Notecards

1. The public's view on banks in America during The Great Depression was mostly negative due to major losses of savings resulting from failure. Because of this, many Americans didn't have the same opinion of bank robbers as they do today. Some even idolized the criminals for being so daring (3).

2. Dillinger and his gang were seen as similar to movie stars. Their robberies often involved action and chases, and they were extremely charismatic and social with the public. The robbers also gave poor Americans entertainment in the Great Depression. In a way, Dillinger helped by getting rid of mortgage records during robberies (3).

3. A major factor in the downfall of banks during the Depression was the failure of major commodity crops such as corn.  These losses lead to drops in agricultural real estate values. During the drop, large banks didn't lose nearly as much as small banks, as many small banks were located in agricultural areas (7).

4. Dillinger's gateway into bank robbery was a grocery store hold-up with a partner.  He couldn't find a job in Indiana, so he needed to find a way to quickly make money.  He was arrested at the scene, confessed and  went to jail for eight and a half years (1).

5. As soon as he got out of prison, Dillinger robbed an Ohio bank and was arrested again shortly after. Two of Dillinger's accomplices came to the jail pretending to take Dillinger back to the Indiana State Jail. While busting Dillinger out, they shot the sheriff, locked up his wife and deputy, and drove away (1).

6.  Melvin Purvis was appointed to capture Dillinger by J. Edgar Hoover, who didn't believe that it was possible to catch Dillinger.  Hoover avoided getting the FBI involved until Dillinger stole the car.  Stealing a car and then driving to another state is a federal crime, so pressure mounted on the FBI to do take action.  Afraid of losing the public's respect, Hoover shifted the blame to Purvis for not pursuing Dillinger (11).

7.  Purvis recieved a tip from one of Dillinger's friends that she would be seeing a movie with Dillinger at the Biograph theater in Chicago on July 22, 1934.  When Dillinger came out of the theater, Purvis and several other agents were waiting for him. Dillinger was shot twice and was killed.  Purvis refused to take any credit for killing Dillinger, and he wouldn't say which of his agents actually fired the shots that killed him. Regardless, he was sent fan mail from Americans all over the country (12).

8. Dillinger's outgoing character even showed in prison, where he made many friends. Dillinger was expected to be a rowdy prisoner who often acts out, but he obeyed rules and didn't cause a lot of trouble. In his time in prison, Dillinger became closest to the group of inmates that chose to be in the life of crime, which contributed to his year-long spree (5).

9. Dillinger and other criminals such as Pretty Boy Floyd and Bonnie and Clyde were so popular to the American people in the Depression that crime magazines were published containing stories about them. These stories were often exaggerated to keep reader numbers up, and subscribers reached millions. The stories of crime gave many Americans entertainment when they needed it most (9)

10.  Dillinger and other gangsters created a lot of trouble for the FBI in the early 30's.  However, the criminals' actions were an advantage to the FBI's growth. The FBI was a newer organization in the 30's; it was a little over 20 years active.  The crimes allowed the FBI to create more of a presence and motivated them to expand (4).

11. Dillinger's actions appealed to the public even on the big screen.  Dillinger's face was shown in cinemas across the country when a newsreel about the search for Dillinger debuted in April of 1934.  When the real showed Dillinger, audiences would cheer and applaud.  Audiences would boo and shout at the clips of FBI agents.  The search for Dillinger in itself had become a live action movie, with the FBI as primary antagonists (6). 

12.  Many of the people who adored Dillinger weren't fully aware of the harm he was causing to other civilians.  He was only reported to have killed one person (a police officer), but those involved in the heists he performed were still terrified.  Dillinger admitted to feeling sorry for the officer's family, but expressed little remorse for the victim, saying, "He stood right in the way and kept throwing slugs at me. What else could I do?" (6).

13. A citizen of Tennessee, Mrs. W. B. Grant, was on of the Americans that spoke out to the government, specifically Eleanor Roosevelt, about John Dillinger's "hero" status.  She claimed that the legal system in the United States was unfair, and John Dillinger should be put on trial.  She had met Dillinger and his crew of robbers, and she said that they weren't bad people.  Grant justified Dillinger's actions by comparing robbers to bankers themselves, saying, "(Bankers) became wealthy by cheating the honest man (2)."

14.  John Dillinger was known for his brave stunts, including the normal civilian life he led.  Dillinger would go on regular outings such as going out to dinner and even attending a Cubs game.  Despite his high notoriety, he wasn't in much danger when he showed his face in public.  At one point, he greeted his lawyer who was talking to a police officer. When he gained more awareness (eventually becoming Public Enemy Number One), he dramcally changed his appearance by getting plastic surgery and sporting a fake mustache (8).

15. As more and more bank robbers were killed, the public started to change their view on the criminals.  Many films and newsreels were created to be more on the side of the FBI.  J. Edgar Hoover played a large role, facilitating pro-FBI propaganda to be put into media. He was originally reluctant to do this, but he decided it was best for the war on crime (9).

16. Near the end of the Depression, almost all civilians had completely switched sides.  Looking back on Dillinger's actions, many people decided that he was a bad man (along with the other robbers). There were still a few people who thought of Dillinger as a hero, but they didn't dominate the media as before.  J. Edgar Hoover had his mind set on the robbers and would talk about them "all the time" during his last few years, according to Will Sullivan, Hoover's assistant director (9).

17. At the Indiana State Archives, Dillinger's fame made his records extremely popular with the public.  Documents about Dillinger became increasingly rare; as people tried to get their hands on them, more and more records disappeared.  Because of this, the documents were moved to confidential areas, and prison records are now only accessible online (10).

18. Dillinger's gang consisted of men that he met in prison: Harry Pierpont, Charles Makley, John Hamilton, Walter Dietrich, and Russell Clark. After Dillinger was released from prison, these men and five others escaped the Indiana State Prison.  Homer Van Meter, one of Dillinger's closest friends, was paroled and joined the gang shortly after (11).

19. Dillinger's robberies were well thought-out and complex. A typical robbery started out with a couple of Dillinger's gang members scouting out their next target and creating a map of the bank's layout.  The gang also had a designated getaway driver, who would learn the escape route and practice it over and over again.  During escapes, the gang would usually throw nails or create diversions with gas tanks to throw their pursuers off track (11).

20. J. Edgar Hoover was the director of the FBI during Dillinger's run of crime.  Hoover was known for collecting information about activist groups, trying to find any way to convict them of any crime.  He used many illegal methods to arrest people, including wire taps and planing evidence (13).

21.  Hoover was intensely against Martin Luther King, Jr. Hoover notoriously called him ""the most dangerous Negro in the future of this nation." He used his illegal investigation methods to find any shred of incriminating evidence to convict King of being a communist. At one point, after failing to release to the public what he thought was proof of King's "criminal" behavior, he sent the recording to King's office, suggesting surrender or suicide (13).

22. Not all of Dillinger's gang was well-liked by the public; Baby-Face Nelson, for example, was more disliked than respected.  Nelson was particularly bloodthirsty, and killed more FBI agents than any other civilian in history. During some robberies, he scream and gun down innocent bystanders (14).

23.  Dillinger and his gang based their robberies heavily on the technique of Herman Lamm, on of the pioneers of large bank robbery. Lamm was a former World War I soldier, so he used military tactics to plan bank raids.  Lamm invented the method of drawing the bank's layout, and would even run through the robberies using actual-sized recreations of their target banks.  After Lamm's death, a member of his gang joined Dillinger in return for his knowledge of the "Lamm Technique" (14).

24. After Dillinger's death, it was widely believed that the man who was killed wasn't actually Dillinger at all.  Dillinger had previously been going by the name "Jimmy Lawrence," who was a less successful criminal at the time.  Lawrence and Dillinger lived near each other, and also eearily resembled each other. When Dillinger was killed, Lawrence coincidentally disappeared (15).

25. This caused much controversy over Dillinger's death.  In addition to Jimmy Lawrence's disappearance, there were several other elements to the victim's false identity.  Upon seeing the body, Dillinger's father said, "That's not my boy," and none of Dillinger's physical identification traits matched the body; his eyes were a different color, the height and weight didn't match, and he didn't even have the same fingerprints.  The FBI shrugged it off as the plastic surgery that Dillinger had received (15).


26. The reason for the dislike of banks in the Great Depression is mostly because of foreclosures on farmland.  When the economy was booming in the 1920s, famers took out many loans on land to be part of the crop industry.  When the Depression hit and land values fell, banks would have to take the assets pledged to them from farmers who took out loans. This made many people lose their homes and many of their belongings (16).

27.  Poverty rates spiked, and no one was spending money which caused many banks to fail.  During the first year of the Depression, over 740 banks failed. By the end of the decade, the number had reached over 9,000 (17).

28.  Melvin Purvis had immense popularity after the attack on Dillinger at the Biograph Theater, and he  came to be known as "the man who got Dillinger".  In the October after Dillinger's death, Purvis shot down another notorious bank robber, Pretty Boy Floyd, in an apple orchard.  After publicly declaring to catch Baby Face Nelson, J. Edgar Hoover took him off the job in fear of becoming less respected than Purvis (18).

29.  Until the mid-1930's, gangster films were generally well-liked and popular among viewers.  These films glorified criminals and depicted them as the heroes, with law enforcement officers as the "evil henchmen." In an effort to lower the respect of gangsters, movies centered around the FBI agents fighting them (19).

30.  Prohibition ended in 1933 and made people start to lose interest in gangster flicks. News articles about John Dillinger and other robbers became more common, which gave many people a new source of "real" entertainment.  In 1934, when the FBI started to bring down more notorious criminals, films such as G-Men (centered around an agent slaughtering hundreds of gangsters) appealed more to audiences, even though the main difference was the sides being switched (19).

31. In his most dangerous and well-known stunt, Dillinger escaped a prison using a wooden gun he had carved in his cell with razorblades and an old washboard.  He took a hostage (a custodian or guard) who proceeded to unlock him and lead him to a car with which he made his escape. It was that car that he drove over state lines that put the FBI on his tail (20).

32.  Dillinger later told his girlfriend at the time, Evelyn Frichette, that he hadn't actually carved the gun.  It was a toy gun made by a German woodsmith that had been smuggled into his cell.  The escape turned out to be a conspiracy involving three different people who were rewarded for helping Dillinger (20).

33. In the Great Depression, many people were against big banks.  These banks had foreclosed on farmers' land to compensate for the money being lost as a result of the stock market crash. Because of this, John Dillinger was seen as a modern-day Robin Hood (1).

34.  The Robin Hood status didn't completely fit his character, as many of the people who idolized him only had heard from him in magazines and newspapers.  Dillinger became a "professional" bank robber purely for the income.  He didn't care about big bank foreclosures as much as many Americans thought he did or wanted him to (30).

35. On July 22nd, 1934, Melvin Purvis and a group of FBI agents ambushed Dillinger outside the Biograph theater. As soon as Dillinger noticed the agents reach for their guns, he sprinted down a nearby alley, but he was quickly shot.  Anna Sage, a Romanian and friend of Dillinger, had faced deportation for prostitution.  She had tipped off the FBI that Dillinger was to go to the theater with her, thinking if she gave them Dillinger she wouldn't be deported. She was deported anyway (8).