Criminals Active Even During War Time in 1944

From the December 18, 2019, MidWeek (DeKalb County, Illinois)  "Looking Back."

1944, 75 Years Ago.

"Chief of police, B.F. Peck today asked that the Secret Service department remind the merchants that check thieves and check forgers  do their Christmas shopping  with stolen and forged checks if merchants and housewives aren't particularly  careful.

"Chief Peck  stated that the government mails out nearly one million checks each day and that check thieves steal as many as they can from mailboxes."

Bah!!  Humbug!!!  Where's the Christmas Spirit.  --Cooter

Is That John Dillinger Buried in Dillinger's Grave?-- Part 2

The evidence that John Dillinger wasn't buried there is the non-match of eye color, the ear shape and protrusion from the head, the finger prints did not match, the existence of a heart condition and non-match of anterior teeth  according to the affidavit.

Dillinger supposedly had plastic surgery to be done to alter his appearance while he was on the run.

The plan for exhumation had originally been part of a History Channel network documentary, but they pulled out of the project in September

But lawyers for Crown Hill Cemetery say Indiana law gives the cemetery veto power on any exhumation.

Well, Was He or Wasn't He?  --Cooter

Is That John Dillinger Buried In John Dillinger's Grave?-- Part 1

From the November 30, 2019, Chicago Sun-Times "Cemetery seeks to keep body in Dillinger's grave"by John Seidel.

"When it comes to whether the body inside 1930s gangster John Dillinger's grave will actually be exhumed, Indianapolis' Crown Hill Cemetery says it has the last word.

"And the cemetery says it refuses to open the grave for 'a decades-old conspiracy theory that Dillinger was not, in fact, shot and killed by the FBI, properly identified by his family or buried at Crown Hill in 1934.' "

But, the case might ultimately be decided by a judge.

Meanwhile, the Indiana State Department of Health has given approval for the exhumation to move forward on New Year's Eve.

Two of Dillinger's descendants made national news this past summer when they said they had evidence that the person fatally shot outside Chicago's Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934, may not have been Dillinger.

--Cooter

Chicken Thieves in Esmond, Illinois, in 1943

From the September 12, 2018, MidWeek (DeKalb County, IL)  "Looking Back."

1943, 75 Years Ago.

"Chicken thieves are operating in Esmond according to reports from several  homes.  Harry Gustafson, living a mile north of Esmond, lost over 100 chickens one night during the past week.  He heard the thieves and put on the yard light, which he now says was a mistake.

"He managed to reach his car  and chased the thieves to the Greenway school house a mile west of his place, but he lost track of the car at the four corners.  A few nights earlier Clarence Barry reported 60 chickens taken from his place and Mr. Nelson also reports the loss of 40 hens.

Dirty, Rotten Chicken Thieves.  Probably Nazi Saboteurs.

A Klucking Shame!!!  --Cooter

Looking Back to 1966: The Great "Cone" Caper at NIU

From the March 30, 2016, MidWeek (DeKalb County, Illinois) "Looking Back."

1966, 50 Years Ago.

"Several rubber cones valued at $4.65 each were stolen from the site of the NIU Chariot Races Saturday morning.  DeKalb police set up a total of 28 cones to block off parking and traffic so the students could hold their annual Greek races, but only 21 were returned to the police department"

So, I Wonder If They Ever Got Those 7 Cones Back?  --Cooter

Looking Back to 1916: Lawlessness Even Back Then, What Is Good for the Goose

From the September 21, 2016, MidWeek "Looking Back."

1916, 100 years ago.

"Mr. Howland of Sycamore made complaint to police that boys entering his lot and chasing his geese.  He described them and 'the gang of young bandits have been committing as many acts of lawlessness during the past months, and they may be taken.'"

**  "DeKalb has a new patrol wagon "Public Safety' conveyance was delivered."

So, we had hooligans even back then.  Guess the new patrol wagon could be used to transport them to jail when caught.

--Cooter

Looking Back to 1916: "Dekalb's Youthful Banditry" Borrow Stuff

From the February 24, 2016, MidWeek (DeKalb County, Illinois) "Looking Back."

"DeKalb's youthful banditry pulled another one today.  The case today is not as serious as some of the others and has a funny side as well as a serious one.  Mr. Ulrich today reported to the police that a hand cart belonging to him was missing and asked the help of officers to find it.

"Inside half an hour an officer found it propelled by a couple of youngsters and filled with copper wire belonging to the telephone company.  The lads were apparently innocent of wrongdoing and said that they had just 'borrowed' the cart.  When asked by police they also said that they had 'borrowed' the wire as well."

Sure Kids. Can You Spell Juvenile Delinquent?  --Cooter

Looking Back to 1916: Not a Fair Fight

From the August 24, 2016, MidWeek (DeKalb County, Illinois) "Looking Back."

"A rather amusing feature connected with the arrest and return to Fond du Lac, of a man arrested on the charge of wife abandonment was seen by a good many around the DeKalb depot this morning.

"The man arrested was a small-sized young man, who would weigh about 125 pounds and who would not be able to resist arrest by a man of but a few pounds more weight than he.

"The officer who came down from the north after him was a man about six foot three inches in height and weighing about 325 pounds and apparently able to lick his weight in wild cats."

The Fight Was Over before It Began.  --DaCoot

Looking Back 77 Years Ago-- Part 2: "Surrender and Take Your Medicine"

75 Years Ago, October 18, 1939.

**  "Arthur Stolb surrendered tio DeKalb County authorities Monday.  Stolb was accused of having engaged in a fight on February 10 and to have cut a man.  He escaped in his auto and was a fugitive.

"Judge Kennedy, engaged as his counsel, advised the fugitive to surrender and take his medicine.  he was sentenced to 60 days in county jail and a fine of $200 and costs."

**  Efforts to get numbers on all unnumbered city houses.  Merchants complain that it is hard to make deliveries with no numbers."

Thou Shalt Not Cut.  --Cooter

Ten Things You Might Not Know About College-- Part 5: North Carolina A&T and the LSD Prof

9.  A year before four students were killed at Kent State University in Ohio, a young man at NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE UNIVERSITY in Greensboro was shot and killed on campus during a Civil Rights protest at the historically black college.

It was never determined who pulled the trigger to kill Willie Grimes in May 1969, but protesters insisted it was the police.

But, what happened next, though, is undisputed.  National Guard soldiers, backed up by a tank and several armored personnel carries, invaded the campus in a pre-dawn assault.  They enjoyed air superiority with a plane and a helicopter dropping tear gas and "nausea gas" as they rounded up hundreds of students, most of whom were rousted from their beds after the locks on their dorm room doors were shot away.

This is horrible.

10.  The UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO has boasted many distinguished graduates and must have thought it had another one when professor John Buettner-Janush became chairman of New York University's anthropology department in 1973.

But, he was convicted of using his NYU lab to manufacture LSD and methaqualone.  After he was paroled, he sent poisoned Valentine's Day chocolates to the judge, whose wife ate the candy and fell ill but survived.  The disgraced prof was convicted again and died in federal custody.

Nothing to be proud of Here.  --DaCoot

Lebanon's "Desperado" Billy Martin

From the August Wild West Magazine "Desperado Billy Martin Grew Desperate Indeed When sentenced to the Gallows" by Larry Wood.

Last night, while talking with Romana Lehman at the office of the Munger-Moss Motel in Lebanon, Mo., she said that her husband Bob receives the Wild West Magazine and the August 2014 one had an article about a resident of town back in the 1800s whom she had never heard of before, Billy Martin.  I read the article and he led quite the checkered life.

Many people believe he killed men on at least two different occasions, he was jailed several times, sentenced to hang, escaped the Lebanon jail with the help of the sheriff's niece, who then ran off with him to North Carolina, where they married.

And the story just got better.

Check It Out  --  Cooter

Deaths: The Interview-- Cleveland-- Nintendo

DAVID FROST, died Aug. 31, at age 74. I couldn't stand that accent or hair, but that was one great bit of sparring on the Nixon interview.

THAT GUY IN CLEVELAND (who will go nameless) -- With the three women hostages. Good! 

HIROSHI YAMAUCH, 85. President of Nintendo since 1949. All those video games. I only have ever bought one video game and that was Pong. Also, majority owner of the Seattle Mariners.

Ten Famous Depression-Era Bank Robbers-- Part 2

5.  "BABY FACE" NELSON--  Member of Dillinger gang.  Gunned down in  "The Battle of Barrington" not too far from where we live in Illinois.  Killed two FBI agents and 25 at time of death.

4.  ALVIN KARPIS--  Received life imprisonment in Alcatraz.

3.  BONNIE AND CLYDE--  As in Parker and Barrow.  Shot over 50 times in May 1934.  Great songs and movie.

2.  BARON LAMM--  Considered the "Father of Modern Bank Robbery" with his "Lamm Technique."  First, case the bank, plan get-away route, each gang member assigned specific tasks, rehearsals.  Died at age 40 of self-inflicted wounds after being cornered.

1.  JOHN DILLINGER--  Like they say, "Movies can kill ya."

Bang, Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down.  --DaCoot

Ten Famous Depression-Era Bank Robbers-- Part 1

Of course, with the Word Ten in the Title, it must be Listverse.  From August 1, 2011.  For pictures and more info, go to the site.

10.  JOHN "RED" HAMILTON--  With Dillinger gang.  Died of wounds April 23, 1934.

9.  VOLNEY DAVIS--  He and Edna "Rabbit" Murray robbed banks in the 1930s.  Captured and spent most of life in Alcatraz.

8.  "SLICK" WILLIE SUTTON--  Never carried a loaded gun or killed anyone.  Nicknamed for his many disguises.  Escaped from prison many times but still spent most of adult life in jail.

7.  HOMER VAN METER--  In the John Dillinger gang and had reputation for shooting people.  At age 27, ambushed August 23, 1934 and shot dozens of times and had several fingers blown off.

6.  "PRETTY BOY" FLOYD--  Shot and killed.

Five More, Next.  --Cooter

Ned Kelly's Body Found-- Part 2

Tests showed that the skull was not Kelly's.  There were 33 other men in the mass grave.

It is believed that Ned Kelly was born in 1854 or 1855 and he had a two-year outlaw career where he took on corrupt police and greedy land barons.  In 1878, the police had a shoot out with Kelly, his brother Dan and friends Joe Byrne and Steve Hart.  As a result, an 8,000 pound bounty was placed on him, the largest ever offered to the time in the British empire.

Over the next 18 months Kelly and his band went on a bank robbery spree.  The final gun battle took place in Glenrowan.  Three gang members died.  Kelly, wearing a home-made plate metal armor and helmet survived, was put on trial and sentenced to death. 

In 1970, a movie was made about Ned Kelly's life starring the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger.  In 2003, another one was made starring Heath Ledger.

An Australian Robin Hood?  --Cooter