The reconstituted gang that formed through the fall of 1933 was more professional and more dangerous than the individual criminals who composed it. They moved across state lines, robbed multiple banks within a compressed timeframe, and occasionally took hostages as shields during escapes — a tactic that generated spectacular newspaper coverage and established them as a distinctive category of criminal actor.
In November 1933, they robbed the American Bank and Trust in Racine, Wisconsin, taking $27,000, wounding two people, and departing with hostages who were released unharmed. By the end of 1933, the Dillinger gang was not just a series of criminal events; it was a cultural phenomenon. Newspapers ran frequent front-page stories. Photographs circulated. The Depression-era public, deeply suspicious of banks after years of failures and foreclosures, found in Dillinger a figure who was either a romantic rebel or a dangerous predator, depending on the angle of view.
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## The Murder of Officer O’Malley and the Federal Case
On January 15, 1934, the Dillinger gang robbed the First National Bank of East Chicago, Indiana, taking $20,000. During the robbery, a Dillinger associate was wounded. During the escape, Dillinger shot and killed East Chicago police officer William Patrick O’Malley. The officer’s death made the East Chicago robbery the most consequential single act of the gang’s career in terms of legal jeopardy. Dillinger was now a suspected murderer.
Eleven days later, Dillinger, Pierpont, and other gang members were arrested in Tucson, Arizona. The arrests came about through an unlikely circumstance: a hotel fire in the city drew fire department personnel who recognized gang members from their photographs in detective pulp magazines. The Tucson police were well-organized and arrested multiple gang members without significant violence.