During the Great Depression, many Americans, nearly helpless against forces they didn't understand, made heroes of outlaws who took what they wanted at gunpoint and stole from the institutions that they felt were oppressing them. Of all these lurid desperadoes, John Dillinger came to evoke this Gangster Era, and stirred mass emotion to a degree rarely seen in this country.

In truth, Dillinger was not the leader of a crime syndicate but was merely a brutal thief and a cold-blooded murderer. From September, 1933, until July, 1934, he and his violent gang terrorized the Midwest, killing 10 men, wounding seven others, robbing banks and police arsenals, and staging three memorable jail breaks, killing a sheriff during one and wounding two guards in another. He became something of a folk hero for successfully thwarting his pursuers for a time.

John Dillinger

John Herbert Dillinger was born on June...