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Damn Yankee

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"Dillinger" with Warren Oats, Ben Johnson last night and was wondering if any of you mid westerner's live around the area that these outlaws terrorized?
 
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The Indiana visitors center off RT94 was built about 10 yrs ago, it's a mile down the road. It's a large not "hokey" building. I was in there once and there was a '29-'31 model A, or '32 model B in the lobby, all around was Dillinger memorabilia. Down the road about 15 miles is the Crown Point court house where John escaped from with his fake gun. My grandma on my Dad's side resided with Grandpa outside of Joplin, Mo. during the depression (not the current one) Dad said they hid outlaws on a fairly regular basis. Outlaws might have ranged from chicken theives to bank robbers for all I know. Anybody from the bank, the government, or law enforcement was the enemy. Grandma claimed she was distant kin to ma barker. Since Grandma was a God fearing, handkerchief waving, MB church woman, I had no reason to doubt her.,.,
 
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For several years I lived about three blocks from the Biograph Theater, where Dillinger was shot and killed (or was he...?).
 
I live north of Indianapolis, but have been to Mooresville, where Dillinger lived, several times.

My grandpa lived in Bridgeport, just down the road from Mooresville. He knew Johns' dad and saw John a few times, whenever he came around.
 
I am about an hour south of Joplin. The Springfield MO PD has a Thompson submachine gun captured from a member of the Clyde Barrow gang.
One of the largest massacre's of LEO's was the Young brothers massacre in Brookline MO in the 30's. I have been by and seen the house. I used to own a badge and gun that was carried by one of the LEO survivors. Another survivor was the Father of the Sheriff of Greene Co. when I was growing up.
 
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My mom ran a country general store at auroaville wisconsin. I dont recall the details but she clamed dillinger stopped there with some of his gang at times on his way to and from little bohemia.
 
He robbed a bank here in Racine, and one of his Thompsons is on display in the police department.

One of my hobbies is going to the old hangouts of the depresion era bank robbers so I loved that movie. I usually go to Minnoqua once a year and stop by the little bohemia lodge.
 
I like that movie a lot. Three of my favorite actors are in it. If you have it on DVD watch the scene in the Little Bohemia shootout where Billie is firing out of a window to cover Dillinger's escape. The gun changes twice in her hands.
 
I live 6 miles from one of Dillinger's early bank robberies, Citizens' National of Bluffton, Ohio. I live around 15-20 miles from the Allen County jail, in Lima, Ohio, in which he was held until his buddies sprung him, I believe in October of 1933. The perp who murdered the Allen County sheriff to get Dillinger out, Harry Pierpont, grew up on a farm around 7 miles from where I grew up(about 10 miles from where I now live). Some historical accounts credit the following quote to Pierpont's mother a short time after this crime: "Harry has never done a wrong thing in his whole life." Maternal love was blind as a bat in this case.

The gang stayed at the Pierpont home occasionally. A neighbor of the Pierponts did business once in awhile with my employer(retail lumber and hardware business). When he was in his 70s or 80s(I'm a poor judge of age) he stopped in one time; during the conversation this topic came up. He recalled that one of the gang's cars was low on water and overheated in front of his place. They stopped and asked for water, and he obliged. Probably a good idea.

Andy
 
I live in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin and Little Bohemia tavern is my local hangout. "Public Enemies" was filmed here in April, 2008. Johnny Depp was in town for 8 days and Christian Bale was here for 9 days for the filming. Public Enemies, the movie was released July 1, 2009.

Little Bohemia had the 1934 FBI shootout with Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson here and the bullet-hole windows are still preserved in the original bar area. There are some great stories from relatives of the locals that were alive during the 1920-40's.

This area was first the hangout for Al Capone and the Chi-town boys in the 1920's. This area has always been alittle "loosy goosy" with law enforcement. Al's brother, Ralph owned a local tavern in Mercer, Wisconsin through the late 1960's and was a pretty wild place.

Interesting trivia that the FBI shootout, Dillinger's killing & Baby Face Nelson's killing all happened on the 22nd day of the month.

Shootout was April 22,1934
Dillinger killed on July 22, 1934
Baby Face Nelson killed on November 22, 1934

Nelson still holds the record to date of killing 3 FBI agents.
 
Didnt al capone have a brother that was a fbi agent or something? I have these glass,s that a friend gave me that was a chicago cop in that era. He took them off a hit man who pulled a sawed off shotgun from under his coat to hit a union boss at the stockyards. Instead the gun went off accidently blowing his leg off. Ray was first on the scene and somehow personnaly knew the gunso. He asked ray to get a metal box out of the dash of his car and see that his wife got it and he could have whatever else was in there. Ray was a retired chicago cop and close to 65 or 70 years old when I first knew him in 1965. He kind of liked me, told me the story then handed me the glass`s. He said ya ride a motor, maybe ya can use these! They were green gold wired sun glass,s of the era. I later cracked them as you can see. The guy bled out and died. My friends name was ray boseke (spl?) He was one rough old dude on our dept when I first knew him!
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