Public Enemies_ America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI - Bryan Burrough [333]
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When questioned later by FBI agents, the attendant said he thought he recognized Dillinger but refrained from calling the local sheriff because he felt it couldn’t be true.
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They weren’t. Even though the FBI now knew the identities of Hamilton and Van Meter, Purvis had made no effort to place their families under surveillance.
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Other agents confirmed this. “We had no particular orders as to where we would be,” Agent William Ryan said in his debriefing. Agent Arthur McLawhon: “The only orders that I received from the time we left Rhinelander to the time of arrival was to drive the automobile.” Agent Ken McIntire: “The situation arose so quickly that it was almost impossible for orders to be given, every man doing as he thought best.” Agent Sam Hardy: “Mr. Purvis and Mr. Clegg seemed to be directing the party, but this Agent did not know just what actual plan was to be used on arrival at the Little Bohemia Resort.”
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Thomas J. Dodd was a Connecticut lawyer who served as an FBI agent from 1933 to 1935 before embarking on a career in politics. After World War II he was the chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials of German military leaders. In 1958 he was elected to the first of two terms in the U.S. Senate; his son is the current Connecticut senator Christopher Dodd. Thomas Dodd died in 1971.
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Born and raised in New Hampshire, John T. McLaughlin served in the FBI from 1926 to 1941. He was a prominent Reno, Nevada, attorney until his death in 1975.
Born in 1903 in Alabama and raised in Mississippi, Robert G. Gillespie served less than a year in the FBI. Afterward he practiced law in Jackson, Mississippi, and served as Chief Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court from 1954 to 1977.
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How Dillinger knew of Moran has never been explained; it’s possible he heard Moran’s name from Baby Face Nelson, who had debriefed Alvin Karpis about his surgery. Several accounts claim Dillinger visited Moran that Tuesday, and that Moran turned him away. This is unlikely; none of Dr. Moran’s laundering confederates, several of whom would later be grilled by the FBI, mentioned such an episode. In fact, later statements from members of the Barker Gang suggest Dillinger tried to find Dr. Moran but couldn’t.
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Curiously, there is no suggestion that Dillinger attempted to contact Louis Piquett or Art O’Leary upon returning to Chicago. In later conversations with the two men, in fact, Dillinger repeatedly lied about this period. He said he and Van Meter had hidden for a time in an abandoned mine in Wisconsin and later buried Hamilton in dunes near Lake Michigan. He never mentioned the Barkers, just as he never mentioned others who would give him aid in the coming weeks.
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Agents questioned McLaughlin all that day at his apartment, but he would say nothing. While they talked, McLaughlin’s wife sat in a front window, smoking. At one point, agents saw her throw something out the window. Mrs. McLaughlin insisted it was just a cigarette butt. But when agents went outside to retrieve the thrown item, they found the McLaughlin’s son, Jimmy, standing on the sidewalk, reading a note his mother had tossed to him. It read in part: “Government men here since 10:00 A.M. . . . Don’t come in. Beat it. You will be held prisoner.” Taken into custody, the boy led agents to his locker at the Board of Trade, where they found a roll of Bremer money tucked into a hat.
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The Bureau had begun investigating Nelson in the wake of the Mason City, Iowa, robbery