‘Unique’ Dillinger Documents Discovered at State Prison
Records on notorious gangster John Dillinger have been discovered in a state prison, including a confession and early mug shots.
“This material is extremely valuable,” state archivist Jerry Handfield Jr. said Tuesday. “There are some unique items that to my knowledge have not been researched.”
The documents include Dillinger’s confession to a botched robbery in Mooresville that first landed him in the Indiana Reformatory at Pendleton in 1924, and his initial prison mug shots.
There is his written request that he be transferred to the state prison in Michigan City and a sealed order signed by the governor granting that wish in 1929.
There is a parole order the governor signed releasing him from prison in 1933, the year he and his gang began an infamous spree of bank robberies and killings across the Midwest that netted $318,000 from 11 banks. Dubbed Public Enemy No. 1 by police, Dillinger was gunned down July 22, 1934, in Chicago.
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