The John Dillinger Enigma: Did The FBI Really Kill Public Enemy #1?

[ARCHIVAL NEWSREEL — EDMUND C. HILLS]
Hello, everyone. This is Edmund C. Hills speaking, globetrotter for Hearst Metrotone News.

1934 proved a bad year for the nation’s public enemies, with John Dillinger heading the list. The government swarmed against him. After escaping from this Indiana jail, Dillinger eluded capture until he was trapped in Chicago by federal agents and shot to death.

During the Great Depression, newsreels about John Dillinger, the first gangster declared Public Enemy No. 1, drew cheers from movie audiences across America and hisses when pictures of J. Edgar Hoover appeared on screen.

Agents from what would become the FBI killed Dillinger in a hail of gunfire as he left Chicago’s Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934. The case put the FBI on the map and, to this day, plays a major part in the bureau’s historical legacy.

But questions persist about whether the FBI killed the real John Dillinger or a stand-in who resembled the gangster so he could make a getaway.

[TRAVIS THOMPSON]
There’s a lot of evidence here that points to it might not be him.

That’s Travis Thompson, John Dillinger’s great-nephew and a veteran law-enforcement officer in Indiana. He has been trying to dig up evidence from the cemetery where John Dillinger is buried.

Hello, this is Robert Riggs, taking you inside the crime scene tape with real stories from behind the badge and behind bars. Here’s my interview with Travis Thompson about the mystery of John Dillinger.

[ROBERT RIGGS]
There’s something of an irony here: You’ve had a long career in law enforcement, yet you’re the great-nephew of one of the most notorious gangsters in U.S. history.

[TRAVIS THOMPSON]
And if there is a chance that John is in the grave, it would probably be a black eye to the FBI.

[REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK]
June 22, 1903.

John Herbert Dillinger was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, where his father owned a small grocery store. Dillinger dropped out of high school and later deserted from the U.S. Navy.

He served eight and a half years in an Indiana State Prison for a grocery-store robbery. His time behind bars proved to be a trade school for crime. It was there that he learned how to become a professional bank robber.

The FBI described Dillinger as a notorious and vicious thief. From September 1933 until July 1934, he and his violent gang terrorized the Midwest, killing 10 men, wounding seven others, robbing banks and police arsenals, and staging three jail breaks—killing a sheriff during one and wounding two guards in another.

The Bureau has enshrined the Dillinger case at its training facility at Quantico, Virginia. In a mock town called Hogan’s Alley, there’s a replica of the Biograph Theater where agents set up Dillinger using a girlfriend.

You can learn more about Hogan’s Alley in my episode titled “This Bank Gets Robbed Every Day,” published September 7, 2022. I’ve placed a link in the show notes. I have reported from there, and Dillinger is a celebrated chapter in the FBI’s history.

[TRAVIS THOMPSON]
Every year on the anniversary, they always put something out. They either tweet it out or do some kind of publicity about it. When we were doing our investigation, we came up with our claims. They had come out with evidence, saying, you know, without a doubt, they killed the right guy. There are a lot of weird things that happened in the family. The family started traveling to California after the death, which was odd. So we seek to find out whether he escaped and was later killed. But we won’t know until we can exhume the body.

Working with the History Channel in 2019, Dillinger’s family was set to exhume his body from Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis. But they hit a roadblock when the cemetery objected.

[ROBERT RIGGS]
Well, if it wasn’t John Dillinger who walked out of that theater, do you have any idea who it was?

[TRAVIS THOMPSON]
You have to be in pretty good shape to jump teller counters, grab a bunch of money, and be in a shootout with police. You’d have to be in pretty good medical shape.

The FBI counters what it calls a conspiracy theory on its website, listing its Top Ten Dillinger Myths. Among them is Myth No. 8: that John Dillinger was not killed at the Biograph Theater, and that a stand-in was.

The FBI says two of its agents took two sets of fingerprints from Dillinger’s body outside the Biograph Theater, and both were a positive match. Another set taken during the autopsy was also a match. Dillinger’s body was put on public display after the autopsy.

A dental company created a death mask of Dillinger’s face to demonstrate the quality of its plaster. Some of Dillinger’s stolen loot, valued at $5 million today, has been the subject of treasure hunts and an episode of the television show “Expedition Unknown.”

Travis Thompson says the retired FBI agent working with him unearthed a mysterious road map sealed inside a glass jar on the family’s Indiana farm.

[TRAVIS THOMPSON]
When he put the shovel in, he started digging into it. He put it in one more time and hit glass, and it shattered. That time he stopped.

[TRAVIS THOMPSON]
I doubt they spent all of it. It did take a lot of money to be on the road, to buy cars, to pay off police officers and politicians, and other things that they had to do. They liked to go out and have a good time. But they would not have gone through all of it.

[ROBERT RIGGS]
I know how families share oral histories of the past. What came down to you about why he chose a life of crime and how he got started—his background?

[TRAVIS THOMPSON]
I’m asthmatic, so I couldn’t go into the military, but I could join law enforcement.

In closing, here’s my Reporter’s recap and reflections.

Travis Thompson’s quest to identify the remains in John Dillinger’s grave will continue. And treasure hunters will keep looking for Dillinger’s lost loot, if there is such a stash.

One thing is certain. After the gunsmoke cleared outside the Biograph Theater, it marked the beginning of the end of the Gangster Era.

According to the FBI, 27 people were convicted in federal courts on charges of harboring, aiding, and abetting John Dillinger and his cronies during their reign of terror.

You’ve been listening to the True Crime Reporter® Podcast. Stay true. Stay safe. And stay tuned for more stories from inside the crime scene tape.

Yours truly,
Robert Riggs