John Dillinger Research Papers

“Killing people is for hoods and hoodlums,”... “I can get all the dough I want by using my head, not an automatic,”said John Dillinger a gangster criminal. He robbed banks during the Great Depression. Doing this only in 14 months from May 1933-1934. Dillinger was a Thesis

Dillinger’s criminal career started young, but his crimes got more extreme the older he got. He began with a child crime group called the Dirty Dozen. That was his first time in court (Macnee,1998). Later in life in 1923 the court made him join the Navy for driving a stolen car. He soon deserted the military and got a dishonorable discharge. Later that year he attempted to rob a grocery store with another veteran criminal getting caught in the end (“Dillinger, John”, 1994

America saw him as a Robin Hood figure because he stole money from the rich banks (“Dillinger, John”, 1994). He was considered a handsome man; many said he looked like a famous actor of that time: Humphrey Bogart (“John Dillinger”, 2007). They said he was a flirtatious man tipping his hat toward ladies while he was robbing the bank (Dillinger, John, 1994). People were so fascinated by Dillinger the newspapers published a game called “Dillinger Land”, and many used it as a party game (MacNee,1998). Still in movies and books people said that he was a small town hero (“John Dillinger”,

Dillingers influence on the FBI stayed with them for a long time after his death. The FBI hated dillinger with a fiery passion. They wanted him so bad created a team of forty specially trained people and their only job to catch Dillinger (MacNee,1998). Even though he was a law abiding citizen while they were chasing him other than to drive a stolen car across state lines (“Dillinger, John”, 1994). A man named Melvin Purvis lead the team to capture Dillinger (MacNee,1998).

The people felt betrayed by the government and that turned to anger. The people hated the FBI even more knowing bystanders got hurt or killed to get to him (“Dillinger, John”, 1994). Many people and press were angry at the FBI for killing Dillinger. The FBI’s hate for Dillinger stayed they kept Dillinger's picture on the shooting range targets for a long time after. (“John Dillinger”, 2007)

The FBI slowly gained the trust of the people. Twenty four months after Dillinger was dead the FBI became the heroes again after the all bank robbers were killed. A man called J. Edgar Hoover was one of those new heros, and he was one of the men searching for Dillinger. (“Dillinger, John”,