The Lady in Red

After the fiasco at Little Bohemia, Dillinger and many of his gang members headed in different directions. He also achieved the honor of being recognized as "Public Enemy Number One." A reward was placed on his head and he soon reached a point in which he felt that no one could be trusted. All he wanted by this point was to pick up enough cash to set him self up outside of the country. If he could pick up enough cash through one last job he made it clear to other gang members that he was out of the business and the country. Five states had posted rewards of $5,000 and Hoover through the FBI posted a reward of $10,000. Hoover had by this point decided that no effort was too great to capture the man he had made a public enemy.

Dillinger realized that with the money being offered for his capture it was only a matter of time before he was recognized. To deal with this problem arrangements were made for Dillinger to visit a plastic surgeon to deal with his appearance problem. This almost cost him his life when at one point during the operation he stopped breathing. When he finally did emerge he was unhappy with the results. He felt that not enough change had taken place. To further protect his real identity he had his fingertips doctored in an attempt to wipe out his fingerprints. Again He was not pleased with the results and returned to his dream of picking up enough cash to leave the country.

Plans were made to pull a bank job in Iowa where it was believed that over $100,00 could result from the heist. The day of the robbery was like a tragic comedy of errors. The bystanders in the bank panic causing one of the robbers to open up with machine gun fire. This attracted people outside the bank one of who began to fire into the bank causing Babyface Nelson to open up with his machine gun. This higher level of confusion and noise then brought the police onto the site. Now more concerned with getting out alive than in collection of cash. Hostages were taken, but the police showed little concern for the hostages and opened fire. Dillinger barely escaped with his life and one of his gang members was not as lucky. The escape was successful but Dillinger realized that the less than $5,000 he picked up through the robbery was not enough to make good his escape out of the country. Instead he decided to return to the Chicago and spend some time with a lady that he had linked up with. Sure that he would never see Billie Frechette again, Dillinger had taken up with a twenty-six-year-old waitress named Polly Hamilton. He told her his name was Jimmy Lawrence and that he was a clerk for the Chicago Board of Trade. Polly rented a room from a Romanian brothel keeper called Anna Sage whose son lived with her in an apartment on the north side of Chicago. Anna faced almost certain deportation for her vice operations. In Polly and Mrs. Sage's neighborhood, Dillinger lived like an ordinary citizen. As usual, he was taking enormous risks. The stakes were so high and the reward so attractive that many would be motivated to betray him.

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