Dillinger Days
On January 24th, Jordan and I took a trip to downtown Tucson for Dillinger Days. What's that, you might be asking yourself? Dillinger Days is a local event commemorating the capture of Public Enemy Number One-- John Dillinger notorious bank robber of the 1930's. If you're interested in learning more about the man, they've a great article on John Dillinger over at TruTV's Crime Library (formerly crimelibrary.com). To quote the article:
On January 23, the hotel in which Makley and Clark were staying caught fire. Fire fighters, at the request of the two, went into their third floor room and saved their luggage, including one bag which contained their weapons. The following day one of the firemen recognized Clark from a picture in True Detective magazine and notified police. Dillinger and Billie arrived later that day and registered in a motor court near Pierpont and his girlfriend, Mary Kinder. The next day Tucson police rounded up all four gang members in short order and without one shot being fired. The Tucson police had done in five hours what law enforcement agencies all over the Midwest had been unable to do in four months.
That hotel happened to be one Hotel Congress in Tucson, Arizona-- it's one of my favourite locations downtown because of the "suicide room" on the ghost walk. The building, prior to the fire, used to be 3-stories tall. They only bothered re-building two of those stories. They have photos of Hotel Congress prior to the fire and during the fire at the Arizona History Museum downtown. They're very interesting.
On one of the last weekends every January, Tucson capitalizes on the capture of John Dillinger by hosting Dillinger Days. They have hot period cars, vendors, a free reenactment, and they even let you into the History Museum for FREE to see John Dillinger's Tommy Guns, which Tucson Police Department (TPD) loans out once a year (under guard) for this event.
Jordan and I made it downtown around noon-thirty, where we scooped in a couple second row seats for the reenactment at Hotel Congress. Because we saw the one o'clock show, it was just about the Hotel Congress incident and didn't include the escapades of the gang prior to their capture in Tucson. To entertain the crowd before the show, there was a fellow playing the banjo so well it made me wish I had time to take lessons. As they prepared for the show, the guy playing Dillinger kept telling people not to move because they were going to have a real 1930's car come driving through the driveway there. "Remember kids," he said, "safety second.... after showman-ship." (The guy was funny.)
Once the show started, they came out guns blazing to show their last robbery. To be quite honest, that was the most action in the show... but just be sure you consider the fact that TPD never fired a shot when they captured the gang. Still, it was a great way to hear the Dillinger capture story. There was some dialogue about how Dillinger had taken over the gang from this other criminal "mastermind". The scene there was entertaining with Dillinger messing with the other fellow by drawing his gun and telling him he was "too slow". Later, the man tried to pull a fast one on John, but with no avail.
Then, came the hotel fire scene. They used smoke machines to illustrate the blaze.(They set off a fire alarm, which the narrator kept commenting on... "After the fire alarms went off...") Were it a real fire, those men would have died. The Dillinger gang did take time to pack their trunks, but didn't bring them out. The gang in the reenactment was slow to come down the ladder. Our narrator commented on how "this went quicker in rehearsals" and got a few chortles from the audience. They talked about how the $12 the gang gave firemen to go back into the burning building to get their luggage was a lot of money. That didn't clue them into the gang's identity until one of them saw John Dillinger's mug on the cover of True Crime magazine.
The show proceeded to tell how the gang was captured. One of the gang members was pulled over and actually DROVE HIMSELF to the police department, the cop sitting on the rescued suitcases with money, tommy guns, and body armor in it. Dillinger himself was captured later as he arrived at the house they moved to after the blaze.
After the show, Jordan and I took photos of some of the old cars. Most all of them were restored and looked super-sweet. Here are some of my favourites:
Then, Jordan and I walked to the Museum to see the guns and gear TPD confiscated when they captured the Dillinger Gang. It was crowded and somewhat hot inside from all the people. They normally don't have the guns on display, but they bring them out for Dillinger Days. Sometimes, I've noticed, museums will allow photography. I hoped this was true here. I asked and was given permission to take photos in the museum.
Below: Some newspapers and items from the capture of John Dillinger.
Below: The tommy guns
Below: The confiscated body armor and one of the suitcases from the Tucson capture of John Dillinger
On January 23, the hotel in which Makley and Clark were staying caught fire. Fire fighters, at the request of the two, went into their third floor room and saved their luggage, including one bag which contained their weapons. The following day one of the firemen recognized Clark from a picture in True Detective magazine and notified police. Dillinger and Billie arrived later that day and registered in a motor court near Pierpont and his girlfriend, Mary Kinder. The next day Tucson police rounded up all four gang members in short order and without one shot being fired. The Tucson police had done in five hours what law enforcement agencies all over the Midwest had been unable to do in four months.
That hotel happened to be one Hotel Congress in Tucson, Arizona-- it's one of my favourite locations downtown because of the "suicide room" on the ghost walk. The building, prior to the fire, used to be 3-stories tall. They only bothered re-building two of those stories. They have photos of Hotel Congress prior to the fire and during the fire at the Arizona History Museum downtown. They're very interesting.
On one of the last weekends every January, Tucson capitalizes on the capture of John Dillinger by hosting Dillinger Days. They have hot period cars, vendors, a free reenactment, and they even let you into the History Museum for FREE to see John Dillinger's Tommy Guns, which Tucson Police Department (TPD) loans out once a year (under guard) for this event.
Jordan and I made it downtown around noon-thirty, where we scooped in a couple second row seats for the reenactment at Hotel Congress. Because we saw the one o'clock show, it was just about the Hotel Congress incident and didn't include the escapades of the gang prior to their capture in Tucson. To entertain the crowd before the show, there was a fellow playing the banjo so well it made me wish I had time to take lessons. As they prepared for the show, the guy playing Dillinger kept telling people not to move because they were going to have a real 1930's car come driving through the driveway there. "Remember kids," he said, "safety second.... after showman-ship." (The guy was funny.)
Once the show started, they came out guns blazing to show their last robbery. To be quite honest, that was the most action in the show... but just be sure you consider the fact that TPD never fired a shot when they captured the gang. Still, it was a great way to hear the Dillinger capture story. There was some dialogue about how Dillinger had taken over the gang from this other criminal "mastermind". The scene there was entertaining with Dillinger messing with the other fellow by drawing his gun and telling him he was "too slow". Later, the man tried to pull a fast one on John, but with no avail.
Then, came the hotel fire scene. They used smoke machines to illustrate the blaze.(They set off a fire alarm, which the narrator kept commenting on... "After the fire alarms went off...") Were it a real fire, those men would have died. The Dillinger gang did take time to pack their trunks, but didn't bring them out. The gang in the reenactment was slow to come down the ladder. Our narrator commented on how "this went quicker in rehearsals" and got a few chortles from the audience. They talked about how the $12 the gang gave firemen to go back into the burning building to get their luggage was a lot of money. That didn't clue them into the gang's identity until one of them saw John Dillinger's mug on the cover of True Crime magazine.
The show proceeded to tell how the gang was captured. One of the gang members was pulled over and actually DROVE HIMSELF to the police department, the cop sitting on the rescued suitcases with money, tommy guns, and body armor in it. Dillinger himself was captured later as he arrived at the house they moved to after the blaze.
After the show, Jordan and I took photos of some of the old cars. Most all of them were restored and looked super-sweet. Here are some of my favourites:
Then, Jordan and I walked to the Museum to see the guns and gear TPD confiscated when they captured the Dillinger Gang. It was crowded and somewhat hot inside from all the people. They normally don't have the guns on display, but they bring them out for Dillinger Days. Sometimes, I've noticed, museums will allow photography. I hoped this was true here. I asked and was given permission to take photos in the museum.
Below: Some newspapers and items from the capture of John Dillinger.
Below: The tommy guns
Below: The confiscated body armor and one of the suitcases from the Tucson capture of John Dillinger