John Dillinger’s Wild V-8 Dash to Chicago & Beyond

By John Emmering

When Ford introduced its V-8 engine in 1932 it made faster cars available to the average motorist.  Those early V-8 models of 1932-34 also became a favorite of many celebrated depression era gangsters. Here is another account of how the Ford V-8 fit into the history of that lawless period.

After John Dillinger’s escape from the Lake County Jail on March 3, 1934, purportedly with a wooden gun, he made his way to the Main Street Garage across from the County Court House in Crown Point, Indiana. Dillinger asked Edwin Saager, the mechanic on duty “What’s the fastest car you’ve got?”  Saager replied that it was Sheriff Holley’s car, the new Ford V-8.  With that Dillinger, fellow escapee Herbert Youngblood, and hostages Deputy Ernest Blunt and the mechanic Edwin Saager were off on Dillinger’s wild dash to Chicago, Illinois and freedom.

The getaway car was a standard 1933 Model 40 Ford V-8 Tudor, which served as Lake County Sheriff Lillian Holley’s official police vehicle.  Mrs. Holley assumed the office of Sheriff after her husband Roy F. “Doc” Holley, age 43, was killed in the line of duty.  Deputy Ernest Blunt was forced to drive the car and was instructed to travel the speed limit.  Dillinger had him stop the Ford as they headed into St. John, Indiana and tore off the vehicle’s red spotlight lens knowing the police would be on the lookout for a sheriff’s car.  Dillinger’s escape was aided by the fact that the wrong license plate number was given out for the Sheriff’s sedan.

Traveling down Indiana Route 41 Dillinger had Deputy Blunt turn west toward Illinois on 151^st Ave. and continue past the state line into Illinois, near Beecher.  Later this would prove to be a fatal error on Dillinger’s part.  Continuing on what became West Beecher Road the V-8 Tudor got stuck in the mud and Blunt and Saager worked to push it onto dry pavement.  Saager installed tire chains on the Ford to make it more road worthy.  At this point Dillinger released his two hostages near rural Peotone, knowing it would be a long walk to a telephone, and continued on to Chicago with Youngblood.  Police found Sheriff’s Holley’s 1933 Ford V-8 Tudor abandoned in front of 1057 W. Ardmore Avenue on Chicago’s north side on March 7, 1934.   The Ford V-8 was returned to police service and apparently went the way of any police car, used until well-worn and sold at auction. 

Concluding a short stay in Chicago, Dillinger headed for St. Paul, Minnesota, joining forces with the Baby Face Nelson gang. Soon they robbed banks in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Mason City, Iowa. The gang was cornered by federal agents at the Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin on April 22, 1934 in a poorly conceived raid.  When the gangsters were alerted to the approach of the agents by barking dogs, Dillinger and his fellow gangsters Homer Van Meter and Jack Hamilton escaped through a rear door into the woods, unable to access their stolen 1934 Ford V-8 Fordor, parked in front.   Heading through the woods the trio located Robert Johnson who lived in a cabin at nearby Mitchell’s Rest Lake Resort, and forced him to drive them out of the area in his 1930 Ford Model “A” coupe.  Soon they freed Johnson and drove the Model “A” toward Minnesota.

In an exchange of gun fire with the police south of St. Paul, Minnesota, Jack Hamilton was badly wounded.  The Model “A” was ditched after the gang seized another 1934 Ford V-8 from Roy Francis, a power company executive out for a ride with his wife and baby. After being ejected from their vehicle, the Francis family walked two miles to a service station where they phoned the authorities.  The use of Sheriff  Holley’s V-8 and the one stolen from Roy Francis were the subject of a local Ford dealer newspaper ad, which asked, “Will they catch John Dillinger? Not until they get him out his Ford V-8!”

Dillinger, Van Meter and Hamilton left St. Paul and headed for a hideout in Aurora, Illinois.  There in Aurora Hamilton died of his injuries. The gangsters buried Hamilton in rural Kendall County near Oswego.  The 1934 Ford V-8 obtained in Minnesota was abandoned on the north side of Chicago as a false lead as the pair headed to Ohio and lived out of a panel truck for a couple weeks.  After a daring bank robbery in South Bend, Indiana where Van Meter was wounded, the pair split up.  Dillinger choose to melt into the north side of Chicago using the name Jimmy Lawrence and moving in with a 26 year old waitress named Poly Hamilton and 42 year old Anna Sage, a Romanian immigrant who was known as a notorious Madame.

When Dillinger crossed the state line into Illinois after stealing Sheriff Holley’s 1933 Ford, committing interstate auto theft, a federal crime, he invited the participation of J. Edgar Hoover’s Bureau of Investigation who had been on his trail ever since.  The bureau was contacted by Anna Sage, who thought turning over Dillinger could prevent her pending deportation. On the evening of July 22, 1934 Dillinger was killed by Federal agents as he exited the Biograph Theater on North Lincoln Avenue in Chicago. 

Dillinger had really embarrassed Sheriff Lillian Holley when he escaped in her 1933 Ford V-8 leaving her emotionally crushed. She came under intense criticism, with the county board clamoring for her resignation. Whereas Dillinger’s life was snuffed out at age 31, Lillian Holley regained an honored standing in her community and lived to the ripe old age of 103.