Friday, March 2, 1934

Walked to school with Pauline. In the evening I walked home with Bernice, Pauline and Nadine.

John Herbert Dillinger, Jr. (June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934)
Federal Public Enemy Number One

On March 2, 1934, that notorious gangster John Dillinger walked into a jail cell in Crown Point, Indiana.
He was charged with the murder of a police officer in East Chicago. The jailer was confident that the
jail was impossible to escape from, but Dillinger proved him wrong and escaped.

Dillinger was in his jail cell when the janitor entered and Dillinger jumped him, jamming a piece of
 wood carved into the shape of a gun into his ribs. (Dillinger's lawyer at the time brought the
wooden gun to him.) Dillinger tricked half a dozen guards back into the cell block, took their
weapons and locked them up.

After making his escape, Dillinger stole the sheriff's car and drove across the Indiana/Illinois
state line to Chicago. When he crossed the state line with a stolen car he became a federal fugitive,
under the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act called the Dyer Act. Crossing the state line in the stolen
vehicle was Dillinger’s fatal mistake, because this was what made him a federal criminal.