How Many Cups 33: A Dog Stops The FBI From Catching An Infamous Bank Robber
paw patrol?
“All my life I wanted to be a bank robber. Carry a gun and wear a mask. Now that it's happened I guess I'm just about the best bank robber they ever had. And I sure am happy.” - John Dillinger
Possessing blackmail and unafraid to use it, J. Edgar Hoover was perhaps the most powerful American to ever live. He sent Coretta Scott King a recording of her husband having an affair in the hopes the Civil Rights icon would kill himself. When the Bureau needed more money, he sent his congressional liaison to, shall we say, encourage the Appropriations Committee senator to fill the coffers. And of course, there is fine reporting on his use of intelligence to manipulate presidents Kennedy and Roosevelt, among others.
Still, Hoover almost lost his job before he had the chance to cement his legacy. If not for the dog of John Dillinger, the person synonymous with our American surveillance state might never have reached such heights.
Our story begins with Handsome Johnny, the nickname for one of the nation’s most iconic anti-heroes. Indeed, many historians mark his foray into bank robbing as the genesis of our Gangster Era. The backdrop of The Great Depression allowed Dillinger the context necessary to adopt a Robin Hood persona, especially as thousands of mortgage statements became destroyed in collateral damage during his heists.
“I always figured that what he did was one thing and what he was was another. I was in love with what he was.” - Evelyn Frechette, Girlfriend
With the FBI still in its infancy and Hoover new to manning the helm, catching Dillinger was of utmost importance. He was growing in popularity among struggling Americans and his lawyer often received flattering fan mail on behalf of his client.
Dillinger’s sex appeal was well-known, but his sweetheart Evelyn Frechette perfectly displayed his magical charm. After being convicted for harboring Dillinger while he was on the lam, Frechette told her story. Reflecting on her sentence, she stated forcefully that “I’m in here because I fell in love with the wrong man — not wrong for me, you understand, but wrong if I wanted to keep it in the clear.”
She continued that “falling in love with John was something that took care of itself. There are lots of reasons why.” For instance, Dillinger used his loot to buy “all kinds of clothes and jewelry and cars and pets’ for his love, giving her “everything a girl wants.”
The American public was quickly placing their support behind a villian; something Hoover and his G-Men would not tolerate for much longer. But Dillinger would do anything to avoid capture.
“He Stated that Dillinger’s fingerprints have been taken and Dillinger attempted to disguise each one by destroying the center…Acid was used.” - J. Edgar Hoover
You have to tip your cap to anyone willing to burn off their fingerprints with acid. Or anyone using kangaroo tendons to fill in cheek bones, all of which Dillinger did with the service of a plastic surgeon.
Still, he was often caught by police and even spent the bulk of his adult life in jail. In January of 1934, about two months before his death, Dillinger found himself jailed in Lake County, Indiana for both murder and robbery.
Awaiting him at the jail were hundreds of national guardsmen on the lookout for any gang members attempting to break out the captive, in addition to a crowd of journalists and police who festively sipped on beers while interviewing the most famous gangster of their time.
It was this photo, taken that day with Dillinger and the local sheriff, which peeved Hoover the most. It portrays an unserious occasion where even the lawmen are laughing it up with the criminal. Dillinger eventually whittled a piece of wood to look like a gun and painted it black with shoe polish, forcing the guards to let set him free.
“But there was no denying Purvis’s ineptitude in the Dillinger hunt. Suspects were found then lost. His informants were hopeless. He raided the wrong apartments. He built no bridges to the Chicago police while annoying other departments. He’d had his car stolen from in front of his house.” - Author Bryan Burrough
Finally, our story reaches Little Bohemia, Wisconsin. Through an informant, chief of the FBI’s Chicago office, Melvin Purvis, got word that Dillinger and company were hiding out not terribly far from them. Hoover dispatched Purvis to bring in the bandits and was so confident that he even tipped off the newspapers about the incoming capture.
Surely enough, Purvis and others made their way to Little Bohemia, ready to surprise an unsuspecting Dillinger, as well as George “Baby Face” Nelson. As they were creeping up to their hideout, a dog let out a bark. Figuring that this was a guard dog, Purvis and his men assumed they had lost the element of surprise and began firing their weapons.
Indeed, Dillinger and his men paid no mind to the barking puppy. Rather, it was the sound of gunshots that alerted them to the authorities. If the FBI agents had just kept their cool, Dillinger could have been caught. To make matters worse, while fleeing the scene, Nelson shot and killed an agent.
Dillinger would go on to reach even greater heights of fame. His escapades were told in seemingly every newspaper and it was not until he grew more murderous that the public began to sour on him. Eventually, the infamous “Woman in Red” would rat on Dillinger to the FBI, leading to his death via a shootout at Chicago’s Biograph Theater.