On the day of the robbery, the team moved with an established division of labor. Some members controlled the floor — keeping customers and staff under supervision, preventing alarm activations, collecting cash from teller drawers. Others moved to the vault or the cage. At least one person remained outside, controlling the vehicles and watching for police response.
The use of hostages was a distinctive feature of the later Dillinger robberies. Taking hostages during the escape — having staff or customers accompany the team as they left — provided a human shield against immediate police pursuit. The hostages were typically released unharmed within a short distance of the bank, a practice that was both tactically sensible (released hostages could not shoot back) and reputationally useful (a gang that released hostages unharmed was easier to romanticize than one that harmed them).
The Racine, Wisconsin robbery in November 1933 illustrated the approach. The gang entered the American Bank and Trust, controlled the floor, took $27,000, wounded two people who resisted, and departed with hostages. The hostages were released unharmed. The local police response was delayed long enough for the gang to get clear.
This methodology was not original to Dillinger — it drew on established practices in professional bank robbery that dated back decades. But the Dillinger network executed it at a level of organizational competence that set their operation apart from most of their contemporaries.
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## The FBI’s Evolution Through the Case
When the Dillinger case opened in March 1934 — when the Crown Point escape and the subsequent interstate car theft created federal jurisdiction — the FBI was itself in the middle of a transformation.