The disparity was not lost on John Dillinger. He had taken his father’s advice and received more than a decade in prison for a robbery that had failed and produced no money. His bitterness toward the legal system, and his suspicion that the system would never treat him fairly regardless of what he did, became constants in his later accounts of his own life.
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## The Education of a Bank Robber
Dillinger entered the Indiana State Reformatory in Pendleton in 1924 and was transferred to the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City in 1929. The prison at Michigan City was home to a population of professional criminals who were more sophisticated than the small-time offenders Dillinger had grown up around. Among them were men who had made bank robbery a profession — men who thought carefully about the technical and logistical challenges of taking money from heavily secured buildings and getting away.
The relationships Dillinger formed at Michigan City would define the rest of his life. Harry Pierpont, an experienced bank robber who served as an informal mentor to younger prisoners, became a close friend and collaborator. Homer Van Meter, another bank robber with both technical skill and volatility, was also part of the Michigan City network. John Hamilton, known as Red Hamilton, became another close associate.
Dillinger absorbed what these men knew. He studied the methods of bank robbery as seriously as other men his age studied trades. He also maintained relationships with his family — his father visited regularly, and those visits gave the family a window into what the man they’d known was becoming.