The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-07-24
Indiana Officers Laid Death
Trap for Desperate,
They Reveal.
ESCAPED FIRST AMBUSH
Capture Set for Saturday
Night, East Chicago
Police Admit.
BY BASIL GALLAGHER
Times staff Writer

Times STAFF Writer
CHICAGO, July 24.-John
Dillinger could have been cap
tured the night before he was
slain.
Two East Chicago (Ind.)
detectives stood iii the same
movie doorway, the Biograph
theater, from where he
walked to his death on Sun
day night, and Saw him leave
the theater.
Dillinger got into a taxicab and
after doubling up and down streets,
changed to- another cab and eluded
officers.
This was related for the first
time today by Captain Timothy
ONeil of the East Chicago police, as
he told how the death trap was laid
for the man who no longer is Pub
lie Enemy No. l.
O'Neils story showed bad mans
penchant for movie melodrama
coupled with his way with women
to bring him death from the federal
agents guns.
The claws of the death trap
opened as East Chicago detectives,
led by O'Neil and Martin Zarkovich,
detective sergeant, Swallowed their
quarry.
Federal agents lurked in the back
ground, aiding and directing.
Played Double Date
Dillinger was sometimes with one
woman, the woman in red" Other
times detectives saw second
wolaan hanging to his arm as he
waited until dark to visit the cheap
movie house where he
was slain.
And, on occasions, he played a
louble-date with both women ac-
him to the romances
and blood and thunder dramas of
,he screen.
With the "heat" on him and
abandoned by confederates, he and
he two women left Chicago and
hid out in the north woods. They
returned July H.
The Dillinger cunning in that re-
urn won tribute from detectives as
hey told the story behind the
scenes.
Rode SereneIy Into Chicago
He did not drive directly to Chi
cago. He knew the roads were
He picked his time. He
drove to Darlington, Ill, near the
Arlington park race track.
The Arlingtn Park handicap was
run that day. Race crowds damned
The highways. Motorcycle men rode
within arms length of Dillinger as
they directed race traffic.
With the woman in red" at the
wheel of the car and Dillinger in
the back seat, the era's most noted
desperate rode serenely into Chi
cago.
trails end neared and DiIlinger
seemed to sense it.
He kept on the hop He went
to Whiting. Ind, and it was there
that the woman in red" Joined
hands, it is believed. with East Chi
cago detectives and Croatian
gambler in assuring Dillinger's
death.
At Same Stations
Sergeant Zarkovich and Captain
ONeil contacted the gambler. He
led them to north side hotel
where one of Dillingers two loves
had registered for him
Movie shows, always the late per-
were frequented. Each
change of bill saw Dillinger clamor-
ing like a child for a ticket.
zarkovich and ONeil were tipped
by the woman in red that he would
be at the Biograph theater Satur-
day night.
1t was the finger" night, set for
what police and detectives say was
merely rehearsal evening for the
capture and possible Staying.
Although Sergeant Zarkovich and
Captain ONeil would not admit it,
it is believed that federal agents.
directed by Melvin Purvis, chief
agent. were at the same stations on
Saturday night that they were Sun
day night when Dillinger was shot
down and killed.
1t is believed that all federal
agents there got their first glimpse
OF the man they had hunted so long
on that night and that they merely
wanted to be sure that, regardless Of
the outcome, it was Dillinger.
Pictures Were Changed
Sergeant Zarkovich and Captain
ONen saw him enter the taxcab
after the show. They trailed him in
another car. But the alert Dillinger
ducked into another cab and lost
the officers or. as some detectives
say, was permitted by the East Chi
cago detectives to escape the net
once-as the last strand his identi-
fication. had been woven.
The Biograph theater changed
pictures on Sunday @ghts just as
do thousands of neighborhood
houses throughout the nation
The police and federal agents
knew Dillinger would want TO see
that new picture - Manhattan
Melodrama." The woman in red"
whispered the word,