A
BYTE OUT OF HISTORY:
The Fall of John Dillinger and the Rise of the FBI
07/23/04
The movie playing at
the Biograph Theater on this hot, muggy summer night was Manhattan
Melodrama, starring Clark Gable as the ruthless gangster Blackie Gallagher.
But it was the
real-life drama starring notorious outlaw John Dillinger that was playing
out on the streets of Chicago on this particular Sunday evening that
would ultimately captivate the nation and forever transform the FBI.
On July 22, 1934--seventy
years ago Thursday--a nervous Melvin Purvis, Special Agent in Charge of
the Bureau's office in Chicago, stood near the Biograph box office. He'd
seen Dillinger walk into the crowded theater about two hours earlier with
two women, including one in an orange skirt (often called a "red dress")
who had tipped off authorities that the wanted criminal would be there.
Now, Purvis was waiting for Dillinger to re-emerge.
Suddenly, Purvis
saw him. Purvis took out a match and lit his cigar. It was a
pre-arranged signal to the Bureau agents and local police officers taking
part in the operation, but in the thick crowd less than half a dozen
of the men saw it.
In the past
year, many such opportunities to catch the wanted outlaw and other gangsters
had gone up in smoke. The Bureau had learned many lessons, often
the hard way, in the process. Three months earlier, a special agent had
been gunned down following a hastily planned raid on a Dillinger gang
hideout in Wisconsin. And 13 months earlier, the Bureau had lost an agent
and three law enforcement partners at the hands of "Pretty Boy" Floyd
and others in the infamous "Kansas City Massacre."
But on this
night, the Bureau was prepared. The arrangement of agents, the
setting of the signal, and the careful preparation were evidence that
the Bureau was learning how to catch the most violent criminals. The
plan was not perfect, but it was sound, with agents covering all theater
exits and directions Dillinger might take.
As Dillinger
walked down the street, agents fell in behind him and closed in. Dillinger
sensed something was wrong, and as Agent Charles Winstead would later
describe, the gangster "whirled around and reached for his right
front pocket [where he had a .380 Colt automatic pistol]. He started
running sideways toward the alley."
Agents fired.
Dillinger fell, mumbled a few words, and died.
The successful conclusion
to the Dillinger manhunt was the beginning of the end of the gangster era
and a cornerstone in the evolution of the Bureau. With new powers, new
skills, and within a year, a new name--the Federal Bureau of Investigation--it
was well on its way to becoming a premier law enforcement agency respected
around the globe.
Want to read
more? Then visit Dillinger's
story on our history page. Also see Dillinger's detailed 1934
wanted poster, later marked "cancelled" after he was killed.