John Dillinger Escaped an 'Escape-Proof' Jail With a Wooden Gun. Or Did He?

Did John Dillinger really break out of an "escape-proof" jail with a gun carved out of wood? On March 3, 1934, the most famous bank robber in America walked out of the Lake County jail in Crown Point, Indiana, with a small black pistol, took the sheriff's own car, and drove across the state line. Four people told four different stories about that gun. This John Dillinger documentary tells the whole case from the record: Mooresville, almost nine years in prison, the gang that broke out of Michigan City, the police captain whose trick made Dillinger famous, East Chicago, Tucson, Crown Point, Little Bohemia, the first Public Enemy Number One, the woman in orange, and the night at the Biograph Theater. Not the Robin Hood of the newspapers. Here is what the record shows. This historical true crime documentary covers John Herbert Dillinger, Mooresville, Indiana, the Indiana Reformatory and the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City, Harry Pierpont, Charles Makley, Russell Clark, Homer Van Meter and John Hamilton, the Lima jail and Sheriff Jess Sarber, Captain Matt Leach of the Indiana State Police, the East Chicago bank robbery and Officer William O'Malley, the Hotel Congress fire in Tucson, the wooden gun and the Crown Point escape, Baby Face Nelson, Billie Frechette and the Lincoln Court Apartments in Saint Paul, Little Bohemia Lodge, Melvin Purvis, Samuel Cowley and J. Edgar Hoover, the federal crime laws of 1934, Anna Sage, Polly Hamilton and Martin Zarkovich, the Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934, Pretty Boy Floyd, and the six biggest myths. CHAPTERS 0:00 Did John Dillinger Escape Jail With a Wooden Gun? 2:10 Who Was John Dillinger? 3:45 Where Did John Dillinger Learn to Rob Banks? 5:17 How Did the Dillinger Gang Break Out of Prison? 7:00 Why Was It Called the Dillinger Gang? 8:34 Did John Dillinger Kill Anyone? 10:08 How Was John Dillinger Caught in Tucson? 11:41 How Did John Dillinger Escape Crown Point? 13:40 Who Was Baby Face Nelson? 15:31 Who Was John Dillinger's Girlfriend? 17:25 What Happened at Little Bohemia? 19:54 Why Was Dillinger Public Enemy Number One? 21:23 Who Was Anna Sage? 22:17 Who Turned In John Dillinger? 23:38 How Did John Dillinger Die? 25:11 What Happened to Anna Sage and Melvin Purvis? 26:51 Was John Dillinger Really a Robin Hood? 28:38 What Happened to Dillinger's Escape Car? The deaths in this case are stated plainly and briefly, with no detail, and everyone killed is named. No picture of a body, the alley or the morgue is used. Every Crime Ledger episode is the whole story of one infamous case, with myths told as myths and no gore. SOURCES Wikipedia: "John Dillinger", "Dillinger Gang", "Harry Pierpont", "Melvin Purvis", "Samuel P. Cowley", "Little Bohemia Lodge", "Ana Cumpănaș", "Billie Frechette", "Biograph Theater", "Public enemy", "Baby Face Nelson", "Herman Lamm", and the books and records they cite. PBS American Experience: "John Dillinger timeline" and "Dillinger's crime spree". The Mob Museum: "John Dillinger's wooden gun and death mask". WFIU/NPR: "The Stolen John Dillinger Car Comes Home" (2021). Officer Down Memorial Page: Patrolman William Patrick O'Malley. The American Presidency Project: Roosevelt's statement on the crime bills, May 18, 1934. AP/WTTW News, December 2019. PICTURES (all public domain) John Dillinger: 1924 mug shot (Indiana); 1934 photographs, identification order and wanted poster of June 25, 1934 (Division of Investigation / FBI; National Archives via DPLA) Charles Makley, John Hamilton, Homer Van Meter and Herman Lamm; Lester Gillis ("Baby Face Nelson"), 1931 (FBI); Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd (FBI); Billie Frechette's identification order, April 1934; Melvin Purvis (FBI); Inspector Samuel P. Cowley (Chicago Tribune, 1934); Special Agent W. Carter Baum, 1928 Anna Sage and the crowd at the Biograph Theater, July 1934 (Associated Press); the Biograph Theater, 1934, and Little Bohemia Lodge (FBI); "Manhattan Melodrama" poster (MGM, 1934) Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1934 (National Archives); Homer Cummings, 1920, and J. Edgar Hoover, 1937 (Harris & Ewing, Library of Congress) The Lake County Sheriff's House and Jail, Crown Point, 2012; Indiana State Prison, Michigan City, 1871; Main Street, Mooresville; a Chicago soup kitchen, 1931 (National Archives); Minneapolis, 1939 (John Vachon, Library of Congress); Daytona Beach (State Archives of Florida) Maps: Natural Earth (public domain); places are approximate MUSIC "Aftermath" and "Stay the Course" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Crime Ledger: the whole story of history's most infamous crimes. Subscribe:    / @crimeledgerhistory   #JohnDillinger #TrueCrime #HistoricalTrueCrime #PublicEnemy #CrimeDocumentary #Gangsters #CrimeLedger