snarl
as he talked. Dillinger, armed with a Thompson, drew a .38 from an
inside pocket and fired at Buchanan, but never hit him. Witnesses said
of Dillinger, "He had bullets pinned on his vest and he reloaded his
automatic while he was in front of the bank."
Outside
the bank, Nelson "acted crazy," spectators of the event reported. "He
interspersed his sprays of shots with outbursts of laughter, keeping,
however, a sharp lookout in all directions." He was reported to have
"sent shots straight down the street, puncturing tires and cutting holes
in other parts of automobiles." R.L. James was walking up to the corner
of State and Federal when he heard the gunfire. He turned around and
headed back down State. Nelson ordered him to stop, but James didn't
hear him. Nelson's blast from his Thompson struck him twice in the right
leg, and he dropped to the sidewalk. Tommy Carroll came over to check
on James' condition. An oncoming car came and Carroll blasted it with
his machine gun. "The radiator of the car was filled with lead and the
frantic driver backed out at the rate of 25 mph." From his third-floor
office above the bank, police judge John C. Shipley heard the gunfire
and went to the window. Dillinger sent a volley of shots in Shipley's
direction, warning him to stay back. The judge retreated, but went to
his desk and grabbed a pistol, then returned to the window and fired at
Dillinger, wounding the outlaw in the left shoulder. Hamilton, Green and
Van Meter, with a large canvas bag of cash, left through the front door
of the bank, surrounding themselves with hostages that Dillinger had
collected. The entire gang moved as one around the corner onto State
Street, with Dillinger in the center of the group. Judge Shipley, again,
was at a window from above the bank and risked firing into the group,
this time striking Hamilton in the shoulder. When Hamilton saw R.L.
James lying on the street wounded, he said, "I thought there wasn't
going to be any more of this?" Nelson, who had now joined them, said, "I
thought he was a copper." Mrs. William Clark and Mrs. Frank Graham had
just come out of a butcher shop and were at the intersection of State
Street and the alley directly east of the bank when Nelson stopped them,
along with an elderly woman who was near, and marshalled them to the
car and commanded them to stand outside of it. Before they reached the
car, Nelson snatched the package of meat from Mrs. Clark's hands, threw
it to the ground and stomped on it, silencing her protests with, "You'll
get paid plenty for it."
The
number of hostages varies wildly in Dillinger books, but the Mason City
Globe-Gazette from that day names 11 people. A couple women sat inside
the car on the laps of the outlaws. Bill Schmidt, an employee of Killmer
Drug, was delivering a bag of sandwiches to the bank and was stopped by
Dillinger and also shoved into the Buick. While riding through town,
the bag of sandwiches was discovered and they were quickly eaten by the
gang. The Buick slowly moved north on Federal Avenue to 2nd Street,
taking a left, headed west to Adams, taking another left. The car stayed
at about 25 mph within the downtown area. Near 4th Street, Clarence
MGowan, along with his wife and five-year-old daughter, spotted the car.
McGowan began to pursue the bandit car after mistakenly believing the
vehicle, loaded with people on the outside of the car, to be part of a
wedding or "some kind of wild demonstration." He was shot in the abdomen
after pulling up too close to the Buick. McGowan went home and bathed
before going to the hospital. Both McGowan and R.L. James, Nelson's
casualty, recovered.
[31]
Dillinger
and Frechette moved into apartment 303 of the Lincoln Court Apartments,
93-95 South Lexington Avenue (now Lexington Parkway South) in St. Paul
on Tuesday, March 20. The three-story apartment complex (still in
operation), built in 1921,[33] has 32 apartments, 10 units on each floor, and two basement units.[34]
Dillinger walked across the street to the east side of Lexington Avenue
at about 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 24, to talk to the paperboy,
Raymond Cutting, 17, who was busy delivering papers. The outlaw
requested delivery of the morning paper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and
the evening edition, the Dispatch, to begin the next day for apartment
303. The following is an excerpt from Cutting's direct examination at
Frechette's trial. The questioner is George Sullivan, Assistant U.S.
District Attorney, on behalf of the Government:
Daisy
Coffey, the landlord/owner testified at Billie's trial that she spent
most evenings during the Hellmans' stay furnishing apartment 310, which
just happened to be perfectly situated for her to observe what was
happening in apartment 303 directly across the courtyard. She was
curious enough to take a peek the first night the new tenants moved in,
March 20, when the lights were on "and the people were moving about."
The shades were usually drawn, but she did catch glimpses. She said she
saw "Mrs. Hellman," Billie, washing and wiping dishes at various times.
On March 26 Coffey was standing just outside of apartment 304, across
the hall from 303, when Mrs. Hellman came up the rear stairs carrying
groceries, accompanied by a man. The question of what the man looked
like was never asked in court. On the morning of the escape, Coffey
stated she saw two women leave the building shortly after 10 a.m., one
with red hair (Opal Long), and the other -- "I don't know about the
color. It looked to have been almost every color" (Pat Cherrington).[36]
With
Daisy Coffey becoming more and more suspicious of the goings-on in the
apartment, on Friday, March 30, she alerted Werner Hanni, Special Agent
in charge of the St. Paul office, of the suspicious behavior of her new
tenants, Mr. and Mrs. Carl T. Hellman, including information about the
couple's new Hudson sedan parked in the garage behind the apartments.
The building was placed under surveillance by two agents, Rufus Coulter
and Rosser Nalls, that night, but they failed to observe anything
unusual, mainly due to drawn blinds.[37]
The next morning at approximately 10:15, Nalls circled around the block
looking for the Hudson, but observed nothing. He parked on Lincoln (the
north side of the apartments), and about two minutes later he saw two
women (Cherrington and Long) walking down Lexington, in front of the
apartments, and turn onto Lincoln. At the same time, a Ford sedan
bearing 1934 Minnesota license B-419975 (Hamilton) turned off of
Lexington onto Lincoln, proceeding on the wrong side of the street,
stopped and picked up the two women and drove away. Following this, for a
better view of the front of the apartment building, Nalls moved his car
and parked on the west side of Lexington, at the northwest corner of
Lexington and Lincoln, and remained in his car while watching Coulter
and Henry Cummings, a St. Paul PD detective, pull up about the same time
to the front of the complex, park, and enter the building.[38]
Ten minutes later, Nalls estimated, he noticed a man (Van Meter)
driving a green Ford coupe crossing the intersection of Lexington and
Lincoln and parking the Ford on the north side of the apartment
building, on Lincoln.[39]
Meanwhile, Coulter and Cummings were at apartment 303, knocking on the
door. Frechette answered, opening the door two to three inches. She said
she wasn't dressed and to come back. Coulter told her they would wait.
After waiting two to three minutes, Coulter went to the basement
apartment of the caretakers, Louis and Margaret Meidlinger, and asked to
use the phone to call the bureau. He quickly returned to Cummings, and
the two of them proceeded to pace up and down the hall outside of Apt.
303 while waiting for Frechette to open the door. Van Meter then
appeared in the hall and asked Coulter if his name was Johnson. Coulter
said it was not, and as Van Meter passed on to the landing of the third
floor, Coulter asked him who he was. Van Meter replied, "I am a soap
salesman." Asked where his samples were, Van Meter said they were in his
car. Coulter asked if he had any credentials. Van Meter said "no," and
continued to walk down the stairs. Coulter waited 10 to 20 seconds and
then followed the man. As he got to the lobby of the ground floor, he
saw the man standing behind him, against the wall, who began to use
profane language and drew an automatic pistol.[40]
From outside, Nalls heard shots fired and then saw Coulter run around
the corner of the building with a man running after him. Shots were
exchanged. Van Meter stopped and ran back into the front entrance.
[42] Van Meter made good his escape by going out the back door and hopping on a coal truck that was passing by on a nearby street.[43]
When Cummings heard the shooting out front, he just happened to be
pacing past 303. The door opened a short distance and Cummings said,
"Throw them up." Cummings: "She slammed the door and almost immediately
bullets commenced coming through the door, so I stepped down the hallway
a little ways. And there is an offset there...I had time to step in
there. And I just got in there when bullets starting going by me. I
started shooting back at him, and he had a machine gun...and when I shot
five shots, I was out. So I made a duck down the stairway, and when I
got downstairs I reloaded and came back." [44]
But instead of immediately going back to 303, as he testified, Cummings
actually first went down the front stairs and walked out the front
entrance. At this time Billie was backing the car out of the garage in
the alley, and she and Dillinger were off to Eddie Green's in
Minneapolis. Meanwhile, Nalls had returned from the corner drugstore and
relieved Coulter, who then met up with Cummings at the front entrance,
and together they went back up to 303. Nalls stayed with Van Meter's
car. It should be pointed out that Van Meter's car was parked (on
Lincoln) exactly in line with the rear alley of the apartment building,
giving a perfect view of the rear door, the door Dillinger and Frechette
exited, not to mention Van Meter. This fact was never brought up at any
time during the Frechette/May trial and, more importantly, neither
Nalls nor Coulter were questioned about it.
In
Billie's words from her harboring trial testimony: "So I went back to
get dressed, and Mr. Dillinger said, 'Who are they?' and I said, 'A
couple of policemen,' and he said, 'Well, don't let them in.' He said,
'Come in and get dressed.' So I started getting dressed, and I kept
asking him, 'What are we going to do?' He said, 'Never mind.' So he was
getting dressed, and so was I. He got a grip (suitcase) out and started
packing, and told me to throw a few of my things in it, so I did. And
just about that time I think there were shots outside, and I went over
to the window and I didn't see anything. So Mr. Dillinger was getting
his coat on and things at the time...I was still getting the grip all
ready. I was in the back bedroom getting this grip ready, and he started
shooting out through the front door of the apartment. I went running
out there, and I said, 'My God, don't shoot.' I said, 'Try and get out
of here, but don't shoot. You can leave me here.'" When interviewed in
prison sometime during the summer of '34, pre-July 22, Frechette had
said, "Suddenly, I heard a burst of machine gun fire in the parlor. I
rushed to the room and there stood John, the smoking weapon in his
hands. A burst of bullets had cut a weird pattern in the front door. He
said, "Get that suitcase and follow me." I did as he commanded, but the
suitcase was heavier than I thought. John kept a gun and other effects
packed in it for emergencies at all times. John walked to the door and
snapped back the bolt. He flung the door open wide and stepped into the
hall. As he did so, he sent another burst of machine-gun fire along the
hall toward the front of the building. A man, barricaded someplace
there, returned the fire. John motioned me to pass behind him and start
down the hall. He covered my retreat, coming back behind me. We reached
the stairs and hurried down, the heavy case almost pulling my arms from
their sockets. John kept the machine gun ready, playing it back and
forth in all directions as he looked for would-be assailants." Agent
Murray Falkner interviewed Frechette in Chicago on April 10, where she
shed some light on Dillinger firing the Thompson down the hallway. From
Falkner's direct examination at Billie's trial: "She said she had gotten
some things in a bag, and he told her to follow him. He got to the door
and turned the machine gun down the hall and fired a short burst in
that direction, and then turned the machine gun the other way and fired a
burst there."[45]
Dillinger shot up five doors (with possible help from Cummings) in the
apartment building: 303, 304 (across the hall from 303), the service
door to 304, and the doors on both ends of the third floor (photographic
evidence exists of all but the door to 304 and 304's service door).
Frechette:
"As we reached the back door, he handed me the keys to the car, which
was parked in a garage a few doors down the alley. 'Get it backed out
and I'll be along.' He didn't seem the least concerned or excited. His
calmness gave me reassurance and I hurried as fast as I could. The
suitcase was too much for me, however, and I had to drop it."
Twenty-year-old George Schroth, a student at the College of St. Thomas,
watched the escape from one of the four windows facing west on the
second floor of his house located right next door. Schroth testified at
Frechette's trial: "I saw a woman, a dark-haired woman, dressed in dark
clothes coming out behind the apartment. She was running. She was
carrying a very large black suitcase. As soon as she got to about the
middle of the alley, she started to stumble or slip, as though the
suitcase was very heavy. She was facing south. She turned towards the
east and looked back, to the north, behind the apartment. At this point a
man came out from behind the apartment, dressed in gray clothes. He was
carrying a machine gun. He was not running, however. He was merely
walking. Then when he came out, this woman picked up the suitcase and
started running west in the alley. The man, however, merely took his
time and walked up the alley very casually, always keeping a good look
behind him as though covering his retreat."[46]
During the exchange of gunfire with Cummings, Dillinger was hit in the
left calf by one of Cummings' five shots and was now dripping blood in
the snow.
The temperature that morning in St. Paul was 30 degrees, but it was much colder, 18 degrees, at six a.m.[48]
Cars were not always reliable starting in cold weather during this era.
The Hudson had a six-volt system, giving it a very low cranking power,
and the car almost certainly had no heater or defroster. The cold tires
were extremely hard to maneuver, and the recent snowfall the city had
would have made the skinny tires tricky to drive on without chains. At
five-foot-three, Billie would also have had a difficult time with the
clutch and brake, with automatic transmission not becoming available for
another five years, disc brakes another 14, and power steering another
16.[49]
They
drove to Eddie Green's apartment at 3300 South Fremont. Billie parked
the car out front and went inside and told Green, "Johnnie wants you
down in the car, Eddie. He's hurt." Green went down and had a
conversation with Dillinger for approximately five minutes, then came
back up and told Frechette to stay with Dillinger and drive him around
for awhile, and to come back in 30 minutes. Green then called Dr.
Clayton E. May at his office in Minneapolis, 712 Masonic Temple (still
extant), and asked if the doctor was going to be in. May replied in the
affirmative. Green showed up minutes later. His wife, Beth, stayed in
the car. May testified at his harboring trial that Green asked him to
come to his apartment on Fremont to see a friend of his who was injured
in a still explosion. After some time, May agreed to go with Green. They
returned to Green's Fremont address, stopping first to drop Green's
wife off, then proceeded to drive across the alley and stopping between
Fremont and Girard, where Green then told May to get out of the car.
They both exited the vehicle. Green walked across the street to the
black Hudson, with Dillinger in the back seat. They exchanged words for a
moment, then Green motioned for May to come over. Green opened the
front driver's door and told May to get in, that he would be driving.
May was asked on direct examination to describe the man (Dillinger) he
saw in the back seat: "He was seated in the back seat, on the right
side. He was not sitting up straight. He was sitting at an angle. He had
one foot up like this, and the left foot down. His right foot was up on
something. I couldn't see what it was. He was slumped down in the car,
in the corner like that, way down like that. He had on a top coat and he
had something underneath it like a sweater, that was pulled high over
the back of his head. He appeared very bulky in the upper part of his
body. And he was very pale." May said he could also see the barrel of
Dillinger's machine gun and part of the drum. With Eddie, Beth and
Billie following in Green's car, Dr. May drove Dillinger to 1835 Park
Avenue, Minneapolis, to the ground floor three-bedroom apartment of Mrs.
Augusta Salt, who'd been providing nursing services and a bed for May's
illicit patients for several years, patients he couldn't risk seeing at
his regular office. Once they got inside, May said he told Dillinger to
lie on the bed. "He laid down, and he pulled out an automatic, out of
the left side of his belt, and when he laid down he put it under the
left side of his body, under the quilts." May testified that he first
examined Dillinger by taking scissors and cutting the trouser leg and
the leg of the underwear up to the place where he found the wound. May
was asked to describe the wound, which he said was "in the upper third
of the lower left leg." May: "It was an in and out wound, about four
inches apart. It did not bleed an awful lot, although it trickled down
his leg, but the blood was dry. I treated it, antiseptically, by
inserting a probe in and out, with two different antiseptics." May said
that Dillinger also requested that the doctor "bring back some serum"
later that evening "so I will not get lock-jaw." Nurse Salt testified
that Dillinger was moved to a different bedroom the next day, Sunday, at
about three p.m. at his request. He'd asked for a larger bed. Plus, the
room was very small and crowded, according to Salt. So he was moved to
the back bedroom, which had a full-size bed. Salt said Dillinger had
company on Monday, April 2, about seven p.m. Eddie Green stopped by for a
visit (just hours before he would be mortally wounded in St. Paul). She
recalled Green saying to Dillinger, "This is better. Do you want to
stay here?" Dillinger said, "No, I would rather be moving." Green then
said, "Have you got plenty of jack?" And Dillinger said, "Yes," and then
they both smiled.[50]
Dillinger's convalescence at Dr. May's lasted five days, until
Wednesday, April 4, a week before Eddie Green died from wounds received
on April 3. Dr. May was promised $500 for his services, but he received
nothing.[51]
[52]
| Author: | Bling King |
| Published: | 9 Minutes Ago |
| Modified: | 2 Minutes Ago |
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