2003 standoff in Abbeville, South Carolina

The 2003 Abbeville right-of-way standoff was a 14-hour shootout that took place on December 8, 2003, in Abbeville, South Carolina, between alleged extremists and self-proclaimed "sovereign citizens" Arthur, wife Rita, and son Steven Bixby; and members of the Abbeville city police department, the Abbeville County sheriff's office, the South Carolina Highway Patrol, the South Carolina Department of Transportation , and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Overview: The standoff, which resulted from a dispute between the Bixbys and the state of South Carolina over surveying during the planning of a highway widening project, resulted in the deaths of two lawmen, Abbeville County Deputy Sheriff Sgt. Daniel "Danny Boy" Wilson, 37, and State Constable Donald "Donnie" Ouzts, 61. All three Bixbys were taken into police custody after surrendering late in the evening of December 8. On February 19, 2007, a Chesterfield County jury found Steven Vernon Bixby (born August 17, 1967)[1] guilty on 17 counts, including both murders as well as several lesser charges of kidnapping and conspiracy. On February 21, 2007, this same jury recommended that Steven Bixby receive two death sentences for the murders and 125 years in prison for the lesser charges. Bixby was scheduled to be executed on April 22, 2007; however, the appeals process has not been exhausted. On August 16, 2010, the South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed the conviction of Steven Bixby and the death sentence, and on April 25, 2011, the United States Supreme Court denied Bixby's petition for a writ of certiorari, effectively ending his appeals process. Steven Bixby is currently on South Carolina's death row at the Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville. On October 26, 2007, an Abbeville County, South Carolina jury found Rita Bixby guilty of two counts of accessory before the fact of murder and one count of conspiracy. She was given two life sentences on the accessory charges, and five additional years for conspiracy, the maximum sentence for that crime. Arthur Bixby was found mentally incompetent to stand trial, and subsequently committed to a mental facility. Events leading to the standoff: The Bixby family lived in Warren, New Hampshire. There, Arthur Bixby was jailed for failure to pay $850, three years after a judgement in a lawsuit. The family's behavior prompted the judge in the case to arrange full-time security. Rita Bixby reportedly had a long history of filing seemingly frivolous lawsuits in New Hampshire courts; one such lawsuit attempted to gain title to land belonging to the Bixbys' neighbors. This suit was dismissed by the court, but an undeterred Rita Bixby attempted (unsuccessfully) to hold a sheriff's sale of the property in question. The Bixbys also frequently attempted to bypass traditional legal processes by filing claims and suits in unofficial "common law courts", claiming that they were "sovereign citizens" and hence had the right to pursue legal action in whatever manner they desired. In New Hampshire, Steven Bixby was convicted of driving while drunk and without a licence in 1992. In 1994, an arrest warrant was issued when he missed parole check-ins and had failed to pay the fines. He arrived in Abbeville in the 1990s and his parents arrived in 2000. They moved into a small home situated at 4 Union Church Road, near the junction of South Carolina Highway 72, Union Church Road, and Horton Drive, in West Abbeville. The parcel of land surrounding the Bixby residence was subject to a 1960 easement granted by a previous owner, Haskell Johnson, to the state of South Carolina, allowing for the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) to expand its right-of-way on the portion of the property adjoining Highway 72, should it desire to widen this highway in the future. It was debated, however, whether Johnson's granting this easement to the state was properly recorded by the Abbeville County register of deeds. When the 1960 easement was granted, it was permissible under state law to record highway right of way instruments in the records vault at the SCDOT headquarters in Columbia. For many years now, the SCDOT has also recorded at local county courthouses. In this situation, the 1960 easement was apparently only on file in the SCDOT records vault, and not at the Abbeville County courthouse. In the early 2000s, the state of South Carolina began widening Highway 72 from the Georgia state line to just east of Abbeville. Reportedly, the state determined in late 2003 that it would need to enter its easement on a strip of the Bixbys' land approximately ten feet in length to construct the project. Angered by what they claimed was an unconstitutional theft of their property by the SCDOT, the Bixbys sent numerous written appeals to various state officials, arguing that the easement in question had been obtained illegally. Some of these appeals, laced with references to the New Hampshire state constitution, invocations of the New Hampshire state motto, and fierce statements underscoring the Bixbys' seeming willingness to die for their beliefs, did not arrive at state offices until after the standoff had concluded. On November 4, 2003, Rita wrote an email to family and friends which said that if anything was done on their property, there would be two shotguns that "would not be just for show". On Thursday, December 4,2003, the SCDOT officials brought a copy of the easement to the Bixby home and informed the Bixbys that they would act on the easement and take 20 feet of land and that the Bixbys had the option to buy additional footage for the nominal consideration of $1. Rita and Arthur wrote a letter to numerous state officials which closed quoting Patrick Henry ("Give me liberty, or give me death!") and John Stark ("Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.") and ending with "We, the undersigned, echo those sentiments." On Friday, December 5, 2003, as officials with the SCDOT began staking out the portion of the Bixbys' land to be used for the construction of the highway project, the Bixbys posted signs on their property prohibiting trespassing by "govermen agents and all others". At the trial of Rita Bixby, the prosecution presented evidence that, on December 5, 2003, there was a meeting between Rita, Steven and Arthur Bixby and SCDOT officials Drew McCaffrey, Michael Hannah and Dale Williams to address the Bixbys' concerns. At the trial of Rita Bixby, McCaffrey testified: "I offered to show them the plans detailing who owned the right of way, but Rita Bixby said the plans were all lies." Arthur Bixby also attempted to sabotage survey work by removing stakes from the yard and throwing them into the middle of Highway 72. It may have been about this time that the Bixbys began heavily fortifying their home in preparation for a standoff with police or the government. The standoff: Early on December 8, 2003, a highway worker contacted police accusing Arthur and Steven Bixby of making threatening statements, and again disrupting the laying out of survey stakes along Highway 72. Abbeville County Sheriff's Deputy Sgt. Daniel "Danny Boy" Wilson responded to this complaint, arriving at the Bixbys' home around 9:15 AM, only to be shot by Steven Bixby at point-blank range with a 7mm Magnum rifle. At both Steven Bixby's trial and at Rita Bixby's trial, the prosecution presented evidence that Steven Bixby dragged Wilson into the house, used Wilson's handcuffs to cuff his hands behind his back, made a "citizen’s arrest" of Wilson for trespassing and read him his Miranda rights. Wilson was then held hostage for the next fourteen hours, sometime during which he died from his wound. Wilson had been shot by a hunting rifle, which had been fired by Steven Bixby. The shot was fired by Steven Bixby from inside the Bixby home, through a window and struck Danny Wilson underneath his armpit. After making vain attempts to contact Wilson, authorities sent State Constable Donnie Ouzts to investigate. Within minutes, Ouzts was fatally shot as well. At Steven Bixby's trial, testimony by forensic pathologist Dr. Brett Woodard, who performed the autopsies on the slain officers, gave the jury physical descriptions of the wounds sustained by Wilson and Ouzts. Jurors also viewed the dried, but still blood-stained shirts of the two officers, along with other of their personal effects they carried that day. Woodard described how the bullets entered each of the men, explained the damage they created while inside the body and determined each gunshot as the cause of death. Both men were killed by a "rifle-type" weapon. "There was an entry wound in the (right) back and an exit wound in the front near a left shirt pocket," Woodard said of Ouzts’ wound. "There was also a reopened wound related to recent cardiac bypass surgery, marked by an incision. That incision gave way under the pressure of the bullet." The bullet that struck Ouzts did so in the back near his spine and right shoulder blade, traveling across the body at an angle — from right to left — hitting his liver and passing through his heart. Death was nearly instantaneous. Wilson was hit just inside of his protective vest, on his left side near his left armpit and left pectoral muscle. "It was a rather large, irregular wound," Woodard said. The bullet traveled through Wilson, striking his aorta artery and breaking his backbone. According to testimony, following the gunshot, Wilson would immediately have lost all feeling below the wound and died shortly thereafter from trauma to the aorta and severe loss of blood. He would have lost consciousness almost immediately after the gunshot wound was inflicted. Woodard also testified that Wilson’s left arm was raised when he was shot. This evidence suggested Wilson could have been knocking on the door when he was hit by the bullet — among other possible scenarios that were offered later in cross-examination by the defense. At this point, the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Service office in Abbeville County received a phone call indicating that an officer had been shot. All probation agents in the state of South Carolina are fully certified law enforcement officers, with the same training and arrest powers as all other certified law enforcement officers in the state. Probation Agent Phillip Sears and Agent-In-Charge Ed Strickland responded immediately to the scene, not knowing what had transpired on the property. As first responders to the Bixby home, Strickland and Sears canvassed the property, and quickly located the body of Constable Ouzts lying on the front lawn. The agents summoned reinforcements and began to establish a perimeter around the residence before other law enforcement officers arrived. In the meantime, Rita Bixby, from the Abbeville Arms apartment rented by Steven, phoned the South Carolina Attorney General's office, leaving the following message with a secretary: "...this is Rita Bixby and I live at 4 Union Church Road...I've talked to you before, and they have; the state has decided they were going to come in and take our property. My husband and my son are there and there is a shootout going on because they're not going to take our land. No one has approached us and asked us if they could negotiate or anything. They just simply came onto our land and started taking it and there is a shootout there." Rita then effectively took the entire apartment complex and its surroundings hostage, threatening to randomly shoot bystanders if either her husband or her son were harmed by the police. At the apartment, Rita had her son Dennis with her. Throughout the late morning and into the afternoon, members of various law enforcement agencies as well as Abbeville residents who had befriended the Bixbys attempted to negotiate with the family, to no avail. A SWAT unit came from Columbia by helicopter, followed by a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) armored vehicle. At one point, nearly 200 law enforcement agents surrounded the Bixby residence. A constant barrage of gunfire, up to a thousand rounds of ammunition in five minutes, emanated from the small house, thwarting attempts by police to rescue Officer Wilson or capture the residence. So heavy was the gunfire, in fact, that the police had to be resupplied several times with ammunition. Media estimates have pegged the actual number of rounds fired in the tens of thousands. According to SLED Chief Robert Stewart, the level of gunfire from the Bixbys was worse than anything he had encountered in his 30-year career. Indeed, many Abbeville residents living over a mile from the site of the standoff reported hearing the continuous gunfire. By late afternoon, SWAT officers were able to negotiate Rita Bixby's surrender, though she refused to assist in negotiations with Arthur and Steven. Upon searching Steven's apartment and Rita's vehicle, authorities discovered numerous high-powered firearms, as well as a large quantity of what has been described as anti-government literature. Around 7:15 PM, two hours after Rita's surrender, police breached the Bixbys' front door with a 10-foot steel battering ram attached to a vehicle, breaking a propane line and starting a fire, which several officers extinguished. A surveillance robot, armed with tear gas and 5X intensity pepper spray, was dispatched into the house, but was unable to enter due to the large quantity of debris blocking the front door. The robot was, however, able to return video of Danny Boy Wilson's handcuffed, lifeless body lying in a pool of blood. In an attempt to recover Wilson's body, a SWAT unit stormed the house; surprised by the earlier blaze, the Bixbys were caught off-guard for a moment, as they ceased firing long enough for the officers to drag the body from the house. By 10:00 PM, after hours of constant firing from both sides and the release of over twenty canisters of tear gas and pepper spray into the nearly destroyed Bixby home, Steven Bixby surrendered to police. About an hour later, a critically wounded Arthur Bixby also surrendered and was flown to a Greenville, SC hospital, where he later recovered. Upon entering the house for the first time, officers found a total of nine firearms, including Wilson's, as well as a large library of legal texts and articles related to militia uprisings. They also found several different wills made out by the Bixbys, and numerous suicide notes. The aftermath: On December 9, 2003, Steven and Rita Bixby were arraigned in Abbeville County on various charges related to the deaths of Wilson and Ouzts. Steven was charged with two counts of murder and one count of criminal conspiracy, while Rita was charged with accessory before the fact to murder, criminal conspiracy, and misprision of a felony. At arraignment, Steven said he was acting in self-defense and cited the New Hampshire motto, parts of the Constitution of New Hampshire, and some Federal law. There, he said, "I love this country. I just can't stand the bastards in it." Arthur Bixby was later arraigned on charges similar to those against Steven. Prosecutors originally planned to seek the death penalty for all three Bixbys, but on August 23, 2006, Circuit Judge Alexander Macaulay ruled that the death penalty was not an option in Rita's case, a ruling that prosecutors appealed to have overturned by the South Carolina Supreme Court. In State v. Bixby, 373 S.C. 74, 644 S.E.2d 54 (2007), the South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's decision that Rita Bixby was ineligible for the death penalty under South Carolina law because she was merely charged with accessory before the fact of murder. Following arraignment, Steven Bixby likened the standoff to the events at Waco and Ruby Ridge. All three Bixbys were initially held in the Abbeville County jail, awaiting trial. For a brief period in 2005, Steven Bixby was moved to the Anderson County jail; in early 2006, he was moved again to the Lexington County jail, where he remained as of late August 2006, due to a breach of confidentiality regarding his meetings with expert witnesses in the case. Trial dates in the case were pushed back several times from their originally scheduled starts in mid-2004. One reason for the delays was the sudden death of Circuit Judge Marc Westbrook in a September 2005 traffic accident; another reason was the contest between the defense and prosecution over both the venue of the trial and the county from which a jury pool would be selected. In early 2006, Macaulay agreed with Steven Bixby's defense that it would be nearly impossible to seat a truly impartial jury of Abbeville County citizens; in July 2006, Macaulay ruled that potential jurors would come from Chesterfield County. On February 19, 2007, a Chesterfield County jury found Steven Bixby guilty on 17 counts, including both murders as well as several lesser charges of kidnapping and conspiracy. On February 21, 2007, this same jury recommended that Steven Bixby receive two death sentences for the murders and 125 years in prison for the lesser charges. Bixby was scheduled to be executed on April 22, 2007; however, the appeals process has not been exhausted. On August 16, 2010, the South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed the conviction of Steven Bixby and the death sentence (State v. Bixby, Opinion No. 26871, August 16, 2010). Steven Bixby is currently on South Carolina's death row at the Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville. While in jail, Steven Bixby wrote over 1,500 pages of letters to his girlfriend. Some of the letters, signed "chaotic patriot Steve", were admitted during his trial. Despite initial concerns over security at the 100-year-old Abbeville County Courthouse, Eighth Circuit Judicial Solicitor Jerry Peace determined on August 29, 2006, that the trial would be held in Abbeville County. The trial began February 14, 2007 with a jury brought in from 160 miles away. On October 26, 2007, Rita Bixby was found guilty in Abbeville County Court of General Sessions. Judge Alexander Macauley presided over the week-long trial. Rita Bixby was found guilty by a jury of one count of conspiracy to commit murder, 1 count of accessory before the fact in the murder of Danny Wilson, and 1 count of accessory before the fact in the murder of Donnie Ouzts. The maximum penalty that could be imposed on the conspiracy count was 5 years. The accessory charge carried a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years to life without parole. Judge Alexander Macauley sentenced Rita Bixby to 5 years in the custody of the Department of Corrections for the charge of conspiracy to commit murder. He sentenced her to life without parole on each accessory conviction. Rita Bixby made no statement to the court, only asking her attorney to advise Judge Macauley that she "is not guilty of these charges". Tearful family members of the deceased who were present for the trial embraced each other in relief at the ruling of Judge Macauley. Rita Bixby, on the date of her sentence, was 75 years old. Because Arthur Bixby had developed dementia, he was not capable of standing trial. In July 2008, prosecutors dropped the murder charges and requested the probate court commit him indefinitely. On February 22, 2008, South Carolina state transportation officials agreed to name a stretch of state Highway 72 in Abbeville County for Abbeville County Deputy Sheriff Danny Wilson and Abbeville County Magistrate's Constable Donnie Ouzts. On August 17, 2010, the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Steven Bixby. In September 2011, the parents died of natural causes a week apart. On the 5th, Arthur died in at the age of 82. On the 12th, Rita died of cancer at the Graham Correctional Institution. She was 79. The house was demolished in 2018. As of 2021, Steven Bixby remained on death row because the drugs used for lethal injection were unavailable; however, it is expected with the planned signing of S.200, the state will resume executions with electrocution or firing squad.

2005 Denver police officer shooting

On May 8, 2005, two Denver police officers were shot in a Denver, Colorado dance hall by Raúl Gómez-García, a Mexican national and undocumented immigrant to the United States. One victim, Detective Donald "Donnie" Young, was killed, while the other, Detective John Bishop, was wounded. The incident sparked questions surrounding illegal immigration in the U.S. and created an international incident with Mexico, where Gómez-García was apprehended. Shooting: From the evening of May 7 until the early morning of May 8 (Mother's Day), 2005, Denver Police Detectives Donnie Young and John Bishop were working off-duty providing security at the Salon Ocampo Hall. The hall was hosting an invitation-only baptismal party. On the evening of May 7, Young and Bishop escorted Raúl Gómez-García out of the hall. Gómez-García returned about 1 a.m., approached both detectives from behind, and shot Donnie Young three times, including one shot to the head. Gómez-García also shot John Bishop once in the chest, but Bishop was not killed due to his bulletproof vest. Raúl Gómez-García, a.k.a. Raúl García-Gómez, was an undocumented immigrant working at the "Cherry Cricket," a restaurant owned by the then Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. Gómez-García used forged identification to obtain a job as a dishwasher. Prior to the shooting, Gómez-García had been stopped three times for traffic violations. Gómez-García fled to his native Mexico where he was arrested June 4, 2005. Extradition: In 1978, the United States signed a treaty with Mexico that acknowledged Mexico's right not to extradite one of its citizens if the citizen faced the death penalty. The Mexican Supreme Court also declared it against the law to extradite a Mexican citizen facing life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Mexican Consul announced that unless the Mexican government received assurances that Gómez-García would not face either of these punishments, there would be no extradition. The mandatory penalty for first degree murder in Colorado is either execution or life in prison without the possibility of parole. As a result of this potential outcome, Colorado Representative Bob Beauprez introduced legislation before the United States House to cut foreign aid to countries that refused to extradite people suspected of murdering American law enforcement agents. This bill was signed into law in November 2005. One local radio personality declared that if anything good came of Young's death it would be because it would highlight the problem of illegal immigration. While murdering a police officer is usually a capital offense in Colorado, on June 9, 2005, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrisey announced that Gómez-García would be charged with second degree murder and first degree attempted murder. These charges posed a maximum of 32–96 years in prison. Morrisey justified the charges, stating, "It is my understanding that I would be prohibited from extraditing him if I sought first-degree murder charges in this case." Trial: In his trial Gómez-García claimed that he only wanted to scare the officers, but the arresting officers and his ex-girlfriend testified that he was proud to have murdered Officer Young. He testified that he was humiliated by Young, but that it was the heckling of his friends that drove him to return to the dance hall to shoot the police officers. On October 26, 2006 Gómez-García was convicted and sentenced to the maximum punishment of 80 years. He was wearing the number "13", a symbol associated with the street gang Sureños, shaved into his hair. The judge expressed the opinion the sentence was not severe enough. Crime Stoppers controversy: Florencia Castañeda Rodríguez, Gómez-García's grandmother, was instrumental in the arrest of Raul Gómez-García. Without her help, the Mexican authorities would not have known where to find Gómez-García. Crime Stoppers had offered an award of $100,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Raul Gómez-García. Crime Stoppers, however, declared that Mrs. Rodríguez was ineligible for the reward money because she did not contact them before notifying the Mexican authorities of her grandson's whereabouts. This decision by Crime Stoppers was heavily criticized in Denver area media, where Mrs. Rodríguez was portrayed as a "very poor" napkin maker whose house was destroyed by a hurricane.

2006 Richmond spree murders

The 2006 Richmond spree murders took place during a seven-day period in January 2006 in and around Richmond, Virginia, United States; seven people, four members of the Harvey family and three members of the Baskerville-Tucker family, were killed. The perpetrators were Ricky Javon Gray (March 9, 1977–January 18, 2017) and his nephew Ray Joseph Dandridge (born January 24, 1977). Dandridge's girlfriend Ashley Baskerville assisted the pair as an accomplice during their murder and robbery spree until she became one of their victims. After Gray and Dandridge were arrested, two prior murders, including that of Gray's wife, and a near-fatal assault in late 2005 were linked to the men. Dandridge pleaded guilty to murdering the three Baskerville-Tucker victims in exchange for receiving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Gray was charged with capital murder in connection with the Harvey family killings, convicted, and sentenced to death for the murders of Stella and Ruby Harvey, who were aged 9 and 4, respectively. Gray's execution was carried out on January 18, 2017, at 9:42 p.m. by lethal injection. Crimes preceding the murder spree- Murder of Treva Gray: On November 5, 2005, the badly beaten body of 35-year-old Treva Terrell Gray was found in a shallow grave next to Brookside Avenue in Washington, Pennsylvania, by a passerby. She had married Gray, a 28-year-old former convict, approximately six months before, and lived with her husband in a house owned by her family; Dandridge, his nephew, had moved in with the couple following his release from prison on October 26, 2005, after serving more than 10 years for armed robbery. According to Treva's parents, the Grays fought bitterly, and they saw claw marks on Ricky's forearm the day Treva's body was found. While both Gray and Dandridge were interviewed by the Washington police, they were not considered suspects. Treva's mother, Marna Squires, alleges that the police were lax in investigating the death and suggested that Treva had died of a drug overdose. While the police ruled her death suspicious at the time, no homicide investigation was launched until after Gray's confession. Approximately a week after the discovery of their daughter's body, Treva's parents evicted Dandridge from their property; Dandridge then moved in with his father in West Philadelphia. On December 23, Gray moved out as well to stay with his maternal grandmother in Arlington, Virginia. Dandridge left Philadelphia on Christmas Day to join Gray. Attack on Ryan Carey: On December 31, 2005, 26-year-old Ryan Carey was attacked by two men he later identified as Gray and Dandridge in front of his parents' home in the 5100 block of North 25th Street in Arlington. Carey sustained extensive beating and stab wounds to the chest, neck and arms in a near-fatal assault, and spent the next two weeks in a coma. He also permanently lost the use of his right arm. Murder spree- Harvey family: In the early afternoon of January 1, 2006, the bodies of Kathryn, Bryan, Stella, and Ruby Harvey were found dead in the basement of their burning house in the Woodland Heights district of Richmond, Virginia. The family of four had been beaten with a claw hammer, slashed, had their throats slit, and bound with electrical cord and tape. Kathryn Elizabeth "Kathy" Harvey (née Grabinsky) (November 28, 1966–January 1, 2006), 39, was the co-owner of a popular local toy shop called World of Mirth in Richmond's Carytown district, and was the half-sister of actor Steven Culp. Her husband Bryan Taber Harvey (April 27, 1956–January 1, 2006), 49, was the lead singer/guitarist of House of Freaks, a two-man college rock band. Their daughters Stella Ann (November 3, 1996 – January 1, 2006) and Ruby May (July 4, 2001–January 1, 2006) were 9 and 4, respectively. Gray bound Kathryn, Bryan, and Ruby in their basement with packing tape, while Dandridge searched the house for items to steal. As this was occurring, Stella arrived home from a friend's house. Gray briefly unbound Kathryn so she could retrieve Stella from the upstairs. The mother of Stella's friend, Kiersten Perkinson, had a short exchange with Kathryn where Perkinson had described her as "pale and ashen". Kathryn did not indicate to Perkinson that there was anything amiss before she left. Kathryn and Stella were rebound by Gray in the basement shortly afterward. Gray ended up cutting the throats of all four of the family members and then hitting each in the head multiple times with a claw hammer shortly thereafter. The official cause of death stated that Bryan and Kathryn died of blunt-force trauma to the head, Stella of smoke inhalation and blunt-force trauma to the head, and Ruby of stab wounds to her back, one of which punctured her lung. Gray and Dandridge tipped over an art easel in the Harvey family's basement, poured wine over top of it, and lit the easel on fire in an attempt to destroy the crime scene. Johnny Hott, Bryan's friend who was the drummer in House of Freaks, called 9-1-1 after noticing that the Harvey house had been set on fire. Chesterfield home invasion: On January 3, 2006, a couple living on Hollywood Drive in Chesterfield County, Virginia, were robbed by two men and a woman who had gained entry to their house by pretending to ask for directions. The robbers stole several items, including a computer and a television, as well as $800 in cash. The husband was able to dissuade the gang from tying them up by drawing attention to the wife's disability and his need to assist her. The Baskerville-Tucker family: On January 6, 2006, the police received a call from a Chesterfield resident who was concerned about her daughter's friend, 21-year-old Ashley Baskerville. The caller suspected that Gray and Dandridge, her former houseguests and former and current boyfriends of Ashley, were involved in the Harvey murders. The police found items at the Chesterfield home linked to the Harvey case, and stormed the house on East Broad Rock Road where Ashley lived with her mother, 46-year-old Mary Baskerville-Tucker, and her stepfather, 55-year-old Percyell Tucker. Percyell worked as a forklift driver and Mary was employed at a dry cleaning establishment. All three members of the Baskerville-Tucker family were found dead, gagged and bound with tape in their ransacked house. Percyell and Mary had also been slashed across the throat. The three had suffocated due to the layers of duct tape wrapped around their heads. Ashley had a plastic bag wrapped around her head as well, secured with duct tape. Arrest and confessions: On the morning of January 7, 2006, Gray and Dandridge were arrested in Philadelphia, where Dandridge's father Ronald Wilson lived. Approximately one hour after the arrest, Dandridge confessed to killing the Tuckers and Ashley Baskerville. Twelve hours after the arrest, Gray asked to speak with a detective, then proceeded to provide a detailed, three-page confession in which he described using a kitchen knife and claw hammer to kill the Harveys, stating "I don't believe sorry is strong enough. None of this was necessary." In subsequent confessions, he admitted to beating his wife Treva to death while Dandridge held her down, to being an accomplice in the Tucker-Baskerville murders, and to the attack on Ryan Carey. On January 8, 2006, the police formally identified Ashley Baskerville as a participant in the Harvey murders, the Chesterfield robbery, and the robbery at her own home; this came as a result of the above confessions as well as eyewitness testimony and other evidence. Baskerville had acted as the lookout in the parked car while Gray and Dandridge entered the Harvey home, and she was found wearing Bryan Harvey's wedding band. Gray and Dandridge testified that Baskerville had posed as a victim and allowed herself to be bound as a part of the plan to rob her mother and stepfather, but "things just went wrong" and Gray "got tired of the girl, so he decided to kill her and take her parents' car". Court proceedings: Both Gray and Dandridge were prosecuted in the City of Richmond Circuit Court in Virginia. On February 9, 2006, Gray was charged with five counts of capital murder in the Harvey killings: one charge for killing more than once in a three-year period, one charge for committing more than one killing in a single act, one charge for killing in commission of a robbery, and two charges for killing a child under 14 years of age. On the same day, Dandridge was charged with three counts of capital murder in the Tucker-Baskerville killings; the third count was later amended to include Dandridge's role in the Harvey killings. Dandridge initially pleaded not guilty and was tried in September 2006, but prior to closing arguments, he changed his plea to guilty on the three counts of capital murder as part of an agreement to receive a sentence of life in prison without parole. He is currently incarcerated at the Keen Mountain Correctional Center in Oakwood, Virginia, designated inmate number 1159354. Gray pleaded not guilty, and his defense team sought leniency by presenting evidence of physical and sexual abuse during childhood as well as PCP use during the commission of the crimes. In August 2006, a jury found Gray guilty on five capital murder charges after four days of trial and 30 minutes of deliberation. The jury recommended that Gray receive the death penalty for the murders of Stella and Ruby Harvey, and life in prison for the three remaining charges. On October 23, 2006, Gray was sentenced to death. In December 2006, Culpeper County also indicted Gray for the murder of Sheryl Warner, a 37-year-old legal secretary and mother of three, found shot and hanged by an electrical cord in the basement of her burning house in the town of Reva. Gray pleaded not guilty. On June 4, 2008, the charge was suspended due to contradictory evidence. Between May 2011 and November 2015, Gray's execution was set and then stayed pending his various appeals in commonwealth and federal courts. In November 2015, a panel of the Fourth Circuit rejected Gray's appeal to that court. On January 19, 2016, Gray's execution was set for March 16, 2016, but was stayed again to allow Gray to appeal to the US Supreme Court. In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Gray's case. In November 2016, Gray was scheduled to be executed on January 18, 2017. His clemency plea was denied by governor Terry McAuliffe, and his lawyers filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court. He was executed on January 18, 2017, at Greensville Correctional Center at 9:42 PM EST. Dandridge is currently incarcerated in the Sussex II State Prison. Memorials: -The Bryan and Kathryn Harvey Family Memorial Endowment has been created "to provide music, visual art, and performing arts enrichment in the Richmond area, which may include but is not limited to educational scholarships". -An annual event, Ruby's Run, has been organized to raise money in Ruby Harvey's name for a scholarship fund at Ruby's preschool, the Second Presbyterian Child Care Center in downtown Richmond. The first took place on Saturday, November 4, 2006; the second was on Saturday, November 17, 2007; the third was Sunday, November 9, 2008, and the fourth was November 8, 2009. -In June 2006, the William Fox Elementary School in Richmond, where Stella Harvey attended school, dedicated its new Children's Garden to the memory of Stella Harvey. -In January 2007, a Richmond newspaper named the Harvey Family the 2006 Richmonders of the Year. -The American alternative country group Drive-By Truckers dedicated the song "Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife" from their 2008 album, Brighter Than Creation's Dark, to the Harvey family. Band member Patterson Hood stated he wrote the song in reaction to the death of Bryan Harvey and his family. -The Christian metal band, Demon Hunter, dedicated the song, "The Last One Alive" from their 2014 album, Extremist to the memories of the Richmond murders, including the Harvey family. -The City of Richmond dedicated a newly-completed footbridge in Forest Hill Park to the memory of the Harvey family on September 19, 2010, naming it The Harvey Family Memorial Bridge. Community organization Friends of Forest Hill Park first proposed that the new bridge be designated as a memorial, and raised money to place a stone marker with a plaque nearby.

Coronavirus party

A coronavirus party (also called corona party, COVID party or lock-down party) is a gathering with the alleged intention of catching COVID-19. The existence of this phenomenon is disputed. Outside of the United States, for example in the Netherlands, the term "coronavirus party" or similar may refer to a regular party that is organized during the COVID-19 pandemic but without any intention of spreading the virus.[6] As the party occurs during the COVID-19 pandemic, it may involve breaking existing regulations and restrictions to prevent COVID-19 infections (i.e. on people gatherings). History: Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, reported that young people were taking part in parties and testing positive for COVID-19. "The partygoers intentionally got together 'thinking they were invincible' and purposely defying state guidance to practice social distancing," he said. A CNN headline on 25 March 2020 stated, "A group of young adults held a coronavirus party in Kentucky to defy orders to socially distance. Now one of them has coronavirus." On the same day NPR published the headline "Kentucky Has 39 New Cases; 1 Person Attended A 'Coronavirus Party'". Both headlines misrepresented the content of the article and the quotes they used from Beshear who did not mention intentional parties for catching COVID-19, but that young people were attending parties and becoming sick with COVID-19. On 6 May 2020, The Seattle Times reported that Meghan DeBold, director of the Department of Community Health in Walla Walla, Washington, said that contact tracing had revealed people wanting to get sick with COVID-19 and get it over with had attended COVID parties. DeBold is quoted as saying "We ask about contacts, and there are 25 people because: 'We were at a COVID party'". An opinion piece for The New York Times by epidemiologist Greta Bauer on 8 April 2020 said she had heard "rumblings about people ... hosting a version of 'chickenpox parties'... to catch the virus". Rolling Stone states that Bauer did not cite "direct evidence of the existence of these parties." The New York Times reported on 6 May 2020 that stories such as the Walla Walla Covid Party "may have been more innocent gatherings" and county health officials retracted their statements. On 23 June 2020, Carsyn Leigh Davis was said to have died from COVID-19 at the age of 17 after her mother took her to a COVID party at her church, despite Carsyn having a history of health issues, including cancer. However, according to the coroner's report, there is no mention of a COVID party, just a church function with 100 children, where she did not wear a mask and where social distancing protocols were not followed. According to David Gorski, writing for Science-Based Medicine, the church party was called a "Release Party" and there is no evidence that the party was a held so that people could intentionally catch COVID-19. Response: Some news agencies considered COVID-19 parties to be a myth. Rolling Stone called "shaming people on the internet for not properly socially distancing" the favorite new American pastime. They state that these headlines are meant to be virally shared, and considered the reality to be that young people had simply attended parties where they caught COVID-19, rather than deliberately attending them to contract COVID-19. Rolling Stone attributed the popularity of the stories to "generational animosity", and said that the coronavirus party stories "gives people cooped up in their homes a reason to pat themselves on the back and congratulate themselves for their own sacrifices". The Seattle Times article from Walla Walla backtracked the day after publishing their COVID party story by stating they may not have been accurate. Wired reported on supposed college students in Tuscaloosa, Alabama throwing parties with infected guests, then betting on the contagion that ensues. "They put money in a pot and they try to get Covid," said City Council member Sonya McKinstry, who was the story's lone source. "Whoever gets Covid first gets the pot. It makes no sense." Wired says that these stories spread like a game of telephone with "loose talk from public officials and disgracefully sloppy journalism". "It is, of course, technically impossible to rule out the existence of Covid parties. Maybe somewhere in this vast and complex nation, some foolish people are getting infected on purpose. It's also possible that the miasma of media coverage will coalesce into a vector of its own, inspiring Covid parties that otherwise would not have happened. But so far there's no hard evidence that even a single one has taken place—just a recurring cycle of breathless, unsubstantiated media coverage." Investigator Benjamin Radford researched the claims from the media and stated that there was nothing new to these stories, and that the folklore world has seen stories of people believing that being inoculated against smallpox may turn people into cows. These stories cycle through social media and include, "poisoned Halloween candy, suicide-inducing online games, Satanists, caravans of diseased migrants, evil clowns, and many others." Other childhood diseases such as chickenpox and measles in years before vaccines to prevent these illnesses, some parents would hold 'pox parties' which Radford claims are still "often promoted by anti-vaccination groups". "Assuming you have a willing and potentially infectious patient (who's not bedridden or in a hospital)" holding a COVID-19 party would be problematic for many reasons, including not knowing if someone has COVID-19 or the flu as well as not knowing a person's viral load, according to Radford. He described the entire premise of the parties as "dubious". All stories reported in the media had "all the typical ingredients of unfounded moral panic rumors", according to Radford. Teachers, police, school districts, governors "who publicize the information out of an abundance of caution. Journalists eagerly run with a sensational story, and there's little if any sober or skeptical follow-up".[10] On 10 July 2020, a WOAI-TV station from San Antonio, Texas, ran a story interviewing the Chief Medical Officer of Methodist Healthcare, Dr. Jane Appleby, who according to WOAI said she had heard from someone that a patient told their nurse right before dying that they had attended a COVID party to see if the virus was real or not, and now they regretted attending the party. Radford considers the stories "classic folklore (a friend-of-a-friend or FOAF) tale presented in news media as fact", noting that they were often anonymous third-hand story with no verifiable names or other details. He described the "deathbed conversation" ending to the story as being a "classic legend trope".

Social stigma associated with COVID-19

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, people can sometimes be labelled, stereotyped, discriminated against, treated separately, or experience loss of status because of real or perceived links with the disease. As a result of such treatment, those who have or are perceived to have the disease, as well as their caregivers, family, friends, and communities, may be subjected to social stigma. Due to the social stigma, individuals and groups have been subjected to racism and xenophobia and hate crimes, including physical attacks. The groups shown to be most vulnerable to social stigma are Asian people, in particular those of East Asian and Southeast Asian descent or appearance, people who have traveled abroad, people who have recently completed quarantine, healthcare professionals and emergency service workers. It has also been shown that wearing or refusing to wear a mask has become subject to a stigma[2] as well. The existence of such social stigma and their negative impacts have been documented by many organizations, including UNICEF, the WHO, and the CDC. Reasons for and impact of social stigma: The level of stigma towards those affected with COVID-19 is due to multiple factors. The virus is new, and there are many unknowns surrounding transmission and a possible cure. Many people cannot access tests and drug development for treatment is still in progress. Meanwhile, there is widespread misinformation regarding the disease, under which various online groups and activists have spread conspiracy theories and unproven claims, including: that the virus was created in a laboratory; the virus was "planned"; and that the virus was caused by 5G networks, among other theories. In this cultural context, the disease itself is an unknown—and, according to many international health experts, people feel fearful when confronted with the unknown. In such circumstances, they may deal with this fear by assigning blame to the "other," which may include groups of people, governments, or institutions. This environment can fuel harmful stereotypes. As a result, social cohesion is undermined, and there may be increased social isolation of impacted groups. With this social isolation, people may be less likely to seek out medical help or services, take necessary precautions, or seek out social services, due to fear of discrimination. This can contribute to a situation in which the virus is more likely to spread, leading to severe health problems and difficulties in controlling disease outbreak. Furthermore, people could also subjected to physical violence and hate crimes. Addressing social stigma: In order to address social stigma, it is important to build trust in reliable health services and advice, show empathy to the affected individuals and adopting effective practical measures to keep people safe. The following measures are recommended to address social stigma by the UNICEF: -Use of people-first language, that respects the individual and talking about the disease with a positive tone in all communication channels, including media, such as: -Not attaching ethnicity or locations to the disease, such as 'Chinese virus', 'Wuhan virus' or 'Asian virus' and using the official name COVID-19 or in a colloquial context the Coronavirus or Corona -Using 'people who have COVID-19' instead of 'COVID-19 cases' or 'COVID-19 victims' or 'COVID-19 suspects' -Using terminology like, people 'acquiring' or 'contracting' COVID-19 instead of people 'transmitting COVID-19', 'infecting others' or 'spreading the virus' as it implies intentional transmission and assigns blame -Refrain from using criminalising or dehumanising terminology in a way that might create impression that those with the disease have done something wrong, thereby feeding stigma -Speaking the facts about COVID-19 accurately, based on scientific data and latest official health advice -Not repeating or sharing unconfirmed rumors, and avoiding using of exaggerative terms like 'plague' and 'apocalypse' to denote the pandemic -Emphasizing the effectiveness of prevention and treatment measures, rather than dwelling on the negatives or messages of threat. Spreading accurate and updated facts, such as by: Using simple language and avoiding clinical terminology -Engaging social influencers, such as religious or political leaders and celebrities to amplify the message in a geographically and culturally appropriate way -Amplifying the stories and images of local people who have recovered or supported a loved one through the recovery from COVID-19 -Portraying of different ethnic groups, and use of symbols and formats that are neutral and not suggestive of any ethnic group -Practicing ethical journalism: Reports that overly focus on patient responsibility can increase stigma for people who may have the disease. News that speculates the source of COVID-19 in each country, for example, can increase stigma towards such individuals. -Linking up to the other initiatives that address social stigma and stereotyping Observe communication tips: -Correct misconceptions, while acknowledging that people's feelings and subsequent behaviour are real, even if their underlying assumptions are false. -Share sympathetic narratives and stories that humanise the struggles of affected individuals and groups -Communicate support for those working in the frontline According to United Nations Population Fund, midwives play an essential role in reducing stigma and battling the spreading belief that health facilities are to be avoided.

Anxiety

I've got severe anxiety. Mom's not accepting of it despite her having her own stuff. she blames me for how I react to my anxiety. she is like nope my fault for having this anxiety. I don't mean to be rude but people should be more sensitive to anxiety if they also have it

Dillinger Gang

The Dillinger Gang was the name given to a group of American Depression-era bank robbers led by John Dillinger. The gang gained notoriety for a successful string of bank robberies, using modern tools and tactics, in the Midwestern United States from September 1933 to July 1934. During this crime spree, the gang killed 10 and wounded 7. They managed to pull off three jail breaks which wounded two guards and killed a sheriff. The increased use of new law enforcement techniques by the newly strengthened Bureau of Investigation (FBI predecessor) led to the dismantling of the gang. Many of its members were killed or imprisoned. Most notably, the BOI killed Dillinger in 1934 when he exited a movie theater. Known members: -John Dillinger -Baby Face Nelson -John "Red" Hamilton -Homer Van Meter -Harry "Pete" Pierpont -Charles Makley -Russell Clark -Ed Shouse -Harry Copeland -Tommy Carroll -Eddie Green -John Paul Chase -Eddie Bentz -Tommy Gannon -Pat Reilly Tactics: The gang employed military-inspired tactics taught to them in prison by men such as Herman Lamm. Tactics included the use of roles during the robbery: Lookout, getaway driver, lobby man, and vault man. Gang members had modern weapons like the Thompson submachine gun and also had bulletproof vests. Lamm is credited with creating the first detailed getaway maps, known as "gits", to improve the chances for escape after the robbery. Powerful vehicles, like Ford coupes with a V8 engine, at the scene of the crime were known as "work cars" but were discarded after the crime to foil eye-witness reports given to police. Gangsters made use of caches of gasoline for their getaway cars as well as medical kits to treat injuries. Activities- Before Lima: New Carlisle National Bank, New Carlisle, Ohio, of $10,000 on June 21, 1933; The Commercial Bank, Daleville, Indiana, of $3,500 on July 17, 1933; Montpelier National Bank, Montpelier, Indiana, of $6,700 on August 4, 1933; Bluffton Bank, Bluffton, Ohio, of $6,000 on August 14, 1933; Massachusetts Avenue State Bank, Indianapolis, Indiana, of $21,000 on September 6, 1933; After Dillinger was broken out of Lima: Home Banking Company, Saint Marys, Ohio of $12,000; Central National Bank And Trust Co., Greencastle, Indiana, of $74,802 on October 23, 1933; American Bank And Trust Co., Racine, Wisconsin, of $28,000 on November 20, 1933; First National Bank, East Chicago, Indiana, of $20,000 on January 15, 1934; After Dillinger's escape from Crown Point: Securities National Bank And Trust Co., Sioux Falls, South Dakota, of $49,500 on March 6, 1934; First National Bank, Mason City, Iowa, of $52,000 on March 13, 1934; First National Bank, Fostoria, Ohio, of $17,000 on May 3, 1934; Merchants National Bank, South Bend, Indiana, of $29,890 on June 30, 1934. To obtain more supplies, the gang attacked the state police arsenals in Auburn, Indiana and Peru, Indiana, stealing machine guns, rifles, revolvers, ammunition, and bulletproof vests. On October 23, 1933, the gang robbed the Central National Bank & Trust Company in Greencastle, Indiana, making off with $74,802. They then headed to Chicago to hide out. The gang traveled to Racine, Wisconsin and robbed the American Bank and Trust Company, making off with $28,000. On December 14, 1933, CPD Detective William Shanley was killed. The police had been put on high alert and suspected the Dillinger gang of involvement in the robbery of the Unity Trust And Savings Bank of $8,700 the day before. The robbery was eventually determined to have been the work of another outfit. Shanley was following up on a tip that one of the gang's cars was being serviced at a local garage. John "Red" Hamilton showed up at the garage that afternoon. When Shanley approached him, Hamilton pulled a pistol and shot him twice, killing Shanley, then escaped. Shanley's murder led to the Chicago Police Department's establishment of a forty-man "Dillinger Squad." Daytona Beach, Florida: Dillinger and Evelyn Frechette were at a house on Daytona Beach, Florida on December 19. A day or two later they were joined by members of his gang; these were Pierpont, Makley, Russell Clark and Opal Long. Edwin Utter was the caretaker who occupied the garage apartment at the same address, and he told how the couples didn't bother anyone (they "kept to themselves") and had no outside contacts, as far as he knew, and he didn't see anyone visit them. To Utter the group had the appearance of gangsters. Someone in the group at some time mentioned to him they were coming from Chicago. Utter said the group received a considerable amount of mail. After the gang had gone, several letters came addressed to Frank Kirtley (an alias of Dillinger), J.C. Davies (alias of Makley), and J.C. Evans (an alias of Pierpont), but as the gang had not left a forwarding addresses, they were returned to the postman. Utter stated there was considerable drinking going on, especially at night. He said the gang stayed at the cottage until about January 12, leaving at night. This January date would have posed yet another problem for Dillinger's defense team had he gone to trial for Officer O'Malley's killing. East Chicago robbery: While Makley, Clark, and Pierpont extended their vacation by driving west to Tucson, Arizona, Dillinger left Florida on January 12 and met up with Hamilton in Chicago at noon on January 15, a meeting that had been arranged between the two men while Dillinger was in Daytona Beach. Later that afternoon they robbed the First National Bank in East Chicago. East Chicago marked the first time serious violence occurred at a Dillinger robbery, a trend that would continue through South Bend, the last job. Killed by Dillinger was East Chicago patrolman William Patrick O'Malley, the outlaw's first and only murder victim. At approximately 2:50 p.m., 10 minutes before closing time, Dillinger, Hamilton, and an unidentified driver pulled up in front of the bank on Chicago Avenue on the wrong side of the street, facing east in the westbound lane, double parked, and exited the vehicle, leaving the driver to wait in the idling car. Hamilton waited in the bank's vestibule while Dillinger entered the main room of the bank. Once inside, Dillinger leisurely opened up a leather case containing a Thompson, pulled it out, and yelled to the 20 to 30 people in the bank, "This is a stickup. Put up your hands and get back against the wall." The bank's vice president, Walter Spencer, while hiding, kicked a button which touched off the burglar alarm. Dillinger then went to the door of the vestibule and told Hamilton to come in. Hamilton produced a small leather bag and began scooping up the cash cage by cage. Dillinger told him, "Take your time. We're in no hurry." Meanwhile, the first police contingent arrived on the scene after receiving the alarm at police headquarters. Four officers arrived: Patrick O'Malley, Hobart Wilgus, Pete Whalen, and Julius Schrenko. After a quick look through the windows of the bank, the officers could see a holdup was in progress and that one of the men was carrying a submachine gun. Shrenko ran to a nearby drugstore and called for more backup. While Schrenko was calling headquarters, Wilgus entered the bank by himself, but was soon covered by Dillinger. The outlaw "relieved" him of his pistol, emptied the cartridges, then tossed it back to the officer. Referring to his Thompson, Dillinger told Wilgus, "You oughtn't be afraid of this thing. I ain't even sure it'll shoot." Turning his attention to Hamilton, Dillinger said, "Don't let those coppers outside worry you. Take your time and be sure to get all the dough. We'll take care of them birds on the outside when we get there." Dillinger then discovered the hiding VP, Spencer, and ordered him up against the wall with everyone else. Schrenko's call for backup emptied the station of all but its phone operator. Four more officers arrived: Captains Tim O'Neil and Ed Knight, and Officers Nick Ranich and Lloyd Mulvihill (Mulvihill would be murdered by Van Meter on May 24). These four officers joined the other three in positions on either side of the Chicago Avenue entrance to the bank. Apparently, not one of them noticed the getaway car double parked on the wrong side of the street right outside the bank door, with its driver sitting unconcerned in the seat with the motor running. Dillinger then ordered Spencer and Wilgus to lead the way out of the bank, acting as shields. The four walked down the sidewalk toward the car. O'Malley, standing about 20 feet from the front door, saw an opening and fired four times at Dillinger, the bullets bouncing off the outlaw's bullet-proof vest. Dillinger pushed Spencer away with the barrel of his Thompson and yelled, "Get over. I'll get that son of a bitch." O'Malley fell dead, with eight holes in a line across his chest. As Hamilton made his way into the street, he took a bullet to the right hand, causing him to drop an emptied pistol. Dillinger kept firing until he climbed into the rear seat of the car. Two game wardens who had driven up to the scene emptied their guns into the car as it started to pull away. The car actually started to pull away before Hamilton had closed the left rear door, and the door was partly torn off as it caught on the rear of another vehicle. The Ohio plates used at the gang's earlier robbery of a Greencastle bank in October were used on the East Chicago getaway car. Police believed the car "may have been a Plymouth," but was actually a 1934 Ford Two-door Sedan. The abandoned car was found the following day at Byron Street and California Avenue, Chicago. Every officer, as well as numerous witnesses inside the bank, identified Dillinger as being one of the robbers – and the gang member who shot Officer O'Malley. Prints were taken of the piece Hamilton left behind, which identified him. Dillinger was officially charged with Officer O'Malley's murder, although the identity of the actual killer is debatable, and it is still questioned by some whether Dillinger participated in the robbery at all. As police began closing in again, the men left Chicago to hide out first in Florida; later at the Gardner Hotel in El Paso, Texas, where a highly visible police presence dissuaded Dillinger from trying to cross the border at the Santa Fe Bridge in downtown El Paso to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. They instead crossed the border further South in Texas, eventually making their way to Tucson, Arizona. Hiding out in Tucson: On January 21, 1934, a fire broke out at the Hotel Congress in Tucson where members of the Dillinger gang were staying. Forced to leave their luggage behind, they were rescued through a window and down a fire truck ladder. Makley and Clark tipped several firemen $12 (each, according to a bureau report) to climb back up and retrieve the luggage, affording the firefighters a good look at several members of Dillinger's gang. One of them, William Benedict, later recognized Makley, Pierpont, and Ed Shouse while thumbing through a copy of True Detective and informed the police, who traced Makley's luggage to 927 North Second Avenue. Officers from the Tucson Police Department went to the address on the afternoon of January 25, and there arrested Clark after a struggle. They found him in possession of $1,264.70 in cash. Makley was then followed to the Grabbe Electric & Radio Store on Congress Street, where he was looking at a radio capable of picking up police calls, and was apprehended there. He had $794.09 of cash in his possession. To capture Pierpont, the police staged a routine traffic stop and lured him to the police station, where they took him by surprise and arrested him. There was $99.81 recovered in Pierpont's personal effects and $3,116.20 on Mary Kinder. Dillinger was the last one taken, caught when he returned to the bungalow where Clark was captured. He had $7,175.44 in his possession, including notes from his robbery of the First National Bank in East Chicago, A000919 through A001107. These amounts, along with a leather money bag found, totaled over $25,000 in cash, as well as a cache of machine guns and several automatic weapons. The men were extradited to the Midwest after a debate between prosecutors as to where the gang would be prosecuted first. The governor compromised, and ordered that Dillinger would be extradited to the Lake County Jail in Crown Point for Officer O'Malley's murder in the East Chicago bank robbery, while Pierpont, Makley and Clark were sent to Ohio to stand trial for Sheriff Sarber's murder. Shouse's testimony at the March 1934 trials of Pierpont, Makley and Clark led to all three men being convicted. Pierpont and Makley received the death penalty, while Clark received a life sentence. On September 22, Makley would be shot dead by guards when he and Pierpont attempted to escape with fake pistols that were carved from bars of soap and painted black with shoe polish. Pierpont was wounded, and executed on October 17. Clark would ultimately be released in 1968, dying of cancer a few months later. Dillinger was flown back from Douglas Airport, Tucson, to Midway Airport, Chicago over the course of two days. With Lake County Chief Deputy Carroll Holley (Sheriff Lillian Holley's nephew), and East Chicago Chief of Police Nick Makar escorting the outlaw, the plane departed Tucson at 11:14 p.m. on Monday, January 29. After stops in Douglas, AZ (plane change), El Paso, Abilene, Dallas (another plane change), Fort Worth, Little Rock and Memphis (another plane change, a Ford Tri-Motor), there was yet another stop in St. Louis, where Chicago Times reporter/photographer Sol Davis boarded the aircraft and was obliged by Dillinger to take a few photos and ask some questions. After a while, growing weary of the questions and being photographed, the outlaw told Davis, "Go away and let me sleep." Dillinger's brutal flight schedule ended at about six p.m. January 30 when the plane finally touched down at Midway. Waiting for him on the ground were 32 heavily armed Chicago policemen. A 13-car caravan consisting of 29 troopers from Indiana was ready to escort Dillinger to Crown Point, 30 miles away, to be tried for the O'Malley killing. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, robbery: Dillinger was for a time imprisoned at Crown Point jail, although he later escaped. Three days after Dillinger's escape, at about 9:45 a.m. on March 6, a vehicle (green 1934 Packard Super 8, 1934 Kansas license 13-786) filled with six members of the gang parked near the curb at the Security National Bank and Trust Company in Sioux Falls. One of the bank's bookkeepers, Mary Lucas, looked out the window and saw the Packard roll up the street. "If I ever saw a holdup car, that's one," she said to a bank stenographer next to her. The stenographer laughed, saying that she'd been hearing too much lately about bank robberies. Before they could return to their desks, Dillinger, Nelson, Green, and Van Meter had entered the bank and subdued both tellers and customers. Hamilton, the driver, stayed with the car, while Tommy Carroll patrolled outside the bank with a Thompson. Inside, Nelson spotted motorcycle patrolman Hale Keith who was approaching the bank on foot. He fired his Thompson at Keith through a plate glass window while standing on an assistant cashier's counter. Multiple bullets hit Keith in the abdomen, in the right leg, about six inches below the hip, the right wrist, and the right arm, just below the elbow, but he would survive. Nelson was reported to have laughed when Keith fell, then saying, "I got one! I got one!" H.M. Shoebotham, a reporter for the Daily Argus-Leader, was in the office of Sheriff Mel Sells at the time of the Sheriff receiving a call informing him of the robbery. Mel grabbed a machine gun and a riot gun, and gave the riot gun to Shoebotham. They both got into a car and drove to the robbery scene, three blocks away. On the way to the bank, Sells figured his strategy. Across from the bank stood the Lincoln Hotel. He planned to reach a second floor window and fire at the robbers. When he reached the bank, scores of spectators were watching the activities. In the center of the street in front of the bank Carroll was standing with a machine gun. Occasionally, he would fire a few volleys, supposedly to keep the assembled people impressed. There exists a photograph taken of Tommy Carroll from across the street during the robbery, an "action" photo that is most likely unique to prewar bank robberies. Sheriff Sells backed his coupe into the alley behind the Lincoln Hotel and took his weapon to the second floor, leaving the Thompson with Shoebotham. Surrounding themselves with bystanders, the gang backed out of the bank to the Packard. No officers dared to shoot. The outlaws picked out five people to go with as hostages and commanded them to stand on the running boards. The hostages were Leo Olson, a bank teller; Mildred Bostwick, Alice Biegen, and Emma Knabach, stenographers; and Mary Lucas. As the Packard sped away from the bank, Patrolman Harley Chrisman managed to shoot out the radiator. Shortly after they left town, they swerved to avoid collisions with two horse-drawn milk wagons. Moments later, Dillinger released Olson, then made the women get into the car, which was already packed with the rest of the gang, their guns, extra gasoline cans, and the robbery loot. Bill Conklin of the Wilson service station on South Minnesota Avenue saw the Packard coming down the street with smoke pouring from the hood and assumed the car was on fire. He ran into the station, grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran back out. One of the robbers said, "Get back in there" as they had slowed up for him. The car eventually began to slow down right outside of town, giving three pursuing police cars time to catch up. Two miles outside of the Lakeland farm, the gang got out of the Packard and made the hostages stand around them, then opened fire on their pursuers. The three squad cars retreated. The gang then hijacked a car owned by local farmer Alfred Muesche, and transferred the gas cans and money into it. About 10 miles outside of Sioux Falls, the gang released the hostages and drove off. The hostages were eventually picked up by a passing motorist who drove them back to the bank. The police scoured the highways by ground and by air over a 50-mile segment of territory south and east of Sioux Falls. The men they were looking for were believed to have ditched Muesche's Dodge for "a big Lincoln" about two or three miles northwest of Shindler. From St. Paul came the assurance that 20 police cars were patrolling all roads heading into St. Paul and Minneapolis, but the gang made it safely back to the Twin Cities and began preparing for the Mason City heist. Mason City, Iowa, robbery: Seven days later, on the afternoon of March 13, at 2:40 p.m., the same six (Dillinger, Nelson, Hamilton, Green, Van Meter, and Carroll), plus an added seventh man as the probable driver, either Joseph Burns or Red Forsythe, drove down State Street in a 1933 blue Buick 90 series sedan (with the rear window removed) and parked in front of Mulcahy's prescription shop. All sources tell a different story as to who went in the bank and who patrolled outside, but it was believed certain that Dillinger took a position outside the front entrance, with Nelson on the north side of the street near the alley behind the bank, and at least Hamilton and Green entered the bank, with probably Van Meter. From descriptions by witnesses later, Tommy Carroll was also positioned outside. Carroll stood in the doorway of the prescription shop on State. Freelance photographer H.C. Kunkleman happened to be filming the bank when the robbery began. Kunkleman was told by one of the bandits to turn the camera off, that they would be the ones doing all the shooting. He began filming again once the gang made their getaway (the five-minute film still exists). Green and Hamilton (and probably Van Meter) entered the bank and fired volleys into the walls and ceiling. Thirty-one employees and approximately 25 customers were ordered to put their hands up. Tom Walters, a bank guard positioned in an elevated bulletproof observation booth near the front entrance, fired a tear gas cartridge, according to procedure, which hit Green in the back. Walters' tear gas gun then jammed. One of the robbers, either Van Meter or Green, sprayed the booth with machine-gun fire, which shattered the glass, but left Walters unharmed. Tom Barclay, a clerk, threw a tear gas grenade over the balcony of the lobby. While the tellers' cash drawers were being emptied (drawers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7, missing 5, about $5,000), Hamilton grabbed assistant cashier Harry Fisher and brought him back to open the vault. About a week earlier, Eddie Green (most likely) had appeared at Fisher's door asking for directions, then peered attentively at Fisher's face, something Fisher would later remember. Directions for alternate routes for the getaway were also mapped out at this time. Once they got to the vault, Hamilton erred by allowing a steel gate to close and lock between him and Fisher. Fisher now could only hand stacks of $5 bills to Hamilton through the bars, greatly reducing the gang's take from $250,000 to $52,000. During the robbery, Green would periodically yell out the time to the others. Meanwhile, crowds began to form outside after word had spread that a robbery was in progress at the bank. James Buchanan, an off-duty officer, who had grabbed a sawed-off shotgun when he heard about the robbery, hid behind the Grand Army of the Republic monument. Unable to fire because of the crowd of people, he instead exchanged barbs with Dillinger. Of the robbers, Dillinger was the only one for whom a clothing description could be provided: light gray suit, dark overcoat and dark hat. Buchanan called back for him to get away from the crowd and he would fight it out with him. Buchanan said that Dillinger's upper lip turned into a snarl as he talked. Dillinger, armed with a Thompson, drew a .38 from an inside pocket and fired at Buchanan, but missed. Outside the bank, Nelson was acting somewhat crazily, firing randomly in different directions. One man, R.L. James, was hit in the leg by one of Nelson's bursts. Tommy Carroll came over to check on James' condition. An oncoming car came and Carroll blasted it with his machine gun. "The radiator of the car was filled with lead and the frantic driver backed out at the rate of 25 mph." From his third-floor office above the bank, police judge John C. Shipley heard the gunfire and went to the window. Dillinger sent a volley of shots in Shipley's direction, warning him to stay back. The judge retreated, but went to his desk and grabbed a pistol, then returned to the window and fired, hitting Dillinger in the left shoulder. Hamilton, Green and Van Meter, with a large canvas bag of cash, left through the front door of the bank, surrounding themselves with hostages that Dillinger had collected. The entire gang moved as one around the corner onto State Street, with Dillinger in the center of the group. Judge Shipley, again, was at a window from above the bank and risked firing into the group, this time striking Hamilton in the shoulder. When Hamilton saw R.L. James lying on the street wounded, he said, "I thought there wasn't going to be any more of this?" Nelson, who had now joined them, said, "I thought he was a copper." Nelson then stopped two women who had just come out of a nearby butcher shop and were at the intersection of State Street and the alley directly east of the bank, and marshalled them to the car and commanded them to stand outside of it. Before they reached the car, Nelson snatched the package of meat from Mrs. Clark's hands, threw it to the ground and stomped on it, silencing her protests with, "You'll get paid plenty for it." The number of hostages varies wildly in Dillinger books, but the Mason City Globe-Gazette from that day names 11 people. A couple women sat inside the car on the robbers' laps. Bill Schmidt, an employee of Killmer Drug, was delivering a bag of sandwiches to the bank and was stopped by Dillinger and also shoved into the Buick. While riding through town, the bag of sandwiches was discovered and they were quickly eaten by the gang. The Buick slowly moved north on Federal Avenue to 2nd Street, taking a left, headed west to Adams, taking another left. The car stayed at about 25 mph within the downtown area. Near 4th Street, Clarence McGowan, along with his wife and five-year-old daughter, spotted the car. McGowan began to pursue the bandit car after mistakenly believing the vehicle, loaded with people on the outside of the car, to be part of a wedding or "some kind of wild demonstration." He was shot in the abdomen after pulling up too close to the Buick. McGowan went home and bathed before going to the hospital. Both McGowan and R.L. James, Nelson's casualty, recovered. The Buick stopped from time to time so that roofing nails could be spread across the highway, "sacks full of them." Oncoming cars were stopped by the gang and were ordered to stay where they were for five minutes before moving on. Bill Schmidt said that "The bandits would drive fairly fast on the straight away, but slowed down for the bumps." The hostages were let off a few at a time and individually. Mrs. Clark (carrying the meat earlier) and Mrs. Graham were the last two hostages to be released, at a point three and a half miles south and a mile and a half east of Mason City. Asked if she'd be able to identify any of the men, Mrs. Clark said, "I sure would; especially the one who winked at me." The Buick was found in a gravel pit about four miles south of the city later that evening. According to police, two cars had been waiting for the gang, with one driver in each vehicle. Once the gang made it back to St. Paul, Green showed up at Pat Reilly's, 27-year-old fringe gang member, husband and father, and also bartender at St. Paul's Green Lantern, asking him if he knew where Dr. (Nels) Mortensen's home in St. Paul was, and requested that he accompany him to see the doctor. Reilly later stated to agents that at that time Eddie Green was driving a Hudson and that Dillinger and Hamilton were in the back seat; that both individuals had gunshot wounds in the shoulders and that Dillinger appeared to be nauseated and slightly dizzy. All four proceeded to Mortensen's home at 2252 Fairmount Avenue in St. Paul, arriving just after midnight. Mortensen answered the call in his night clothes. He examined both men, probing the wounds. Reilly said that during this time Dillinger was "quite ill and wobbly or faint" and had to sit down on the couch. Mortensen told them the wounds weren't serious and that he didn't have his medical bag there. He asked them if they had any liquor. They replied in the affirmative. He instructed them to go home and take a stiff drink and to return to his office the next day. They didn't appear. The four returned to Green's car and drove to the intersection of Snelling and Selby, where Green gave Reilly a $5 bill and let him out of the car. Reilly said he hailed a Blue and White taxi and then returned home. Eddie Green was later questioned by the FBI, and gave the names of the two doctors to them while in a critical state in the hospital. Proceeding the events of the Mason City, Iowa robbery, John Dillinger and his crew reached for safety at Little Bohemia Lodge, located in northern Wisconsin. The owner of the lodge grew suspicious after seeing the behavior of the group of men, and tipped the FBI. Three FBI agents positioned themselves about the cabin, and waited. Eventually, the agents opened fire on the lodge towards the gangsters, and Dillinger and his crew decided to flee through the woods after returning fire briefly. They escaped, and with no casualties. Little Bohemia Lodge: Very early on April 20, Van Meter, Marie Comforti ("Mickey"), and Pat Reilly were the first to arrive at Little Bohemia Lodge in the town of Manitowish Waters in northern Wisconsin. Emil Wanatka, who had opened the resort four years prior, greeted them. Arriving later, were Dillinger, Hamilton, and Cherrington by way of Sault Ste. Marie. Then Nelson and wife Helen, came in from Chicago. and last to arrive were Tommy Carroll and Jean Delaney. Reilly stated that on that first night he, Carroll, Lester Gillis (Nelson), Dillinger, and Emil Wanatka played "hearts" till around midnight. He went to the bar while the others went to their rooms. Hamilton and Pat Cherrington had the end room on the left upstairs, while Van Meter and Comforti had the room opposite. Tommy Carroll and Jean Delaney, together with Gillis and Helen, occupied the little cottage on the right of the lodge driveway. Dillinger had the room on the left at the top of the stairs in the main lodge. Reilly stated to agents that Van Meter told him that Dillinger's room had two beds and that he and Dillinger would share the room. Reilly stated that as he entered the room, Dillinger was lying on the bed on the left side of the room, reading with a bottle of whiskey on the stand near the bed. That as he entered Dillinger laid his magazine on the table, but nothing was said. He noticed when Dillinger turned over he had a .45 automatic under his pillow. Reilly stated that Dillinger then took a drink. That he himself, then locked the door, turned out the light, and went to bed on the right-hand side of the room. The gang had assured the owners that they would give no trouble, but they monitored the owners whenever they left or spoke on the phone. Emil's wife Nan and her brother managed to evade Baby Face Nelson, who was tailing them, and mailed a letter of warning to a U.S. Attorney's office in Chicago, which later contacted the Division of Investigation. Days later, a score of federal agents led by Hugh Clegg and Melvin Purvis approached the lodge in the early morning hours. Two barking watchdogs announced their arrival, but the gang was so used to Nan Wanatka's dogs that they did not bother to inspect the disturbance. It was only after the federal agents mistakenly shot a local resident and two innocent Civilian Conservation Corps workers as they were about to drive away in a car that the Dillinger gang was alerted to the presence of the FBI.[23] Gunfire between the groups lasted only momentarily, but the whole gang managed to escape in various ways despite the agents' efforts to surround the lodge. J.J. Dunn, Dakota County Sheriff, received a call from the Dept. of Justice at 3:40 a.m. on April 23, giving notice that the gang might be headed his way in a Model A, Wisconsin plate No. 92652. Dunn gathered a posse that included deputy sheriffs Joe Heinen, Norman Dieters, and Larry Dunn, with Hastings night policeman Fred McArdle. The coupe was spotted six hours later, shortly after 10 a.m., entering the city from the south on Highway 3, then "turned at the drug store corner to cross the high bridge, in the direction of St. Paul." The officers used Heinen's Buick sedan in the pursuit, with Heinen driving and McArdle armed with a .30-30 and Dieters a .30-40. A large cattle truck slipped between the officers' car and the Model A, and Heinen was unable to pass the truck until he reached the opposite side of the spiral bridge. Upon leaving the north end of the bridge, the bandit car was seen climbing the hill a half a mile across the valley. The Buick started to creep up on the trio. McArdle and Dieters fired warning shots outside their windows as the two cars were leaving St. Paul Park. Dillinger, the middle passenger, with Van Meter driving, returned fire with his .45 through the rear window of the coupe. As the cars roared up the highway toward Newport, approximately 50 shots were exchanged. The chase that started near St. Paul Park, according to the officers involved, was for about 20 miles, not 50, as it is usually reported. McArdle fired the shot that inflicted the mortal wound to Hamilton. In describing the shot, McArdle said, "When the bullet hit the car, the coupe seemed to wobble for a minute and then we thought it was going into the ditch. The driver managed to keep it on the pavement, however, and after doubling back to St. Paul Park and crossing the highway toward Cottage Grove, they lost us in the hills." The car would soon be replaced before heading to Chicago to seek out medical attention for Hamilton. It should be remembered that the trio hadn't slept at all the night before. It was also extremely cramped in the coupe with three people, one of them being mortally wounded, as the length of a Model A seat is only 39 inches across. Much has been written about the slowness of the Model A used in the escape (top speed about 45 mph), but with a large part of the driving done in darkness, Van Meter wouldn't have been going much faster than 40-45 mph in any car, since headlight systems in all cars of the period were notoriously inadequate. High speed at night was simply too dangerous. It's unfortunate for Dillinger, Van Meter and Hamilton that they didn't ditch the coupe for a faster car at daybreak. It probably wasn't possible to do so. Hamilton was taken by Dillinger and Van Meter to see Joseph Moran in Chicago, though Moran refused to treat Hamilton. He died at a Barker-Karpis hideout in Aurora, Illinois, three days after the shooting near Hastings. Dillinger, Van Meter, Arthur Barker, Volney Davis, and Harry Campbell, members of the Barker-Karpis gang, buried him in Oswego, Illinois. On May 3, one week after Hamilton's death, Dillinger, Van Meter, and Tommy Carroll robbed the First National Bank of Fostoria, Ohio. In the robbery, Fostoria police chief Frank Culp was wounded when Van Meter shot him in the chest with a Thompson. Dillinger and Van Meter spent most of May living out of a red panel truck with a mattress in the back. In early May, Dillinger paid a visit to Fred Hancock at 3301 East New York Street, Indianapolis (the Shell filling station where Hubert and Fred worked), and gave him $1,200 in cash. Fred Hancock: "It was on Thursday, May 10, that I next saw John. A fellow came into the station between 5:00 and 4:00 p.m. on this date dressed in overalls, wearing glasses, no coat, wearing a sleeveless jacket. He was unshaven, and this party stood by the kerosene drum. I did not recognize him at the time and continued to wait upon a customer who was in the station, and then walked into the filling station house, thinking that this party standing by the kerosene drum was a kerosene customer. This party then walked over to the filling station house and knocked on the window to attract my attention. When I looked at him more closely I realized that it was John. He left with me a package containing money and told me where to take it. He said to tell Dad if anything happened to him to give Billie some of that money. He gave me $1,200 made up in four packages -- $500 for Grandpa, $500 for my mother, Audrey Hancock, $100 for Hubert and $100 for myself, and I personally delivered this money to the people it was intended for. John told me how 'hot' he was. This was after the time the shooting had occurred at Little Bohemia Lodge in Wisconsin. He said he would return in two weeks. He was walking at the time, and I do not know how he came into the station. When leaving, he walked out of the station and walked south on LaSalle Street to Washington Street. The money was all made up of one-, five- and ten-dollar bills. There were very few ten-dollar bills in the money, it being mostly ones and fives. I used the $100 John gave me in connection with some work I was having done on the eyes of my little girl, and I understand that Mother and Grandpa later paid out the $500 they each received to some attorney, possibly John (sic) Ryan, in connection with John's case." Agent Whitson had been observing the activity at the Shell station on the corner of New York and LaSalle. Whitson: "On 5-10-34 I noticed a stranger talking to Fred Hancock near the kerosene drum in the yard of the station at about 3:45 p.m. He was wearing blue overalls, brown vest, blue shirt and tie, dark hat, and wore spectacles, either rimless or with a thin metal rim. His complexion was ruddy and he had a stubble of beard. In his right hand he carried at all times what appeared to be a pint milk bottle wrapped in newspaper. About 3:50 p.m. the stranger left the station, going south on LaSalle Street toward Washington Street. Agent noted that the man appeared to have a deep cleft in his chin, and decided to follow him and have a better look at him. Agent reached the street without being observed by Hancock and followed the stranger, who was walking rapidly and without any noticeable lameness or infirmity in either leg. The man turned west on Washington Street when Agent was still between 25 and 30 yards behind him. When agent reached the street intersection, the man was nowhere in sight." On May 24, it is alleged that Van Meter killed East Chicago patrolmen Francis Mulvihill and Martin O'Brien who had tried to pull them over. On June 7, Tommy Carroll was shot and killed by police in Waterloo, Iowa. Dillinger and Van Meter reunited with Nelson a week later and went into hiding. On June 30, Dillinger, Van Meter, Nelson, and an unidentified "fat man" robbed the Merchants National Bank in South Bend, Indiana. The identity of the "fat man" has never been confirmed; it is widely suspected that he was one of Nelson's associates, or, as suggested by Fatso Negri to the BOI, Pretty Boy Floyd. During the robbery, a police officer named Howard Wagner was killed when Van Meter shot him in the chest as he responded to the sound of a burst of submachine gunfire coming from inside the bank. Van Meter was shot in the head during the resulting shootout, and was seriously wounded. Green Lantern Tavern: The Green Lantern speakeasy opened for business in 1928. It was located at 229 E 6th St. in St. Paul Minnesota. It became notorious for being a favorite hangout for prohibition crime figures including the Dillinger gang. In 1933 two members of the gang, Tommy Gannon and William Albert "Pat" Reilly, took over its operations. The details of the how and why of that transaction are undocumented, but "Pat" Reilly was one of the Tavern's bartenders. Kay Glispie(Canadian), was a waitress there that at that time, said she was only to approach customers when summoned to their tables.

John Dillinger

John Herbert Dillinger was an American gangster of the Great Depression. He led a group known as the "Dillinger Gang", which was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations. Dillinger was imprisoned several times but escaped twice. He was charged, but not convicted of the murder of an East Chicago, Indiana, police officer who shot Dillinger in his bullet-proof vest during a shootout; it was the only time Dillinger was charged with homicide. Dillinger courted publicity. The media ran exaggerated accounts of his bravado and colorful personality and cast him as a Robin Hood. In response, J. Edgar Hoover, then director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), used Dillinger and his gang as his campaign platform to evolve the BOI into the Federal Bureau of Investigation, developing more sophisticated investigative techniques as weapons against organized crime. After evading police in four states for almost a year, Dillinger was wounded and went to his father's home to mend. He returned to Chicago in July 1934 and sought refuge in a brothel owned by Ana Cumpănaș. She informed authorities of his whereabouts. On July 22, 1934, local and federal law enforcement closed in on the Biograph Theater. As BOI agents moved to arrest Dillinger as he exited the theater, he drew a gun while attempting to flee, but was killed; this was later ruled as justifiable homicide. Early life- Family and background: John Dillinger was born on June 22, 1903 at 2053 Cooper Street (now Caroline Avenue), Indianapolis, Indiana, the younger of two children born to John Wilson Dillinger and Mary Ellen "Mollie" Lancaster. According to some biographers, his German grandfather, Matthias Dillinger, immigrated to the United States in 1851 from Metz, in the region of Lorraine, then still under French sovereignty. Matthias Dillinger was born in Gisingen, near Dillingen in the present-day German state of Saarland. John Dillinger's parents had married on August 23, 1887. Dillinger's father was a grocer by trade and, reportedly, a harsh man. In an interview with reporters, Dillinger said that he was firm in his discipline and believed in the adage "spare the rod and spoil the child". Dillinger's older sister, Audrey, was born March 6, 1889. Their mother died in 1907 just before his fourth birthday. Audrey married Emmett "Fred" Hancock that year and they had seven children together. She cared for her brother John for several years until their father remarried in 1912 to Elizabeth "Lizzie" Fields. They had three children, Hubert M. Dillinger Doris M. Dillinger Hockman and Frances Dillinger Thompson. Formative years and marriage: As a teenager, Dillinger was frequently in trouble with the law for fighting and petty theft; he was also noted for his "bewildering personality" and bullying of smaller children. He quit school to work in an Indianapolis machine shop. His father feared that the city was corrupting his son, prompting him to move the family to Mooresville, Indiana, in 1921. Dillinger's wild and rebellious behaviour was unchanged, despite his new rural life. In 1922, he was arrested for auto theft, and his relationship with his father deteriorated. In 1923, Dillinger's troubles led to him enlisting in the United States Navy, where he was a Petty officer third class Machinery Repairman assigned aboard the battleship USS Utah, but he deserted a few months later when his ship was docked in Boston. He was eventually dishonorably discharged some months later. Dillinger then returned to Mooresville where he met Beryl Ethel Hovious. The two married on April 12, 1924. He attempted to settle down, but he had difficulty holding a job and preserving his marriage. Unable to find a job, he began planning a robbery with his friend Ed Singleton, who was an ex-convict and umpire for a semi-professional baseball team, the AC Athletics, for which Dillinger played shortstop. The two robbed a local grocery store, stealing $50. While leaving the scene, the criminals were spotted by a minister who recognized the men and reported them to the police. During the robbery, Dillinger had struck a victim on the head with a machine bolt wrapped in a cloth and had also carried a gun which, although it discharged, hit no one. The two men were arrested the next day. Singleton pleaded not guilty, but after Dillinger's father (the local Mooresville Church deacon) discussed the matter with Morgan County prosecutor Omar O'Harrow, his father convinced Dillinger to confess to the crime and plead guilty without retaining a defence attorney. Dillinger was convicted of assault and battery with intent to rob, and conspiracy to commit a felony. He expected a lenient probation sentence as a result of his father's discussion with O'Harrow but instead was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison for his crimes. His father told reporters he regretted his advice and was appalled by the sentence. He pleaded with the judge to shorten the sentence, but with no success. En route to Mooresville to testify against Singleton, Dillinger briefly escaped his captors but was apprehended within a few minutes. Singleton had a change of venue and was sentenced to a jail term of 2 to 14 years. He died September 2, 1937 from fatal gunshot wounds. Prison time: Incarcerated at Indiana Reformatory and Indiana State Prison from 1924 to 1933, Dillinger began to become embroiled in a criminal lifestyle. Upon being admitted to prison, he was quoted as saying, "I will be the meanest bastard you ever saw when I get out of here." His physical examination at the prison showed that he had gonorrhea, and the treatment for the condition was, apparently, extremely painful. He became embittered against society because of his long prison sentence and befriended other criminals, including seasoned bank robbers Harry "Pete" Pierpont, Charles Makley, Russell Clark, and Homer Van Meter, who taught Dillinger how to be a successful criminal. The men planned heists that they would commit soon after they were released. Dillinger also studied Herman Lamm's meticulous bank-robbing system and used it extensively throughout his criminal career. Dillinger's father launched a campaign to have him released and was able to obtain 188 signatures on a petition. On May 10, 1933, after serving nine and a half years, Dillinger was paroled. Just before he was released from the prison his stepmother became sick, and she died before he arrived at her home. Released at the height of the Great Depression, Dillinger had little prospect of finding gainful employment. He immediately returned to crime. On June 21, 1933, he robbed his first bank, taking $10,000 from the New Carlisle National Bank, which occupied the building at the southeast corner of Main Street and Jefferson (State Routes 235 and 571) in New Carlisle, Ohio. On August 14, Dillinger robbed a bank in Bluffton, Ohio. Tracked by police from Dayton, Ohio, he was captured and later transferred to the Allen County Jail in Lima to be indicted in connection to the Bluffton robbery. After searching him before letting him into the prison, the police discovered a document which appeared to be a prison escape plan. They demanded Dillinger tell them what the document meant, but he refused. Earlier, while in prison, Dillinger had helped conceive a plan to enable the escape of Pete Pierpont, Russell Clark, and six others he had met while in prison, most of whom worked in the prison laundry. Dillinger had friends smuggle guns into their cells which they used to escape four days after Dillinger's capture. The group that formed up, known as "the First Dillinger Gang,” consisted of Pierpont, Clark, Charles Makley, Ed Shouse, Harry Copeland, and John "Red" Hamilton, a member of the Herman Lamm Gang. Pierpont, Clark, and Makley arrived in Lima on October 12, 1933, where they impersonated Indiana State Police officers, claiming they had come to extradite Dillinger to Indiana. When the sheriff, Jess Sarber, asked for their credentials, Pierpont shot Sarber dead, then released Dillinger from his cell. The four men escaped back to Indiana, where they joined the rest of the gang. Bank robberies: Dillinger is known to have participated with the Dillinger Gang in 12 separate bank robberies, between June 21, 1933, and June 30, 1934. Evelyn Frechette: Evelyn "Billie" Frechette met John Dillinger in October 1933, and they began a relationship on November 20. After Dillinger's death, Billie was offered money for her story and wrote a memoir for the Chicago Herald and Examiner in August 1934. Escape from Crown Point, Indiana: On January 25, 1934, Dillinger and his gang were captured in Tucson, Arizona. He was extradited to Indiana and escorted back by Matt Leach, the chief of the Indiana State Police. Dillinger was taken to the Lake County Jail in Crown Point, Indiana and imprisoned to face charges for the murder of a policeman who was killed during a Dillinger gang bank robbery in East Chicago, Indiana, on January 15, 1934. The local police boasted to area newspapers that the jail was escape-proof and had even posted extra guards as a precaution. However, at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 3, 1934, Dillinger was able to escape. During morning exercises at the jail with 15 other immates, Dillinger produced a pistol, catching deputies and guards by surprise, and he was able to leave the premises without firing a shot. Almost immediately afterwards conjecture began whether the gun Dillinger displayed was real or not. According to Deputy Ernest Blunk, Dillinger had escaped using a real pistol. FBI files, on the other hand, indicate that Dillinger used a carved fake pistol. Sam Cahoon, a trustee who Dillinger took hostage in the jail, also believed Dillinger had carved the gun, using a razor and some shelving in his cell. In another version, according to an unpublished interview with Dillinger's attorney, Louis Piquett, investigator Art O'Leary claimed to have snuck the gun in himself. On March 16, Herbert Youngblood, who escaped from Crown Point alongside Dillinger, was shot dead by three police officers in Port Huron, Michigan. Deputy Sheriff Charles Cavanaugh was mortally wounded in the battle and died a few hours later. Before he died, Youngblood told the officers that Dillinger was in the neighborhood of Port Huron, and immediately officers began a search for the escaped man, but no trace of him was found. An Indiana newspaper reported that Youngblood later retracted the story and said he did not know where Dillinger was at that time, as he had parted with him soon after their escape. Dillinger was indicted by a local grand jury, and the Bureau of Investigation (a precursor of the Federal Bureau of Investigation) organized a nationwide manhunt for him. Just hours after his escape from the Crown Point jail, Dillinger reunited with his girlfriend, Evelyn "Billie" Frechette, at her half-sister Patsy's Chicago apartment at 3512 North Halsted, where she was also staying. According to Frechette's trial testimony, Dillinger stayed with her there for "almost two weeks." However, the two had actually traveled to the Twin Cities and taken lodgings at the Santa Monica Apartments (Unit 106) at 3252 Girard Avenue South, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where they stayed for 15 days, from March 4 to March 19, 1934. Dillinger then met up with John "Red" Hamilton (who had been recovering for the past month from his gunshot wounds in the East Chicago robbery), and the two mustered up a new gang consisting of themselves and Baby Face Nelson's gang, including Nelson, Homer Van Meter, Tommy Carroll and Eddie Green. Three days after Dillinger's escape from Crown Point, the second Gang robbed a bank in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. A week later they robbed First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa. Lincoln Court Apartments shootout- The Setting: On Tuesday, March 20, 1934, Dillinger and Frechette moved into apartment 303 of the Lincoln Court Apartments, 93–95 South Lexington Avenue (now Lexington Parkway South) in St. Paul, Minnesota, using the aliases "Mr. & Mrs. Carl T. Hellman." The three-story apartment complex had 32 apartments — 10 units on each floor, plus two basement units. Daisy Coffey, the landlord/owner, would later testify at Frechette's trial that she spent most evenings during Dillinger's stay furnishing apartment 310, which enabled her to observe what was happening in apartment 303 directly across the courtyard. On March 30, Coffey went to the FBI's St. Paul field office to file a report, including information about the couple's new Hudson sedan parked in the garage behind the apartments. Surveillance: As a result of Coffey's tip, the building was placed under surveillance by two agents, Rufus Coulter and Rusty Nalls, that night, but they saw nothing unusual, mainly because the blinds were drawn. The next morning at approximately 10:15 a.m., Nalls circled around the block looking for the Hudson, but observed nothing. He parked, first on Lincoln Avenue (the north side of the apartments), then on the west side of Lexington Avenue, at the northwest corner of Lexington and Lincoln, and remained in his car while watching Coulter and St. Paul Police detective Henry Cummings, pull up, park, and enter the building. Ten minutes later, by Nalls's estimate, Van Meter parked a green Ford coupe on the north side of the apartment building. The Shootout: Meanwhile, Coulter and Cummings knocked on the door of apartment 303. 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 phone 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 landing of the third floor, Coulter asked him for a name. Van Meter replied, "I am a soap salesman." Asked where his samples were, Van Meter said they were in his car. Coulter asked if he had any credentials. Van Meter said "no", and continued down the stairs. Coulter waited 10 to 20 seconds, then followed Van Meter. As Coulter got to the lobby on the ground floor, Van Meter opened fire on him. Coulter hastily fled outside, chased by Van Meter. Van Meter ran back into the front entrance. Recognizing Van Meter, Nalls pointed out the Ford to Coulter and told him to disable it. Coulter shot out the rear left tire. While Coulter stayed with Van Meter's Ford, Nalls went to the corner drugstore and called the local police, then the bureau's St. Paul office, but could not get through because both lines were busy. Van Meter, meanwhile, escaped by hopping on a passing coal truck. Frechette, in her harboring trial testimony, said that she told Dillinger that the police had showed up after speaking to Cummings. Upon hearing Van Meter firing at Coulter, Dillinger opened fire through the door with a Thompson submachine gun, sending 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. Once Cummings retreated, Dillinger and Frechette hurried down the stairs, exited through the back door and drove away in the Hudson. Aftermath: After the shootout, Dillinger and Frechette drove to Eddie Green's apartment in Minneapolis. Green called his associate Dr. Clayton E. May at his office at 712 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 for several years, patients he could not risk seeing at his regular office. May treated Dillinger's wound with antiseptics. Green visited Dillinger on Monday, April 2, just hours before Green would be mortally wounded by the FBI in St. Paul. Dillinger convalesced at Dr. May's for five days, until Wednesday, April 4. Dr. May was promised $500 for his services, but received nothing. Return to Mooresville: After the events in Minneapolis, Dillinger and Frechette traveled to Mooresville to visit Dillinger's father. Friday, April 6, 1934 was spent contacting family members, particularly his half-brother Hubert Dillinger. On April 6, Hubert and Dillinger left Mooresville at about 8:00 p.m. and proceeded to Leipsic, Ohio (approximately 210 miles away), to see Joseph and Lena Pierpont, parents of Prohibition Era gangster, Harry Pierpont. The Pierponts were not home, so the two headed back to Mooresville around midnight. On April 7 at approximately 3:30 a.m., they rammed a car driven by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Manning near Noblesville, Indiana, after Hubert fell asleep behind the wheel. They crashed through a farm fence and about 200 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 10:30 a.m. on April 7, Billie, Hubert and Hubert's wife purchased a black four-door Ford V8, registering it in the name of Mrs. Fred Penfield (Billie Frechette). At 2:30 p.m., Billie and Hubert picked up the V8 and returned to Mooresville. On Sunday, April 8, the Dillingers enjoyed a family picnic while the FBI had the farm under surveillance nearby. Later in the afternoon, suspecting they were being watched (agents J. L. Geraghty and T. J. Donegan were cruising in the vicinity in their car), the group left in separate cars. Billie drove the new Ford V8, with two of Dillinger's nieces, Mary Hancock in the front seat and Alberta Hancock in the back. Dillinger was on the floor of the car. He was later seen, but not recognized, by Donegan and Geraghty. Eventually, Norman, driving the V8, proceeded with Dillinger and Billie to Chicago, where they separated from Norman. The following afternoon, Monday, April 9, Dillinger had an appointment at a tavern at 416 North State Street. 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. The two would never see each other again. 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. That Friday morning, late at night, Dillinger and Van Meter took a hostage, Warsaw, Indiana police officer Judd Pittenger. 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 two then traveled to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where they visited Hamilton's sister Anna Steve. Escape at Little Bohemia: The Bureau, or Division, of Investigations - precursor to federal jurisdiction and 1935 name change to FBI - received a 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. Special Agent in Charge Purvis and several BOI agents approached the lodge when three men exited the building and began to drive off. Agents yelled for the car to stop, but the men had been drinking and did not hear the agents. Agents opened up fire on the car and the driver was killed. 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 got out the back of the lodge toward the lake and were able to get out of the area very quietly. Hiding in Chicago: By July 1934, Dillinger had dropped completely out of sight, and the federal agents had no solid leads to follow. He had, in fact, drifted into Chicago where he went under 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 lead an anonymous existence for a while. What he did not realize was that the center of the federal agents' dragnet happened to be 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. Dillinger had always been a fan of the Chicago Cubs, and attended Cubs games at Wrigley Field during June and July. He is known to have been at Wrigley on Friday, June 8, only to watch the Cubs lose to Cincinnati 4–3. Also in attendance at the game were Dillinger's lawyer, Louis Piquett, and Captain John Stege of the Dillinger Squad. Plastic surgery: According to Art O'Leary, as early as March 1934, Dillinger 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 1931. He was sentenced to three years at Leavenworth, but was paroled early on December 7, 1932, with Piquett's help. He later testified that he performed facial surgery on himself and obliterated the fingerprint impressions on the tips of his fingers by the application of a caustic soda preparation. Piquett said Dillinger would have to pay $5,000 for the plastic surgery: $4,400 split between Piquett, Loeser and O'Leary, and $600 to Dr. Harold Cassidy, who would administer the anaesthetic. The procedure would take place at the home of Piquett's longtime friend, 67-year-old James Probasco, at the end of May. On May 28, Loeser was picked up at his home at 7:30 p.m. by O'Leary and Cassidy. 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 ether, which 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 forcing both elbows into his ribs. Dillinger gasped and resumed breathing. The procedure continued with only a local anaesthetic. Loeser removed several moles on Dillinger's forehead, made an incision in his nose and an incision in his chin and tied back 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. The price for the fingerprint procedure would be $500 per hand or $100 a finger. Loeser used a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid—commonly known as aqua regia. Loeser met O'Leary the following night at Clark and Wright at 8:30, and they once again drove to Probasco's. Present this evening were Dillinger, Van Meter, Probasco, Piquett, Cassidy, and Peggy Doyle, Probasco's girlfriend. Loeser testified that he worked for only about 30 minutes before O'Leary and Piquett had left. Loeser testified: Cassidy and I worked on Dillinger and Van Meter simultaneously on June 3. While the work was being done, Dillinger and Van Meter changed off. The work that could be done while the patient was sitting up, that patient was in the sitting-room. The work that had to be done while the man was lying down, that patient was on the couch in the bedroom. They were changed back and forth according to the work to be done. The hands were sterilized, made aseptic with antiseptics, thoroughly washed with soap and water and used sterile gauze afterwards to keep them clean. Next, cutting instrument, knife was used to expose the lower skin ... in other words, take off the epidermis and expose the derma, then alternately the acid and the alkaloid was applied as was necessary to produce the desired results. Minor work was done two nights later, Tuesday, June 5. Loeser made some small corrections first on Van Meter, then Dillinger. Loeser stated: A man came in before I left, who I found out later was Baby Face Nelson. He came in with a drum of machine gun bullets under his arm, threw them on the bed or the couch in the bedroom, and started to talk to Van Meter. The two then motioned for Dillinger to come over and the three went back into the kitchen. Peggy Doyle later told agents: Dillinger and Van Meter resided at Probasco's home until the last week of June 1934; that on some occasions they would be away for a day or two, sometimes leaving separately, and on other occasions together; that at this time Van Meter usually parked his car in the rear of Probasco's residence outside the back fence; that she gathered that Dillinger was keeping company with a young woman who lived on the north side of Chicago, inasmuch as he would state upon leaving Probasco's home that he was going in the direction of Diversey Boulevard; that Van Meter apparently was not acquainted with Dillinger's friend, and she heard him warning Dillinger to be careful about striking up acquaintances with girls he knew nothing about; that Dillinger and Van Meter usually kept a machine gun in an open case under the piano in the parlor; that they also kept a shotgun under the parlor table. O'Leary stated that Dillinger expressed dissatisfaction with the facial work that Loeser had performed on him. O'Leary said that, on another occasion, "that Probasco told him, 'the son of a bitch has gone out for one of his walks'; that he did not know when he would return; that Probasco raved about the craziness of Dillinger, stating that he was always going for walks and was likely to cause the authorities to locate the place where he was staying; that Probasco stated frankly on this occasion that he was afraid to have the man around." Agents arrested Loeser at 1127 South Harvey, Oak Park, Illinois, on Tuesday, July 24. O'Leary returned from a family fishing trip on July 24, the day of Loeser's arrest, and had read in the newspapers that the Department of Justice was looking for two doctors and another man in connection with some plastic work that was done on Dillinger. O'Leary left Chicago immediately, but returned two weeks later, learned that Loeser and others had been arrested, phoned Piquett, who assured him everything was all right, then left again. He returned from St. Louis on August 25 and was promptly taken into custody. On Friday, July 27, Probasco fell to his death from the 19th floor of the Bankers' Building in Chicago while in custody. On Thursday, August 23, Homer Van Meter was shot and killed in a dead-end alley in St. Paul by Tom Brown, former St. Paul Chief of Police, and then-current chief Frank Cullen. Polly Hamilton: Rita "Polly" Hamilton was a teenage runaway from Fargo, North Dakota. She met Ana Ivanova Akalieva (Ana Cumpănaș; a.k.a. Ana Sage) in Gary, Indiana, and worked periodically as a prostitute in Ana's brothel until marrying Gary police officer Roy O. Keele in 1929. They divorced in March 1933. In the summer of 1934, the now 26-year-old Hamilton was a waitress in Chicago at the S&S Sandwich Shop located at 1209½ Wilson Avenue. She had remained friends with Sage and was sharing living space with Sage and Sage's 24-year-old son, Steve, at 2858 Clark Street. Dillinger and Hamilton, a Billie Frechette look-a-like, met in June 1934 at the Barrel of Fun night club located at 4541 Wilson Avenue. Dillinger introduced himself as Jimmy Lawrence and said he was a clerk at the Board of Trade. They dated until Dillinger's death at the Biograph Theater in July 1934. Betrayal: Division of Investigations chief J. Edgar Hoover created a special task force headquartered in Chicago to locate Dillinger. On July 21, Ana Cumpănaș, a madam from a brothel in Gary, Indiana, also known as "The Woman in Red" contacted the FBI. She was a Romanian immigrant threatened with deportation for "low moral character" and offered agents information on Dillinger in exchange for their help in preventing her deportation. The FBI agreed to her terms, but she was later deported nonetheless. Cumpănaș revealed that Dillinger was spending his time with another prostitute, Polly Hamilton, and that she and the couple were going to see a movie together on the following day. She agreed to wear an orange dress, so police could easily identify her. She was unsure which of two theaters they would attend, the Biograph or the Marbro. On December 15, 1934, pardons were issued by Indiana Governor Harry G. Leslie for the offenses of which Ana Cumpănaș was convicted. Cumpănaș stated that on Sunday afternoon, July 22, Dillinger asked her whether she wanted to go to the show with them (Polly and him). She asked him what show was he going to see, and he said he would 'like to see the theater around the corner,' meaning the Biograph Theater. She stated she was unable to leave the house to inform Purvis or Martin about Dillinger's plans to attend the Biograph, but as they were going to have fried chicken for the evening meal, she told Polly she had nothing in which to fry the chicken and was going to the store to get some butter; that while at the store she called Mr. Purvis and informed him of Dillinger's plans to attend the Biograph that evening, at the same time obtaining the butter. She then returned to the house so Polly would not be suspicious that she went out to call anyone. A team of federal agents and officers from police forces from outside of Chicago was formed, along with a very small number of Chicago police officers. Among them was Sergeant Martin Zarkovich, the officer to whom Cumpănaș had acted as an informant. At the time, federal officials felt that the Chicago police had been compromised and therefore could not be trusted; Hoover and Purvis also wanted more of the credit. Not wanting to take the risk of another embarrassing escape of Dillinger, the police were split into two groups. On Sunday, one team was sent to the Marbro Theater on the city's west side, while another team surrounded the Biograph Theater at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue on the north side. Shooting at the Biograph Theater and death: At approximately 8:30 p.m., Sage, Hamilton, and Dillinger were observed entering the Biograph Theater, which was showing the crime drama Manhattan Melodrama, starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, and William Powell. During the stakeout, the Biograph's manager thought the agents were criminals setting up a robbery. He called the Chicago police, who dutifully responded and had to be waved off by the federal agents, who told them that they were on a stakeout for an important target. When the film ended, Purvis stood by the front door and signaled Dillinger's exit by lighting a cigar. Both he and the other agents reported that Dillinger turned his head and looked directly at the agent as he walked by, glanced across the street, then moved ahead of his female companions, reached into his pocket but failed to extract his gun, and ran into a nearby alley. Other accounts stated Dillinger ignored a command to surrender, whipped out his gun, then headed for the alley. Agents already had the alley closed off. Three men pursued Dillinger into the alley and fired. Clarence Hurt shot twice, Charles Winstead three times, and Herman Hollis once. Dillinger was hit from behind and fell face first to the ground. Dillinger was struck four times, with two bullets grazing him and one causing a superficial wound to the right side. The fatal bullet entered through the back of his neck, severed the spinal cord, passed into his brain and exited just under the right eye, severing two sets of veins and arteries. An ambulance was summoned, although it was soon apparent Dillinger had died from the gunshot wounds; he was officially pronounced dead at Alexian Brothers Hospital. According to investigators, Dillinger died without saying a word. Winstead was later thought to have fired the fatal shot, and as a consequence received a personal letter of commendation from J. Edgar Hoover. Two female bystanders, Theresa Paulas and Etta Natalsky, were wounded. Dillinger bumped into Natalsky just as the shooting started. Natalsky was shot and was subsequently taken to Columbus Hospital. Dillinger was shot and killed by the special agents on July 22, 1934, at approximately 10:40 p.m, according to a New York Times report the next day. Dillinger's death came only two months after the deaths of fellow notorious criminals Bonnie and Clyde. There were reports of people dipping their handkerchiefs and skirts into the pool of blood that had formed, as Dillinger lay in the alley, as keepsakes: "Souvenir hunters madly dipped newspapers in the blood that stained the pavement. Handkerchiefs were whipped out and used to mop up the blood." Funeral: Dillinger's body was available for public display at the Cook County morgue. An estimated 15,000 people viewed the corpse over a day and a half. As many as four death masks were also made. Dillinger is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis. Dillinger's gravestone has been replaced several times because of vandalism by people chipping off pieces as souvenirs. Hilton Crouch (1903–1976), an associate of Dillinger's on some early heists, is buried only a few yards to the west. In October 2019, Indiana state officials approved plans to exhume the remains buried in Dillinger's grave, at the request of Dillinger's relatives who believe that the man shot at the Biograph theater was not actually Dillinger. The FBI has dismissed this claim as a "conspiracy theory". The exhumation was scheduled for December 31, 2019. According to information from January 2020, Dillinger’s body will not be exhumed. His nephew and his niece quit those plans and History Channel also cancelled the idea. Popular culture- Literature: -The Shooting of John Dillinger Outside the Biograph Theater, July 22, 1934 a narrative poem by David Wagoner published in his collection Staying Alive (1966). The poet postulates some underlying reasons for the unfolding chain of events, significantly from Dillinger's perspective. -John Dillinger is frequently referred to in the work of William S. Burroughs. -John Dillinger is featured as a character in The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. -John Dillinger is frequently alluded to in the works of Thomas Pynchon. -John Dillinger is the main character in Jack Higgins Thunder at noon Film depictions: -1935: The MGM crime film Public Hero No. 1 incorporates fictionalized details from Dillinger's narrative, including a gun battle at a Wisconsin roadhouse and the killing of the fugitive gangster (Joseph Calleia) as he leaves a theater. -1941: Humphrey Bogart played a Dillinger-like role in High Sierra, a film based loosely on research into Dillinger's life by W.R. Burnett. -1945: Lawrence Tierney played the title role in the first film dramatization of Dillinger's career; Dillinger. -1957: Director Don Siegel's film Baby Face Nelson, starred Mickey Rooney as Nelson and Leo Gordon as Dillinger. -1965: "Young Dillinger", starring Nick Adams as John Dillinger, and Robert Conrad as "Pretty Boy" Floyd. -1969: Director Marco Ferreri's film Dillinger Is Dead includes documentary footage of real John Dillinger as well as newspaper clips. -1971: "Appointment with Destiny; The Last Days of John Dillinger," narrated by Rod Serling, 52 minutes. Shot in newsreel style, very accurate for its time. The late Joseph Pinkston served as technical advisor. Pinkston himself makes an uncredited cameo in the Biograph sequence, playing an agent. -1973: Dillinger, directed and written by John Milius with Warren Oates in the title role, presents the gang in a much more sympathetic light, in keeping with the anti-hero theme popular in films after Bonnie and Clyde (1967). -1979: Lewis Teague directed the film The Lady in Red, starring Pamela Sue Martin as the eponymous lady in the red dress. However, in this film, it is Dillinger's girlfriend Polly in red, not the Romanian informant Ana Sage (Louise Fletcher). Sage tricks Polly into wearing red so that FBI agents can identify Dillinger (Robert Conrad) as he emerges from the cinema. -1991: A TV film Dillinger, starring Mark Harmon -1995: Roger Corman produced the fictional film Dillinger and Capone, featuring Martin Sheen as Dillinger and F. Murray Abraham as Al Capone. Dillinger survives the theater stakeout when the FBI mistakenly guns down his brother and is then blackmailed by Capone into retrieving $15 million from his secret vault. -2004: "Teargas and Tommyguns; Dillinger Robs the First National Bank", DVD, Mason City Public Library, 38 minutes. Documentary regarding the bank robbery, including contemporary interviews with still-living witnesses; also contains the H.C. Kunkleman film in its entirety. -2009: Director Michael Mann's film Public Enemies is an adaptation of Bryan Burrough's book Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933–34, The film features Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, Marion Cotillard as Billie Frechette, and Christian Bale as FBI agent Melvin Purvis. Although the film has accurate portrayals of several key moments in Dillinger's life—such as his death and dialogue at his arraignment hearing—it is inaccurate in some major historical details, such as the timeline (and location) of deaths of key criminal figures including Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, and Homer Van Meter. -2012: British actor Alexander Ellis portrayed Dillinger in the first Dollar Baby screen adaptation of Stephen King's short story, The Death of Jack Hamilton. Other references: -The experimental metal band "The Dillinger Escape Plan" is named for Dillinger. -In The Simpsons episode Treehouse of Horror IV, Dillinger appears as a member of the Jury of the Damned. -Woody Allen's character's failed prison escape in the movie "Take The Money and Run" is a parody of Dillinger's 1934 escape. -In the movie High Fidelity (film) the main character Rob references the shooting at the Biograph movie theater, but gets several details wrong, including who tipped off the federal agents. -The song, "Reverie", by Protest The Hero (Palimpsest, 2020) depicts Dillinger's hardening into "the meanest bastard you've ever seen" during incarceration. -Headie One references Dillinger in his 2021 single “Siberia”. The lyric reads: “Jakes (police) wanna deal with me like Johnny Dillinger Dillinger” Referenced in Seinfeld Season 4 “The Handicap Spot”.