Leap Into History: John Dillinger in Delaware County, Indiana

By Brock Krebs

A historical account of the legendary gangster, John Dillinger. The book details Dillinger's early life, criminal activities, and celebrity-like status that led to the "Gentleman Bandit" being named America's First Public Enemy Number One.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781943612239

Book preview

Monday, July 17, 1933- Margaret Good, a young bank teller with the Commercial Bank in Daleville, Indiana sat alone in the bank engaged in her daily tasks. At around 12:45 p.m. two men entered the bank. Nothing seemed abnormal to Margaret. One of the men approached the teller window. He calmly and politely announced to Good, This is a stick-up honey, and thrust a blue steel automatic pistol through the window’s steel bars. When she refused to open the door in the office, the clean cut robber leaped over the banks cage and into history.

In over seventy-two years following that fateful day in 1933, John Dillinger has become part of American folklore. He was a product of the Great Depression. Dillinger became a celebrity cheered on by the common citizens of America, and was eventually named as America’s First Public Enemy Number One. He has been the topic of Hollywood movies, numerous television specials, books, and even adorned the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s targets for many years following his death. Under pressure to apprehend the bandit, J. Edgar Hoover and his newly formed Bureau of Investigation (later the F.B.I.) was facing being shut down after several failed attempts to bring the bad man to justice. His short twelve months in flight from the authorities filled the front pages of daily newspapers. He was the topic of almost every newsreel of the day. The bandit was spotted all over America, Canada, Mexico, and even England. The truth being, he never left the country, and most sightings of him were only individuals that resembled the outlaw. John Dillinger escaped the confines of jail twice, once while using a gun carved from wood to fool guards and place them into the cells themselves. Following the brave escape from the alleged escape proof Crown Point, Indiana jail, he stole the sheriff’s own vehicle before speeding out of town. Even when the federal authorities were assigned the case, for transporting the stolen car across state lines into Illinois, Dillinger escaped a lodge in Wisconsin surrounded by agents. On July 22, 1934 he was shot to death outside of the Biograph Theater in Chicago. His final moments drew thousands to the spot where the bandit fell in a hail of bullets. The circumstances leading to his death gained the woman who betrayed him, Anna Sage, the nickname The Lady in Red.

Following his death thousands of people waited in an extremely long line for hours at the morgue in Chicago, on one of the hottest recorded days in the cities history, just to get a glimpse of the slain outlaw. Citizens dipped their handkerchiefs in the pool of blood to the point that the alley were he fell was void of any evidence that he had died there. Once his remains were brought back to his hometown of Mooresville, Indiana, thousands of people filed by his casket to witness history. The legend of John Dillinger has continued on following his death at the hands of federal agents. There was speculation that the man killed was not Dillinger at all, and that the bandit lived out his life free from pursuit. Like Jesse James and Billy The Kid, Dillinger seemed to live on in the imaginations of the American people.

The fact of the matter is that John Herbert Dillinger was considered a modern day Robin Hood, and paid the ultimate price for his crimes, losing his life in a dirty alley in Chicago, Illinois on July 22, 1934.

Every legend has a story, and a beginning. Here lies the beginning of John H. Dillinger’s crime spree that began in the heartland of America, Delaware County, Indiana.

John Herbert Dillinger was born in the Maywood neighborhood of Indianapolis, Indiana on June 22, 1903. He was born the son of John Wilson Dillinger and Mary Ellen Molly Lancaster-Dillinger. John Sr. ran a local grocery store and served as a deacon of the Hillside Christian Church. When Dillinger was three years old his mother, Molly, fell ill and in 1907 passed away. The death greatly affected the young Dillinger. It was during her viewing that John went missing. He was later found standing on a chair next to his mother’s casket shaking her remains, attempting to wake her up.

The elder Dillinger remarried in 1912 to Elizabeth Lizzy Fields. The couple had three children, Hubert, Doris, and Frances. The Dillinger children were very close to their older half-brother John, in fact the four remained close for the remainder of John’s life. Dillinger’s older sister Audrey, herself now married with children of her own, took care of her younger brother, filling the role of his mother in several areas.

In his youth Dillinger began to find trouble throughout the large city of Indianapolis. At age 16 he dropped out of high school to begin working at a local mill. While working at the mill he was known as a hard worker. To deter his son’s behavior John’s father moved the family to the smaller community of Mooresville, in Morgan County, Indiana. As was the case in Indianapolis, after settling in Mooresville John Sr. owned and operated a grocery store. The Dillingers lived on a farm on the outskirts of town.

The move to Mooresville did little to change the behavior of Dillinger. When he was not causing trouble, John was playing baseball or hunting. It was told that he was good at both. He joined the baseball team in Martinsville. It was there that John befriended a local thug who also served as umpire, Edward Singleton.

John began reading about the exploits of western outlaw Jesse James through dime novels. Friends noticed him emulating the demeanor of big city gangsters in Prohibition America. Dillinger combined the persona of James and the big city gangsters and began walking with a different strut than before.

One evening John had stolen a car and drove into Indianapolis. He was approached by two policemen. During a routine search of the youngster the officers found a pistol on Dillinger. One of the men took Dillinger by his coat collar towards a police call box for transportation to the jail. In route, Dillinger slipped out of the coat and fled on foot, the officers opened fire on him, missing every shot. Dillinger spent the night hiding in a barn.

On the next morning, July 23, 1923 he enlisted in the United States Navy. This was common practice amongst youngsters wishing to escape from small towns in which they had gotten into legal troubles.

He stayed in the Navy until December 4, 1923 when he deserted the U.S.S. Utah in Boston. Upon returning to Mooresville, Dillinger met and married a young woman named Beryl Hovious on April 12, 1924. The newlyweds lived with his family for a short time, after which they then moved into her parents home. After saving his wages working for a furniture shop, he and Beryl rented their first home. By all practical purposes John Dillinger looked to live a normal life of most Hoosiers of the era.

To outsiders looking in Dillinger seemed to be a good husband. In truth he was spending more time at the local pool hall than with his young bride at home. On the evening of September 6, 1924, John and Ed Singleton spent the evening at the pool hall getting drunk on corn whiskey.

In a drunken state the two attempted to rob local grocer B.F. Morgan. While Dillinger hid in the shadows of the Mooresville Christian Church, Singleton waited in a nearby car. As Morgan