HIS START IN CRIME.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20231, 15 February 1934, Page 1

HIS START IN CRIME.

“ Just a Boy Who Got Drunk and Held Up a Store.”

CROWN POINT, February 7. John Dillinger, the notorious gang leader, who had been wanted by the police on several charges, including the murder of three police, was placed in gaol here to await his trial. He had been brought here by aeroplane from Tucson (Arizona). Dillinger gave a “ mass interview.” He said that he was “ just a boy who got drunk in his home town and held up a grocery store for 500 dollars.” He had been sentenced to ten years’ gaol, and was let out last year. Then he commenced an amazing career of crime. He freely admitted his part in liberating ten men from the Michigan penitentiary.

“ After they came out we did lots of bank robberies in Indiana, Wisconsin, and at Chicago,” he said. One of his colleage", Hamilton, shot and killed a policeman, and Dillinger got him away. Hamilton killed a Chicago policeman, for which crime Dillinger was charged. Dillinger boasted that it took him only one minute forty seconds to clean out a bank. The police were always hot on his trail, a day behind him. Three times they tried to question him, and each time he outdistanced their cars.

Dillinger would not have been caught but for the fact that two of his associates gave large tips to firemen to get their luggage out when their hotel at Tucson caught fire. The firemen informed the police.