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A New Leaf<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
As a result, Dillinger turned to the military and enlisted in the US Navy. This turn towards a more upstanding lifestyle did not last long, however, as he deserted only a few months later while his ship, the USS Utah, <\/em>was docked in Boston. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He then returned to Mooresville, where he got married <\/a>and continued his attempt at leading a straight-and-narrow life. This attempt did not last long. Dillinger and his friend Ed Singleton robbed <\/a>a gas station shortly after his return. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A local minister recognized the pair as they left the gas station. They were apprehended by police shortly after. While Dillinger originally was going to plead not guilty, Dillinger\u2019s father spoke with the prosecutor and convinced Dillinger to plead guilty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Both Dillingers were expecting a lenient sentence due to the elder\u2019s discussion with the prosecutor. However, the judge sentenced Dillinger to 10-20 years in prison for charges of assault, battery with intent to rob, and conspiracy to commit a felony. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Both men were shocked, and Dillinger\u2019s father attempted to lessen the sentence to no avail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The long prison <\/a>sentence changed Dillinger and made him a harsher man. While in prison he befriended multiple bank robbers and the group developed plans for heists they would conduct once they were all out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dillinger\u2019s father, likely wracked with guilt for convincing his son to plead guilty, organized a petition to let Dillinger out early which garnered nearly 200 signatures. After serving 8.5 years of his sentence, Dillinger was let out on parole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now a hardened criminal who was released at the height of the Great Depression, Dillinger immediately returned to crime as a way to make money fast.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only a month after his release, Dillinger robbed his first bank outside of Dayton, Ohio. Then in August robbed a bank in Bluffton, Ohio, near Lima, where police detained him shortly after. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Police found what seemed like a plan for a prison escape, which Dillinger refused to give them details about. The plan was for his friends in Indiana State Prison, whom he had snuck guns to so they could escape the prison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n His six friends, who would be known as the \u201cFirst Dillinger Gang,\u201d escaped prison four days after Dillinger\u2019s capture and immediately made their way to Lima. Posing as Indiana State Troopers who were there to extradite Dillinger, they attempted to rescue their comrade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When the sheriff asked for credentials, the gang shot him dead and escaped with Dillinger, beginning an infamous career.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The group spent the next year robbing over 12 banks across the country. Their violence, tight gang, and spread-out targets caused the newly founded Indiana State Police to seek the assistance of the Bureau of Investigation, the precursor to the FBI<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Captain Matt Leach of the Indiana State Police received postcards and taunting letters from Dillinger, who remained one step ahead. J. Edgar Hoover, head of the BOI, used the chance to expand the techniques and tools of the BOI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The gang continued to avoid capture, however, as they jaunted through Florida and made their way to Tucson, Arizona. The gang was arrested here, and Dillinger was transported back to Indiana where he quickly escaped the jail he was held in using a wooden gun he had carved in his cell.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n After nearly a year on the run again, committing more heists with other gangs across the country and getting plastic surgery to avoid detection, Dillinger was finally caught in Chicago in 1934. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A Romanian immigrant who worked as a sex worker named Ana Cump\u0103na\u0219 struck a deal with the FBI to prevent her deportation. Dillinger regularly met with one of her coworkers and went to the movies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cump\u0103na\u0219 promised to help them catch Dillinger in return for not deporting her, a deal which the FBI later reneged. She wore an orange dress so that the federal agents could identify Dillinger beside her despite his plastic surgery, which gained her the nickname \u201cthe lady in red.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n As Dillinger exited the theater he could tell something was wrong. He reached into his pocket to grab a gun and fled to a nearby alley, where federal agents shot and killed him.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dillinger existed alongside other criminal legends such as Baby Face Nelson and Bonnie and Clyde<\/a>, the latter of whom died just two months before. He represented a new face of crime in the United States, one that was more organized and efficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This inspired the federal government to respond in kind and step up its enforcement efforts. J. Edgar Hoover saw Dillinger, his gang, and his peers, and believed in a new form of law enforcement that could more easily catch high-profile criminals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This led to creating an early most wanted list. Dillinger’s death demonstrated the success of this new form of federal law enforcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n FBI. \u201cJohn Dillinger.\u201d FBI.gov<\/em>. https:\/\/www.fbi.gov\/history\/famous-cases\/john-dillinger<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\nA Long Criminal History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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National Criminals<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Dillinger\u2019s Death<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n