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There remained widespread confusion among Hoover’s men exactly when and how they were to include local police on FBI raids. According to a memo Hoover wrote to file, when he asked Inspector William Rorer that Sunday why he had requested help from St. Paul police, Rorer said “he had been proceeding on the assumption that to take a suspect into custody it was necessary to have a police officer along.” Hoover replied “that this assumption is entirely wrong,” that there were only two instances where local police could join an FBI raid: when the FBI needed extra men or extra equipment. Rorer apparently also complained that not all his men knew how to use submachine guns. “If the agents cannot handle the equipment,” Hoover said, “they should be instructed immediately in the use of it.”

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George Gross was a St. Louis native who served in the FBI between 1930 and 1935. In later years he was an attorney. He died in 1958.

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Roy T. Noonan, a Minnesota native nicknamed “Stub,” was a popular FBI agent from 1928 until his retirement in 1954. From 1955 to 1967 he served as superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. He died in 1981.

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An FBI memo explicitly states Larry Strong was not its informant that day. Either the memo was drafted in an effort to obscure Strong’s identity or Strong talked to someone else, perhaps his brother, who then notified the FBI.

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As portrayed in FBI files, the death of Eddie Green amounted to an execution. The official rationale behind the shooting, as explained to reporters, was that Green was shot after making “a menacing gesture.” In their reports, every agent present used that same phrase, “menacing gesture.” Some added that Green wheeled around as if to shoot, or stuck his hand in a pocket as if to pull a gun. There was no gun. Hugh Clegg’s report even quoted the reluctant Agent Notesteen as seeing the “menacing gesture.” But Notesteen’s own report pointedly says he could not see Green. Notesteen clearly states he ordered the shooting on the strength of Mrs. Goodman’s identification alone. The key words had been uttered by Inspector Rorer hours before: “Kill him.”

Inspector Rorer’s order was probably the all-too-human product of overwhelming public pressure and the Bureau’s vengeful mindset, spiced by sleep deprivation, nerves, and inexperience. Even so, senior FBI officials were keenly aware of their vulnerability on the Green killing. When a reporter named Tommy Thompson persuaded the local coroner’s office to investigate, the Bureau moved swiftly to defend itself. If anyone asked, Clegg told Hoover, he would refuse to name the agent who shot Green, or any witnesses; they would be subpoenaed, Clegg said, which would be “undesirable.” Thompson, meanwhile, had taken loans from underworld figures, Clegg said: “If necessary, [we] could bring pressure to bear to prevent any adverse publicity on his part.” In the end, the FBI needn’t have worried; the coroner ruled the killing justified.

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Following the shoot-out in St. Paul, the trio had hidden out at Harry Sawyer’s farm, then driven to Tennessee, where they took rooms in a tourist court outside Nashville. One morning Van Meter and Hamilton returned from a shopping excursion in a terrific hurry. As Cherrington later related the story to the FBI, Van Meter said he and Hamilton had been parked outside a Nashville drugstore, drinking Coca-Colas, when they spied two teenage loiterers they suspected were about to rob the store. Lingering to watch, Van Meter said, they were suddenly approached by a uniformed patrolman who asked their names. According to Van Meter’s story, he produced a submachine gun, barking, “Here’s your credentials.” The officer stumbled and fled.

The FBI would later find articles of clothing belonging to Van Meter and Hamilton that contained tags from a Nashville men’s store, apparently confirming Cherrington’s story.

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It’s possible Dillinger returned to Chicago via Louisville, Kentucky. That Saturday, the day after the Warsaw raid, a Louisville doctor claimed he had been approached by a man asking