I Woke Next to the Corpse by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

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After evading police in four states for almost a year, Dillinger was wounded and went to his father's home to recover. He returned to Chicago in July 1934 and sought refuge in a brothel owned by Ana Cumpănaș, who later informed authorities of his whereabouts. On July 22, 1934, local and federal law-enforcement officers closed in on the Biograph Theater. When BOI agents moved to arrest Dillinger as he exited the picture house, he tried to flee. He was shot in the back. The deadly shot was ruled justifiable homicide.

That’s the official short story.

That leaves out some murky facts, including the plastic surgery Dillinger had done when he was on the lam. As early as March 1934, Dillinger expressed an interest in plastic surgery. and had asked O'Leary to check with Piquett on such matters. At the

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end of April, Louis Piquett, his trusted lawyer paid a visit to his old friend Dr. Wilhelm Loeser. Loeser had practiced in Chicago for 27 years before being convicted under the Harrison Narcotic Act in 1931. He was sentenced to three years at Leavenworth, but was paroled early on December 7, 1932, with Piquett's help. Loeser later testified that he performed facial surgery on himself and obliterated the fingerprint impressions on the tips of his fingers by the application of a caustic soda preparation. Piquett told Dillinger that he would have to pay $5,000 for the plastic surgery, The procedure would take place at the home of Piquett's longtime friend, 67 year old James Probasco.

Loeser met with Piquett again on Saturday, June 2, with Piquett saying that more work was needed on Dillinger and that Homer Van Meter, a Dillinger criminal associate, now wanted the same work done to him. Also, both now wanted work done on their fingertips. The price for the fingerprint procedure would be $500 per hand or $100 a finger. Loeser used a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid commonly known as aqua regia.

Loeser met Arthur O'Leary, Piquett’s legal investigator, the following night at “Clark and Wright” at 8:30, and they once again drove to Probasco's. Present that evening were Dillinger,

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Van Meter, Probasco, Piquett, Cassidy, and Peggy Doyle, Probasco's girlfriend.

Loeser testified: “Dr. Harold Cassidy, a plastic surgeon, and I worked on Dillinger and Van Meter simultaneously on June 3.

While the work was being done, Dillinger and Van Meter changed off. The work that could be done while the patient was sitting up, that patient was in the sitting room. The work that had to be done while the man was lying down, that patient was on the couch in the bedroom. They were changed back and forth according to the work to be done. The hands were sterilized, made aseptic with antiseptics, thoroughly washed with soap and water and used sterile gauze afterwards to keep them clean. Next, cutting instrument, knife was used to expose the lower skin. In other words, we took off the epidermis and exposed the derma, then alternately the acid and the alkaloid was applied as was necessary to produce the desired results.

Minor work was done two nights later, Tuesday, June 5. Loeser made some small corrections first on Van Meter, then Dillinger.”

Loeser stated; “A man came in before I left, who I found out later was Baby Face Nelson. He came in with a drum of machine gun bullets under his arm, threw them on the bed or the couch in the bedroom, and started to chin with Van Meter. The two then

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motioned for Dillinger to come over and the three went back into the kitchen.”

Baby Face Nelson was a member of the second Dillinger Gang, the result of a merger with his own.

Dillinger and Van Meter resided at Probasco's home until the last week of June 1934. On some occasions they would be away for a day or two, sometimes leaving separately, and on other occasions together. At this time Van Meter usually parked his car in the rear of Probasco's residence outside the back fence.

Dillinger was keeping company with a young woman who lived on the north side of Chicago. Van Meter apparently was not acquainted with Dillinger's friend, and he warned Dillinger to be careful about striking up acquaintances with girls he knew nothing about. Dillinger and Van Meter kept a machine gun in an open case under the piano in the parlor, and they also kept a shotgun under the parlor table.

On Friday, July 27, Probasco fell to his death from the 19th floor of the Bankers' Building in Chicago while in police custody. On Thursday, August 23, Homer Van Meter was shot and killed in a dead end alley in St. Paul by Tom Brown, former St.

Paul Chief of Police, and current chief Frank Cullen.

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At approximately 8:30 PM on July 22, 1934, Rita (Polly) Hamilton, a teenage runaway from Fargo, North Dakota, who periodically worked as a prostitute for Ana Ivanova Akalieva (Ana Cumpănaș; A/K/A Ana Sage), in Ana's brothel until marrying Gary police officer Roy O. Keele in 1929, divorced in March 1933, Ana Sage, and Dillinger were observed entering the Biograph Theater, which was showing the crime drama “Manhattan Melodrama,” starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, and William Powell.

During the stakeout, the picture house’s manager thought the agents were criminals setting up a robbery. He called the Chicago police, who dutifully responded and had to be waved off by the federal agents, who told them that they were on a stakeout for an important target.

When the film ended, Melvin Purvis, an FBI agent, stood by the front door and signaled Dillinger's exit by lighting a cigar.

Both he and the other agents reported that Dillinger turned his noodle and looked directly at the agent as he walked by, glanced across the street, then moved ahead of his female companions, reached into his pocket to extract his gun,  and ran into a nearby alley. Some other accounts stated Dillinger ignored a command to surrender, whipped out his gun, then headed for the alley. FBI agents already had the alley closed off.

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Three men pursued Dillinger into the alley and fired. Clarence Hurt shot twice, Charles Winstead three times, and Herman Hollis once. Dillinger was hit from behind and fell face first to the ground.

Dillinger was struck four times, with two bullets grazing him and one causing a superficial wound to the right side. The fatal bullet entered through the back of his neck, severed the spinal cord, passed into his brain and exited just under the right eye, severing two sets of veins and arteries. An ambulance was summoned, although it was soon apparent “Dillinger” had died from the gunshot wounds. He was officially pronounced dead at Alexian Brothers Hospital. According to investigators, Dillinger died without saying a word. Winstead was later thought to have fired the fatal shot, and as a consequence received a personal letter of commendation from J. Edgar Hoover.

Two female bystanders, Theresa Paulas and Etta Natalsky, were wounded. Dillinger bumped into Natalsky just as the shooting started. Natalsky was shot and was subsequently taken to Columbus Hospital.

“Dillinger's” death came only two months after the deaths of fellow notorious criminals Bonnie and Clyde. There were reports of people dipping their handkerchiefs and skirts into the pool

I Woke Next to the Corpse