John Dillinger: Prosecutor's Archive from First Arrest

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Apr 12, 2023

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• Lot Description
  Remarkable archive from the papers of attorney Frederick Steiger, who prosecuted John Dillinger after his first arrest in September 1924. Dillinger, with his accomplice Ed Singleton, had targeted a local grocer, Frank Morgan, to rob for some quick cash. In a sneak attack, Dillinger hit Morgan twice in the head with a bolt wrapped in a handkerchief. Morgan responded by grabbing the revolver that Dillinger pointed at him, and the gun discharged into the ground during the ensuing scuffle. Dillinger was arrested as a suspect at his father's home the following day, and later admitted his guilt. The historic archive features John Dillinger's signed affidavit detailing the crime, plus thirteen signed witness statements documenting his activities that day—including those of his wife Beryl, his accomplice Ed Singleton, and other acquaintances.
  
  
  
  The highlight is a manuscript DS signed "John Herbert Dillinger," three pages, 8.5 x 13, September 14, 1924. Dillinger's sworn statement made subsequent to his arrest for assaulting grocery man Frank Morgan in Mooresville, Indiana, penned in the hand of prosecuting attorney Fred W. Steiger. In part: "I, John Dillinger being duly sworn upon my oath allege and say: That on Saturday night Sept. 6th, 1924, about 7 PM I went down with Ed Singleton to Ed's house and I got my gun. It is a 32 Revolver. That about 10:00 PM on Saturday Sept. 6th 1924, Ed Singleton and I went down towards Mr. Frank Morgan's store. When we got about to the store we saw him closing up. Then we turned around and went back up in town. After Mr. Morgan came up in town, we watched him and saw him go in the barber shop. We waited across the street in the stairway by Moore's Restaurant till Mr. Morgan came out of the barber shop, he crossed the street to Reese's store then walked down Indiana St‰Û_When Mr. Morgan got to the back steps of the Christian church I stepped up behind Mr. Morgan and hit him twice with the large bolt which the prosecutor showed me since I have been in jail. Ed Singleton was supposed to help me, but failed to help me. After I hit Mr. Morgan with the bolt, which I had in my right hand, Mr. Morgan turned around and grabbed my left hand and in the scuffle the gun was discharged. Then I knew we might get caught, so we both run down to Broad Alley and run east‰Û_we exchanged hats and coats. When I hit Mr. Morgan I had on Ed's cap and sweater and Ed had on my hat and coat. When we got to Indiana St. we turned north‰Û_We separated about this time. I don't know where Ed went‰Û_Ed Singleton and I had decided about a week before we did this to rob Mr. Morgan and had talked it over 2 or three times. When we went down to Ed's house, we had decided that we would rob Mr. Morgan that night. I kept the gun on me till I got home that night. After I got home I hid it in a pile of oats up stairs in my father's house. It is there now in a sock, 2 extra cartridges and a skeleton key." Signed at the conclusion in ink by Dillinger, and countersigned by Steiger.
  
  
  
  The accompanying documents—similar signed witness statement affidavits, dating from September 8-15, 1924—establish the timeline of events on September 6th and trace Dillinger's whereabouts that night. Remarkably, they encompass practically all witnesses and participants in the crime—including everyone from Dillinger's accomplice, Ed Singleton, to Frank Morgan's barber, W. E. Spoon—with the curious exception of Morgan himself. Put together, they provide a detailed chronology of the incident in question and represent the prosecution's meticulous attention to detail in drawing up an airtight case.
  
  
  
  Signers and summaries of these affidavits:
  
  - Ed Singleton, Dillinger's accomplice also charged in the crime, first swearing on September 11th that "about 10:15 or 10:25 PM‰Û_John Dillinger told me he had Frank Morgan the west end grocery man spotted. He said he was going to sap him after a while. I told him he might knock him in the head and then get no money. He said he was going to take a shot at it. When Old Man Morgan came out of the barber shop, I saw him and John said well see you later." He explains that they parted at that time. On September 14th, Singleton signs another affidavit, clarifying his remarks and further detailing his movements: "John‰Û_tried to rob Frank Morgan. From where I stood I heard the shot fired. After John did the work he came up by me and we both went up Broad Alley to Indiana‰Û_John separated from me at the Methodist Church‰Û_John told me the old man was a tough one and he never got anything."
  
  - Beryl Dillinger, John Dillinger's wife, stating that she met John in Mooresville at about 8:15 PM on September 6th and walked down to the skating rink, where she saw him speak to just one person.
  
  - Merrill Mills, an acquaintance of John Dillinger who he had tried to recruit as an accomplice, saying that about two weeks earlier Dillinger "mentioned holding up Frank Morgan" and asked whether he took the grocery's money home or left it in the store. Mills also mentions running into Dillinger at the skating rink and, later, at a pool hall.
  
  - Earl G. Smith, an acquaintance of Merrill Mills and John Dillinger, describing conversations he and Mills had about Dillinger, as well as the encounter between the three of them at the pool hall.
  
  - Maxine Mills, who saw John Dillinger "at the rink about 8 or 8:30 PM."
  
  - May Hacker, who saw Merrill Mills and others at the skating rink.
  
  - Harry Waltz, who saw Dillinger at the skating rink "about 8:30 or 9 PM."
  
  - Thelma Williams, who saw John and Beryl Dillinger at the skating rink "about 8:30 or 8:45 PM."
  
  - R. J. Wade, who witnessed John Dillinger "going west on Main Street" between 10:30 and 11:15 PM.
  
  - W. E. Spoon, reporting that he "shaved Frank Morgan and also cut his hair" just before 11 PM.
  
  - Kenneth Sheets, who saw Dillinger alone at the skating rink some time between 7 and 9:10 PM, noting: "I heard Wilford Pointer say he had a conversation with John Dillinger about 11 PM Sat. night and he acted very nervous."
  
  - Francis McKinley, who saw Dillinger on the train to Mooresville but did not see him or Beryl at the rink that night.
  
  
  
  Additionally includes several pages of Steiger's handwritten notes made while preparing the case—mostly quick jottings with names and summaries of conversations—and three typed affidavits filed in the Morgan Circuit Court, all signed by Morgan County Sheriff Lafayette Scott and prosecutor Fred W. Steiger, outlining the counts with which Dillinger was charged: conspiracy to commit a felony; assault and battery with intent to rob; and accessory before the fact. In overall fine condition.
  
  
  
  Following his father's advice after his first-ever arrest, Dillinger confessed to the crimes and expected to receive a light sentence by pleading guilty—only to be slapped with a stiff 10-20 years upon sentencing. Ed Singleton, an ex-convict and distant cousin of Dillinger, decided to stand trial and was sentenced to just two years for his (admittedly lesser) role in the robbery. During Dillinger's nine-year stint in the Indiana Correctional System, he met and befriended a number of hard-core criminals who would later become part of his gang: Harry Pierpont, John Hamilton, Homer Van Meter, Fat Charley Makley, Russell Clark, and Walter Dietrich.
  
  
  
  Dillinger was released in May 1933, after a petition bearing the signatures of almost 200 residents from his adopted hometown of Mooresville, Indiana—including that of Frank Morgan, his grocer victim—was presented to the governor. Embittered with the criminal justice system for having served what he felt was an unjust term, Dillinger quickly resumed a life of crime with his prison friends, whom he helped escape in a spectacular and well-planned breakout. He and the gang embarked on a bank robbing spree, conducting a dozen separate heists between June 21, 1933, and June 30, 1934—to the tune of well over $300,000.
  
  
  
  In 1934, when J. Edgar Hoover named Dillinger 'Public Enemy Number 1,' Indiana Governor Paul V. McNutt's secretary, Wayne Coy, observed: 'There does not seem to me to be any escape from the fact that the State of Indiana made John Dillinger the Public Enemy that he is today. The Indiana constitution provides that our penal code shall be reformative and not vindictive‰Û_Instead of reforming the prisoner, the penal institutions provided him with an education in crime.'
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