During the bleak days of the
Great Depression, news of economic hardship often took a backseat to articles
on the exploits of an outlaw from Indiana—John Dillinger. For a period of
fourteen months during 1933 and 1934 Dillinger became the most famous bandit in
American history, and no criminal since has matched him for his celebrity and
notoriety.
In Hoosier Public Enemy: A Life of John Dillinger, ninth volume in the
Indiana Historical Society Press’s Youth Biography Series, John A. Beineke delves
into Dillinger’s life from his unhappy days growing up in Indianapolis and
Mooresville, Indiana; his first unlucky brush with the law; his embracing of a
life of crime while behind bars at the Indiana Reformatory; his exploits as the
leader of a gang that terrorized banks and outwitted law enforcement in the
Midwest, earning a reputation as a Robin Hood-style criminal,; and his
headline-grabbing death in a hail of bullets on July 22, 1934, at the Biograph
Theater in Chicago.
Dillinger won public attention
not only for his robberies, but his many escapes from the law. As Beineke notes
in the book, Dillinger’s breakouts, getaways, and close calls were all part of
the story. The escapes he made from jails or “tight spots,” when it seemed law
officials had him cornered, became the stuff of legends. While the public would
never admit that they wanted the “bad guy” to win, many could not help but root
for the man who appeared to be an underdog.
Another reason that the name
Dillinger still resonates with the public is that his raids on banks coincided
with the rise of new crime-fighting methods. These modern approaches were
employed by newly created agencies of the government to battle the innovative
technologies used to carry out the crimes. Powerful automobiles and modern and
deadly weapons were used by the men (and some women) who were labeled as
“public enemies.”
There was also the Dillinger
personality. He was viewed as the gentleman bandit, letting a poor farmer keep
the few dollars on the bank counter rather than scooping it up with the rest of
the loot. He was polite and handsome. Women liked him. One of Dillinger’s girlfriends,
Polly Hamilton, once said, “We had a lot of fun. It’s surprising how much fun
we had.” All this made good copy for newspapers around the country. It seemed
like a Hollywood movie and Dillinger was the star.
Although his crime wave took
place in the last century, the name Dillinger has never left the public
imagination. Biographies, histories, movies, television and radio shows,
magazines and newspapers, comic books, and now Internet sites have focused on
this Indiana bandit. If the public enjoyed reading about the exploits of these
“public enemies” or viewing the newsreels in the movie theaters of that day, so
did Dillinger. Ironically, it was outside a theater screening a movie about
gangsters that his life ended.
Beineke is distinguished professor
of educational leadership and curriculum and also professor of history at Arkansas
State University. He has been a public school teacher, university administrator,
and program director in leadership and education at the W. K. Kellogg
Foundation. Beineke is the author of And
There Were Giants in the Land: The Life of William Heard Kilpatrick; Going Over All the Hurdles: A Life of
Oatess Archey; and Teaching History to Adolescents: A Quest for
Relevance. An inductee of the Marion
High School Hall of Distinction and an Outstanding Alumnus of Teachers College
Ball State University, he has also been a summer research fellow at Harris
Manchester College Oxford University.
Beineke and his wife, Marla, live in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
Hoosier Public Enemy costs $17.95 and is available from the IHS's Basile History Market.
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