John Dillinger: Bank Robber

by Mitch D. and Travis W.

John Herbert Dillinger was a hard working man who got himself involved in crime in the early 1920s. He led a big gang of bank robbers around the United States in the early 1930s, and robbed banks in many of the major cities. He led a rich criminal lifestyle and had the cops and the FBI after him for his label of public enemy number 1.

John Herbert Dillinger was born on June 22, 1903, in the Oak Hill area of Indianapolis. He didn’t like his step mom and was bored with where he worked, so he got into trouble at a young age. He joined the Navy and got in trouble for deserting when the ship he was on docked in Boston. He left home and married 16-year-old Beryl Hovius in 1924. Dillinger had no luck finding work in the city and joined the town pool shark, Ed Singleton, in his search for easy money.

In their first attempt at robbery, they tried to rob a Mooresville grocer, but were quickly apprehended. Singleton pleaded not guilty, stood trial, and was sentenced to two years. Dillinger, following his father's advice, confessed, was convicted of assault and battery with intent to rob, and conspiracy to commit a felony, and received joint sentences of 2 to 14 years and 10 to 20 years in the Indiana State Prison, but his dad petitioned to let John out on parole on May 10th, 1933. The reason for him robbing the banks was because he couldn’t get a job and didn’t want to be poor.

When John left prison, the United States were fully into the “Great Depression”. Since he couldn’t find a job, he immediately went back to the life of crime. He was once involved in. On September 22 he robbed a bank in Bluffton Ohio, but was soon tracked down and imprisoned in Lima. When he entered the prison, the guards found prison escape plans, but when asked to interpret John refused. His accomplices later snuck guns in through the laundry room and they made their escape, but John could not escape the law forever. He was shot and killed by FBI agents outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago.

John Dillinger robbed many banks in the United States including his first bank robbery in New Carlisle Ohio, on June 10, 1933. After his first bank robbery John and his gang robbed another 10 banks and only got caught once.


Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dillinger#Bank_robberies