John Dillinger
Escape
Ignoring the growing criticism from the photograph, Estill set about preparing his case against Dillinger who was arraigned on February 9, 1934. The tiny courtroom was mobbed with reporters and photographers. Security was beefed up in the belief that the remaining Dillinger gang member still at large, Red Hamilton, was putting his own gang together to come and spring his partner. In addition to the local security already in place, several members of the Indiana National Guard were requested to help out.
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Before Dillinger even made it to Crown Point, the wheels of corruption were turning. Meyer Bogue had been a fellow inmate of Dillingers at Michigan City prison. Invited to escape with the others during the September 1933 jailbreak, Bogue declined, having just three months left on his sentence. Bogue knew Hymie Cohen and Sonny Sheetz, leaders of the East Chicago, Indiana underworld. It was rumored that the two were familiar with Dillinger. In {Dillinger: The Untold Story}, a book in which William J. Helmer completes the original work of George Russell Girardin, the writers claim, Dillinger had bought protection from him (Sheetz) in the past, and made payment from bank robberies that were arranged through East Chicago.
After Dillinger was captured in Tucson, Bogue approached Chicago attorney Louis Piquette and told him, I think I can get you to be Dillingers lawyer. Im sure Dillinger doesnt have a lawyer and hell be glad to take whoever they (Cohen and Sheetz) recommend. After Dillinger arrived at Crown Point, Sam Cahoon, a trusty at the prison, passed a business card to him. Call no attorney but this one. Gang raising necessary funds for defense. The name of the attorney on the card Louis Piquette. |
The son of a blacksmith, Piquett was described as a short, chubby, middle-aged man of vitality and charm. His iron-gray hair was styled into a three-inch high pompadour. He never attended law school, but instead was self-taught as he waited tables and tended bar. He failed the Illinois bar exam more than a dozen times before he finally passed. He then served a short term as an assistant prosecutor for the city of Chicago. His talent was in his courtroom performances where his magnetic personality, melodramatic speeches, and emotional appeals fascinated jurors. A friend once advised him to stop taking on so many criminal clients. Why? Piquett asked him, Theyre the only ones who have money these days. In the northwest corner of Indiana there are three counties, which touch the southern tip of Lake Michigan. The western-most is Lake County, which nestles up to Cook County just across the border in Illinois. Lake County contains the cities of East Chicago and Gary. Twenty miles south, almost smack dab in the center of the county is the city of Crown Point with its prison. In the eastern-most county, bordering the lake, wrapped 30 miles away from Gary, is Michigan City. During the February 9 arraignment Piquette asked for and received a delay of 30 days to prepare his case. Judge William Murray, assigned to hear the case, set a March 12 date for the trial to begin. On February 12 Prosecutor Estill requested that Dillinger be held at Michigan City prison until the trial started. After an impassioned argument, Judge Murray refused to have Dillinger removed from Crown Point. It was a decision that would come back to haunt him. On March 3, the first of three events occurred which would etch the name of John Dillinger in the criminal history books for all time. The facts surrounding this event are questionable. However, on that morning Dillinger secured a gun, whether it was a wooden gun he carved himself, a wooden gun smuggled into him, or possibly even a real gun smuggled into him will never be known. It was a local joke in Crown Point that even the fabled Houdini could not get out of the escape-proof Crown Point prison, but Dillinger was in the process of doing just that. At 9:00 oclock in the morning, using the wooden gun, he began his methodical escape by locking up several trusties, a jail attendant, a deputy sheriff, and the prison warden each time getting valuable information from them about the prisons layout. Dillinger knew he couldnt go far with the firepower he had and using the deputy sheriff, Ernest Blunk, he now went to the wardens office where he took two Thompson sub-machine guns.
Dillinger now marched back toward the cells with Blunk, another trusty and a national guardsman. Once back at the cells Dillinger asked the prisoners there if any wanted to go with him. A black man, Herbert Youngblood, awaiting trial for murder, elected to go and was handed one of the machineguns. Two other inmates also accepted the invitation and the group headed off to the rear of the prison where the garage was located. On the way there, Dillinger collected three vigilante farmers, who had volunteered their efforts to guard the famous prisoner. Once in the garage, the two would-be escapee inmates got cold feet and locked themselves in a washroom with the three farmers. |
In the garage, Dillinger captured an assortment of people including the jail cook, kitchen helpers, several more trusties and the wardens mother-in-law. While Youngblood held the group at gunpoint, Dillinger sought out an automobile for the escape. Asking garage mechanic Edward Saager which car was the fastest, he was told it was the sheriffs automobile. After pulling the ignition wires from the other cars in the garage, Dillinger, Youngblood, deputy sheriff Blunk and the mechanic Saager climbed into Sheriff Lillian Holleys car. With Blunk driving, the four calmly left the prison. The most celebrated prisoner in the country had escaped from the escape-proof prison without one shot being fired. After getting out of town, Dillinger ordered Blunk to stop. He handed Saager $4 so the two could get back to town and apologized that he didnt have more to spare. Before they drove off, Dillinger looked at the two hostages standing in the road. He grinned and said, Ill remember you at Christmas. It was a promise Dillinger wouldnt keep.
Dillinger made one mistake though, by driving the stolen sheriffs car across state lines, from Indiana to Illinois, he had violated a federal law, thus inviting J. Edgar Hoovers FBI to join the manhunt. In Chicago, Captain John Stege, who had just disbanded the Dillinger Squad, was alerted to be on the lookout for the sheriffs automobile. It seems only fitting that in a climax to the days events that the wrong license plate number was passed along to the police Captain by an excited Crown Point official. |
In the wake of Dillingers escape from Crown Point, Judge Murray impaneled a grand jury to investigate. On March 8, he discharged them after discovering that the foreman was the owner of the garage from which Dillinger stole Sheriff Holleys automobile, and was the employer of Edwin Saager. A second grand jury was convened and, on April 3, they returned with their results. Paramount in their findings was the fact that, Judge Murrays failure to permit the transfer of Dillinger to Michigan City was the prime cause for the escape! The jurors other findings concluded the escape was successful due to: (1) the coolness, alertness and reputation of Dillinger himself; (2) the help of Herbert Youngblood; (3) laxity of jail officials; (4) collusion of Cahoon and Blunk (both of whom were indicted); (5) an indifferent and unreliable trusty working as a turnkey. Blunk had wavered from his tale of Dillinger having a wooden gun and later claimed that is was a real gun. The jurors decided that, at least when the jailbreak began, that the gun was made of wood. Blunk quickly made the observation, I think that Im going to be made the goat in this case. Judge Murray was incensed. In Dillinger: A Short and Violent Life, by author Robert Cromie and the late Dillinger historian, Joseph Pinkston, they reveal: Judge Murray...demanded to know why he should have paid any heed to a prosecutor who had just finished hugging Dillinger. Judge Murray also pointed out that he had no power to transfer Dillinger unless the prisoners life was endangered by mob violence. He added, The report is worded in language not contemplated in law. It is lacking in the respect due courts of justice and judicial officers, and is particularly disrespectful to this particular court and its judge, and contains language which scandalizes the court. The judge promptly initiated contempt proceedings against the entire grand jury. A few days later he directed that the findings of the grand jury be expunged and he discharged the members. Blunk and Cahoon were eventually exonerated. The town itself was left to carry out a sentence of ridicule from the rest of the country. Letters arrived at the Crown Point post office addressed to Wooden Gun, Indiana and Clown Point, Indiana. |
