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"G" MEN AND DETECTIVES AT WORK THE "WOOD GUN" ESCAPE A Greencastle, Indiana bank was robbed of $75,000 They held Dillinger at Crown Point for about a on October 23--after which Dillinger was believed to. month. .Then, on March 3, with Youngblood he es- have driven to Florida. The state of Indiana was in caped from the jail, using the famous toy pistol. It a turmoil. The national guard was called out and a was after this escape by means of an alleged wooden search started that would have done credit to a search pistol that the U.S. Police and Government started for Jesse James or Pancho Villa, who thought he the most spectacular man hunt ever known in Amer- could indefinitely defy organized Governments. ica.' Eight of Dillinger's lieutenants were marked for John Dillinger next appeared in Chicago where h. death--by the electric chair if possible, or by gunfire evaded a trap set for him by the Chicago police in a if necessary. dentist's office, escaping with a woman companion For a while Dillinger was very successful at evad- through a rain of bullets.. ing the police. On the 13th of March he and Hamilton Soon after, on November 20, another bank was held were traced to Mason City, Iowa. On that day $52,000 up in Racine, Wisconsin, to the amount of $28,000. was taken from the First National Bank. On the 15th The looted vaults of the Unity Trust and Savings they received medical treatment at St. Paul. There a Bank on West North Ave., in Chicago, yielded a great new gang was formed including Van Meter, Tommy deal of jewelry and over $8,700.. Carroll and Lester Gillis--better known as "Baby At the next robbery on January 14, Dillinger, as- Face" Nelson. Dillinger and his sweetheart, contin- sisted by Pierpont and Hamilton, robbed the First ued to live in a good residential neighborhood in St. National Bank of East Chicago, Indiana, of $20,000, Paul until March 31-when they and Van Meter shot and killed a policeman, Wm. P. O'Malley.. .their way out of a trap set for them by Federal men. The bandits escaped, but ten days later Dillinger, and Police. Clark, Pierpont and Makley with three women were captured in Tucson. Three states: Indiana, Ohio and After April 22, when he and his gang again shot Wisconsin, vied for their extradition: Indiana for the their way out of a resort on Spider Lake in northern murder of O'Malley.; Ohio for the murder of Sheriff Wisconsin, killing a federal agent and a CwA em- Sarver; Wisconsin for the Racine robbery. It was ployee, he was apparently seen in many places. decided that they be brought to Crown Point, Indiana On June 23-through special legislation, the federal for trial on the charge of murdering policeman government offered $i0,o00 in rewards for Dillinger O'Malley. Later, Clark, Pierpont and Makley were and $5,o0o for Nelson-who had killed agent Baum. turned over to the state of Ohio.. In addition, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Min- nesota offered $1,000 reward each for Dillinger. 18 19