We're stepping away from Capone for a moment to talk about John Dillinger—a different kind of criminal entirely.
Dillinger wasn't a mob boss. He was a bank robber. A celebrity bank robber. During the Depression, when banks were foreclosing on everyone's homes, Dillinger robbed banks, and a lot of people loved him for it.
He robbed at least 24 banks. He escaped from jail twice. The FBI named him "Public Enemy Number One."
On July 22nd, 1934, Dillinger went to the Biograph Theater—the building you're looking at—to see a Clark Gable movie called Manhattan Melodrama.
This was a setup. A woman named Ana Cumpanas, known forever after as "The Lady in Red," had informed the FBI that Dillinger would be there. When Dillinger walked out after the movie, federal agents were waiting.
He reached for his gun—or didn't, depending on who's telling the story—and was shot four times. He died in the alley right next to this theater.
People dipped their handkerchiefs and skirts in his blood as souven
irs.
The Biograph was showing a gangster movie the night Dillinger died. He watched Clark Gable play a gangster who gets executed at the end. Then Dillinger walked outside and was killed by law enforcement.
You can't write stuff like that. Actually, wait. I'm the Bad Historian. Sometimes I can.
— From the tour: Bootleggers, Bullets & Baloney
