Public Enemies_ America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI - Bryan Burrough [218]
That may be. But for months someone had been lending aid to Dillinger in East Chicago, securing the shack where he stayed briefly that May, among other things. Dillinger hinted to Art O’Leary that it was Zarkovich, calling him “Zark.” As we have seen, without explicitly stating that Zarkovich had helped him, Dillinger told O’Leary that Zarkovich had been responsible for the May 24 murders of the two East Chicago detectives.dk Yet as intriguing as the links between Dillinger and Zarkovich appear, there is no irrefutable evidence that Zarkovich was the outlaw’s contact in East Chicago, or that he arranged for Dillinger to stay in Ana Sage’s apartment. The FBI, the one entity that could have discerned the truth, never tried. For reasons that will soon be clear, the Bureau had no interest in investigating Zarkovich.
What is certain is that by late June, Dillinger was spending a lot of time with Ana Sage’s girlfriend, Polly Hamilton, who would later insist, despite considerable evidence to the contrary, that she never knew that her new boyfriend “Jimmy Lawrence” was the country’s most-wanted man. Dillinger fell hard for Hamilton, the first woman to take his mind off Billie Frechette. In those warm days of early July, theirs was an endless whirl of Cubs games, amusement parks, and movies by day, dinners and dance clubs by night. Dillinger was polite and flush with cash, though Hamilton thought it strange he always wore the same light-gray suit; Dillinger explained he simply wore the same clothes until he grew tired of them, then threw them out. When she asked about the fresh scars on his face, he said he had been in an automobile accident.
They took taxis everywhere. At Riverview Park, where Dillinger insisted they ride the same roller-coasters again and again, he would scream on the downslopes and kiss her on the curves; he was so adept at the shooting galleries, other customers lined up to watch him. At the Grand Terrace and French Casino nightclubs they were usually among the first on the dance floor; Dillinger liked dancing the carioca, and would ask the orchestra leaders to play him one. When his favorite songs were played—“All I Do Is Dream of You” or “For All We Know”—he would lean in close and sing lightly in Hamilton’s ear. He didn’t drink much, a gin fizz or two, and every night before retiring, he insisted they stop for a hot dog. Dillinger called Hamilton “Contessa” or “Countess” and on her birthday bought her an amethyst ring. She gave him a gold ring with an inscription inside—WITH ALL MY LOVE, POLLY—and a watch with her picture tucked in the back.
On Sunday, July 1, when Sage moved into the apartment on North Halsted, Hamilton moved in, too. Three days later Dillinger joined them. Sage gave him two keys, to his room and to a closet, where he stowed his guns and a bulletproof vest; Dillinger wrapped the keys in a rubber band and carried them in his pocket.dl The day Dillinger moved in, Hamilton telephoned her boss at the S&S Café and said she had been in a car accident and wouldn’t be in for several days; in fact, she took the next three weeks off, spending every available hour with Dillinger.
At the apartment, Dillinger proved an amiable tenant. He was just an Indiana farm boy, he told the two women, who took to making his favorite farm fare, baking-powder biscuits with chicken gravy, steak, strawberries, and, occasionally, frog legs. After dinner, just as he had with Billie, Dillinger would strap on an apron and help with the dishes. In off hours he played cards, usually pinochle, with Sage and her son, Steve. Several times he and Hamilton double-dated with Steve and his girlfriend, taking in the movies Viva Villa, with Wallace Beery, at the Grenada, and