Did John Dillinger really die outside the Biograph Theater?
Dear Cecil: Did John Dillinger really die outside the Biograph movie theater in Chicago in 1934? And does his allegedly prodigious pecker really reside pickled in a secluded corner of the Smithsonian or some other hallowed ground? — Horace Naismith III, via the Internet I’m answering these questions mainly to get people to quit asking them. Answer number one: Yes. Answer number two: No. Hoping for something a little more expansive, were you? Try this: Of course not, you nitwit. Details below. Bank robber John Dillinger, declared Public Enemy Number One by the U.S. attorney general, was the most notorious of the violent criminals whose exploits fascinated America during the Depression. He learned the bank-robbing trade while in prison for a holdup, and when paroled in 1933 helped orchestrate the escape of ten confederates from the Indiana jail where he’d been confined. Dillinger and several of the escapees then formed a gang and pulled off a series of daring daylight bank holdups throug
