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On July 22, 1934, FBI agents tracked down notorious gang leader John Dillinger at a movie theater in Chicago, IL. Dillinger's months-long crime spree came to an end in a hail of bullets as he attempted to elude capture. The demise of Dillinger and other Great Depression-era gangsters captivated Americans who followed their exploits in newspapers, crime novels, radio broadcasts, and even trading cards. The capture of Dillinger and other violent criminals is a tribute to the thousands of dedicated first responders who risk their lives every day to serve and protect the American people.
Amidst the hardships of the Great Depression, Americans eagerly followed the violent and daring exploits of bank robber John H. Dillinger in newspapers, radio broadcasts, "dime store novels," comic books, and even trading cards.
FBI agents killed an armed and fleeing Dillinger, named the nation's "Public Enemy Number One, in Chicago, IL, on July 22, 1934.
Photo courtesy of the National Archives.
John H. Dillinger was born in Indianapolis, IN, in 1903. A troubled teen, he dropped out of school and began stealing cars. In 1923, Dillinger enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was assigned to the battleship USS Utah as a machinery repairman. Five months later, he deserted the ship. In 1924, he was convicted and sentenced to 10 to 20 years at the Indiana State Reformatory for the assault and robbery of a Mooresville, IN, grocer. Paroled on May 10, 1933, he quickly returned to a life of crime. On June 21, 1933, his first bank robbery in New Carlisle, IN, netted $10,000. He stole $2,100 during a second bank robbery in Bluffton, OH, on August 14. Police tracked Dillinger to Dayton, OH and arrested him in September 1933. But Dillinger escaped from the county jail in Lima, OH, where he was being held awaiting trial, assisted by four friends impersonating Indiana State police officers. Over the next several weeks, Dillinger and his gang robbed several banks and broke into and stole weapons from police armories. On January 25, 1934, police arrested Dillinger and several accomplices after firefighters recognized the gang leader when a fire broke out at the hotel where the men were hiding out. Extradited back to Indiana, Dillinger used a whittled wooden gun to trick guards into releasing him from the "escape-proof" Lake County jail in Crown Point, IN, on March 3, 1934.
Upon exiting the Lake County jail, Dillinger stole a nearby sheriff's car and crossed the Indiana–Illinois state line. In doing so, he violated the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act which formally brought the FBI into the hunt for Dillinger alongside state and local law enforcement officers. In late March 1934, FBI agents tracked down Dillinger and began surveilling an apartment in St. Paul, MN. When agents knocked on the door on March 31, Dillinger's girlfriend Mary Evelyn Frechette opened and quickly slammed the door shut signaling that the "most wanted" criminal in the United States was probably inside. Moments later, amidst a hail of gun fire, Dillinger and his girlfriend escaped. The duo retreated to Dillinger's father's home in Mooresville, IN. On April 9, 1934, FBI agents arrested Frechette while she was visiting a friend in Chicago. Dillinger remained on the run, though, and brazenly robbed a Warsaw, IN, police station of guns and bulletproof vests on April 12.
On April 20, 1934, FBI agents received a tip that the Dillinger and several gang members were staying at the Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters, WI. As agents attempted to surround the lodge on April 22, they were met with heavy gunfire. Dillinger and gang members again escaped after killing an FBI agent, wounding another agent and local constable, and injuring several lodge patrons. Incensed that Dillinger continued to evade arrest, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover listed John Dillinger as the agency's "Public Enemy Number One"—the nation's most dangerous and threatening criminal. He assigned agents to establish an office in Chicago to work with East Chicago police officers to investigate every tip they received about the Dillinger Gang.
Investigating every tip about Dillinger was an exhaustive effort, but it paid off the following month when a Dillinger acquaintance named Anna Sage contacted the FBI and agreed to accompany the gangster to the movies on July 22. Implicated in the murders of several law enforcement officers, there was a large reward offered for Dillinger's capture. In exchange for reward money and favorable handling of a deportation case against her, Sage told agents she would accompany Dillinger and his girlfriend Polly Hamilton to the movies the next day. As promised, FBI agents observed Dillinger enter the Biograph Theater in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood with Sage and Hamilton on the evening of July 22. As Dillinger watched the movie Manhattan Melodrama starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, and William Powell, law enforcement officers surrounded the theater. When Dillinger and his companions left theater, he sensed trouble. Agent Melvin Purvis signaled nearby agents to move in. Dillinger instinctively reached for his gun as he ran towards a nearby alley. Agents Clarence Hurt, Charles Winstead, and Herman Hollis fired at Dillinger, hitting him three times. He died 20 minutes later. Thanks to the tireless efforts and bravery of hundreds of federal, state, and local law enforcement officers, Dillinger's violent crime spree was over.
You can learn more about John Dillinger and our nation's law enforcement officers and first responders using Census Bureau data and records. For example:
From 1790 through the 1870 Census, U.S. marshals and their assistants visited every home to collect census data. Frances William Edmonds 1854 painting "Taking the Census" depicts a marshal and his young assistant collecting data for the 1850 Census. It was the first census in which marshals recorded the name of the head of each family as well as the name of every person living within the household.
Beginning in 1880, specially hired and trained enumerators conducted the censuses, allowing thousands of U.S. marshals to focus on law enforcement duties.
Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A Gift of Diane, Daniel, and Mathew Wolf, in honor of John K. Howat and Lewis I. Sharp, 2006.
Following passage of a March 6, 1902 act, a permanent Census Bureau within the U.S. Department of the Interior opened its doors on July 1, 1902.
The Census Bureau moved to the newly created Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903 and remained a part of the Department of Commerce following its separate creation in 1913.
The U.S. Census Bureau takes the confidentiality of census and survey data very seriously!
When the FBI began investigating a 1980 Census enumerator for allegedly falsifying questionnaires in Colorado Springs, CO, a federal judge issued a warrant permitting agents to seize census questionnaires containing confidential respondent data. Local census office employees protested, but FBI agents used a chainsaw to enter a secure room and removed sealed boxes of 1980 Census questionnaires.
Upon learning of the incident, Census Bureau director Vincent Barabba found FBI director William Webster at a Washington, DC, restaurant. During the impromptu meeting, Barabba struck a deal with the FBI that returned the seized questionnaires to the Census Bureau and allowed the FBI investigation to continue.
In the weeks that followed, Census Bureau officials recanvassed the area in Colorado Springs where the alleged misconduct took place. They compared the two sets of data in a secure room while FBI agents ensured that only approved Census Bureau employees entered.
Thanks to the Census Bureau's quick response, confidential data were never revealed to law enforcement officials.
After a lengthy investigation, the Assistant U.S. Attorney chose not to prosecute the case.
U.S. marshals and their assistants conducted the censuses from 1790 through 1870. In addition to population data, they collected data about manufactures beginning in 1810, agriculture in 1820, governments (about schools and school attendance) in 1840, and vital statistics in 1850.
In 1790, approximately 650 marshals and their assistants visited households to count 3,929,214 people in the United States and its territories.
By 1870, 6,530 marshals spent nearly 3 months counting 38,558,371 people.
Conducting the censuses was not without risks. For example, Deputy U.S. Marshal C.R.V. Schefsky was killed on September 7, 1870, near Bastrop, Texas. Investigators think his murderer may have mistakenly assumed that he was collecting taxes, not census data.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Marshals Service.
That same month, Assistant Deputy U.S. Marshal Herman J. Hillebrand injured his leg while conducting the census in Fayette County, Texas. The injury proved fatal and he died September 19 of that year.
The 1880 Census was the first in which specially hired and trained enumerators conducted the census. That year, 31,382 census takers counted 50,189,209 people and also collected mortality, agriculture, manufacturing, and social statistics.
More recently, during the 2020 Census, 500,000 enumerators counted 331,449,281 people in the United States.