John Dillinger by Dary Matera
August 4th, 2008Title: John Dillinger
Author: Dary Matera
Publisher: Carroll & Graf (2004)
A little while ago, I saw a TV show on the History Channel about the era of John Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde and J. Edgar Hoover & the FBI. It was really interesting, and I was especially interested in Dillinger. So I got John Dillinger: The Life and Death of America’s First Celebrity Criminal by Dary Matera. Weighing in at 371 pages (of actual story), it is pretty hefty…but it read like a novel.
John Dillinger (1903-1934) is probably America’s most famous bank robber. He terrorized the Midwest’s banks and police forces for 18 months before he was assassinated on the streets of Chicago. Dillinger’s crime wave was incredibly prolific as they knocked over bank after bank. As the group of criminals grew bolder, they also robbed police stations to get their guns and armor. Which is kind of funny that could even happen. But as I read in this book…things were MUCH different back then.
Dillinger is famous for many things, but one of the most famous criminal actions was his escape from a prison using a wood “gun” he carved. He held up his captors and walked away scot free! For some reason, people loved John Dillinger. People saw him as a “Robin Hood” type who stole from the crooked banks. (note: apparently a lot of the banks WERE crooked and set up robberies with Dillinger in order to launder money and get insurance payouts). Dillinger is also basically responsible for the FBI (then called DI) having the power they have. It wasn’t until after Dillinger went on his rampage that the DI was allowed to carry guns. Due to Dillinger, robbing a federally insured bank and driving across state lines became federal offenses. Dillinger (and his cohorts) is the reason J Edgar Hoover was able to have an iron grip on federal law enforcement…to many people’s dismay!
I was totally amazed to read quotes…public quotes…from police talking about how they wanted Dillinger dead and would kill him once they finally caught up with him. Can you imagine what would happen today if a Chicago policeman told CNN that he was looking forward to killing a criminal? Amazing. Another crazy thing that apparently was normal was that they allowed the media to take photos of Dillinger after he was killed. BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!!! They also allowed tens of thousands of people to walk by his corpse and buy souvenir toe tags. I don’t even know what to say.
Dillinger was a mastermind criminal who, for those 18 months, lived his life like an action movie. Robbing banks…shooting guns…escaping from prison…shooting more guns and robbing more banks. Some pretty wild stuff went on, which is why he really became the first celebrity criminal.
The book is extremely well researched and extremely well written. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in true crime or history. You will learn a lot!
Rating: 5 out of 5
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August 4th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
This sounds absolutely amazing! What an interesting history. You’re right about those public statements. We’d let an ax murderer go free if law enforcement ever said things like that today.
August 5th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Hey good going J D was my uncle, He lived and hid at my dads house. My dad was questioned a few times by the police. John was our bedtime stories . . My husband was a policeman and also my daughter and her husband . wonder what John would have thought of that?
August 8th, 2008 at 12:38 am
I read short stories about John Dillinger with my students..I’ve learned so much that way…I would probably really enjoy this!
January 5th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Thanks for the post! I’m researching my family tree, and deciding what to buy to read about J.D., my grandfather’s second cousin. My great-grandfather was a first cousin to J.D.’s mother who passed away when he was 3 or 4. So sad to think how that contributed to his wayward ways.
June 30th, 2009 at 6:04 am
[...] It gives me a chance to repost my John Dillinger review! [...]
August 16th, 2009 at 12:12 am
John Dillinger was actually killed 14 moths after his release from prison. He survived from May 1933 to July 1934. Also it was the Kansas City Massacre event that caused new laws to be passed enabling agents to carry weapons, not Dillinger.
I have read Dary Matera’s book that was written for Joe Pinkston and I agree…it is an excellent book!
There were actually some scenes from his book used in the new Public Enemies movie with Johnny Depp.
Yes, it is shocking that law enforcement was allowed to pose with their prey, and the public were also allowed to view the body while still warm in the morgue. Good points!
Respectfully,
7ony Stewart, Author
DILLINGER – THE HIDDEN TRUTH
July 6th, 2010 at 11:51 pm
Dillinger was a bastard, pure and simple. he was no “Robin Hood”, most of his money went on booze, cars and whores. His occasional tossing of a few crumbs hear and there to the “oppressed” masses was a twisted PR stunt to make him look good and turn the police and FBI into the villains. He allowed his sick gang to do all the murdering, so that he could cynically claim that he never killed anybody. What’s even sicker is the weak-minded masses who supported him. The fact that the people of the time were so convinced of their inherent saintliness and that everything bad that happened to them was never their fault but the “evil” banks and thus took a weak-minded moral relativist view that it was okay to steal and rob and terrorize people as long as those people were unpopular and lived their life in a way the masses deemed “wrong.” That lazy attitude of “morality only when it’s convenient and popular” that festered through society was disgustedly capitalized by the smear merchant Dillinger. (And lead to other criminals being celebrated, like the viscous and despicable Bonnie and Clyde.) Sorry, but you don’t lose your rights to be free from crime just because a bunch of sheep does not like the way you exorcise your rights.
“(note: apparently a lot of the banks WERE crooked and set up robberies with Dillinger in order to launder money and get insurance payouts).”
Says who? Where is the evidence? And if that is true, than how does that make Dillinger a good guy? Isn’t that helping the ‘evil’ bankers bilk the “proletariat” and profiting from it himself?
But really, FDR deserves some of the blame to. When you scapegoat and demonize a class of people (in this case, bankers) like he did you get that kind of lionizing criminality and anti-police mentality from the populace.
July 31st, 2010 at 6:03 am
Please see my dillinger collection on facebook > http://www.facebook.com/pages/John-Dillinger-Gangster-Newspapers/139990666023946