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On the 22nd of July, 1934, at 10:40 on a
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humid Sunday night, a man in a straw
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boater hat bled out on the concrete
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outside the Biograph Theater while
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strangers pushed forward. Based on court
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records and public reporting, this is
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how it ended. According to FBI accounts
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from that night, agents had waited
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across the street because a woman who
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called herself Anna Sage had promised
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them the man in the boater would be
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there. She wore orange that night, not
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red, but the myth needed a color. If you
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only knew Dillinger from the headlines,
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you would picture chaos, machine guns,
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screaming tellers. But the evidence
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photographs in the evidence rooms tell a
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different story. No shattered vault
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doors blown open, no hostages piled on
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the floor. This was not the messy
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shootouts of the mafia in Chicago or the
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Hill Country slaughter of Bonnie and
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Clyde. This was choreography.
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And choreography leaves a different kind
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of trace. It leaves timing logs. It
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leaves polite witnesses who remember
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exactly how long it took. To understand
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how a farm boy from Morsville became the
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most wanted man in America, you cannot
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start in Chicago. You have to start
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where the road had no lights at dusk,
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where everyone knew whose car was parked
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outside the pharmacy, and where a secret
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could live for years if you kept it
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quiet. John Herbert Dillinger was
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parrolled in May of 1933 from Michigan
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City, Indiana, after nearly 10 years
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inside for a bungled grocery store
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robbery. [music] He walked out 29 years
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old with little more than a list of
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names that other inmates had given him.
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The town he returned to was not waiting.
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Morsville, Indiana, population less than
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a thousand, had already filed him away
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as a story that ended badly. The quiet
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house on the edge of town where his
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father still lived, smelled of cut grass
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and disappointment. His halfsister,
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Audrey, who took him in that first week,
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would later describe the change to a
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reporter for the Indianapolis News. The
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words she used were not about crime. She
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spoke about timing. He came home and
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just sat at the table. He came home and
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just sat at the table. He said, "They
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taught me how long it takes for help to
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arrive." According to contemporary
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accounts published in John Tolen's The
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Dillinger Days and corroborated by
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prison intake interviews, that lesson
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about police response intervals became
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his curriculum. Within 30 days of his
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release, according to parole records and
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newspaper reports of the time, he had
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pulled together a crew from the names in
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that notebook. They did not rob like
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amateurs, rushing a counter. They
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scouted a bank for [music] days. By
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midJune 1933, the first of the new
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robberies began. New Carile, Ohio,
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Daleville, Indiana, Montpelier, Indiana.
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Each time the take was between $10 and
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a fortune when a factory job paid $15 a
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week. This is where the veteran file
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shows the fracture that only becomes
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visible in hindsight. During believed he
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could keep violence surgical, that he
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could rob banks the public already hated
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without becoming the thing the public
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feared. And then the first death in his
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crew, the police did what systems do
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when embarrassed. They raided farmhouses
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that had fed him. They pulled his father
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into an interrogation room and held him
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for hours. The Dillinger method was not
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about guns. The Bureau of Investigation
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would later catalog his weapons, of
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course, because bureaucracies love
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weapons. But the method started before
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the Thompson submachine gun ever left
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its case. It started with a map. He
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robbed on a weekday just after noon when
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the vault was open for merkantile
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deposits, but the town constable was
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eating lunch. He would walk in last, not
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first, letting his men take positions
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while he watched the street. He vaulted
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the rail. I've never seen a man move
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like that. He said, "This is for the
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bank's money, not yours." He said, "This
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is for the bank's money, not yours." As
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recounted in eyewitness depositions
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reprinted in the Mason City Globe
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Gazette that week and confirmed in
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Burough's account, that line repeated
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bankto bank was psychological theater
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running before the shooting started.
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That was his signature and it is why the
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folk hero story took hold at Bluffton,
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Ohio. He locked the police in their own
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jail cell before crossing the street.
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The athleticism mattered. News reel
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footage from the era shows a reenactment
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where investigators tried to copy the
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vault jump. They could not. 6 feet of
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polished mahogany railing cleared
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without touching it while wearing a
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suit. This is the point where you have
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to decide whether you are watching a
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magician or a thief. From a crime
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journalism standpoint that follows
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consequence before paper trail, the
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answer lives not in the vault but in the
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street afterward. He rehearsed escape
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the way a Broadway stage hand rehearses
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a blackout. One car parked running, one
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car parked three blocks away for
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transfer. A farmhouse 20 m out where a
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woman the bureau never identified would
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change the plates. And then the
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humiliation no one expected to be
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filmed. On March 3rd, 1934, Sheriff
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Lillian Holly of Lake County, Indiana,
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held the most wanted man in America in
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her Crown Point jail, a supposedly
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escape- proof facility. Crown Point was
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not an escape. It was a press release.
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According to the March 4th, 1934 edition
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of the Indianapolis Star and the sworn
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statement of Deputy Ernest Blunk,
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Dillinger used that carved pistol to
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gather 17 hostages. He had us. He said,
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"Look, I don't want to hurt anybody." He
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was calm. Too calm. That calm, testified
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under oath and excerpted in G. Russell
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Gerardan's Dillinger: The Untold Story
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is why guards believed the gun was real.
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He stole Sheriff Holly's brand new Ford
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V8 to cross state lines. Stealing a
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police car to escape was a federal
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offense under the National Motor Vehicle
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Theft Act, a federal law dating back to
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1919, also known as the Dire Act. Failed
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raid at Little Bohemia Lodge on April
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Three federal agents, a late night tip,
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a woods clearing in Manatish Waters,
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Wisconsin, and a fuselade that killed
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one civilian and wounded two agents
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while Dillinger slipped out the back
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under gunfire. Melvin Pervvis, the
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bureau's golden boy field commander, was
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at Little Bohemia and would testify in
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internal reviews that the operation fell
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apart on arrival. As recounted in
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Pervvis family papers and confirmed by
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Brian Burrow's reporting, he radioed
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Washington after we fired on shadows. He
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was gone before we formed a perimeter.
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That sentence understood inside the
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bureau as an admission of amateur hour
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sealed Pervis's fate almost as much as
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Dillingers. Contrasting Dillinger with
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his contemporaries is where the folk
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hero myth hardens into something
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dangerous. While Bonnie and Clyde left
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nine lawmen dead in messy roadside
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ambushes, while Babyface Nelson sprayed
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a street in Bington and killed two
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agents without warning. Dillinger's crew
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tally for civilian bank deaths remained
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near zero. Pressure builds. By May 1934,
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the special squad tracking him had grown
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to 40 men with wire caps on every
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relative still in Indiana. Investigator
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hands on files late at night under desk
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lamps. July 21st, 1934.
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Anna Sage called the Chicago field
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office from a pay phone at Broadway and
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Argyle. She said her friend Paulie
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Hamilton was seeing a man named Jimmy
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Lawrence who dressed like a laborer but
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tipped like a banker. He went to the
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movies. He watched. That detail has
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always felt obscene to the families of
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the men who died. But from a cold
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investigative standpoint, it proves the
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choreography had broken down. He was no
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longer scouting towns with two exits.
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Outside, Pervvis and 17 agents waited in
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cars on foot across the street from the
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theater that smelled of butter and rain.
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When the lights came up just after
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10:30, Sage in orange pointed, "Let's
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get him! Let's get him!" No direct reply
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appears in the file, but agents moved.
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According to contemporary accounts,
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Dillinger saw the guns, reached for what
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agents later said was a pistol, and ran
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into the alley. Three shots were fired,
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two struck, one missed. The medical
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examiner's report filed at Cook County
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on July 23rd, 1934 listed cause of death
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as a gunshot wound to the head and noted
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powder burns consistent with close
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range. He did not survive. the system
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did. Within 60 days of that sidewalk,
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Congress passed nine pieces of crime
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legislation that made bank robbery,
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interstate flight, killing a federal
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agent, all federal crimes with federal
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prisons waiting. Jay Edgar Hoover used
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the Dillinger case to secure a 40%
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budget increase and to expand the
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bureau's fledgling forensic laboratory,
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open 2 years earlier, into the
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propaganda centerpiece of the new FBI.
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The name on the most wanted poster
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rotted away. The fingerprint [music]
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file behind it became permanent. The
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banks he robbed were absorbed, merged,
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bailed out again and again until their
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names disappeared from Main Street
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entirely while their vaults grew deeper
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and the wooden pistol stayed in a
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drawer. And that is the final
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choreography. How a man who made a
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performance of robbing banks ended up
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choreographing the modern American
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security state that now watches every
