◆ SpookStack

PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1 _ John Dillinger, known during his brief career as Public Enemy No. 1, was born in Indianapolis on June 28, 1902, and came of Quaker stock. -Although his - mother died when he was three years old, his child- hod was a normal, happy one. He went to grade and high school, as well as Sunday School. At 14, John decided that he no longer wanted to study, and decided to work instead. For a while there- after he did work as a machinist, but soon he bought himself an old automobile and began to drift around, worrying his family until finally his father bought a farm in Mooresville, Indiana, in order to take him away from city influences. Open spaces appealed to John; he worked hard and ambitiously. When he was 18, an escapade .in which he temporarily “borrowed” a prominent citizen’s car caused his arrest, humiliating him so much that he ran -,away to join the navy. This was on July 23, 1923. Five months later the rigid discipline annoyed him to the point of desertion. Later he was dishonorably discharged. , . At 20 John Dillinger married his childhood sweet- heart. Five months later he and a companion whom he had met at a pool room slugged and attempted to rob a Mooresville grocer. He'was then sentenced to ten to twenty years in the Indiana reformatory. His companion was sentenced to two years. This tun- equal decision was believed to have turned him against society. | 16 ¢ BANK ROBBERIES AND MURDERS After two unsuccessful attempts to escape from the reformatory he was transferred-on July 15, 1929 to the Michigan City penitentiary. His wife then di- vorced him. From the time that he was freed on parole on May 22, 1933 until he was shot he put into practice much | he had learned from companions he had met at Michigan City. , Fred Fisher, manager of a thread factory in Mon- ticello, Ill, was the first hold-up victim. The banks at Saleville, Montpelier, and Indianapolis were the ‘first bank hold-ups to be credited to Dillinger ; Sale- ville on July 17, 1933; Montpelier on August 4; that in Indianapolis on September 22. As time passed, and he was successful in evading - arrest, Dillinger began to plan for the éscape of his friends Hamilton and Pierpont. His first attempt to toss guns over the walls of the prison failed, but on September 20 he had them encloséd in a package of merchandise consigned to the prison, and with the ‘help of a conspirator, the guns reached the two con- victs. On the 25th of September he’ was arrested at the home of a girl friend in Dayton, Ohio, and taken to ‘the Lima jail. He did not stay there long, however, because on October 12, three of his friends masquer- ading as Indiana deputies freed their leader and killed Sheriff John Sarver. Then they looted. and robbed police stations, getting machine guns, pistols and bullet-proof vests. 17