“You got me…”
John Herbert Dillinger is remembered as arguably the most infamous bank robber in American history. During the era of the Great Depression and Prohibition, many people had lost faith in the country’s institutions. This loss of public trust led to a rise in crime, and the idolizing of criminals and gangsters. Dillinger’s crime spree across the Midwest lasted from June 1933 to July 1934- 24 banks and 4 police stations robbed, and he escaped from prison twice!
Dillinger’s mischief eventually caught the attention of the FBI. J. Edgar Hoover assigned South Carolina’s own “G-Man” Melvin Purvis to hunt down and put an end to Dillinger once and for all. After escaping several FBI entrapments, Dillinger was found hiding in Chicago, Illinois. On the night of July 22, 1934, Purvis’s FBI team in cooperation with local law enforcement set a trap for him. As Dillinger was leaving the Biograph Theater, he attempted to escape but met his end in the alley.
