John Dillinger's Mooresville Home

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Just before 1900, John Dillinger’s father, John Wilson Dillinger, opened a grocery store in Indianapolis.  Young Johnny was born in 1903, and his mother, Mary Ellen “Mollie” Lancaster Dillinger, was hospitalized and died in 1906.  In 1912 John senior married his second wife, Elizabeth Fields, who was from Mooresville.  (Click the images below to enlarge.)

John Wilson Dillinger (left) with his son, Hubert Dillinger,

waiting to identify John Dillinger's body (1934)

(courtesy of APA/Getty Images)

 

Young Johnny’s childhood was average and unexceptional.  Although some biographers have painted young Johnny as a juvenile delinquent, those who knew him best recalled a friendly, good-natured, energetic, high-spirited child.  His youthful misdeeds were limited to relatively mild boyish pranks.  Young Johnny left school after 8^th grade to work in a variety of jobs, including messenger, machinist, upholsterer, and factory worker.

 

John Dillinger (circa 1922) (courtesy of Getty Images)

In 1920 John senior sold his grocery business and purchased a farm just north of Mooresville, his second wife’s hometown.  Young Johnny was 17 years old.  The Dillinger farm was located along Old State Road 267 (today’s North Monroe Street at Northridge Drive), northwest of where Paul Hadley Middle School is now situated.  The farmhouse was later owned by one of John Dillinger’s great nephews.

 Dillinger Farmhouse in 2007

(courtesy of Google Maps)

Dillinger farmhouse in 1934 (photo by Walter

Ranzini/N.Y. Daily News) (courtesy of Getty Images)