John Dillinger on trial in Indiana, February 1934 (American Stock/Getty Images)

After a Sunday night movie date with Johnny Depp in “Public Enemies,” I was inspired to do a little historical digging — and also to give up any previously held dreams of being a gangster’s moll. You may even have heard the name John Dillinger grumbled in reference to Bernie Madoff’s recession-era conning (at least if you read Frank Rich in the New York Times.)

Dillinger came to fame (or infamy, your pick) in the 1930s during the Great Depression, a bleak time by any standards. His first attempted robbery was a dismal failure — the target was a grocer, the pickings were slim and the punishment was harsh. Pleading guilty, Dillinger found himself with a very long prison sentence.

Not surprisingly, prison time failed to reform our outlaw. In fact, it taught him how to be a better thief. He went from grocers to banks right after he was paroled, having served more than eight miserable years. Our man was caught and thrown in the county jail. And mysteriously, a few days later, Dillinger’s buddies escaped from prison — and showed up at the county jail to bust John out. Three men were shot and killed in these breakouts.

And this is when the robbing began in earnest, bank after bank, machine gun after machine gun, all over the United States. Once again, after several lucrative hits, Dillinger was caught, and once again, he escaped. The FBI was displeased by this turn of events, to say the very least. Teaming up with “Baby Face” Nelson, who was known for being a bit of a loose cannon, he ended up in Wisconsin at the Little Bohemia Lodge. The FBI surrounded the lodge, but Dillinger escaped (while Baby Face was busy putting bullets into lawmen).

A brothel owner was the one who finally tipped the Feds off to John Dillinger’s whereabouts. Dillinger was shot and killed outside a movie theater, after a viewing of “Manhattan Melodrama,” a crime movie starring Clark Gable, a fact the studio promptly used as a promotional tool (you stay classy, Hollywood!).

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Dillinger is that though he was a submachine-gun-toting bank robber, he was something of a hero to much of the public. They saw him as a Robin Hood, or at least someone who stood up and took something for himself in a time when it didn’t seem there was a lot for the taking. And when hardworking people were living as hobos and the ranks of the destitute grew, the lure of a bank robber’s glamor must have been hard to resist.

Not enough true crime to slake your thirst? Try these:

How the Great Train Robbery Worked
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10 Terribly Bungled Crimes
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