Folk hero or public enemy: Who is John Herbert Dillinger?

While escaping from prison, he almost made fun of the police. At the age of 31, he was declared public enemy number 1 by the FBI. He still has his picture on FBI shooting ranges. Even today, the FBI has a dedicated page on its website dedicated to John Dillinger. (See https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/john-dillinger)

John Herbert Dillinger (June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934) was an American gangster during the Great Depression. He led the Dillinger Gang, which was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations. Dillinger was imprisoned several times and escaped twice. He was charged with but not convicted of the murder of an East Chicago, Indiana, police officer, who shot Dillinger in his bullet-proof vest during a shootout; it was the only time Dillinger was charged with homicide.

John Herbert Dillinger was born on June 22, 1903, in Indiana. Despite being an outlaw, he has been referred to as a folk hero in some quarters for his friendliness, avoidance of violence, and targeting banks, which many of the public at the time saw as responsible for the economic hardships. He soon gained sympathy in the USA due to his targeting of the state in all his illegal works, his closeness to the public, and his benevolence and generosity. The reason why it is considered so dangerous by the state is the fear that it may happen to the state in a possible candidacy in the coming years.

He was caught several times, but each time he easily escaped from the places where he was detained, leaving the local police organizations in a difficult situation. Once he escaped from the detention center in Crown Point Town of Indiana, where he was detained, by showing a black-painted piece of wood as a weapon, which led to the name of this town being changed to Clown Point in the surrounding cities.

According to another rumor about him, after he took the manager of the prison he was imprisoned hostage, he escaped with the prison's car and driver, entered and robbed a nearby bank, and gave some of the money he received from the bank to the prison director and his driver. Another rumor is that he even sang to the principal while he was in the car that day.

The FBI was not interested in the issue, as bank robberies and murders were not in its scope at that time. But in his last heist, Dillinger made the biggest mistake of his life, stealing the chief's car at the police station he had fled. It was a federal crime and fell within the remit of the FBI. Edgar Hoover, the legendary head of the FBI, took this matter very seriously, thinking that if Dillinger was caught, public support for the then-newly established FBI would increase.

While John Dillinger was hiding next to Polly Hamilton, with whom he was in a relationship, in Chicago City, a movie exit ambushed led by a senior FBI official named Melvin Purvis, after Hamilton's friend Ana Cumpanas reported to the FBI in exchange for a residence permit. was shot down and killed.

After being killed, the Tommy Gun, which became synonymous with itself, was named Dillinger. The gun was frequently used by the Italian mafia in the 1940s. It is said that there is still a picture of John Dillinger on the targets on the FBI's shooting ranges.

In Public Enemies, John Dillinger's gangster era was described and played by Johnny Depp.

The film tells the amazing story of the most famous bank robber of the 1930s, John Dillinger, and his gang, who are almost infatuated with the dogs of justice. Thinking that banks impoverish the people and therefore rob banks, John is a folk hero like Robin Hood rather than a robber. John Dillinger, a kind, witty and no doubt very smart gangster who doesn't touch the money of the customers in the bank, does not swear in front of the female hostages.