Jerry Lee Lewis - Sweet Georgia Brown (Solo + Dixieland)

on Pop Goes the Country with Ralph Emery sittin' at the piano. Solo with Dixieland band.

John Dillinger: Well Hung or Just Hung? Federal Bureau of Investigation - FBI History - Famous Cases

FBI History Famous Cases John Dillinger During the 1930s Depression, many Americans, nearly helpless against forces they didn't understand, made heroes of outlaws who took what they wanted at gunpoint. Of all the lurid desperadoes, one man, John Herbert Dillinger, came to evoke this Gangster Era, and stirred mass emotion to a degree rarely seen in this country. Dillinger, whose name once dominated the headlines, was a notorious and vicious thief. From September, 1933, until July, 1934, he and his violent gang terrorized the Midwest, killing 10 men, wounding 7 others, robbing banks and police arsenals, and staging 3 jail breaks -- killing a sheriff during one and wounding 2 guards in another. John Herbert Dillinger was born on June 22, 1903, in the Oak Hill section of Indianapolis, a middle-class residential neighborhood. His father, a hardworking grocer, raised him in an atmosphere of disciplinary extremes, harsh and repressive on some occasions, but generous and permissive on others. John's mother died when he was three, and when his father remarried six years later, John resented his stepmother. In adolescence, the flaws in his bewildering personality became evident and he was frequently in trouble. Finally, he quit school and got a job in a machine shop in Indianapolis. Although intelligent and a good worker, he soon became bored and often stayed out all night. His father, worried that the temptations of the city were corrupting his teenaged son, sold his property in Indianapolis and moved his family to a farm near Mooresville, Indiana. However, John reacted no better to rural life than he had to that in the city and soon began to run wild again. A break with his father and trouble with the law (auto theft) led him to enlist in the Navy. There he soon got into trouble and deserted his ship when it docked in Boston. Returning to Mooresville, he married 16-year-old Beryl Hovius in 1924. A dazzling dream of bright lights and excitement led the newlyweds to Indianapolis. Dillinger had no luck finding work in the city and joined the town pool shark, Ed Singleton, in his search for easy money. In their first attempt, they tried to rob a Mooresville grocer, but were quickly apprehended. Singleton pleaded not guilty, stood trial, and was sentenced to two years. Dillinger, following his father's advice, confessed, was convicted of assault and battery with intent to rob, and conspiracy to commit a felony, and received joint sentences of 2 to 14 years and 10 to 20 years in the Indiana State Prison. Stunned by the harsh sentence, Dillinger became a tortured, bitter man in prison. His period of infamy began on May 10, 1933, when he was paroled from prison after serving 8 1/2 years of his sentence. Almost immediately, Dillinger robbed a bank in Bluffton, Ohio. Dayton police arrested him on September 22, and he was lodged in the county jail in Lima, Ohio, to await trial. The many faces of John Dillinger In frisking Dillinger, the Lima police found a document which seemed to be a plan for a prison break, but the prisoner denied knowledge of any plan. Four days later, using the same plans, eight of Dillinger's friends escaped from the Indiana State Prison, using shotguns and rifles which had been smuggled into their cells. During their escape, they shot two guards. On October 12, three of the escaped prisoners and a parolee from the same prison showed up at the Lima jail where Dillinger was incarcerated. They told the sheriff that they had come to return Dillinger to the Indiana State Prison for violation of his parole. When the sheriff asked to see their credentials, one of the men pulled a gun, shot the sheriff and beat him into unconsciousness. Then taking the keys to the jail, the bandits freed Dillinger, locked the sheriff's wife and a deputy in a cell, and leaving the sheriff to die on the floor, made their getaway. Although none of these men had violated a Federal law, the FBI's assistance was requested in identifying and locating the criminals. The four men were identified as Harry Pierpont, Russell Clark, Charles Makley, and Harry Copeland. Their fingerprint cards in the FBI Identification Division were flagged with red metal tags, indicating that they were wanted. Meanwhile, Dillinger and his gang pulled several bank robberies. They also plundered the police arsenals at Auburn, Indiana, and Peru, Indiana, stealing several machine guns, rifles, and revolvers, a quantity of ammunition, and several bulletproof vests. On December 14, John Hamilton, a Dillinger gang member, shot and killed a police detective in Chicago. A month later, the Dillinger gang killed a police officer during the robbery of the First National Bank of East Chicago, Indiana. Then they made their way to Florida and, subsequently, to Tucson, Arizona. There on January 23, 1934, a fire broke out in the hotel where Clark and Makley were hiding under assumed names. Firemen recognized the men from their photographs, and local police arrested them, as well as Dillinger and Harry Pierpont. They also seized 3 Thompson submachine guns, 2 Winchester rifles mounted as machine guns, 5 bulletproof vests, and more than $25,000 in cash, part of it from the East Chicago robbery. Dillinger was sequestered at the county jail in Crown Point, Indiana, to await trial for the murder of the East Chicago police officer. Authorities boasted that the jail was "escape proof." But on March 3, 1934, Dillinger cowed the guards with what he claimed later was a wooden gun he had whittled. He forced them to open the door to his cell, then grabbed two machine guns, locked up the guards and several trustees, and fled. It was then that Dillinger made the mistake that would cost him his life. He stole the sheriff's car and drove across the Indiana-Illinois line, heading for Chicago. By doing that, he violated the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act, which made it a Federal offense to transport a stolen motor vehicle across a state line. A Federal complaint was sworn charging Dillinger with the theft and interstate transportation of the sheriff's car, which was recovered in Chicago. After the grand jury returned an indictment, the FBI became actively involved in the nationwide search for Dillinger. Meanwhile, Pierpont, Makley, and Clark were returned to Ohio and convicted of the murder of the Lima sheriff. Pierpont and Makley were sentenced to death, and Clark to life imprisonment. But in an escape attempt, Makley was killed and Pierpont was wounded. A month later, Pierpont had recovered sufficiently to be executed. In Chicago, Dillinger joined his girlfriend, Evelyn Frechette. They proceeded to St. Paul, where Dillinger teamed up with Homer Van Meter, Lester ("Baby Face Nelson") Gillis, Eddie Green, and Tommy Carroll, among others. The gang's business prospered as they continued robbing banks of large amounts of money. Then on March 30, 1934, an Agent talked to the manager of the Lincoln Court Apartments in St. Paul, who reported two suspicious tenants, Mr. and Mrs. Hellman, who acted nervous and refused to admit the apartment caretaker. The FBI began a surveillance of the Hellman's apartment. The next day, an Agent and a police officer knocked on the door of the apartment. Evelyn Frechette opened the door, but quickly slammed it shut. The Agent called for reinforcements to surround the building. John Dillinger's Colt .380 While waiting, the Agents saw a man enter a hall near the Hellman's apartment. When questioned, the man, Homer Van Meter, drew a gun. Shots were exchanged, during which Van Meter fled the building and forced a truck driver at gunpoint to drive him to Green's apartment. Suddenly the door of the Hellman apartment opened and the muzzle of a machine gun began spraying the hallway with lead. Under cover of the machine gun fire, Dillinger and Evelyn Frechette fled through a back door. They, too, drove to Green's apartment, where Dillinger was treated for a bullet wound received in the escape. At the Lincoln Court Apartments, the FBI found a Thompson submachine gun with the stock removed, two automatic rifles, one .38 caliber Colt automatic with twenty-shot magazine clips, and two bulletproof vests. Across town, other Agents located one of Eddie Green's hideouts where he and Bessie Skinner had been living as "Mr. and Mrs. Stephens." On April 3, when Green was located, he attempted to draw his gun, but was shot by the Agents. He died in a hospital eight days later. Dillinger and Evelyn Frechette fled to Mooresville, Indiana, where they stayed with his father and half-brother until his wound healed. Then Frechette went to Chicago to visit a friend--and was arrested by the FBI. She was taken to St. Paul for trial on a charge of conspiracy to harbor a fugitive. She was convicted, fined $1,000, and sentenced to two years in prison. Bessie Skinner, Eddie Green's girlfriend, got 15 months on the same charge. Meanwhile, Dillinger and Van Meter robbed a police station at Warsaw, Indiana, of guns and bulletproof vests. Dillinger stayed for awhile in Upper Michigan, departing just ahead of a posse of FBI Agents dispatched there by airplane. Then the FBI received a tip that there had been a sudden influx of rather suspicious guests at the summer resort of Little Bohemia Lodge, about 50 miles north of Rhinelander, Wisconsin. One of them sounded like John Dillinger and another like "Baby Face Nelson." From Rhinelander, an FBI task force set out by car for Little Bohemia. Two of the rented cars broke down enroute, and, in the uncommonly cold April weather, some of the Agents had to make the trip standing on the running boards of the other cars. Two miles from the resort, the car lights were turned off and the posse proceeded through the darkness. When the cars reached the resort, dogs began barking. The Agents spread out to surround the lodge and as they approached, machine gun fire rattled down on them from the roof. Swiftly, the Agents took cover. One of them hurried to a telephone to give directions to additional Agents who had arrived in Rhinelander to back up the operation. While the Agent was telephoning, the operator broke in to tell him there was trouble at another cottage about two miles away. Special Agent W. Carter Baum, another FBI man, and a constable went there and found a parked car which the constable recognized as belonging to a local resident. They pulled up and identified themselves. John Dillinger's Wanted Poster Inside the other car, "Baby Face Nelson" was holding three local residents at gunpoint. He turned, leveled a revolver at the lawmen's car, and ordered them to step out. But without waiting for them to comply, Nelson opened fire. Baum was killed, and the constable and the other Agent were severely wounded. Nelson jumped into the Ford they had been using and fled. When the firing had subsided at the Little Bohemia Lodge, Dillinger was gone. When the Agents entered the lodge the next morning, they found only three frightened females. Dillinger and five others had fled through a back window before the Agents surrounded the house. In Washington, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover assigned Special Agent Samuel A. Cowley to head the FBI's investigative efforts against Dillinger. Cowley set up headquarters in Chicago, where he and Melvin Purvis, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago office, planned their strategy. A squad of Agents under Cowley worked with East Chicago policemen in tracking down all tips and rumors. Late in the afternoon of Saturday, July 21, 1934, the madam of a brothel in Gary, Indiana, contacted one of the police officers with information. This woman called herself Anna Sage, however, her real name was Ana Cumpanas, and she had entered the United States from her native Rumania in 1914. Because of the nature of her profession, she was considered an undesirable alien by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and deportation proceedings had been started. Anna was willing to sell the FBI some information about Dillinger for a cash reward, plus the FBI's help in preventing her deportation. At a meeting with Anna, Cowley and Purvis were cautious. They promised her the reward if her information led to Dillinger's capture, but said all they could do was call her cooperation to the attention of the Department of Labor, which at that time handled deportation matters. Satisfied, Anna told the Agents that a girlfriend of hers, Polly Hamilton, had visited her establishment with Dillinger. Anna had recognized Dillinger from a newspaper photograph. Anna told the Agents that she, Polly Hamilton, and Dillinger probably would be going to the movies the following evening at either the Biograph or the Marbro Theaters. She said that she would notify them when the theater was chosen. She also said that she would wear an orange dress so that they could identify her. Special Agent in Charge Melvin Purvis On Sunday, July 22, Cowley ordered all Agents of the Chicago office to stand by for urgent duty. Anna Sage called that evening to confirm the plans, but she still did not know which theater they would attend. Therefore, Agents and policemen were sent to both theaters. At 8:30 p.m., Anna Sage, John Dillinger, and Polly Hamilton strolled into the Biograph Theater to see Clark Gable in "Manhattan Melodrama." Purvis phoned Cowley, who shifted the other men from the Marbro to the Biograph. Cowley also phoned Hoover for instructions. Hoover cautioned them to wait outside rather than risk a shooting match inside the crowded theater. Each man was instructed not to unnecessarily endanger himself and was told that if Dillinger offered any resistance, it would be each man for himself. At 10:30 p.m., Dillinger, with his two female companions on either side, walked out of the theater and turned to his left. As they walked past the doorway in which Purvis was standing, Purvis lit a cigar as a signal for the other men to close in. Dillinger quickly realized what was happening and acted by instinct. He grabbed a pistol from his right trouser pocket as he ran toward the alley. Five shots were fired from the guns of three FBI Agents. Three of the shots hit Dillinger and he fell face down on the pavement. At 10:50 p.m. on July 22, 1934, John Dillinger was pronounced dead in a little room in the Alexian Brothers Hospital. Biograph Theater The Agents who fired at Dillinger were Charles B. Winstead, Clarence O. Hurt, and Herman E. Hollis. Each man was commended by J. Edgar Hoover for fearlessness and courageous action. None of them ever said who actually killed Dillinger. The events of that sultry July night in Chicago marked the beginning of the end of the Gangster Era. Eventually, 27 persons were convicted in Federal courts on charges of harboring, and aiding and abetting John Dillinger and his cronies during their reign of terror. "Baby Face Nelson" was fatally wounded on November 27, 1934, in a gun battle with FBI Agents in which Special Agents Cowley and Hollis also were killed. Dillinger was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana.

FBI — Top 10 Moments in FBI History - SINCE EVERYBODY LIKED MY DILLINGER, HERES A TOP 10

Headline Archives
FBI 100 The Top Ten Moments in FBI History
07/18/08
Founding Father: Attorney General Charles Bonaparte Over the course of a century—during which we’ve been involved in just about every major event in U.S. history and had countless innovations and famous cases—it’s hard to pick just ten. But here, in chronological order, are our choices for the top ten moments in FBI history… 1) July 26, 1908 – The Bureau is Born No surprise on this one. But what you may not know is that our origins were somewhat tentative and filled with political intrigue. By early 1908, Teddy Roosevelt’s Attorney General—Charles Bonaparte—was growing weary of borrowing investigators from other agencies for federal cases under his jurisdiction. When Congress outlawed that practice in May, he had no choice but to pull together his own corps of agents. On July 26, Bonaparte sent a memo to his department announcing this new “force of special agents.” It started small, with just 34 agents and no name. And it was considered something of an experiment by both Bonaparte and Congress. But over time the force started making a difference…and the rest is history. Learn more 2) May 10, 1924 – Hoover Takes the Helm Appointed to clean up a scandal-plagued Bureau, 29-year-old Acting Director J. Edgar Hoover immediately began instituting a series of reforms that transformed the FBI into the professional law enforcement organization that it is today. Over the next decade, Hoover strengthened the organizational and hiring practices of the Bureau, created a central repository for criminal identification and criminal history records, instituted a technical laboratory (the forerunner of today’s FBI Lab), began gathering and reporting national crime stats, and fostered a rigorous training program for American and international law enforcement alike. Though often remembered more for controversies in his later years, Hoover played a vital role in lifting the overall capabilities and professionalism of the FBI and U.S. law enforcement. Learn more The scene outside the railroad station shortly after the "Kansas City" Massacre 3) June 17, 1933 – The Kansas City Massacre It’s hard to imagine today, but for the Bureau’s first quarter-century agents weren’t allowed to make their own arrests, and they only carried weapons in limited cases. That began to change one shocking morning outside a train station in Kansas City, Missouri, when Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd and other gangsters suddenly opened fire on a group of lawmen transporting an escaped con back to prison. Killed in the hail of bullets were two police officers, a police chief, and a Bureau special agent. The public was stunned by what became known as the “Kansas City Massacre,” and Congress responded within a year by authorizing special agents to carry guns, to make arrests, and to tackle a wider array of gangster crime, which has helped us protect the nation ever since. Learn more John Dillinger, who met his end on July 22, 1934 4) July 22, 1934 – The Death of Dillinger In many ways, John Dillinger was the most notorious of the Depression-era gangsters, the leader of a ruthless band of gun-slinging bank robbers and crooks who was able to charm the press and American people into believing he was a harmless Robin Hood. Dillinger’s fame and ability to elude the law were reaching disastrous levels when we joined the hunt for him in the winter of 1933/1934. Despite a few stumbles along the way, Bureau agents tracked Dillinger down on July 22 and shot him dead in the streets of Chicago as he reached for his gun. The successful investigation catapulted the largely-unknown agency to worldwide fame and was the beginning of the end of the lawless gangster years. Learn more 5) June 26, 1939 – Getting Ready for War More than two years before bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, the FBI was already preparing to protect the nation from its wartime enemies. It started when President Franklin Roosevelt signed a secret order in June 1939 putting the FBI (and the Army and Navy to a lesser extent) in charge of homeland security, including espionage, sabotage, and subversion. In June 1940, we were also asked to collect foreign intelligence in Central and South America. Our ensuing “Special Intelligence Service,” or SIS—a little-known initiative even now—ended up producing a trove of intelligence and outing some 887 Axis spies. Though later dissolved with the creation of the CIA, the SIS laid the groundwork for our network of international offices, which are vital to our ability to combat global crime and terror today. And overall, our work before and during the war ensured that not a single act of enemy-directed sabotage was carried out on U.S. soil. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg ride with Morton Sobell (far left), another convicted member of the Rosenberg's spy ring, as the jury deliberates 6) September 1, 1947 – To Catch a Spy Intelligence was not new to the FBI; neither was cooperating with the Army. But in September 1947, these two things started to come together in a powerful way when Special Agent Wesley Reynolds was briefed on a top secret Army cryptanalytic program and brought decoded Soviet spy messages back to the Bureau. In the spring of 1948, Special Agent Robert Lamphere became interested in these messages and combined his expertise and the Bureau’s growing knowledge of Soviet espionage with the work of the Army’s brilliant cryptanalyst Meredith Gardner. Together, the two began to make sense of Soviet telegrams sent from the U.S. and other western countries during World War II. Soon they were on the trail of Soviet spies like Judith Coplon, Klaus Fuchs, Julius Rosenberg, and many others. Their work and that of their successors—a project now known as Venona—allowed the FBI and its partners to identify more than 100 Soviet agents, keep traitors from accessing crucial national secrets, and start moving more proactively against Soviet intelligence in the 1950s and beyond. When Venona was declassified in 1995, it led to a significant re-evaluation of Cold War history. Learn more This burnt-out station wagon led to the case name "MIBURN," short for Mississippi Burning. 7) June 21, 1964 – Mississippi Burning By the early 1960s the civil rights movement was starting to make headway in America, but the backlash from the KKK and others was growing. When three young men who had volunteered to help register African-American voters in Mississippi disappeared suddenly on June 21, 1964, President Johnson called on the FBI to investigate, and we did so rigorously. Within a short time, we found the young men’s burnt-out station wagon (thus the famous case name “MIBURN”), located their bodies, and gathered important evidence that led to indictments. Although it took a long time (decades, tragically) to secure a measure of justice in the courtroom, national outrage over the crime helped spur passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Together with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, these laws—for the first time—put real teeth into the FBI’s ability to defend the rights and freedoms of all Americans. We’ve used them to great effect ever since. Learn more 8) October 15, 1970 – New Law of the Land In the fall of 1970, Congress passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly called “RICO,” as part of a larger bill. What a huge milestone it turned out to be. Finally, the FBI had the legal muscle to go after criminal enterprises like the Mafia the right way—investigating their entire organizations, leaders and all, instead of just individuals who had committed a crime. Thanks to this legislation and other new approaches (like using undercover agents and Title III wiretaps to gather evidence), we were soon working with our partners to dismantle entire mob families from the top down and putting a serious dent in the Mafia’s corrupting and violent ways. We’ve also used the law over the years to combat street gangs, drug rings, corruption activities, and even terrorist financing activities in this country. The Watergate complex, site of the famous break-in 9) November 18, 1975 – Domestic Intelligence Redefined During the early 1970s, especially after J. Edgar Hoover died in May 1972, revelations began to surface about potential abuses in the intelligence community. In 1975, on the heels of Watergate and the changing political climate it engendered, Senator Frank Church opened a series of hearings unlike any before into domestic intelligence issues. Front and center was the FBI, which was sharply criticized for its investigation of Dr. Martin Luther King, its surveillance practices, and other concerns. In response, the Bureau accelerated its re-evaluation of its domestic security programs and worked with the Attorney General to craft guidelines governing domestic security operations. These changes established clearer parameters for FBI cases and made agents more respectful than ever of the need to protect constitutional rights. A pair of FBI employees inside the Pentagon shortly after the 9/11 attacks 10) September 11, 2001 – America is Attacked In one horrific morning, everything changed for America—and for the FBI. The attacks quickly became the most massive investigation in our history, with a quarter of all agents and support personnel directly involved. And even before the dust settled, we had a new overriding mission: to stop terrorists before they strike. The FBI had prevented dozens of terrorist plots before 9/11—including nearly 60 during the 1990s alone. But these attacks showed that our strategic capabilities had to improve—that we needed to be more forward-leaning, more predictive, a step ahead of the next germinating threat. What followed was one of the most far-reaching transformations in FBI history, as we strengthened our counterterrorism and intelligence capabilities in profound new ways. The result has been innumerable successes over the past seven years, from heading off developing plots here in the U.S. to helping take out key terrorist operatives overseas by sharing key intelligence and information.

FBI — Top Ten Moments in FBI History - Press Room - Headline Archives 07-18-08

Lawyer: Manslaughter evidence sought at Jackson doctor's office - CNN.com

(CNN) -- Detectives searched the Houston, Texas, medical office of one of Michael Jackson's doctors on Wednesday for "evidence of the offense of manslaughter," the doctor's lawyer said.

Dr. Conrad Murray's office was searched Wednesday for "evidence of the offense of manslaughter."

The search warrant at Dr. Conrad Murray's office "services part of the ongoing investigation into the death of Michael Jackson," Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Gus Villanueva said.

Murray was the doctor who was at Jackson's home when the pop star died on June 25.

Jackson's former nurse, Cherilynn Lee, was also approached by investigators who wanted copies of medical files she had on the singer, Lee told CNN's Nancy Grace on Wednesday. Lee said she handed over the files to officials with the coroner's office.

Ed Chernoff, a Houston lawyer hired by Murray soon after Jackson's death, confirmed that Los Angeles Police detectives and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents used a search warrant to enter Murray's office in northeast Houston on Wednesday morning,

"The search warrant authorized law enforcement to search for and seize items, including documents, they believed constituted evidence of the offense of manslaughter," Chernoff said in a written statement Wednesday.

Chernoff said members of Murray's legal team were at the medical office during the search, which he said was conducted by members of the DEA, two robbery-homicide detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department and Houston police officers.

Don't Miss

• KHOU: Officials raid Houston office of Jackson's doctor

"Law enforcement concluded their search around 12:30 p.m., and left with a forensic image of a business computer hard drive and 21 documents. None of the documents taken had previously been requested by law enforcement or the L.A. coroner's office," Chernoff said.

Tammy Kidd, a spokeswoman at Chernoff's office, told CNN the raid "was absolutely a surprise to us, because we've had open lines of communication this whole time." DEA, cops search offices of Dr. Conrad Murray »

"Based on Dr. Murray's minute-by-minute and item-by-item description of Michael Jackson's last days, he should not be a target of criminal charges," Chernoff said Tuesday. "Dr. Murray was the last doctor standing when Michael Jackson died and it seems all the fury is directed toward him."

Los Angeles investigators have interviewed Murray twice, Chernoff said. A third interview has not been scheduled, he said.

Police impounded his car, which had been parked at Jackson's Holmby Hills home, the night after Jackson's death. It was released to Murray several days later.

"Dr. Murray is frustrated by negative and often erroneous media reports. He has to walk around 24-7 with a bodyguard," Chernoff said. "He can't operate his practice. He can't go to work because he is harassed no matter where he goes."

At least two investigations are under way into Jackson's death.

The Los Angeles County coroner is waiting for toxicology results to determine a cause of death, while the city police department, with assistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration, is looking at the possibility of criminal charges.A coroner's office spokesman said the autopsy findings could be released in the next week or more.

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton told CNN he would wait for the coroner to determine the exact cause of Jackson's death. "And based on those, we will have an idea of what it is we are dealing (with): Are we dealing with a homicide, or are we dealing with an accidental overdose?" he said.

Lawyer: Manslaughter evidence sought at Jackson doctor's office - CNN.com