Thursday, September 13, 1934

Went to school today. Tonight got lessons all evening until I went to bed. Sure had a lot to do.



Sunday, July 22, 1934

Didn't go to church or Sunday school. Rita Mae came up this afternoon. Went with Sue and Henry for ice cream.

John Dillinger in the morgue - July 22, 1934
Shot and killed by lawmen as he left the Biograph Theater in Chicago, IL.



Public Enemy No. 1 ... a goner.

Saturday, July 7, 1934

Rita Mae stayed here while her folks went to Palmer. I mopped the kitchen and dining room. Emmet and Melvin came down.

John Dillinger

On July 7, 1934, Dillinger meets with Billie Frechette's attorney at Schiller Street and Sacramento Boulevard, Chicago, to discuss Billie's appeal. Polly Hamilton (Dillinger's new squeeze) is nearby, but the attorney declines an offer to be introduced.

Friday, June 22, 1934

I went swimming today with Pauline, Nadine, Sugar and Betty. Betty Smith moved today to 2317 Prospect.

June 22, 1934 - John Dillinger's Birthday

John Dillinger celebrates his 31st birthday with Polly Hamilton, a woman he met at the "Barrel of Fun", at the French Casino nightclub in Chicago. (Poor Billie Frechette is doing time for harboring.) The FBI sends a birthday present for Dillinger…on this day he is the first criminal in history to be named “Public Enemy Number One” on the FBI’s most wanted list.



Sunday, April 22, 1934

Went to Sunday school and church with Ruth Ray and Mother. Nadine was down. Got some books. We made some candy. Or rather Nadine did.

Little Bohemia Lodge

On April 22, 1934, the FBI went toe to toe with John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and their gang
 in a shootout that left an FBI agent and a bystander dead.

The gang decided to hide out at the Little Bohemia Lodge in northern Wisconsin. The owner of the
lodge managed to get word to the authorities. FBI agents were dispatched to the scene. As the
agents approached the lodge, the owner’s dogs began to bark. Since the dogs barked incessantly,
their warning was ignored by the gang. A few minutes later, a car approached the agents. Thinking
that the gangsters were inside, they opened fire in an attempt to shoot out the tires. Shooting high,
 which often happens when firing on full auto, they hit all of the occupants of the car, and killed one
 of them. To make matters worse, they had the wrong guys. Dillinger and his crew were still inside the lodge.

Dillinger and the boys heard the shots and knew that the heat was on. They opened fire on the agents
from the lodge. After throwing some hot lead at the G-men, the gang bolted for the door. Dillinger
and two of his guys turned one way and made a clean getaway. Nelson turned the other way, and
wound up at a nearby house in a car with the owner of the lodge and a neighbor.

A car containing two of the FBI agents and a local constable approached Nelson. Nelson pointed
 his gun at them, and ordered them out of the car. When they complied, Nelson shot all three of them.
Agent W. Carter Baum was killed; Agent J. C. Newman and local constable Carl Christensen were
injured. The final tally: two dead (one lawman and one innocent bystander), four injured (two
lawmen and two bystanders), no gangsters in custody.

Monday, April 9, 1934

Note: Ruth didn't write today.

Mary Evelyn "Billie" Frechette (September 15, 1907 – January 13, 1969)
Singer, waitress and, most notably, John Dillinger's girlfriend

Frechette met Dillinger in October 1933 and was arrested on April 9, 1934 on the charge of
harboring Dillinger in her St. Paul, Minnesota apartment, and served two years in federal prison
 for harboring a criminal. During her arrest, Dillinger and a companion watched from a block away;
he wanted to attack the lawmen and rescue her, but accepted the argument that he would die in
the attempt. She served two years and a day under the Federal Harboring Law at the Federal
Correctional Farm at Milan, Michigan, and was released in 1936. After her release, she toured
the country in a theatrical show called Crime Doesn't Pay - proving just the opposite, that
sometimes it does pay. Several members of Dillinger's family toured with her.

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.

Thursday, January 25, 1934

Sure cold this morning. Pauline and I walked to school. I went up to Nadine’s in evening. Made candy. Wrote story for Ruth R.

927 North Second Avenue
Tucson, Arizona
Rental house where John Dillinger was arrested on January 25, 1934

On January 15, 1934 while robbing a bank in Indiana, Dillinger was confronted by
Officer William O’Malley, who shot him several times. Dillinger, who was wearing a bullet
proof vest, was unharmed but in turn he allegedly shot and killed Officer O’Malley.

Dillinger and his gang (Russell Clark, “Fat Charles” Makley, and “Handsome Harry” Pierpont)
eventually made their way to Tucson, Arizona in January 1934. Dillinger rented a house
located at 927 North Second Avenue. Gang members Clark and Makley checked into the Hotel
Congress under aliases. On the night of January 22, 1934 a fire started in the basement of the
 hotel and spread up to the third floor. The desk clerk notified them of the fire and the two
escaped by aerial ladders. As the story goes, Clark and Makley asked two firemen
 to retrieve their luggage.

The luggage revealed their true identities and the fireman notified the Tucson Police
 Department. Dillinger and his gang were arrested at his house on January 25, 1934.



Monday, October 23, 1933

I stayed all night last night at Mrs. Raifert's but not tonight. Mother washed. I went over to Betty's.

John Dillinger's Wanted Poster

In 1933 Dillinger and his gang began a streak of bank robberies across Indiana. Among
Dillinger's more celebrated exploits was his pretending to be a sales representative for a company
that sold bank alarm systems. He reportedly entered a number of Indiana and Ohio banks and
used this ruse to assess security systems and bank vaults of prospective targets. Another time,
 the gang pretended to be part of a film company that was scouting locations for a "bank robbery"
scene. Bystanders stood and smiled as a real robbery ensued and Dillinger and friends escaped
 with the loot.

Stories such as this only served to increase Dillinger's burgeoning legend. Dillinger was believed
to have been associated with gangs who robbed dozens of banks and accumulated a total of more
 than $300,000. Banks allegedly robbed by Dillinger and his associates include the Central National 
Bank And Trust Co. in Greencastle, Indiana, where they got away with $74,000 on October 23, 1933.

Tuesday, May 23, 1933

I met Viola Clark up at Twenty-Seventh and Chestnut and walked to school with her. Practiced dance in Gym today for Field Day.

John Herbert Dillinger, Jr.
June 22, 1903 - July 22, 1934
American gangster and bank robber
Charged but never convicted with the murder of an East Chicago police officer

Dillinger was convicted of assault and battery with intent to rob, and conspiracy
to commit a felony. He was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in the Indiana State Prison
in Michigan City, Indiana, for his crimes. After serving four-and-a-half years, Dillinger
was paroled on May 23, 1933. He immediately returned to a life of crime, robbing banks across
Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, South Dakota and Iowa. He was killed by federal agents in Chicago.