Raised in Indianapolis and Mooresville, Indiana, Dillinger pleaded guilty in 1924 to an assault on a grocer and spent nearly nine years in Indiana prisons. Paroled in 1933, he was charged in 1934 with the killing of an East Chicago police officer, escaped from jail before trial, and was shot dead by federal agents in Chicago that July.
Dillinger is one of the figures named in Crime and Punishment in America, a documentary series from Lynn Novick that PBS will air over four consecutive nights beginning Nov. 16, 2026; PBS describes it as running "from Jesse James to John Dillinger."14 Questions about his death were last in the news in 2019, when a nephew and a niece said in affidavits that the man killed in Chicago may not have been Dillinger and sought to have the body exhumed; an Indianapolis court dismissed the nephew's suit in December 2019.1820
On Sept. 6, 1924, Dillinger and Ed Singleton held up Frank Morgan, a grocer in Mooresville, Indiana; according to American Experience, Morgan was struck with an iron bolt wrapped in cloth and was not seriously hurt.15 The Indiana State Archives describes the crime as “assaulting and robbing a Mooresville grocer.”2
Dillinger pleaded guilty without a lawyer, which the state archives calls an error in judgment by him and his father.2 His commitment papers, dated Sept. 15, 1924, carry two sentences: 10 to 20 years for assault and battery and 2 to 14 years for conspiracy to commit a felony.1 Singleton was sentenced to 2 to 14 years and was paroled within two years, according to the archives.2 Records in the Dillinger collection, including subpoenas and sheriff’s receipts, show the case was in the Morgan County courts.1 The sources reviewed do not name the judge.
Dillinger served his sentence at the Indiana State Reformatory and, from 1929, the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City.115 His father petitioned for his release, with the support of residents of his community and the endorsement of the prosecutor who had convicted him, according to the state archives.2 Gov. McNutt’s executive order paroling him is dated May 10, 1933.1 The parole later became a political issue: in March 1934, Republicans promised to reveal “amazing facts” about the release, and Democrats called the attack “dirty politics,” a wire report said.9
American Experience attributes a series of bank robberies to Dillinger and his associates after his parole, beginning with a bank in New Carlisle, Ohio, on June 10, 1933.16 On Sept. 22, 1933, he was arrested in Dayton, Ohio, and held in the Allen County jail in Lima.15 On Oct. 12, 1933, Harry Pierpont, Charles Makley and Russell Clark freed him from the jail, and Pierpont killed Sheriff Jesse Sarber.15 Pierpont went on trial in Lima in March 1934 for Sarber’s killing.8 Gov. McNutt revoked Dillinger’s parole by executive order on Oct. 17, 1933.1
On Jan. 15, 1934, the First National Bank of East Chicago, Indiana, was robbed, and Patrolman William Patrick O’Malley of the East Chicago police, 45, was fatally shot as the robbers left the bank.17 According to the Indiana Law Enforcement Memorial, O’Malley was shot “allegedly” by Dillinger, and he fired several times at Dillinger, who was not hurt because he was wearing a bullet-resistant vest.17
On Jan. 25, 1934, Dillinger was arrested in Tucson, Arizona.15 The next day, Dillinger and John Hamilton were indicted for first-degree murder in the perpetration of a robbery in O’Malley’s death, the memorial records.17 Dillinger was returned to Indiana and brought to the Lake County jail at Crown Point on Jan. 30.15 A photograph from a court hearing at Crown Point in February 1934 shows him handcuffed to a deputy sheriff; the catalog record states that he was charged with killing O’Malley.6 It was the only murder charge ever filed against him, according to the memorial.17 He was legally presumed innocent of it, and it was never tried.17
On March 3, 1934, Dillinger escaped from the Lake County jail.36 According to the FBI, he threatened a jail janitor with a carved wooden gun, tricked guards back to the cell block, took their weapons and drove the sheriff’s car to Chicago, about 50 miles away.3 The state archives says the gun was “either a fake or smuggled,” and that Herbert Youngblood escaped with him.2 The car, belonging to Lake County Sheriff Lillian Holley, was later found on a north side Chicago street, a newspaper photo caption reported.7 Youngblood was killed by officers in Port Huron, Michigan, on March 16.1016
The FBI says that by driving the stolen car across the Indiana–Illinois line, Dillinger violated the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act, and that until then he had committed no federal crime; the escape made him a federal fugitive.3 A special grand jury investigated the escape, a wire report said.9 Gov. McNutt’s office received complaints about the Lake County sheriff and prosecutor, who had posed for photographs with Dillinger; McNutt answered that “the Indiana law does not give me any authority to remove from office a County Sheriff or a Prosecuting Attorney,” the state archives records.1
On April 22, 1934, Dillinger and his associates escaped a shootout with federal agents at the Little Bohemia resort in northern Wisconsin.1511 An Associated Press photo caption two days later called Dillinger “public enemy No. 1.”11
On July 21, 1934, Melvin Purvis, the special agent in charge in Chicago, and Samuel A. Cowley, whom Director J. Edgar Hoover had assigned to the case, met a woman calling herself Anna Sage, according to the FBI.4 Sage was a friend of Dillinger’s girlfriend, Polly Hamilton, and hoped for reward money and to avoid deportation to Romania, the FBI says.4 On the evening of July 22, she telephoned Purvis to say they were going to the Biograph, and agents watched that theater and another, the Marbro.4
When Dillinger left the Biograph with the two women, Purvis lit a cigar as a signal, and agents moved in; Dillinger reached for a pistol and was shot, the FBI says.4 The Associated Press reported the next day that the shooting happened at 9:40 p.m. outside the theater at Lincoln and Fullerton avenues, that he was hit three times as he ran toward an alley, and that two women bystanders were wounded in the legs.12 The coroner’s physician said the fatal bullet entered the back of his neck, the AP reported.12 A coroner’s jury returned a verdict of “Justifiable homicide by officers of the federal government.”12 The AP reported that he had dyed his hair, had plastic surgery on his face and had the whorls of his fingertips “obliterated by acid.”12 He was buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis on July 25, 1934.15
The sources reviewed contain no statement from O’Malley’s family about Dillinger’s death.
Dillinger was born in Indianapolis in June 1903, the son of John Wilson Dillinger, a grocer.15 His mother was Mollie Lancaster Dillinger, according to the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis.24 He grew up near 21st and Hillside streets, attended Indianapolis public schools 38 and 55 and left school at 16, the encyclopedia says; he then worked briefly at a veneer mill, at a machine shop and as an errand boy for the Indianapolis Board of Trade.24 In 1920 the family moved to a farm in Mooresville, the hometown of his widowed father’s second wife.1524
After an auto theft in July 1923, Dillinger enlisted in the Navy, trained at the Great Lakes naval station and was assigned as a fireman on the USS Utah, according to the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis.24 He went absent without leave on Dec. 4, 1923, after about five months of service.15 The sources reviewed do not say whether he was charged over the theft.
On April 12, 1924, he married Beryl Hovious, who was 16.15 She divorced him on June 20, 1929, on the ground that he was a convicted felon.15 The sources reviewed do not record any children.
Dillinger arrived at the Indiana State Reformatory in Pendleton on Sept. 16, 1924.15 His reformatory file, held by the Indiana State Archives, includes a report of an attempted escape in December 1924 and a 1928 disciplinary letter about hiding pen and ink and destroying property.1 A lawyer appeared for him before the state Pardon Board in 1928.1 He was transferred to the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City by executive order on July 15, 1929, at his own request, according to American Experience.115 His stepmother was dying when he was paroled in 1933 and had died by the time he reached home.15 The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis says he strengthened his criminal connections while in prison.24
In 1934, while hiding in Chicago, Dillinger paid a physician to alter his face and fingertips, the Mob Museum reports; his fingertips were treated with acid, but they grew back with the edges of the prints still recognizable.21 American Experience dates the surgery to May 27, 1934.15 Anna Sage told police that she knew him as “Jim Lawrence,” a wire report said after his death.13
The sources reviewed contain no diagnosis or court finding about his mental health.
A nephew and a niece sought in 2019 to have his body exhumed; a great-nephew opposed it.18
These deaths were not proven in court. Each is listed with who attributed it and on what basis.
The claimThe man shot outside the Biograph was not Dillinger. A nephew and a niece said in 2019 affidavits that the dead man's eye color, ears and fingerprints did not match Dillinger's.18
The recordThe FBI calls the idea a "myth" and cites fingerprint matches; in 2019 it cited "two, separate, positive fingerprint matches between the cadaver and Dillinger."1819 In 1934 a coroner's jury returned a verdict of "Justifiable homicide by officers of the federal government."12 Dillinger had had acid applied to his fingertips, but the edges of the prints remained recognizable, the Mob Museum notes.21 No court has ruled on the identity question: the 2019 suit was dismissed on the cemetery's right to refuse consent, and no exhumation took place.20 A great-nephew opposed the exhumation, saying he was certain the body was Dillinger's.18
The claimDillinger was betrayed by a "woman in red," as a wire report called Anna Sage days after his death.13
The recordAnna Sage, a friend of Dillinger's girlfriend Polly Hamilton, told agents where he would be, hoping for reward money and to avoid deportation to Romania, according to the FBI.4 The FBI says the skirt one of the women wore that night was orange, "often called a 'red dress.'"5
A Lake County indictment charged Dillinger and John Hamilton with first-degree murder in the perpetration of a robbery for O'Malley's death.17 The case never reached trial, and no court ever ruled on the evidence.17
Because the murder case never went to trial, no defense was presented in court. In the 1924 case he pleaded guilty without a lawyer, which the Indiana State Archives describes as an error in judgment by him and his father.2
The FBI says Dillinger committed no federal crime until he drove a stolen car across the Indiana–Illinois line after the Crown Point escape, violating the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act and making him a federal fugitive.3
Bryan Burrough's Public Enemies (Penguin Press, 2004) places Dillinger in the 1933–34 crime wave that, in a reviewer's words, helped J. Edgar Hoover "transform a small agency into the FBI we know today."22 Dary Matera's John Dillinger (Carroll & Graf, 2004) is a full-length biography.23
His family moves to a farm in Mooresville, Indiana.15
He goes absent without leave from the Navy after about five months of service.15
He and Ed Singleton hold up Mooresville grocer Frank Morgan.15
Having pleaded guilty, he is committed to the Indiana State Reformatory on sentences of 10 to 20 years and 2 to 14 years.12
He is transferred to the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City.115
Gov. McNutt signs the executive order paroling him.1
He is arrested in Dayton, Ohio, and held in the Allen County jail in Lima.15
Harry Pierpont, Charles Makley and Russell Clark free him from the Lima jail; Pierpont kills Sheriff Jesse Sarber.158
Patrolman William Patrick O'Malley is killed during a robbery of the First National Bank of East Chicago.17
He is indicted in Lake County, Indiana, for O'Malley's murder.17
He is brought to the Lake County jail at Crown Point.15
He escapes from the Crown Point jail and drives the sheriff's car to Chicago.37
He and his associates escape a shootout with federal agents at Little Bohemia, Wisconsin.1511
Federal agents shoot and kill him outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago.412
A Marion County judge dismisses a nephew's suit seeking to exhume the body.20
Two days after Little Bohemia, President Roosevelt urged Congress to speed up anti-crime legislation, according to a wire report.11 The FBI dates its rise as a national organization to the pursuit of Dillinger and others in 1933 and 1934.3 In Indiana, photographs of Dillinger with the Lake County prosecutor and sheriff contributed to both losing their jobs, according to the FBI.3 Dillinger was buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.15 In July 2019 the Indiana State Department of Health approved a permit to exhume the body for a planned History Channel documentary; the cemetery objected, a nephew sued, and Judge Timothy Oakes of the Marion County Superior Court dismissed the suit on Dec. 4, 2019, holding that Indiana law requires the cemetery owner's consent.1820