DILLINGER’S GANG

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 September 1934, Page 3

DILLINGER’S GANG

CLEAN-UP CAMPAIGN. (BY CABLE —PBESS ASSN. —COPYBIGHT.] NEW YORK, September 1. A Chicago message states that in the Government’s campaign to clean up the last remnant of Dillinger’s band of desiperadoes, seven persons were arrested to-day. They include Louis Piquett, who acted as the gangster’s attorney; two surgeons who performed a facial operation on Dillinger, and on Van Meter, in an effort to disguise the identity of the two men. Two women were also arrested, they being accused of -harboring him at various times. Ail are beiiig held under heavy bail. SHOOTING"”OF LEADER. A DRAMATIC AFFRAY. CHICAGO, July 23. America’s great hunt for John Dillinger, which ended late last night when Public Enemy No. 1 was shot dead on leaving a cheap Chicago Cinema, is estimated to have cost £20,000. The sum of £3,000 in rewards will bo paid to the woman who betrayed the 32-year-old gangster by telephoning to the Federal officials the time when he would visit the cinema. Hets identity is being kept secret, as the police fear Dillinger’s friends may “take her for a ride.” It is said that she was persuaded to give the “tip” by a policeman whose friend was killed by Dillinger a month ago. Full reports of the shooting of Dillinger have enabled the newspapers to set up record sales. All over the country newsboys were unable to meet the demand. Gruesome pictures are published of the body lying in the morgue, with the head wrapped in bandages, and two bullet wounds clearly visible over the heart. A piece of cardboard tied to a toe has on it: “John Dillinger. Shot 22.7.34.”

Thousands of sightseers mobbed the doors of the morgue all day, trying to get in. RED HANDKERCHIEF SIGNAL. Mr Melvin Purvis, of the Federal Department of Justice, was in charge of last night’s operations. With him were fifteen picked officers, four of whom had seen Dillinger murder two of their lifelong friends a few months ago. For more than two hours they waited outside the Biograph cinema. Inside the dimly-lighted hall John Dillinger was seeing a film called "Manhattan Melodrama.” The end of this shows Clark Gable, impersonating a gangster, walking to the electric chair.

Dillinger left the hall with two women companions. He was turning into a lane where he had left his saloon car when one of the women dropped a red handkerchief. Two of the Federal officers immediately sidled up to Dillinger. “Hello, Johnny!" one whispered in his ear.

Dillinger made an involuntary start. That was enough. A swarm of detectives surrounded him, a fusilade of shots was tired at close range, and the gangster, with bullets in his head and two others in his back, staggered a few paces and crumpled up, face downwards, in the gutter. The body was turned over and for a few moments the silent group stood in the dim light studying the changed appearance of the man for whom

they hhd been intensively searching for months. ’ The formerly grey hair was dyed deep black. A small neatly-trimmed moustache masked the thin lips. The well-known scars on the cheeks had been removed. The large nose had been remodelled and straightened. One side of the face had been lifted. Finger-print experts attach great importance to lack of success with which Dillinger had apparently tried to deface his skin with acid. MAD RUSH FOR SOUVENIRS. Wild confusion followed the shooting. Ambulances clattered up with gongs ringing wildly to pick up the bystanders who had been wounded by stray bullets. Emergency squads roared up on motor-cycles, and hundreds of spectators made a mad rush, fighting with each other as they strove to grab some souvenir. Dillinger’s straw hat was ripped in pieces, the cartridge cases ejected from the police revolver were thrust into pockets. Morbidly inclined persons even dipped their handkerchiefs in the gangster’s blood. When shot dillinger was wearing a white shirt and grey flannels of cheap material. His nickel-plate'd belt buckle had been bought at a bargain counter. White silk socks and white buckskin shoes were the only signs of flashiness. His pockets contained but eight dollars and a cheap watch, in the cover of which was a picture of Evelyn Frenchetti, one of his sweethearts who is now in prison for harbouring him.

As soon as the police and the coroner’s physician have finished with the body, Dillinger’s father will remove it to his home at Mooresville, Indiana, where it will be buried near his mother.