John dillinger bio biography

Trending Here are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about. Jewish Holidays, A. Western Christian Holidays, His mother died when John was just four years old. His elder sister, who got married soon after, cared for him until their father remarried. He dropped out from school as a teenager and began working in petty jobs. He was a wild and rebellious teenager who started getting into trouble with the law.

He enlisted in the United States Navy but was eventually dishonorably discharged due to his misconduct. Married by now, Dillinger was unable to find a decent job and planned a robbery with his friend. The duo robbed a local grocery store but was arrested by the police. He was convicted on several charges and was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison for his crimes.

They already started planning the future robberies they would commit soon after they were released. Paul Police detective Henry Cummings pull up, park and enter the building. Meanwhile, Coulter and Cummings knocked on the door of Apartment Frechette answered, opening the door two to three inches. She said she was not 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 telephone to call the Bureau. He quickly returned to Cummings, and the two of them waited 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 john dillinger bio biography of the third floor, Coulter asked him for a name. Van Meter replied, "I am a soap salesman. Coulter asked if he had any credentials. Van Meter said "no," and continued down the stairs. Coulter waited ten to twenty seconds, then followed Van Meter.

As Coulter reached the lobby on the ground floor, Van Meter began shooting at him. Van Meter ran back into the front entrance. Coulter shot out the rear left tire. Paul office, but could not get through because both lines were busy. Frechette, in her harboring trial testimony, said that she told Dillinger that the police had shown up after speaking to Cummings.

Upon hearing Van Meter firing at Coulter, Dillinger began shooting through the door with a Thompson submachine gunsending Cummings scrambling for cover. Dillinger then stepped out and fired another burst at Cummings. Cummings shot back with a revolver, but quickly ran out of ammunition. He hit Dillinger in the left calf with one of his five shots.

He then hastily retreated down the stairs to the front entrance. Green telephoned his associate Dr. Clayton E. May at his office at Masonic Temple in downtown Minneapolis still extant. With Green, his wife Beth and Frechette following in Green's car, the doctor drove Dillinger to an apartment belonging to Augusta Salt, who had been providing nursing services and a bed for May's illicit patients, whom he could not risk seeing at his regular office, for several years.

May treated Dillinger's john dillinger bio biography with antiseptics. Dillinger convalesced at May's until Wednesday, April 4. After the events in Minneapolis, Dillinger and Frechette traveled to Mooresville to visit Dillinger's father. Friday, April 6,was spent contacting family members, particularly his half-brother Hubert Dillinger.

On April 6, Hubert and Dillinger left Mooresville at about p. The Pierponts were not home, so the two headed back to Mooresville around midnight. On April 7 at approximately a. Joseph Manning near Noblesville, Indianaafter Hubert fell asleep behind the wheel. They crashed through a farm fence and about feet into the woods. Both men made it back to the Mooresville farm.

Swarms of police showed up at the accident scene within hours. Found in the car were maps, a machine gun magazine, a length of rope, and a bullwhip. According to Hubert, his brother planned to pay a visit with the bullwhip to his former one-armed "shyster" lawyer at Crown Point, Joseph Ryan, who had run off with his retainer after being replaced by Louis Piquett.

At about a. Fred Penfield Billie Frechette. At p. Geraghty and T. Donegan were cruising in the vicinity in their carthe group left in separate cars. Dillinger was on the floor of the car. He was later seen, but not recognized, by Donegan and Geraghty. Sensing trouble, Billie went in first. She was promptly arrested by agents, but refused to reveal Dillinger's whereabouts.

Dillinger was waiting in his car outside the tavern and then drove off unnoticed. Dillinger reportedly became despondent after Billie was arrested. The other gang members tried to talk him out of rescuing her, but Van Meter encouraged him by saying that he knew where they could find bulletproof vests. They marched Pittenger at gunpoint into the police station, where they stole several more guns and bulletproof vests.

After separating, Dillinger picked up Hamilton, who was recovering from the Mason City robbery. The Bureau received a telephone call Sunday morning, April 22 that John Dillinger and several of his confederates were hiding out at a small vacation lodge called Little Bohemia near present-day Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin. Dillinger and some of the gang were upstairs in the lodge and began shooting out the windows.

While the BOI agents ducked for cover, Dillinger and his men fled from the back of the building. By JulyDillinger had absconded, and the federal agents did not have any information about his whereabouts. He had, in fact, gone to Chicago where he used the alias of Jimmy Lawrence, a petty criminal from Wisconsin who bore a close resemblance to Dillinger.

Working as a clerk, Dillinger found that, in a large metropolis like Chicago, he was able to live an anonymous existence for a while. What he did not realize was that the federal agents' dragnet happened to be based at Chicago. When the authorities found Dillinger's blood-spattered getaway car on a Chicago side street, they were positive that he was in the city.

According to Art O'Leary, as early as MarchDillinger expressed an interest in plastic surgery and had asked O'Leary to check with Piquett on such matters. At the end of April, Piquett paid a visit to his old friend Dr. Wilhelm Loeser. Loeser had practiced in Chicago for 27 years before being convicted under the Harrison Narcotic Act in He was sentenced to three years at Leavenworth, but was paroled early on December 7,with Piquett's help.

Harold Cassidy, who would administer the anaesthetic. The procedure would be done at the home of Piquett's longtime friend, year-old James Probasco, at the end of May. On May 28, Loeser was picked up at his home at p. The three of them then drove to Probasco's place. Dillinger chose to have a general anaesthetic. Loeser later testified:.

I asked him what work he wanted done. He wanted two warts moles removed on the right lower forehead between the eyes and one at the left angle, outer angle of the left eye; wanted a depression of the nose filled in; a scar; a large one to the left of the median line of the upper lip excised, wanted his dimples removed and wanted the angle of the mouth drawn up.

He didn't say anything about the fingers that day to me. Cassidy administered an overdose of etherwhich caused Dillinger to suffocate. He began to turn blue and stopped breathing. Loeser pulled Dillinger's tongue out of his mouth with a pair of forceps, and at the same time forced both elbows into his ribs. Dillinger gasped and resumed breathing. The procedure continued with only a local anesthetic.

Loeser removed several moles on Dillinger's forehead, made an incision in his nose and an incision in his chin and tied john dillinger bio biography both cheeks. Loeser met with Piquett again on Saturday, June 2, with Piquett saying that more work was needed on Dillinger and that Van Meter now wanted the same work done to him. Also, both now wanted work done on their fingertips.

Loeser used a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid —- known commonly as aqua regia. Loeser met O'Leary the next night at Clark and Wright atand they once again drove to Probasco's. Loeser testified that he worked for only about 30 minutes before O'Leary and Piquett left. After the bold prison escape and bank heist, the killing of Sarber and the attack on the police arsenal, the Pierpont Gang was gaining substantial notoriety.

Newspapers wrote sensational stories of the group's exploits. Members were described as shadowy figures, wearing dark overcoats with hat brims pulled down to hide their identities. The thieves would make swift movements and bark out sharp, crisp orders to "Get down and nobody gets hurt! All the gang members were well aware of their publicity, particularity Dillinger, who read the stories and saved press clippings.

While most men in their line of work possessed big egos, there seemed to be little struggle for leadership within the gang. Whether the newspapers made reference to the "Pierpont Gang" or the "Dillinger Gang" didn't seem to make much difference. Each man had a role to play and the planning of robberies was more egalitarian, with all members providing input.

When they weren't working, the men lived quietly and conservatively in expensive Chicago apartments. They dressed like any other respectable businessmen and didn't draw much attention to themselves. Nearly all members had girlfriends, some had wives, but the attachments were episodic. The men drank only on off-hours, typically beer. Pierpont had a strict rule that planning and committing a crime had to be done without alcohol or drugs.

For the most part, all members agreed that if any gang members couldn't or wouldn't adhere to the rules, they were let go. From late into next year, the gang committed several Midwest bank robberies. Always meticulously planned, the heists often had a theatrical flair. It was rumored that once several gang members posed as alarm system sales reps to get into a bank's vault and have access to the security system.

Another time they allegedly pretended to be a film crew scouting locations for a bank robbery movie. It was during this period that stories began to circulate in newspapers of interesting oddities and even humorous incidences that occurred during the bank robberies, all enhancing the thieves' reputations. Despite stories of Dillinger being a Robin Hood type and a glamorization of the gangster persona, the FBI later countered that he and his cohorts were dangerous gunmen primarily looking to line their own pockets.

In Decemberthe gang decided to take a break in Florida.

John dillinger bio biography

Shortly before they left, one of the gang members fatally shot a police officer while picking up a car at a repair shop. The robbery went badly; Hamilton was wounded and Dillinger allegedly killed police officer William Patrick O'Malley during their escape. Other members of the gang arrived in Tucson and were experiencing difficulties of their own.

A fire at the hotel where they were staying tipped off police to their whereabouts. Dillinger and Frechette arrived a day or so after the fire and registered at a motel nearby. The next day, Tucson police rounded up all members of the group, including Dillinger and Frechette, in a few hours. Over the ensuing days officials from the Midwest bartered for the extradition of the prisoners, with each state representative claiming supreme jurisdiction.

In time, matters were sorted out and various gang members were assigned to different locales for trial. Dillinger was taken to the office of Lake County Sheriff Lillian Holley, who was serving out the term of her late husband who'd been killed in the line of duty. The sheriff's office had become command central as reporters and photographers jammed into the cramped room to get a picture and quick quote from the famed desperado.

At one point, a photographer asked Dillinger to pose with law enforcement officials. He obliged and placed his elbow on the shoulder of Indiana state prosecutor Robert Estill. The highly controversial picture was printed in many newspapers, with Estill eventually losing his job for taking an image that evoked camaraderie with such a notorious figure.

While awaiting trial, Dillinger was placed in Crown Point Prison, a facility that was deemed inescapable. On March 3,Dillinger proved them wrong by slipping out of the prison on his own without a shot fired. Legend has it that Dillinger carved a wooden gun, blackened it john dillinger bio biography shoe polish and used it to escape. Other accounts speak of corruption from within the facility and that someone slipped him a real gun, with yet another theory being that Dillinger's attorney Louis Piquett bribed prison staff.

In any case, Dillinger was able to elude his captors, steal Sheriff Holley's police car and make his getaway back to Illinois. But in the process, he crossed state lines with a stolen car — a felony — and drew the attention of the FBI, headed by J. Edgar Hoover. Once arriving in Chicago, Dillinger quickly put together another gang. In this iteration, members weren't as carefully chosen as the previous gang, being composed of a few misfits and psychopaths, including Lester Gillis, also known as "Baby Face Nelson.

The new gang relocated to the St. Paul, Minnesota, area. During the month of March, the Dillinger Gang went on a crime spree, robbing several banks. Yet law enforcement continued to be hot on the group's trail, as Dillinger and Frechette barely escaped the FBI while staying at an apartment building in St. Paul, Minnesota. With Frechette taken into custody after returning to Chicago, Dillinger and some of his men were forced to hole up in a Wisconsin hideout called Little Bohemia.

Soon after their arrival, the lodge owner, Emil Wanatka, recognized his new guest as the famous Dillinger.