Dillinger Died Here

The Biograph Theater on N. Lincoln in Chicago, Illinois. In 1934 bank robber and murderer John Dillinger was shot to death in the alley next to the Biograph. Dillinger had been set up by a prostitute, Anna Sage, who tried to bargain her way out of deportation. The head of the Chicago FBI, Melvin Purvis, made no promises to her other than a vague, "we will see what we can do". Sage telephoned Purvis to tip off the FBI that Dillinger and her would be at the movies. Sage was to wear a yellow dress to help make identification easier. (The yellow dress under the colored lights of the theater marquee gave off a reddish/pink cast, hence "the lady in red".) Purvis and several G-Men were waiting outside the theater. The movie that night was "Manhatten Melodrama, starring Clark Gable, ironically a gangster flick. Dillinger was seemingly relaxed when he first exited the front of the theater, but he saw something, or his always sharp instinct warned him, and he decided to bolt down, in a Southern direction,down the street. At the alley he ran east. Just as he made entrance to the alley shots rang out and John Dillinger dropped dead. Word on the street spread quickly and soon a throng of people pressed by the FBI to view the bloody tableau. Folks even dipped their handkerchiefs into the pooling blood in order to have a souvenir. The era of bloody Midwest bank robbers was coming to an end. Sage ended up getting deported anyway. Purvis enjoyed a few years of fame but died at age 56, from a "self inflected" gunshot wound. It is not clear if it was suicide or a gun cleaning accident.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• biograph
• theater
• chicago
• illinois
• john
• dillinger
• bank
• robber
• murder
• blood
• alley
• gangster
• melvin
• purvis
• fbi
• gmen
• lincoln
• ambush
• anne
• sage
• John Dillinger
• Police
• Cops
• Crime

[oftennoother]

Chicago won't commemorate a plaque where John died because they use to steal from the federal reserve, and banks. The cause of the depression. So in a way he was sticking it to the man. And people respected that. Of course Washington didn't want people to get hip to this and overthrow the power of the banking system so they had to stop John and the gang. No way do they want to celebrate John Dillinger. They'd rather have it forgotten forever.

[ipfeldspar]

Thank you for commenting. Would you believe that your comment was flagged as spam? I wonder if Chicago didn't appreciate your comment and tried to suppress the remark?

[oftennoother]

@ipfeldspar Very interesting. I wonder how that would be spam? And whom would do that? I know there are families hurt by Dillinger and the gang to this day and that is bad they lost family in the war of depression, but there was and still is a much bigger picture.

[ipfeldspar]

When I went to answer your response, it had gone back to spam mode. I hit a little button; "Not Spam," and hope that it won't happen again. Can anybody mark a comment as spam, or is it some weird part of YouTubes server?

[ipfeldspar]

Also, that was part of the old death customs, etc. In those days it was not unusual to clip a lock of hair, or take some other keepsake from the body.

[devilrobbie25]

@TheRandomVloggger because he was famous and people wanted souvingers of him..weird but he was well know and almost a celebrity

[ww2guy100]

john died on the sidewalk and smiled and walked when he saw the men my great grandad was there and told me about it

[TheRandomVloggger]

Can someone please tell me why men and women were putting theyre hankercheifs and skirts in his blood? :s

[oftennoother]

@ipfeldspar I'm not sure.. Haha. Have to google it. Might get a biased answer though. Nothing against Chicago of course. Chicago is a great city. Chicago was just participating with the lawmakers.