John Dillinger: The Life and Death of America's First Celebrity Criminal [Paperback]

Dary Matera (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 10, 2005

John Dillinger is an adrenaline-fueled narrative that reignites America's fascination with the suave and deadly desperado who became the FBI's first Public Enemy, whose story—until now—has been riddled with rumors and fiction. Dillinger and his bank-robbing gang cut a criminal swath never to be equaled, thrilling a nation in the throes of the Great Depression. When caught, Dillinger staged one of the most harrowing prison escapes imaginable—only to finally be betrayed by the infamous "Lady in Red." John Dillinger brings to light bank robberies never before reported; detailed plans for major crimes that Dillinger nearly implemented; the revelation that the Lady in Red was actually a police plant; and the startling motives behind John Dillinger's execution by rogue FBI agents. With access to the thousands of sources collected in the world's foremost Dillinger archives—including dozens of photographs—New York Times bestselling author Matera describes every robbery, shoot-out, and prison escape as though he had choreographed them himself.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this overly detailed biography, true-crime veteran Matera (The FBI's Ten Most Wanted, etc.) painstakingly recounts every bullet fired by the legendary robber John Dillinger, his criminal cohorts and his law-enforcement adversaries. Starting with a car theft at the age of 20, the gangster-obsessed Dillinger rapidly descended into a busy career as a bank robber, working with such pros as Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd. In the 1930s, Americans avidly followed Dillinger's crime spree and spectacular escapes from custody. Some portrayed him as a Robin Hood, while others cynically suspected that he often worked in cahoots with the very financial institutions he victimized. The book's most sensational claim is that the famous theater-alley gunfight in which Dillinger died was actually an official hit intended to cover up police corruption. The rather rigid straightforward storytelling obscures Dillinger's personality, and the countless heists and running gun battles tend to merge into one another. The epilogue, however, puts the criminal's significance in context by demonstrating his role in the creation of the FBI and new police tactics for dealing with armed robbers. Students of crime as well as those interested in the public fascination with larger-than-life figures on the other side of the law will find this useful. FYI: After eight years in prison, Dillinger was paroled on May 22, 1933, a date that marks the start of the most storied crime spree in U.S. history.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

In this exciting, enjoyable, but rather curious book, Matera intends to debunk many of the myths surrounding Dillinger, but he seems just as determined to romanticize him while demonizing some of his pursuers. One of Matera's premises is, actually, wrong; Dillinger was certainly not our first celebrity criminal (does the name Jesse James ring a bell?). Still, as Matera recounts Dillinger's slow but steady progress from inept punk to daring bank robber, his narrative easily draws in the reader. There are bold robberies, unlikely escapes, and near misses--and, of course, the familiar selection of gun molls. Dillinger and other gang members are treated somewhat sympathetically, but some lawmen are tagged as "assassins," "hit men," or "terminators." There are lots of interesting tidbits here, and the blow-by-blow descriptions of the battles between Dillinger's gangs and lawmen are engrossing. Although obviously far from a work of scholarship, it is a fun slice of Americana. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (May 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786715588
• ISBN-13: 978-0786715589
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Crime & Criminals  > Gangs

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It's been done better before, March 29, 2005

By 

George Klos (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John Dillinger: The Life and Death of America's First Celebrity Criminal (Hardcover)

While a good, if annoying read (see details below) that narrates the Dillinger story capably, Matera's book is plagued with problems, from it's main thesis to word usage errors. His conclusions are half-right at best -- police were already stocking machine guns and body armor (Dillinger robbed them, remember?), banks were already beefing up security, and SWAT teams were not created until decades later. Dillinger can only be considered "America's first clebrity criminal" by people who have never heard of Jesse James or Al Capone. While he was the most famous outlaw of the era, it was the presence of so many gangs (and the attendant press coverage) that did more for changes in law enforcement and new federal laws covering what had previously been local offenses.

On to real errors. On p. 128 Dillinger meets with a police snitch at 222 State St. (The Loop), then went around the corner to a bar on Lawrence Ave., which is actually 50-plus blocks north of the 200 block of State! Dillinger was not taken by cops on "commercial jets," as they did not exist in 1934. John's niece Mary is described (p. 126) as a student at Bulter U. and later as "an aspiring beauty school grad" (p. 250); Butler is a beauty school?

Finally usage errors here are maddening. John and Pierpont were "trapped by providential thinking." Huh? It's PROVINCIAL! Here's another doozy: "Anna's underhanded activities were particularly cold-blooded in light of her behavior in the proceeding months. It's supposed to be "proceeding" as in coming before July 1934, not "proceeding" (continuing), as John was no longer alive in the proceeding months. And the hot temperature was not the feds' "alley," it was their ally. OK, one more (p. 132): "The police was..." Who let that through?

Too picky? No. Matera should have given his manuscript a cleaner line-by-line scrub before sending it in, and there is no excuse for such sloppy editing from a professional publishing house.

His breezy writing style may work for some readers, but I find his use of modern slang ill-fitting in a story set in the 1930s. In sum Girardin and Hellmer's "Dillinger" and Burrough's "Public Enemies" are much better books on the subject.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Rip Roaring Read, March 25, 2007

By 

Michael C. Tighe "Bookbinger" (Glide, Oregon) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John Dillinger: The Life and Death of America's First Celebrity Criminal (Hardcover)

"John Dillinger" by Dary Matera proved to be the page-turner I hoped it would be when I purchased it purely on impulse.

Matera gives brief attention to the early life of America's favorite Depression-era desperado, noting the death of his mother when Johnny was a three-year-old and his early forays into small-time crime. Sentenced to a "whopping ten-to-twenty" in the penitentiary for his youthful crimes in 1924, Dillinger spent nine years in the pen before being granted clemency by Indiania Governor Paul V. McNutt in May 1933.

In the fourteen remaining months of his life, Dillinger engaged in a crime spree, robbing banks, raiding police stations for weapons, and staging jail breaks to become America's most colorful prince of thieves and Public Enemy Number One. The narrative is swept along with one shoot-out and getaway after another, and the cast of characters includes all the gangsters I was fascinated with as a boy -- Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, Homer Van Meter, Alvin Karpis, and a dozen others in Dillinger's changing gang of thugs.

The gun molls play their part and the often-bumbling lawmen, with J. Edgar Hoover at the head of the newly-formed FBI. There was a tender side to Dillinger, shown to his family and girlfriends, his generosity with the needy, and a fierce sense of loyalty to his gang members, for whom he would risk his life to insure their freedom.

Demonstrably well researched, the book has few flaws other than an occasional factual slip-up and a few niggling errors of syntax that annoyed me. But it is definitely a rip roaring read!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars too clever for its own good, June 17, 2006

By 

A. Clark - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John Dillinger: The Life and Death of America's First Celebrity Criminal (Hardcover)

The other reviewers are kinder than I--I got 50 pages in before I gave up on the book, annoyed by the author's factual errors; odd attempts at humor, such as making a pun based on a getaway driver's name, Parker; contemporary slang, such as stating that Dillinger's gun was "righteous heat;" and down right peculiar observations, such as calling a Kroger grocery store "a precursor to K-Mart." There are so many other books on Dillinger that there is no need to wade through this one.