Jul 22, 2009 11:29 am US/Central
75 Years Since Dillinger Was Gunned Down
FBI Agent Shot Dillinger Dead Outside Biograph Theatre
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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A string of bank robberies all over the Midwest in the 1930s led John Dillinger to be named Public Enemy No. 1. He was gunned down by FBI agents at the Biograph Theatre on Lincoln Avenue on July 22, 1934.
AP
Tuesday marks the 75th anniversary of the day John Dillinger was gunned down in the alley outside the Biograph Theatre.
On July 22, 1934, Dillinger was seeing the movie "Manhattan Melodrama," starring Clark Gable and Myrna Loy, at the Biograph, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. He was accompanied by his friend Ana Cumpănaş, also known as Anna Sage. But little did he know that Sage had ratted him out to the FBI.
Cumpănaş had told the FBI a day earlier that she and a friend were going to see a movie with Dillinger, and agreed to wear a red dress for easy identification. The FBI swarmed to the scene, and Dillinger was gunned down outside the alley entrance to the theater.
The Indiana native had been declared Public Enemy No. 1 by the FBI, after a string of bank robberies all around the Midwest, two jail breaks, the murder of a police officer in an East Chicago, Ind., bank robbery, and even the robbery of a police station for guns and bullet proof vests.
A few months before the incident at the Biograph, federal agents cornered Dillinger and his gang and opened fire at the Little Bohemia Lodge. in Manitowish Waters, Wis. CBS 2's Ed Curran visited the lodge recently, and found that it still has the paneling and windows with the bullet holes from the April 1934 shootout.
By May, Dillinger was holed up in Chicago. In two more months, he met his fate.
As for the Biograph, it now houses the main stage for the Victory Gardens Theater.
The Lincoln Station tavern, across the street from the Biograph at 2432 N. Lincoln Ave., is hosting special events for the Dillinger anniversary. At 10 p.m., bagpipers will lead a procession across the street to the Biograph. The bar will also play music from the 1930s and is offering drink specials.
There is also a
John Dillinger Museum in Hammond, Ind., which about a dozen interactive exhibits and artifacts. Among them are a wooden handgun that he fashioned to cow guards in when he broke out of jail in Crown Point, Ind., and a 1933 Essex Terraplane, the same model as his getaway car. The museum is located at 7770 Corinne Dr. in Hammond.
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