Betrayed by brothel madam Anna Sage in exchange for leniency on her deportation case, Dillinger was ambushed by federal agents led by Melvin Purvis as he left a screening of 'Manhattan Melodrama.' The most wanted man in America, blamed for a string of bank robberies and jailbreaks, died in an alley, his death marking a symbolic end to the Depression-era outlaw era and a major public triumph for J. Edgar Hoover's fledgling FBI.
By the summer of 1934, John Dillinger had become America's most notorious criminal, a folk-hero bank robber whose exploits — and repeated escapes from custody, including one using a fake wooden gun — were splashed across newspapers nationwide. J. Edgar Hoover, desperate to prove the value of his young Bureau of Investigation, made capturing Dillinger a personal crusade.
The break came from Anna Sage, a Romanian-born brothel owner facing deportation, who struck a deal with agent Melvin Purvis: she would identify Dillinger's location in exchange for help avoiding removal from the country. On the sweltering evening of July 22, she accompanied Dillinger and his girlfriend Polly Hamilton to the Biograph Theater to see a gangster film, wearing an orange dress agreed upon beforehand as a signal to waiting agents.
As the trio exited past 10:30 p.m., agents closed in. Dillinger reportedly reached for a pistol in his pocket but never fired; agents shot him four times, and he died on the pavement. Crowds gathered almost immediately, some dipping handkerchiefs in his blood as souvenirs. The 'Woman in Orange,' as Sage became known, got her payoff in infamy but was deported anyway two years later. Dillinger's death cemented the FBI's reputation as an unstoppable crime-fighting force.
Key people: John Dillinger, Melvin Purvis