WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.560 Welcome to another deep dive. We are we are so 00:00:02.560 --> 00:00:04.620 glad you decided to join us today. Yeah, absolutely. 00:00:04.860 --> 00:00:06.599 Thanks for tuning in. If you're listening right 00:00:06.599 --> 00:00:08.960 now, you are probably already familiar with the 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:12.199 massive sweeping narratives of the 1930s public 00:00:12.199 --> 00:00:14.880 enemy era. Right. The big names, the famous shootout. 00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:18.039 Exactly. The larger than life folklore. But today 00:00:18.039 --> 00:00:20.640 we are pushing all of that cinematic mythology 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:23.750 to the side. We have a single, highly detailed 00:00:23.750 --> 00:00:26.410 Wikipedia article in front of us. And it chronicles 00:00:26.410 --> 00:00:31.089 the life, the chaotic crimes, and the incredibly 00:00:31.089 --> 00:00:34.770 gruesome death of John Rhett Hamilton. Right. 00:00:35.070 --> 00:00:37.829 Our mission for this deep dive is to strip away 00:00:37.829 --> 00:00:40.090 the glossy veneer that usually covers these stories. 00:00:40.789 --> 00:00:42.729 We're going to look at the gritty, paranoid, 00:00:42.850 --> 00:00:45.429 and honestly surprisingly disorganized reality 00:00:45.429 --> 00:00:48.850 of a man who was central to John Dillinger's 00:00:48.850 --> 00:00:51.770 inner circle. A man whose personal story is frequently 00:00:51.770 --> 00:00:53.950 relegated to just a mere footnote in history. 00:00:54.070 --> 00:00:56.329 Yeah. It is, you know, it's remarkably easy to 00:00:56.329 --> 00:00:59.289 get caught up in the polished legend of the 1930s 00:00:59.289 --> 00:01:01.729 outlaw. Yeah. But when you examine the historical 00:01:01.729 --> 00:01:04.530 footprint of their daily lives, the actual mechanics 00:01:04.530 --> 00:01:06.870 of survival on the run. It wasn't glamorous. 00:01:07.230 --> 00:01:10.930 No, anything but glamorous. John Hamilton provides 00:01:10.930 --> 00:01:14.450 the perfect lens for this reality check. He was 00:01:14.450 --> 00:01:17.290 right there for the most infamous bank robberies 00:01:17.290 --> 00:01:19.790 and the most desperate escapes. Operating right 00:01:19.790 --> 00:01:21.709 in the background of these highly publicized 00:01:21.709 --> 00:01:25.450 events. Exactly. By tracing his specific trajectory, 00:01:25.790 --> 00:01:28.450 we get a much starker picture of what it actually 00:01:28.450 --> 00:01:30.950 meant to be a career criminal during the height 00:01:30.950 --> 00:01:33.090 of the Great Depression. Okay, let's unpack this 00:01:33.090 --> 00:01:35.609 from the very beginning. Who was John Hamilton 00:01:35.609 --> 00:01:38.030 before he became a permanent fixture in the Chicago 00:01:38.030 --> 00:01:40.609 crime papers? Well, the baseline facts set a 00:01:40.609 --> 00:01:43.329 rather unassuming stage. Hamilton was Canadian. 00:01:43.530 --> 00:01:46.250 He was born in Bing Inlet, Ontario in August 00:01:46.250 --> 00:01:49.969 of 1898. Okay, so a small town. Very small. And 00:01:49.969 --> 00:01:52.250 his parentage reflects a pretty typical North 00:01:52.250 --> 00:01:55.200 American immigrant experience for the era. His 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:57.299 father was an Irish Canadian from Essex County, 00:01:57.439 --> 00:01:59.799 Ontario, and his mother was a German American 00:01:59.799 --> 00:02:02.340 from New York. Got it. So he certainly wasn't 00:02:02.340 --> 00:02:04.359 born into some notorious underworld syndicate. 00:02:04.760 --> 00:02:07.319 He started life in a small Ontario community, 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:10.000 completely removed from the urban crime hubs. 00:02:10.180 --> 00:02:12.639 What immediately stands out about his early years 00:02:12.639 --> 00:02:15.759 is this incredibly memorable, almost startling 00:02:15.759 --> 00:02:18.289 physical detail. Oh, yeah. Long before he was 00:02:18.289 --> 00:02:20.289 holding up banks, Hamilton picked up the nickname 00:02:20.289 --> 00:02:22.969 Three Finger Jack. And he didn't get this moniker 00:02:22.969 --> 00:02:26.050 from some violent mob initiation or a knife fight. 00:02:26.069 --> 00:02:28.210 Nothing like that. He lost two fingers on his 00:02:28.210 --> 00:02:30.069 right hand in a childhood sledding accident. 00:02:30.169 --> 00:02:33.569 Just a brutal, ordinary winter mishap in the 00:02:33.569 --> 00:02:36.669 snow. It is a striking detail, particularly when 00:02:36.669 --> 00:02:39.030 you consider his future profession. Right. Armed 00:02:39.030 --> 00:02:41.770 robbery. Exactly. You have a distinct permanent 00:02:41.770 --> 00:02:44.909 physical limitation missing two fingers on your 00:02:44.909 --> 00:02:47.860 dominant hand. And yet. He goes on to become 00:02:47.860 --> 00:02:51.460 one of the most prolific, elusive armed robbers 00:02:51.460 --> 00:02:53.319 of his generation. It's crazy to think about. 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:56.060 It is a sharp paradox. You would logically assume 00:02:56.060 --> 00:02:58.379 that such a highly identifiable physical trait 00:02:58.379 --> 00:03:01.139 would make a life of crime, especially one involving 00:03:01.139 --> 00:03:03.500 firearms and the need to blend into a crowd, 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:06.060 nearly impossible. Yeah, you'd stand out everywhere 00:03:06.060 --> 00:03:08.479 you went. Yet his criminal career proved to be 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:11.520 incredibly slippery. Slippery is an understatement. 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:15.180 But his very first major run -in with the law... 00:03:15.389 --> 00:03:18.090 Wasn't exactly a master class in criminal evasion, 00:03:18.150 --> 00:03:21.349 was it? Far from it. The real catalyst for his 00:03:21.349 --> 00:03:24.949 life as a career criminal happens in March 1927. 00:03:25.509 --> 00:03:28.009 He's convicted of robbing a local gas station 00:03:28.009 --> 00:03:30.930 in St. Joseph County, Indiana. Just a gas station? 00:03:31.110 --> 00:03:33.870 Just a gas station. And for that single crime, 00:03:34.129 --> 00:03:37.129 the court hands him a staggering 25 -year sentence 00:03:37.129 --> 00:03:39.930 at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. 00:03:40.349 --> 00:03:42.990 25 years for gas station robbery is a massive 00:03:42.990 --> 00:03:45.389 amount of time to be locked away. That kind of 00:03:45.389 --> 00:03:47.169 sentence completely removes him from society 00:03:47.169 --> 00:03:50.169 and drops him into a very specific, high -pressure 00:03:50.169 --> 00:03:52.930 environment. We connect this to the bigger picture. 00:03:53.310 --> 00:03:56.009 The prison system at that time inadvertently 00:03:56.009 --> 00:03:58.030 functioned as the ultimate criminal networking 00:03:58.030 --> 00:04:00.729 event. A networking event? Wow. Really, it was. 00:04:01.289 --> 00:04:02.889 Hamilton wasn't just sitting in a cell serving 00:04:02.889 --> 00:04:05.949 his time. He was actively socializing, mingling 00:04:05.949 --> 00:04:09.030 with a literal who's who of the Midwestern underworld. 00:04:09.270 --> 00:04:12.870 Building a Rolodex. Precisely. Inside those walls, 00:04:13.030 --> 00:04:15.750 he formed tight bonds with heavy hitters like 00:04:15.750 --> 00:04:18.569 Russell Clark, Charles Makely, Harry Pierpont, 00:04:18.709 --> 00:04:21.569 Homer Van Meter, and crucially, a young inmate 00:04:21.569 --> 00:04:24.660 named John Dillinger. The audacity of what happens 00:04:24.660 --> 00:04:27.660 next is just wild. Dillinger gets paroled in 00:04:27.660 --> 00:04:30.879 May of 1933. You would think someone given that 00:04:30.879 --> 00:04:32.579 kind of freedom would just walk out, breathe 00:04:32.579 --> 00:04:34.540 the fresh air, and disappear. You'd hope so. 00:04:34.899 --> 00:04:37.540 But instead, Dillinger swears loyalty to the 00:04:37.540 --> 00:04:40.220 guys he left behind. Wait, he actually manages 00:04:40.220 --> 00:04:43.040 to smuggle handguns back into a maximum security 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:46.000 state prison. How does a paroled gas station 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:48.600 robber pull that off? It represents a phenomenal, 00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:51.240 almost catastrophic security failure on the part 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:53.459 of the prison administration. Dillinger arranged 00:04:53.459 --> 00:04:56.060 for a threat of corruption or a massive blind 00:04:56.060 --> 00:04:58.480 spot to be exploited. Sending firearms directly 00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:01.040 into the hands of his buddies inside. Yep, Hamilton, 00:05:01.240 --> 00:05:03.870 Mackley, Pierpont, Clark, all of them. It's a 00:05:03.870 --> 00:05:07.149 profound testament to the ironclad, almost fanatical 00:05:07.149 --> 00:05:09.389 loyalty among this specific group of men. And 00:05:09.389 --> 00:05:12.670 that loyalty paid off. Massive dividends. On 00:05:12.670 --> 00:05:15.930 September 26, 1933, armed with the weapons Gillinger 00:05:15.930 --> 00:05:19.870 provided, a total of 10 men, including John Hamilton, 00:05:20.089 --> 00:05:23.470 executed a breathtakingly bold escape. They didn't 00:05:23.470 --> 00:05:26.410 meticulously dig a tunnel over months or anything. 00:05:26.629 --> 00:05:28.769 No, they held up the guards and literally walked 00:05:28.769 --> 00:05:30.850 out the main gate of the Indiana State Prison. 00:05:31.209 --> 00:05:34.670 The image of 10 armed inmates just strolling 00:05:34.670 --> 00:05:37.430 out the front door of a penitentiary. It's hard 00:05:37.430 --> 00:05:39.990 to wrap your head around. It kicks off a spree 00:05:39.990 --> 00:05:42.810 fueled almost entirely by this twisted sense 00:05:42.810 --> 00:05:46.269 of loyalty combined with sheer chaos. Absolute 00:05:46.269 --> 00:05:48.490 chaos. Because almost immediately after breaking 00:05:48.490 --> 00:05:50.649 out, they realize they have a massive problem. 00:05:50.889 --> 00:05:53.129 Right. The timeline compresses frantically at 00:05:53.129 --> 00:05:55.389 this point. While Hamilton and the others were 00:05:55.389 --> 00:05:57.649 organizing their breakout, Dillinger had gotten 00:05:57.649 --> 00:05:59.569 himself arrested for a separate bank robbery. 00:05:59.870 --> 00:06:01.439 Unbelievable. time. He was sitting in the Allen 00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:04.139 County Jail in Lena, Ohio. So the newly freed 00:06:04.139 --> 00:06:06.319 gang immediately decides they have to return 00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:08.379 the favor. They need to rescue Dillinger. But 00:06:08.379 --> 00:06:10.959 executing a high profile jailbreak requires serious 00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:13.300 resources. It requires cash for safe houses, 00:06:13.500 --> 00:06:16.660 bribes, weapons, reliable getaway cars. Exactly. 00:06:16.879 --> 00:06:20.540 So Dillinger is in jail and rescues aren't cheap. 00:06:20.819 --> 00:06:23.439 How did Hamilton and the rest of the gang manage 00:06:23.439 --> 00:06:26.339 to fund this breakout when they had literally 00:06:26.339 --> 00:06:28.839 just walked out of prison themselves? They went 00:06:28.839 --> 00:06:32.100 straight back to work. Yeah. On October 3, 1933, 00:06:32.639 --> 00:06:35.300 Hamilton's crew hit the first national bank in 00:06:35.300 --> 00:06:39.579 St. Mary's, Ohio. They made off with $14 ,000. 00:06:40.019 --> 00:06:43.220 Wow. To put that into perspective regarding purchasing 00:06:43.220 --> 00:06:47.379 power, that's equivalent to roughly $348 ,000 00:06:47.379 --> 00:06:49.660 today. They walked out of a small -town bank 00:06:49.660 --> 00:06:51.660 with over a third of a million dollars. Yeah. 00:06:51.899 --> 00:06:54.699 That kind of capital funded a highly mobile, 00:06:54.959 --> 00:06:58.360 highly lethal operation. Nine days after that 00:06:58.360 --> 00:07:00.759 robbery, the gang traveled to Lima to break Dillinger 00:07:00.759 --> 00:07:03.519 out. There is a fascinating nuance about Hamilton's 00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:05.899 role in this specific event at the Lima jail. 00:07:06.259 --> 00:07:08.500 Charles Mackley and Harry Pierpont enter the 00:07:08.500 --> 00:07:10.579 building, and in the chaotic process of freeing 00:07:10.579 --> 00:07:13.019 Dillinger, they murder the Allen County Sheriff, 00:07:13.160 --> 00:07:15.500 Jess Sarber. A brutal killing. But Hamilton doesn't 00:07:15.500 --> 00:07:17.620 pull the trigger. In fact, he doesn't even step 00:07:17.620 --> 00:07:19.660 foot inside the building. He waits outside as 00:07:19.660 --> 00:07:21.879 the getaway driver. It really highlights that 00:07:21.879 --> 00:07:24.759 even within this notorious gang, there were varying 00:07:24.759 --> 00:07:27.670 degrees of involvement. Hamilton was clearly 00:07:27.670 --> 00:07:30.129 an essential part of the crew, but he wasn't 00:07:30.129 --> 00:07:31.949 always the one committing the most violent acts 00:07:31.949 --> 00:07:34.949 in the room. At least not yet. The violence surrounding 00:07:34.949 --> 00:07:37.709 the entire organization was escalating rapidly. 00:07:37.990 --> 00:07:41.629 Getting worse. Much worse. By December 13, 1933, 00:07:42.069 --> 00:07:45.180 they are in Chicago. They execute a massive, 00:07:45.240 --> 00:07:47.560 highly coordinated armed invasion of a bank, 00:07:47.699 --> 00:07:50.240 specifically targeting the safe deposit boxes 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:52.720 rather than just the teller drawers. Oh, going 00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:55.000 straight for the bolts. They empty them out and 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:58.720 net as much as $50 ,000. We are talking about 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:03.240 the equivalent of $1 .24 million today. They 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:05.160 are operating on a massive, almost industrial 00:08:05.160 --> 00:08:07.040 scale now. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:08:07.300 --> 00:08:09.199 You have these guys pulling off million -dollar 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:11.779 heists, outsmarting the authorities across state 00:08:11.779 --> 00:08:14.579 lines, living this high -adrenaline life. Yeah. 00:08:14.759 --> 00:08:16.779 And what brings the heat down on John Hamilton? 00:08:17.060 --> 00:08:20.279 A completely mundane errand. The day after that 00:08:20.279 --> 00:08:23.240 massive Chicago heist, Hamilton drops a car off 00:08:23.240 --> 00:08:25.620 at a local garage for some body work. It is the 00:08:25.620 --> 00:08:29.339 ultimate mundane detail, tripping up a complex 00:08:29.339 --> 00:08:32.240 criminal enterprise. A guy just needs a dent 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:35.940 fixed. But the mechanic at this Chicago garage 00:08:35.940 --> 00:08:38.740 is incredibly observant. He looks at the vehicle, 00:08:38.899 --> 00:08:41.879 notices some suspicious details, perhaps bullet 00:08:41.879 --> 00:08:45.120 holes, perhaps customized plating, and gets a 00:08:45.120 --> 00:08:48.080 gut feeling. A bad feeling. He decides to call 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:51.320 the police and reports that a gangster car is 00:08:51.320 --> 00:08:53.740 sitting in his shop. So when Hamilton strolls 00:08:53.740 --> 00:08:55.879 back to the garage to pick up his ride, he walks 00:08:55.879 --> 00:08:58.220 straight into an ambush. Police Detective William 00:08:58.220 --> 00:09:00.440 Shanley and two other officers are waiting for 00:09:00.440 --> 00:09:02.980 him. And he doesn't go quietly? No. Hamilton 00:09:02.980 --> 00:09:05.460 doesn't surrender. He opens fire, kills Detective 00:09:05.460 --> 00:09:08.240 Shanley on the spot, and somehow manages to elude 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:10.620 the other two officers, vanishing into the Chicago 00:09:10.620 --> 00:09:13.039 streets. The fallout from that single moment 00:09:13.039 --> 00:09:16.299 at the garage cannot be overstated. By killing 00:09:16.299 --> 00:09:18.279 a Chicago police detective, Hamilton directly 00:09:18.279 --> 00:09:21.179 provoked the full, unrestrained wrath of the 00:09:21.179 --> 00:09:22.799 city's law enforcement. They took it personally. 00:09:23.100 --> 00:09:25.879 Very personally. Because of Hamilton's specific 00:09:25.879 --> 00:09:28.500 actions, the Chicago Police Department officially 00:09:28.500 --> 00:09:32.320 formed a massive 40 -man unit entirely dedicated 00:09:32.320 --> 00:09:36.080 to hunting this specific group down. It was officially 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:38.720 dubbed the Dillinger Squad. You go from being 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:41.500 regional bank robbers to being hunted by a specialized 00:09:41.500 --> 00:09:44.120 40 -man task force in one of America's biggest 00:09:44.120 --> 00:09:46.860 cities overnight. That pushes Hamilton squarely 00:09:46.860 --> 00:09:49.720 into public enemy status. The pressure is immense, 00:09:49.960 --> 00:09:53.330 but the gang refuses to stop. Moving to January 00:09:53.330 --> 00:09:57.629 15, 1934, the gang crosses into Indiana and hits 00:09:57.629 --> 00:10:00.490 the First National Bank in East Chicago, stealing 00:10:00.490 --> 00:10:03.830 over $20 ,000. Another massive haul. But the 00:10:03.830 --> 00:10:06.330 heist evolves into a shootout, and a police officer 00:10:06.330 --> 00:10:08.789 named William O'Malley is killed. Officially, 00:10:08.789 --> 00:10:10.610 John Dillinger is charged with O'Malley's murder. 00:10:10.889 --> 00:10:12.809 That is the name that goes on the federal paperwork. 00:10:13.070 --> 00:10:15.110 But there is a massive discrepancy. Multiple 00:10:15.110 --> 00:10:17.470 witnesses at the scene swore up and down that 00:10:17.470 --> 00:10:19.750 John Hamilton was the actual shooter who took 00:10:19.750 --> 00:10:22.090 down Officer O'Malley. What's fascinating here 00:10:22.090 --> 00:10:24.950 is how this event shifted the hierarchy of notoriety. 00:10:25.330 --> 00:10:27.789 Because of the East Chicago murder and his growing 00:10:27.789 --> 00:10:30.590 resume of violence, Hamilton climbed the ranks 00:10:30.590 --> 00:10:32.549 of the most wanted. He's moving up the list. 00:10:32.730 --> 00:10:34.769 He hit the number three spot on Indiana's... 00:10:35.019 --> 00:10:38.000 public enemies list, sitting right behind Dillinger 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:41.340 and Pierpont. In fact, shortly after this, when 00:10:41.340 --> 00:10:43.100 Dillinger was captured out in Tucson, Arizona, 00:10:43.919 --> 00:10:46.480 John Hamilton briefly became the number one public 00:10:46.480 --> 00:10:49.059 enemy in the state. We need to pause on that 00:10:49.059 --> 00:10:51.480 East Chicago heist for a second because Hamilton 00:10:51.480 --> 00:10:53.700 didn't walk away clean. He was actually shot 00:10:53.700 --> 00:10:56.399 twice during that robbery. Yeah, severely wounded. 00:10:56.700 --> 00:10:58.919 While the rest of the gang, including Dillinger, 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:01.139 fled out west to Tucson, where they ultimately 00:11:01.139 --> 00:11:03.799 got caught, Hamilton had to be left behind in 00:11:03.799 --> 00:11:06.669 Chicago. He's left bleeding in the care of his 00:11:06.669 --> 00:11:09.129 girlfriend, Pat Charrington, and a man named 00:11:09.129 --> 00:11:12.070 Joseph Moran. Moran is a crucial figure here. 00:11:12.149 --> 00:11:14.490 He was an underworld physician. This gives us 00:11:14.490 --> 00:11:16.889 a really stark look into the medical underground 00:11:16.889 --> 00:11:21.149 of the 1930s. This is a deeply entrenched, dark, 00:11:21.250 --> 00:11:25.549 parallel economy. If you are the number one public 00:11:25.549 --> 00:11:28.389 enemy with two bullet holes in your torso, you 00:11:28.389 --> 00:11:30.750 absolutely cannot walk into a legitimate hospital. 00:11:30.909 --> 00:11:33.289 They'd arrest you on the spot. Exactly. You are 00:11:33.289 --> 00:11:36.129 forced to rely on disbarred doctors, disgraced 00:11:36.129 --> 00:11:38.769 surgeons, and mob -associated physicians who 00:11:38.769 --> 00:11:41.429 operate in hidden back rooms. So they just patch 00:11:41.429 --> 00:11:43.690 them up in secret. They take on massive legal 00:11:43.690 --> 00:11:46.509 risks to patch up fugitives, and they do it for 00:11:46.509 --> 00:11:48.750 a massive cut of the stolen money, no questions 00:11:48.750 --> 00:11:51.529 asked. They essentially run phantom clinics specifically 00:11:51.529 --> 00:11:54.289 designed for men who cannot afford to be seen 00:11:54.289 --> 00:11:56.820 by the state. Hamilton survives this ordeal in 00:11:56.820 --> 00:11:59.399 the shadows. He lays low, recovering from his 00:11:59.399 --> 00:12:01.919 gunshot wounds while relying entirely on this 00:12:01.919 --> 00:12:04.080 underground network. Meanwhile, Dillinger is 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:06.919 arrested in Tucson, extradited to Indiana, and 00:12:06.919 --> 00:12:09.019 then famously escapes from the Crown Point Jail 00:12:09.019 --> 00:12:11.879 using a fake wooden gun. The wooden gun escape, 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:14.039 legendary. Right. So Dillinger makes his way 00:12:14.039 --> 00:12:15.720 back to Chicago, reunites with the recovering 00:12:15.720 --> 00:12:18.539 Hamilton, and forms a brand new game. This new 00:12:18.539 --> 00:12:20.659 iteration is highly volatile, largely because 00:12:20.659 --> 00:12:23.259 they add some truly terrifying figures, most 00:12:23.259 --> 00:12:25.799 notably Babyface Nelson. The addition of Babyface 00:12:25.799 --> 00:12:28.580 Nelson fundamentally altered the dynamic of the 00:12:28.580 --> 00:12:31.840 gang. Nelson was notoriously trigger -happy, 00:12:32.019 --> 00:12:35.059 deeply unstable, and lacked the calculated restraint 00:12:35.059 --> 00:12:37.159 that even Dellinger occasionally showed. Just 00:12:37.159 --> 00:12:39.860 a wild card. The chaos and the violence skyrocket. 00:12:40.019 --> 00:12:43.799 You see this vividly in March of 1934. On March 00:12:43.799 --> 00:12:46.820 6, they rob a bank in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:49.559 During the getaway, Nelson spots a motorcycle 00:12:49.559 --> 00:12:52.059 cop named Hale Keith. And Nelson doesn't hesitate. 00:12:52.399 --> 00:12:55.460 He doesn't. He severely wounds the officer, firing 00:12:55.460 --> 00:12:57.480 machine guns straight through a plate glass window 00:12:57.480 --> 00:13:00.419 just to hit him. It is just reckless, terrifying 00:13:00.419 --> 00:13:02.620 violence. Yeah. And it catches up to them a week 00:13:02.620 --> 00:13:05.840 later on March 13 in Mason City, Iowa. They are 00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:07.679 robbing the First National Bank and the town 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:10.240 actively fights back. The citizens actually shoot 00:13:10.240 --> 00:13:12.320 back. Yeah, an elderly judge standing across 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:14.259 the street from the bank just opens fire on the 00:13:14.259 --> 00:13:16.850 gang. He manages to wound Dillinger and shoots 00:13:16.850 --> 00:13:19.330 Hamilton right in the shoulder. So Hamilton has 00:13:19.330 --> 00:13:22.389 been shot again. The gang is battered, bleeding, 00:13:22.629 --> 00:13:25.490 and the targets of a massive nationwide manhunt 00:13:25.490 --> 00:13:28.990 fueled by an intense media campaign. Every newspaper 00:13:28.990 --> 00:13:31.309 in the country is tracking their movements. They 00:13:31.309 --> 00:13:33.269 desperately need a place to hide and recover. 00:13:33.490 --> 00:13:36.909 This desperation pushes them into April of 1934. 00:13:37.169 --> 00:13:39.970 They make a very discreet trip up north to visit 00:13:39.970 --> 00:13:42.409 Hamilton's sister in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. 00:13:43.049 --> 00:13:45.090 After that, they retreat to a place called the 00:13:45.090 --> 00:13:47.710 Little Bohemia Resort, deep in the woods near 00:13:47.710 --> 00:13:50.350 Rhinelander, Wisconsin. It's supposed to be a 00:13:50.350 --> 00:13:53.090 quiet place to lay low. But their luck completely 00:13:53.090 --> 00:13:55.870 runs out here. The FBI, led by an agent named 00:13:55.870 --> 00:13:58.169 Melvin Purvis, receives a tip about their location 00:13:58.169 --> 00:14:00.129 from a man named Henry Voss, who was a friend 00:14:00.129 --> 00:14:02.730 of the resort's owner. A local guy. Yeah. Purvis 00:14:02.730 --> 00:14:04.870 organizes a massive raid on Little Bohemia on 00:14:04.870 --> 00:14:08.070 April 22. Looking impartially at how this operation 00:14:08.070 --> 00:14:10.289 was executed, it was tragically disorganized. 00:14:10.389 --> 00:14:12.529 It stands as a complete blunder by the authorities. 00:14:12.830 --> 00:14:15.409 The FBI agents move in, and they mistakenly open 00:14:15.409 --> 00:14:18.490 fire on a car pulling away from the lodge. But 00:14:18.490 --> 00:14:20.590 it wasn't the gangsters in the car. It was three 00:14:20.590 --> 00:14:23.669 completely innocent local men. These men were 00:14:23.669 --> 00:14:25.769 employees from a nearby Civilian Conservation 00:14:25.769 --> 00:14:29.519 Corps work camp. The CCC was a Depression era 00:14:29.519 --> 00:14:33.039 New Deal program designed to provide manual labor 00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:36.580 jobs for unemployed, unmarried young men. Such 00:14:36.580 --> 00:14:39.240 a tragedy. You have this incredibly tragic contrast. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:43.419 Innocent men just trying to survive the economic 00:14:43.419 --> 00:14:45.940 devastation of the Great Depression through government 00:14:45.940 --> 00:14:48.960 relief work being gunned down by federal agents 00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:51.440 who are frantically searching for outlaws sitting 00:14:51.440 --> 00:14:53.659 on millions of dollars. Eugene Guineau is killed 00:14:53.659 --> 00:14:56.200 instantly and John Hoffman and John Morris are 00:14:56.200 --> 00:14:58.679 severely wounded by the crossfire. While the 00:14:58.679 --> 00:15:01.419 FBI is mistakenly engaging these innocent CCC 00:15:01.419 --> 00:15:04.480 workers out front, the actual gang realizes what 00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:06.980 is happening and initiates a frantic escape from 00:15:06.980 --> 00:15:09.169 the back of the lodge. It sounds like something 00:15:09.169 --> 00:15:11.490 out of a thriller, except it is cold, wet, and 00:15:11.490 --> 00:15:14.029 miserable. A nightmare scenario. Dillinger, Hamilton, 00:15:14.210 --> 00:15:15.950 and the others jump from a second floor window. 00:15:16.149 --> 00:15:18.330 They land on a mound of frozen snow. They have 00:15:18.330 --> 00:15:20.649 to run on foot along the freezing shores of Star 00:15:20.649 --> 00:15:22.570 Lake in the pitch black middle of the night. 00:15:23.070 --> 00:15:25.070 Eventually, they manage to steal a car from a 00:15:25.070 --> 00:15:27.549 local carpenter about a half mile away and vanish. 00:15:27.809 --> 00:15:30.009 They escape the immediate perimeter of Little 00:15:30.009 --> 00:15:32.990 Bohemia, but the federal net was closing impossibly 00:15:32.990 --> 00:15:36.169 tight. That brings us to the very next day, April 00:15:36.169 --> 00:15:39.840 23. The authorities catch up with Hamilton, Dillinger 00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:42.720 and Homer Van Meter in Hastings, Minnesota. They 00:15:42.720 --> 00:15:45.279 just couldn't catch a break. Another brutal shootout 00:15:45.279 --> 00:15:48.379 ensues. This time, John Hamilton's luck finally 00:15:48.379 --> 00:15:51.279 runs dry. As they are fleeing in a stolen car, 00:15:51.519 --> 00:15:53.980 a bullet tears through the vehicle and mortally 00:15:53.980 --> 00:15:56.389 wounds him. This is where the grim reality of 00:15:56.389 --> 00:15:59.070 the outlaw life truly sets in. You have this 00:15:59.070 --> 00:16:01.309 crew that has stolen millions in today's money. 00:16:01.470 --> 00:16:03.549 They have been fiercely loyal to each other. 00:16:03.690 --> 00:16:06.210 But when Hamilton is dying in the backseat, all 00:16:06.210 --> 00:16:08.789 that stolen cash means absolutely nothing. They 00:16:08.789 --> 00:16:10.629 can't save him. They rush him back to Chicago 00:16:10.629 --> 00:16:13.450 to see Dr. Joseph Moran, the exact same underworld 00:16:13.450 --> 00:16:16.590 doctor who treated him just months prior. But 00:16:16.590 --> 00:16:18.710 this time, Moran looks at the dying Hamilton 00:16:18.710 --> 00:16:21.690 and outright refuses to offer any medical aid. 00:16:22.110 --> 00:16:24.490 It is the ultimate betrayal by the criminal underground. 00:16:24.990 --> 00:16:27.529 Moran was well aware that the heat from the FBI 00:16:27.529 --> 00:16:30.470 was simply too intense. Treating a dying public 00:16:30.470 --> 00:16:33.009 enemy of that magnitude was a guaranteed prison 00:16:33.009 --> 00:16:35.389 sentence or possibly a death sentence for himself. 00:16:35.649 --> 00:16:37.789 So they have to keep moving. Forced to move, 00:16:37.929 --> 00:16:40.909 Dillinger takes his dying friend and hides him 00:16:40.909 --> 00:16:44.049 with two associates, Volney Davis and Edna Murray, 00:16:44.269 --> 00:16:47.990 in a safe house in Aurora, Illinois. Three days 00:16:47.990 --> 00:16:52.289 later, on April 26, 1934. john hamilton dies 00:16:52.289 --> 00:16:55.769 the glamorous gangster life ends in a bleak hidden 00:16:55.769 --> 00:16:58.850 room in illinois but the story of what they did 00:16:58.850 --> 00:17:01.750 with his remains is chilling dillinger and volney 00:17:01.750 --> 00:17:04.289 davis take hamilton's body to a spot near oswego 00:17:04.289 --> 00:17:07.589 illinois and bury him in a secret unmarked grave 00:17:07.589 --> 00:17:09.799 right in the dirt Before they cover him with 00:17:09.799 --> 00:17:12.519 dirt, Dillinger pores lie all over Hamilton's 00:17:12.519 --> 00:17:15.140 face and hands. They are actively trying to destroy 00:17:15.140 --> 00:17:17.019 his fingerprints and melt his facial features 00:17:17.019 --> 00:17:19.640 so his body can never be identified. It is a 00:17:19.640 --> 00:17:22.799 grotesque act driven by pure paranoia. They knew 00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:24.539 that if the FBI found the body and identified 00:17:24.539 --> 00:17:26.880 it, it would provide the authorities with a concrete 00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:29.619 timeline and location, compromising the remaining 00:17:29.619 --> 00:17:31.539 gang members. Covering their tracks at all costs. 00:17:31.779 --> 00:17:34.059 But there is a fascinating paradox here regarding 00:17:34.059 --> 00:17:36.420 the lie. They used it to destroy his features, 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:38.480 but under certain environmental conditions. conditions, 00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:41.519 specifically when mixed with soil moisture lye, 00:17:41.599 --> 00:17:43.640 can trigger a process called saponification. 00:17:44.079 --> 00:17:46.640 What does that do? Instead of completely dissolving 00:17:46.640 --> 00:17:49.059 the remains, it can convert the fatty tissue 00:17:49.059 --> 00:17:52.359 into a soap -like substance, actually preserving 00:17:52.359 --> 00:17:54.680 the underlying bone structure and dental evidence 00:17:54.680 --> 00:17:57.900 far longer than normal decomposition would. Because 00:17:57.900 --> 00:18:00.900 they hid him so well, it led to this bizarre, 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:04.339 almost comical bureaucratic absurdity. The federal 00:18:04.339 --> 00:18:07.880 government had no idea Hamilton was dead. On 00:18:07.880 --> 00:18:10.980 May 19th, almost a month after he took his last 00:18:10.980 --> 00:18:13.480 breath, the government officially indicted John 00:18:13.480 --> 00:18:16.180 Hamilton for harboring fugitives. He were actively 00:18:16.180 --> 00:18:18.700 prosecuting a corpse. They even went after his 00:18:18.700 --> 00:18:20.839 family, convicting Hamilton's sister of the same 00:18:20.839 --> 00:18:23.099 charge. She actually spent time in prison for 00:18:23.099 --> 00:18:25.599 it, all while her brother was secretly rotting 00:18:25.599 --> 00:18:28.079 in an unmarked grave. The lack of a public body 00:18:28.079 --> 00:18:31.319 inevitably fueled rampant rumors. The ghost of 00:18:31.319 --> 00:18:33.559 Red Hamilton really haunted the FBI for a long 00:18:33.559 --> 00:18:35.940 time. There were persistent widespread reports 00:18:35.940 --> 00:18:37.980 that he had survived. People love a conspiracy. 00:18:38.240 --> 00:18:40.960 They do. The FBI was flooded with tips from people 00:18:40.960 --> 00:18:43.220 claiming they just saw Hamilton at a diner or 00:18:43.220 --> 00:18:46.460 riding a train. Even Hamilton's own nephew went 00:18:46.460 --> 00:18:48.539 on the record claiming he had personally visited 00:18:48.539 --> 00:18:51.259 his uncle in Ontario long after the supposed 00:18:51.259 --> 00:18:54.279 date of his death. It is wild how the public 00:18:54.279 --> 00:18:56.759 simply refuses to believe that a legendary story 00:18:56.759 --> 00:18:59.000 is over, but the truth always leaves a trace. 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:02.180 How did they finally prove that the body in that 00:19:02.180 --> 00:19:05.400 shallow, lie -filled grave was actually John 00:19:05.400 --> 00:19:07.920 Hamilton? They relied on the rapidly advancing 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:11.799 field of forensic odontology. Despite the lie, 00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:14.039 the authorities eventually located the grave 00:19:14.039 --> 00:19:17.119 and exhumed the remains. To positively identify 00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:20.000 the body, they compared the amalgam restorations, 00:19:20.099 --> 00:19:21.920 the specific dental fillings on the teeth of 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:24.420 the corpse with the highly detailed dental files 00:19:24.420 --> 00:19:27.299 kept from Hamilton's time at the Indiana State 00:19:27.299 --> 00:19:29.559 Penitentiary. The prison records. The records 00:19:29.559 --> 00:19:32.819 were an exact, undeniable match. It definitively 00:19:32.819 --> 00:19:35.279 proved that the man in the grave was John Hamilton. 00:19:35.539 --> 00:19:38.460 It brings his entire story full circle. The very 00:19:38.460 --> 00:19:40.680 prison system that served as his ultimate criminal 00:19:40.680 --> 00:19:43.240 networking hub was the exact same system that 00:19:43.240 --> 00:19:45.339 held the dental records used to identify his 00:19:45.339 --> 00:19:47.180 melted remains in the dirt. It's incredible. 00:19:47.380 --> 00:19:49.480 Before we wrap this up, we have to look at how 00:19:49.480 --> 00:19:51.680 pop culture has handled Hamilton over the years 00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:53.640 because it perfectly illustrates our mission 00:19:53.640 --> 00:19:55.779 today of stripping away the Hollywood gloss. 00:19:56.900 --> 00:19:59.640 Hamilton's gruesome end inspired a great Stephen 00:19:59.640 --> 00:20:02.140 King short story called The Death of Jack Hamilton. 00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:05.319 Right. Great read. But if you look at the 2009 00:20:05.319 --> 00:20:08.480 blockbuster movie Public Enemies, the actor Jason 00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:11.299 Clarke plays Hamilton. If you look closely at 00:20:11.299 --> 00:20:14.480 the screen, Jason Clarke is acting with all five 00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:17.299 fingers intact on his right hand. They missed 00:20:17.299 --> 00:20:19.839 it completely. They completely ignored the defining 00:20:19.839 --> 00:20:22.319 physical trait that gave him the name Three Finger 00:20:22.319 --> 00:20:25.539 Jack. They literally sanitize his missing fingers 00:20:25.539 --> 00:20:27.660 right off the screen. It is a seemingly small 00:20:27.660 --> 00:20:30.759 detail, but it speaks volumes about how we culturally 00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:34.279 digest history. We take a man. who is missing 00:20:34.279 --> 00:20:36.400 fingers from a childhood accident, who spent 00:20:36.400 --> 00:20:39.519 his final days in agonizing pain, rejected by 00:20:39.519 --> 00:20:41.940 the criminal doctors he paid, and buried in a 00:20:41.940 --> 00:20:44.500 paranoid frenzy. And we morph him into a slick, 00:20:44.599 --> 00:20:48.480 fully intact, cinematic character. So, what does 00:20:48.480 --> 00:20:50.940 this all mean? We do these deep dives to look 00:20:50.940 --> 00:20:53.700 past the silver screen and find the terrifying, 00:20:54.000 --> 00:21:02.559 real -life human being behind the myth. This 00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:04.859 raises an important question, something for you 00:21:04.859 --> 00:21:07.039 to mull over long after we finish speaking today. 00:21:07.599 --> 00:21:10.200 While we look back at these men as chaotic, glamorous 00:21:10.200 --> 00:21:13.019 outlaws, consider what their violent crime spree 00:21:13.019 --> 00:21:16.099 actually gave birth to. The desperate, frantic 00:21:16.099 --> 00:21:19.099 need to catch men like Hamilton directly caused 00:21:19.099 --> 00:21:21.779 the massive centralization of the modern FBI. 00:21:22.119 --> 00:21:24.619 It changed law enforcement forever. It led to 00:21:24.619 --> 00:21:27.039 the creation of federal crime task forces, the 00:21:27.039 --> 00:21:29.420 expansion of cross -state jurisdiction, and the 00:21:29.420 --> 00:21:31.700 rapid forced advancement of forensic sciences 00:21:31.700 --> 00:21:34.480 like dental identification. Did the unchecked, 00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:37.480 disorganized chaos of the 1930s gangster actually 00:21:37.480 --> 00:21:39.759 inadvertently build the foundations of the modern 00:21:39.759 --> 00:21:41.559 federal surveillance and law enforcement state 00:21:41.559 --> 00:21:43.950 we live under today? That is a phenomenal thought 00:21:43.950 --> 00:21:46.069 to leave you with. Thank you so much for joining 00:21:46.069 --> 00:21:48.410 us on this deep dive. We hope you walk away today 00:21:48.410 --> 00:21:50.470 with a new perspective on the history you thought 00:21:50.470 --> 00:21:53.509 you knew. Stay curious, keep asking questions, 00:21:53.569 --> 00:21:56.029 and always keep seeking out the surprising truths 00:21:56.029 --> 00:21:58.809 hidden behind the headlines. Until next time.