Page' j&-SefoloH 1
THE CAPITAE JOURNAL!
Salem, Oregon, Thursday, January 17, 1957
i-The
(JgD Story-
CHAPTER 10
Rebellion Against Crime
John Herbert Dillinger led
kill - crazy gang which (wept
through the Midwest from Sep
tember, 1933, until July, 1034,
leiving a trail of ten men mur
dered, (even wounded, four banks
robbed, three police ai
plundered and three jails from
which prisoners were freed
But It wasn't the murders or
the robberies or the jail deliver
ies which first sent the FBI after
Dillinger, because none of these
crimes was a federal law viola
tion. He ran into trouble with
the G-Mcn because he drove
stolen automobile across a state
line.
During the twenties most of
the country had watched the
growth of crime and gangsterism
with a so-what attitude. Those
(ellows in the gangs, many peo
ple felt, were no worse than the
thieves in dinner jacKcis wno naa
been corrupting federal, state
local governments: about the on
ly difference was that one group
used guns and the other didn't.
But this tolerance gave way to
angry demands that something
be done about the menace of the
gangsters and racketeers. t
Special Kidnap Line
The country and Congress
eame to the realization that the
federal laws were woefully weak
In combating interstate crime.
Criminals were operating with
high-speed automobiles, armored
cars, high-powered rifles, ma
chine guns and armaments which
were better than those of the law
enforcement agencies. Crime
wasn't localized. One gang could,
and frequently did, operate
across the lines of a half-dozen
states.
By 1933 bank robberies were
occurring at the rate of almost
two a day. Kidnapings had in
creased alarmingly despite the
Lindbergh Kidnap Law. The at
torney general had urged people
to report kidnapings to the FBI
by calling the special "kidnap"
number NAtional 8-7117, Wash
ington, D. C.
Wooden Gun?
Many of the gang nperalions
were not in violation of federal
statutea and there were some
curious inconsistencies in the
laws. For example, a hank offi
cial who embezzled $50 from a
federal hank in 1933 had violated
a federal law. But a gang of ban
dits might rob a federal bank of
(100,000, machine-gun the bnnk
officials and escape into another
state without violating a single
federal statute. And the bandits
could be reasonably sure that pur-
lull would end at the slate line.
1 Dillinger, wanted in Indiana
for the murder of an East Chica
go policeman, was recognized in
Tucson, Ariz., and arrested with
three members of. his gan. Tuc
son police found, among other
odds and ends at the Dillinger
hide-out, three Thompson sub
machine guns, two Winchester
rifles mounted as machine guns,
five bullet-proof vests and more
than $25,000, part of which was
identified as loot from an East
Chicago bank.
Dillinger was returned to In
diana and placed in the county
jail at Crown Toint to await
trial. But he escaped on March 3,
1934. He always claimed he
frightened the jail guards with a
wooden gun which he had fash
ioned with a razor blade as he
whiled away the time in his cell
The red-faced guards said Dil
linger had a real .45 which some
one had slipped to him.
Traps Sprung
Dillinger grabbed two machine
guns, locked up the guards, stole
the sheriff's automobile and head
ed for Chicago. The instant he
erossed the Indiana-Illinois stair
line, he violated a federal law
the National Motor Vehicle Thefl
Act, commonly known as the Dy
er Act, which prohibits trans
portation of a stolen motor ve
hicle across a state line.
on two ocrasions, agents
thought they hart Dillinger trap
red. Each time he escaped in a
barrage of machine-gun fire. Bui
the circle was tightening.
in April the Dillinger gang
was lound at Little Roheniui
Lodge, a summer resort some fit
miles north of Ithinelander, Wis
Warned by barking dogs of the
approach of an Kill raiding par
ty, Dillinger and his buddies es
caped. A short distance from tlir
lodge, Lester t.illis, alias "Baity
Face' Nelson, a member of the
Dillinger gang, killed Special
Agent W. Carter Baum. and
wounded another agent and a lo
cal officer.
On the first day of June, lloov
er called Special Asent Samuel
P. Cowley into his office to give
him a special assignment. ( ow
ley was a hefty. 34-year-old I'tah
lawyer who had served as
lionaiy in the Mormon Church
before he joined the FBI. He was
to take charge of the Dillinger
search.
Cowley's search led him to Chi
eago. Dillinger was reported ir
hiding, recovering from a dnc
tor's attempt to disguise the Dil
linger features by plastic surgery
Cowley and Melvin Purvis, spe
cial agent in charge of the Chi
cago office, worked closely with
two Last Chicago policemen.
(.apt. Timothy O Neill and Sgt
Martin larkovich, in running
down the scores of rumors and
tips from people who thought
they had recognized Dillinger.
Woman in Red
The break In the case came on
July 21. O'Neill and Zarkovirh
brought a dark-haired, middle
aged woman to the FBI. She was
Alfa Cumnanas, and she was in
frrtVble, The Immigration and Na
9vw wanted her
prearrangement Purvia lit a ci
gar. Dillinger must have sensed
that something was wrong. He
glanced over his shoulder and
saw an agent moving toward him.
He darted toward an alley, claw
ing a pistol from his pants pock
et. But before he could get his
gun into action, three FBI agents
fired five shots. Slugs tore into
Dillinger's body and he pitched
on his face. The chase was over.
Cowley paid Ana Cumpanas
$5,000 from the $10,000 reward
money which the federal govern
ment had posted. The two East
Chicago policemen each received
$2,500. But a federal judge or
dered her deported, and she died
in 1947 in the little Romanian
town of Timisoara.
(Tomorrow: The FBI
Laboratory. X
3 Men Killed
In Kansas Gas
Plant Blowup
Fuel Supply Thrcalened
As Far as Detroit by
Service Cutoff
LIBERAL, Kan. Ifl An explo
sion flashed through a big pipe
line compressor station here in
the southwest corner of Kansas
yesterday, killing three workmen
and threatening natural gas sup
plies as far east as Detroit.
Officials of Panhandle Eastern
Pipeline Co. said they hoped to
restore deliveries to 70 per cent
of normal today.
They indicated this would mean
no curtailment of gas for house
hold use along Panhandle East
ern's system in Kansas, Missouri,
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michi
gan. Industrial users In the six states
were cut off immediately.
Mrs. Ana Cumpanas, also known as Anna Suge, was the "Woman
In Red" who finally led FBI agents and police to John Dillinger,
gang chief of '30s, The bnwdyhouse opernter luler was deported.
deported as an undesirable alien
because she was the madam of
bawdyhousc in Gary, Ind.
Her proposition was this. She
would lead John Dillinger to the
FBI but she wanted a promise
that she would receive a reward
and also that something would be
done to permit her to remain in
The reward was promised. Pur
vis said he would do what he
could to help her. and he would
call her co-operation to the at
tention of Ihe Labor Department,
which handled deportation mat
ters.
Ana Cumpanas said that John
Dillinger was planning to take
her and his girl friend. Tolly
Hamilton, to a movie theater the
The whole area presently is In
the grip of a cold wave.
The were about 25 men In the
plant. Fourteen were burned and
battered by the explosion. Three
were reported in critical condi
tion. Four were released from a
hospital after treatment.
The blast blew the metal roof
and sides off the main compressor
building. 364 by 68 feet. It wrecked
the engines and compressors. An
adjoining machine hop was heav
ily damaged. Fivt other buildings
and eight houses on the 80-acre
plot 15 miles northeast of Liberal
had lesser damage.
One company official said the
loss might run several million
dollars.
"Everything just went off In my
face," said J. D. Armstrong, one
of the workmen Injured. "Pieces
of metal and glass were flying all
over the place and everything was
on fire." , ,
The fire burned two hours, fed
by gas from broken lines, before
valves could be closed.
Those killed were Melvin Swaf
ford, 35, who lived on the station;
James Hanes, about 30, Paul s
Valley, Okla.; and Ivan Hill,
about 40, Liberal.
A company spokesman said
failure of a piece of equipment
on a compressor engine caused
the blast. Workmen said they
heard a hissing noise just belora
the explosion.
The Liberal station collects gas
through small pipelines from
fields In southwest Kansas and the
Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles,
compressing it and - boosting it
along 24 and 26-inch mains to tha
East. It once was the largest
compressor station in the world.
ilOii IROi. TOl "'
1 wS& 1 Reductions rf f " "" ' l
Made1 Xjr VfZjJ J fjSafM
next evening. How would other , Help VOUrself fO iOmt I Qf AvT lKX4Mgi
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he entered the theater with his 1 f ' ft If Si 1 YC T Q f MZ&S!&ft ?WJ iSSj.
girl friend and "the Woman in m 1 II V lily L 'CvVY v. n
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the outlaw was identified beyond C JClhAjiAMLK VX'' Iff ?Ti A' viH 'St t4ffr
doubt. Cowley called Hoover, who 1 f I VX 1 - a) 'liLSt V llV
was pacing the library of his J ,W M W l U 1 VI a-J 0 ffMW''SL 4 ,t.?W MX
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