Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 62, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 July 1934 — Page 1

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DILLINGER DIES REACHING FOR GUN

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John Dillinger, the nation’s most hunted killer, is shown here in a police patrol, toes up. as he was taken from in front of the theater where federal agents and police had riddled him with bullets. He was rushed to a hospital, but doctors found that he had been instantly killed.

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A policeman standing over the pool of blood where John Dillinger, the nation’s No. 1 outlaw, dropped under a shower of lead from federal agents and police who flapped him as he emerged from a Chicago theater.

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Mrs. Etta Natalsky. 45, who was shot in the leg by a stray bullet when federal agents killed John Dillinger in Chicago.

8 Killed in City by Terrific Heat as Mercury Soars Toward 100-Deqree Mark for Third Day With No Relief in Prospect & _ - nee. t'v.o hoof Koif Viqh Vi>n pvtpnripri tprpri rattle unable to find water or

Hourly Temperatures i: tmid- 7 a. m 79 night .... 87 Ba. m 80 ; l a . m B.S 9a. m 90 2a. m 84 10 a. m 94 | 3a. m 84 11 a. m 98 4 a . m 82 12 tnoon.. 97.1 sa. m 79 Ip. m 100 6 a. m 78 The eighth heat fatality in two days was reported to police shortly after noon today as the heat wave persisted relentlessly with no hope of immediate relief offered by the United States weather bureau. The eighth victim was Mrs. Florence Nichols. 74. of 3232 North Illinois street. William Higdon. 28. of 632 East St. Clair street was taken to the city hospital this morning suffering from heat prostration. Yesterday, the third successive day of scorching heat, brought death to seven persons and illness to lour more. dead are the 1-day-old ml ant

The Indianapolis Times Generally fair and continued warm tonight and tomorrow.

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VOLUME 46—NUMBER 62

son of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Jones. Negros. 524 Colton avenue; Fred Hartman. 47, 1524 South Alabama street; Fred Helcher, 67. of <l9 Lincoln street; William L. Noe, 128 North Delaware street, and Albert Gardner. 1658 College avenue; Harry Hillyer, 22, and Abraham Sanders. 47.' Negro, both inmates of the Central Indiana hospital. Those suffering from illness are Ed Simmons. 56, of 2327 North ; Pennsylvania street; Mrs. Mary Stevens, 71, of 739'; Massachusetts avenue; James Stevens, 24, of 123 South Noble street, and Grant Smith. 61. Columbus. Ind. Mr. Gardner died early today and | the others died yesterday from ! illnesses complicated by the heat. The temperature rose to 103.3 degrees at 3:15 yesterday afternoon. The all-time heat record for Indianapolis of 106 degrees was nearly smashed Saturday when the mercury climbed to 105.5 degrees at 4 p. m. The temperature at noon today was 97,

Melvin Purvis, U. S. department of justice agent, photographed a few hours after he had brought his four and a half month hunt for John Dillinger to a close by leading a squad of agents in killing him outside a Chicago theater.

In futile efforts to keep cool yesterday and last night, the city fled to parks and swimming pools, lay in bath tubs, drank gallons of beer and kept all available fans going. Shades were drawn to keep out the intense heat of the sun during the davtime. The parks were filled last night with restless sleeping figures, hoping to catch an occasional breeze. Seeking relief from the heat early today, Olive Foster, 31, of 802 Indiana avenue, went searching in her bed for a bottle of homebrew stored there. The bottle exploded, cutting her left wrist. She was treated at city hospital. Heat Belt Extends By United Prcts KANSAS CITY. Mo., July 23. The southwest and middle west went into its twelfth consecutive day of temperatures over 100 degrees today with no relief in sight lor ths Pext twenty-four hours.

INDIANAPOLIS, MONDAY, JULY 23,1934

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The little Biograph movie theater, three miles north of downtown Chicago, which John Dillinger was leaving when federal agents and police killed him. His love of movies was well known, and lured him to his death.

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The nation’s Public Enemy No. 1 lying on a slab;n the county morgue in Chicago surrounded by policemen and coroner's assistants, after he had been slain by federal agents outside a Chicago movie house. a

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The automatic that John Dillinger reached for when he realized he had been trapped in Chicago by federal agents. They killed him before he could use it.

DILLINGER NEWS Other details on the slaying of John Dillinger, America’s No. 1 desperado, will be found on Page 3. A full page of pictures showing highlights in the life and criminal career of Dillinger are on Page 8.

The heat belt had been extended to the Atlantic coast, and there, likewise, forecasters gave no hope for cooler weather. Crops shriveled in the fields. Cattle dropped from lack of water. Deaths from heat prostration and other illnesses directly traceable to the weather mounted into the hundreds. Lack of water spread. One-hundred degree temperatures were common in every state between the Rocky mountains and the Appalachians. Farmers Shoot Cattle The record-breaking drought and high temperatures merely continued to add to misery in many middle and southwestern states where it has prevailed for days; in other states more fortunate, crops, cattle and humans were just beginning to feel its force. _ • Farmers were forced to resort to desperate measures as they found their livestock unable to live. As often as not, the farmer took a rifle into the field with hi and slaugh-

Times Index Berg Cartoon 6 Bridge 5 Broun 7 Comics 13 Crossword Puzzle 5 Editorial 6 Financial 9 Radio 5 Sports 10, H State News I 4

tered cattle unable to find water or subsist on parched grass. COHN VERDICT MOTION OVERRULED BY CAVINS Defense to Present Testimony in Banker's Trial. Special Judge Alex G. Cavins today overruled the defense motion for a direct verdict of not guilty in the embezzlement trial of Melville S. Cohn, a vice-president and director of the defunct Meyer-Kiser bank. The morning was taken up by arguments by Paul Y. Davis, defense counsel, and Floyd Mattice, chief deputy prosecutor. The defense will present its testimony this afternoon. Motor toned up. Carburetor adjusted. See Carburetor Sales, 214 E. Phio.— Adv.

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Miss Theresa Paulus, 27, who was shot in the hip when federal agents killed John Dillinger in Chicago. Another woman also was wounded slightly.

15 Die in Fire After Bus Runs Wild on Steep Hill

Flaming Vehicle Causes Blaze Resulting in Loss of $225,000.

By United Press OSSINING, N. Y., July 23. Searchers of the charred hulk of a bus that was a flaming coffin for at least fifteen persons feared an even greater death list today as they sifted ashes for evidence of human cremation. Fifty men, women and children were in the blazing bus that careened down a steep hill within sight of Sing Sing prison, and plunged over a forty-foot embankment. It was an end to a Sunday holiday excursion so horrible that authorities feared many of the charred remains would never be identified. Nearly a score of the surviving passengers were in hospitals. Three of these are not expected to live. All the victims were members or friends of the Brooklyn Democratic League. They were on their way to Sing Sing to see their baseball

team play a convict nine. The fire spread from the bus to the lumber yard into which it fell, destroyed virtually the entire yard, then spread to a dock in the Hudson river and swept nineteen boats. Preliminary check showed that brakes on the antiquated bus were defective. Survivors said that several times on the journey from Brooklyn to Ossining, the driver, Frank Imperatore, had difficulty in stopping. He had been forced to rely solely upon the handbrake, but apparently it got out of order. Survivors said the bus approached the top of the descent leading to the prison with comparative high speed, imperatore jammed the foot brake to the floor. He jerked up on the hand-brake. There was an odor of burning rubber but speed was unchecked. Passengers froze in their seats as the mad descent started. Mothers clutched at their children. Others screamed. Men instantly were aware the bus was out of control. Several forced open the doors and j jumped. The bus crashed against a brick retaining wall, swerved, then swung back into the road. A few moments later the same maneuver was rep§ated, By Up time the vehicle

Entered a Scon<l-Clas* Matter at Postoffice. Indianapolia. Ind.

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The straw hat, a bullet hole in the brim, and glasses that John Dillinger was wearing when he was killed, and the cigar that he was about to light.

was plunging with tremendous momentum while Imperatore struggled valiantly to halt it. At the bottom of the quarter-mile dash, he chose to plunge into the iron railing rather than crash directly into an obstruction. Obviously he did not know what lay beyond the railing. Fire apparatus from several Westchester communities fought the blaze more than an hour before it was brought under control. Total damage to property was estimated at more than $225,000.

7-22-34 Bored Morgue Attendant Writes 'Finis’ to Career of Outlaw.

By United Preen CHICAGO, July 23.—A bored morgue attendant wrote “finis” to the career of John Dillinger last night. He attached a small tag to a toe on the slain outlaw’s right foot. It read; “John Dillinger—7-22-34.” u u Hundreds stormed the morgue entrance in an attempt to view Dillinger’s body. Many of them were women. Some even claimed to be relatives of the desperado. nun The sailor straw hat that Dillinger was wearing when federal agets opened fire at the Biograph theater was snatched up by an alert souvenir hunter. u u a CHICAGO police were left out in the sensational climax. Shortly before the killing, the Sheffield avenue station received a call from the manager of the Biograph theater that "suspicious men” were loitering around the. place. Two squad cars were dispatched to the scene. u * u In Dillinger s pockets was 57.80 in cash, two keys tied with string. On his left hand he wore a large, ruby xing. <

HOME EDITION PRICE TWO CENTS Outside Marion County. S Cent*

NO.l OUTLAW IS SLAIN BY U. S. AGENTS •Justifiable Homicide.’ Rules Jury in Chicago Coroner’s Office. KILLED OUTSIDE MOVIE

Women Lured Bad Man to His Death, Federal Men Reveal. By United Press CHICAGO, July 23.—John Dillinger’s life history was ended today in the books of the law. In a drab coroner’s ofhce, just removed from the icefilled vault where Dillinger’s body lay, a solemn jury wrote the last chapter. It read: “Justifiable homicide by officers of the federal government.”

The man who ran him down w r as not present, the man whose bullet killed him was not named and the informant who led him to his death was not mentioned. The entire investigation of the life of the man who was sought for months lasted less than twenty minutes. A few brief sentences by two federal agents told the entire official story of Dillinger’s death last night at the door of a motion picture theater just off the famous Gold Coast. They told of a “tip” at 5 p. m. yesterday, hasty organization of an ambush outside the little Biogranh theater, and then of the shootinfin which Dillinger died the kincu of death he had dealt to others. Their guarded testimony seemed to confirm a startling fact already revealed by other investigators. Dillinger was led to death by a woman.

Refuse to Confirm Reports Police and Purvis refused to confirm reports that two women who attended the theater with him last night were in custody. Purvis said, however: “It was women who led him to his grave.” Reports of the way the "tipster” made contact with the federal agents differed, but every fact available pointed inescapably to the fact that it was a woman. She escaped without pursuit while Dillinger fell in a hail of bullets. Samuel P. Cowley, special agent and assistant to Purvis, gave the most detail to the jury of six men. He told of the first “tip” last night that Dillinger would attend the Biograph, lured from hiding by a play of crime, “Manhattan Melodrama.” “Who gave that tip?” asked Coroner Frank J. Walsh. “I am unable to give that information,” replied Mr. Cowley. “Do you mean you do not know?” ‘I know, but I can not reveal it.” East Chicago Police Included Cowley told of hasty preparations for an ambush. Police of East Chicago, Ind., participated, he said, because they were instrumental in obtaining the all important tip. “When Dillinger came out he spotted some of us,” he said. “He reached for a pocket. Purvis said ‘Come on, fellows.’ We all fired, I guess, and after running aways Dillinger fell.” He was followed by Special Agent Earl Richmond, who told of identification of Dillinger’s body by fingerprints, legible despite apparent attempts to deface the finger markings with acid. It was definitely established by Dr. J. J. Kearns, coroner’s physician at the county morgue, that Dillinger’s face had been lifted by means of plastic surgery.

Characteristic Not Altered ‘‘lt was a good job the surgeon did,” Mr. Purvis said, “but I knew him the minute I saw him.” Purvis said he was standing in front of a beer tavern a short distance from the neighborhood theater when Dillinger passed him. “He gave me a piercing look,” he related. “Just after he went by and was midway of the next building I raised my hand and gave a prearranged signal to my men.” Mr. Purvis said the federal men were under orders to take Dillinger alive, if possible. “I thought it impossible he could have a weapon concealed on his person and the plan was to seize him, pinion his arms and make him prisoner. However, the men were instructed to take no chances. “Dillinger, becoming suspicious as my men closed in, whirled around. He reached for his pistol. “Four shots were fired. Three took effect.” After his body was hauled in a government automobile to Alexian Brothers’ hospital many spectators —even children—got a ghastly thrill from dipping their shoea in his blood. *