Walking With Dillinger

Take a walking (or driving) tour around Mooresville, Indiana to see John Dillinger-related points-of-interest around town.  Click the images (throughout this article) to enlarge.

Can't make the walk/drive?  Watch this video slideshow below.

John Dillinger's Mooresville Footprint

by Mooresville (Indiana) Public Library

DILLINGER’S HOMETOWN HOLDUP

(SELF-GUIDED WALKING TOUR)

Starting from Mooresville Public Library, follow famous bank robber and Mooresville resident John Dillinger’s footsteps during and after his botched attempted robbery of Frank Morgan, owner of the West End Grocery on West High Street, on Saturday, September 6, 1924.  (Watch this video to learn more about this robbery attempt.)

 

Stop #1:  Behind the First Christian Church on South Jefferson Street (between Harrison & High Streets)

Between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Saturday, September 6, 1924, Frank Morgan, proprietor of the West End Grocery (at 135 West High Street, where Morz/Pedigo Plumbing is located today) was walking home after closing the store.  Suddenly, John Dillinger jumped from the shadows behind the First Christian Church holding a pistol and demanded money from Morgan.  Unbeknownst to Dillinger, Morgan had taken the day’s proceeds to his house earlier in the evening and was not carrying much money at the time of the robbery attempt.  Morgan and Dillinger scuffled, causing Dillinger to drop his firearm, which discharged harmlessly into the air.  Dillinger then struck Morgan with a metal bar (something like a “blackjack” criminals sometimes used in muggings), opening a gash on Morgan’s head.  Morgan, who was a Freemason, shouted a Masonry call of distress, to which fellow Masons throughout the neighborhood promptly responded.  Dillinger panicked and fled east down Broad Alley.  Dillinger’s accomplice, Ed Singleton, who was awaiting Dillinger in an automobile down the street (on South Jefferson close to High Street), raced off when he heard the errant gunshot.



Stop #2:  Lindley Block, 1 West Main Street, Downtown Mooresville

Dillinger escaped along Broad Alley and made his way to Moore & Pearce, a pool hall in the basement of the Lindley Block (1 West Main Street, on the southwest corner of Main and Indiana Streets in downtown Mooresville).  There, he asked customers and employees if “Mr. Morgan was all right” after being attacked.  No one there had heard about Morgan’s injuries, since news of the event had not yet travelled downtown.  Subsequently, several persons present wondered how Dillinger had known Morgan was hurt.

 

Lindley Block (first building on left) as it appeared in the Nineteen-Teens.

The building burnt to the ground on December 27, 1925

(Photo courtesy of the Mooresville Times, December 10, 1981, page 10a)

 

Moore & Pearce advertisement from the 1923 White Lick Review

(Mooresville High School Yearbook)

Dillinger went home to the family farm on Old State Road 267 (North Monroe Street at Northridge Drive) and confessed to his crime.  His father recommended that his son turn himself in to Mooresville town marshal Greeson, which John voluntarily did.  Frank Morgan required eleven stitches to sew-up his head wound, and at Dillinger’s trial, the judge rendered a harsh sentence (2-12 years on the first count, and 10-20 years on the second count, with $100 fines for each count) because John had severely injured Morgan and had carried a firearm during the robbery attempt.  Dillinger’s accomplice, Ed Singleton, who retained an attorney (Dillinger did not), received a much lighter sentence in a separate trial.  Dillinger was remanded to the Indiana state reformatory at Pendleton.  During his incarceration, Dillinger, embittered by the severity of his sentencing, mingled with hardcore criminals who taught him tricks of the criminal trade and shaped his unlawful ambitions.

 

John Dillinger Mug Shot (ca. 1924)



DILLINGER AROUND TOWN

(MOORESVILLE, INDIANA)

There are three other locations in Mooresville significant to John Dillinger’s story:  His family’s farm, Harvey Funeral Home, and the town ball park.

Drive-By #1:  The Dillinger Family Farm  

John Dillinger’s family farm was located on Old State Road 267 (North Monroe Street at Northridge Drive), as shown on the map (above).  PLEASE NOTE:  The Dillinger family farmhouse is a private residence.  Please DO NOT DISTURB the residents or owners, and please do NOT take any photographs of the premises without express permission from the residents or owners.

 

 

(Above) Dillinger Farm (image courtesy of Evelyn Frechette)

(Below) John Dillinger outside the family farmhouse, holding a

Thompson submachine gun and, purportedly, the wooden gun he carved

to escape from Crown Point jail (photo 1934)

 



Drive-By #2:  Harvey Funeral Home

 

Harvey Funeral Home was located on the southeast corner of Indiana and Harrison Streets in downtown Mooresville, where Marco's Pizza is now situated (as of 2024) and where Family Video used to be located.  After John Dillinger was shot by FBI agents in Chicago in July, 1934, his remains were returned to Mooresville before burial at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.  Hundreds braved the 103° F. heat wave to see Dillinger’s body at Harvey Funeral Home on July 25, 1934 (see photo below). The line of onlookers circled the block twice.

 

 (Above) John Dillinger’s Body at Harvey Funeral Home, July 25, 1934

(Below) Unloading John Dillinger’s remains at Harvey Funeral Home

 

Drive-By #3:  Mooresville Town Ball Park

Approximate location of the Town Baseball Park

(Image courtesy of Google Maps © 2024)

Bradley Brick Company began in 1904

(Mooresville Times, March 11, 1904)

William "Tommy" McElwain outside the old

Bradley Brick Company office on East South Street

 

Mooresville historian Clara Richardson wrote in her History of Mooresville, 1824-1974 that the Bradley Brick Company, which was located south of East South Street (east of the railroad tracks), was purchased by the Wooley Company.  When Chester E. Lawrence owned the business, he sold a parcel of land to the Town of Mooresville to be used as the Town Baseball Park.  It was there that Mooresville’s semi-professional baseball team, the Walkovers, played their home games.  In 1924 John Dillinger was a member of the Walkovers’ team roster, playing shortstop and second base.  Dillinger also played the same positions on the Martinsville Athletics (see images below), another semi-professional baseball team.  (Dillinger is indicated by the arrow.)

 

John Dillinger as a Player on the Martinsville Athletics Baseball Team (1924)

 

 

The 1919 Mooresville Walkovers Baseball Team Won 26 Straight Games

(Mooresville Times, October 8, 1964)

(Last Updated 7/24/2024)

John Dillinger's Body

(Post last updated December 5, 2019)

Although John Dillinger was born in Indianapolis (at 2053 Cooper Street), he moved with his family to Mooresville when he was young and spent his formative years here.  (There's a self-guided walking--or driving--tour of significant Dillinger points-of-interest around town.)  After a harsh criminal sentence for a botched local holdup sent him to prison (shaping his unlawful ambitions), he became a hardened criminal, robbing banks and entering American folk legend.

John Dillinger's Funeral

(Mooresville Moments #17)

(Click Above to Play Video) 

After Dillinger was shot by FBI agents in Chicago in July, 1934, his remains were returned to Mooresville before burial at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.  Hundreds braved the 103° F. heat wave to see Dillinger’s body at Harvey Funeral Home on July 25, 1934. The line of onlookers circled the block twice (Harvey Funeral Home was located on the southeast corner of Indiana and Harrison Streets).

Hundreds stood in line to see John Dillinger's body at Harvey Funeral Home

(July 25, 1934) (click image to enlarge)

The Indianapolis Star (July 31, 2019) reported that Dillinger's body was scheduled to be exhumed for a documentary on the History Channel,  presumably to extract DNA to compare with that of known Dillinger descendants to establish conclusively that the individual buried in the Crown Hill grave is (or isn't) actually John.  Crown Hill Cemetery, however, balked at the plan, the History Channel bailed on the project, and a lawsuit ensued (no pun intended).  The Indianapolis Star (December 4, 2019) reported that the trial judge ruled Dillinger's body could not be exhumed without Crown Hill's consent.  So we may never know for certain whether Dillinger is actually buried in his family's plot at Crown Hill. 

 File photo from The Indianapolis Star

Some have questioned whether or not John Dillinger was actually shot near Chicago's Biograph Theater in July, 1934.  When John's father saw the body, he said it was not his son, but John was said to have had plastic surgery, which might have changed his facial appearance.  The FBI stated definitively that Dillinger's body was identified at the time.  Not everyone was convinced, however.  Investigators Jay Robert Nash and Ron Offen popularized a theory that another person was shot, and that Dillinger escaped and lived into the 1960s.  In their book, Dillinger: Dead or Alive? (Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1970), Nash and Offen reprinted letters purportedly written by John Dillinger from 1959 and 1963, along with photographs alleging to be Dillinger from that time.  Admittedly, there's a strong resemblance in the 1959/1963 photos with Dillinger photos from the early 1930s.  The '59/'63 pictures show a sixty-something man whose face (particularly the ears) resembles a younger Johnny D.

Of course, it's possible to find lookalikes for many famous people, so the '59/'63 claimant could simply have been an opportunist attempting to cash-in on a criminal's infamous past.  For example,  William T. Phillips, a Washington resident who served in prison along with Butch Cassidy, later convinced some of Cassidy's Utah family that he was Cassidy.  Butch reportedly died in Bolivia in 1908, and Phillips died in Spokane in 1937.  Perhaps Dillinger, too, had an imposter who claimed survival; perhaps Dillinger survived after all.  If DNA tests were made of Dillinger's remains, that mystery might be put to rest, but, as it now stands, exhumation seems unlikely.

Dillinger's Hometown Holdup

Everybody has heard about John Dillinger, the famous American bank robber of the early 1930s.  Many people know that he lived for many years in Mooresville, Indiana.  But did you know that Dillinger's "first" holdup (or, at least, the first for which he was arrested) occurred in 1924 next to the First Christian Church on South Jefferson Street?

Our local history video elaborates.

John Dillinger's Hometown Holdup
(Mooresville Moments #7)
by Mooresville Public Library

Frank Morgan Holdup

Mooresville Times

September 12, 1924

John Dillinger's sentencing

Mooresville Times

September 19, 1924

Ed Singleton's sentencing

Mooresville Times

October 17, 1924

Frank Morgan owned and operated the West End Grocery at 135 West High Street in Mooresville.  On Saturday, September 6, 1924, Morgan went home for dinner and took the bulk of the day's cash receipts with him; then he returned to the store, staying open until around 10-11 p.m.  After closing, he was walking down South Jefferson Street when Dillinger jumped him from behind the First Christian Church, striking Morgan over the head with a metal rod.  Dillinger pulled a gun on Morgan, but the two struggled, and the gun fell to the ground, discharging.  When neighbors began to respond to the noise, Dillinger fled east down Broad Alley.

Many people maintain that Dillinger was goaded into attempting to rob Frank Morgan by Edgar Singleton, his cousin, roughly ten years Dillinger's senior.  Dillinger played semi-professional baseball with Singleton in Martinsville (Singleton was an umpire--see clipping below).  Singleton worked at the Mooresville light power plant.  While drinking at Moore & Pearce, a pool room (in the basement of the Lindley Block in downtown Mooresville, which burned down in 1925), Singleton plied Dillinger with enough alcohol to persuade the younger man to stick-up Morgan, thinking the elderly grocer would be carrying cash from his store's Saturday sales.  They didn't know that Morgan had taken the money home earlier and had little cash on his person at the time of the robbery attempt.  Purportedly, Singleton awaited in a getaway car further down South Jefferson from the church (closer to West High Street), but when the revolver went off, Singleton apparently panicked and drove away, leaving Dillinger behind.

Some accounts have Singleton struggling and striking Morgan and dropping the revolver, but it appears that Dillinger's confession admitted that he was the party responsible for the fracas.

Umpire Ed Singleton

Mooresville Times

Thursday, October 8, 1964

Dillinger loitered around the pool room afterwards, asking others there if Morgan was all right (before it became commonly known that Morgan had been attacked, taken home, and stitched up by a local physician).  Dillinger returned home, finally admitting to his father what he had done, and his father encouraged him to turn himself in, thinking John would be shown clemency (it was, after all, his first arrest) that would result in a relatively short jail term.  Dillinger senior expected this episode to scare John straight, but no one anticipated that the Morgan County judge who sentenced Dillinger would invoke the heaviest penalties possible to make an example of him.  Likely, the judge was mindful of Dillinger's having committed battery (grievous bodily harm) upon Morgan and had used a firearm in the crime's commission, both aggravating circumstances necessitating sterner sentencing.  Spending years behind bars with hardened criminals, however, embittered Dillinger and placed him in the ideal environment from which to learn serious larceny skills.  When he finally was released, he was ready to "get even" by robbing banks.  Certainly, Dillinger's father blamed the judge for turning his son toward a life of crime.

What might have happened if Dillinger had received a lighter sentence?  Nobody can know for certain, but he might very well have been "scared straight," perhaps ending up pursuing his semi-professional baseball career at a higher level.  Or perhaps he might have become an ordinary, regular "working Joe."  One thing's for certain:  he would not now be a world-famous bank robber, entering the American folklore of the Great Depression.

Mooresville citizens are proud of their community and the many other people (well-known or otherwise) who have lived here over the years.  But Dillinger still captivates public interest.  He was a bad dude, but he is part of our history.  For better or worse, Dillinger is the town's most famous person.  That remains a sore spot with many longtime locals, many of whom knew the Dillinger family personally and, to spare them heartache and embarrassment, went to great lengths to avoid publicity about the famed criminal.  In 1973, when the local McDonald's franchise decorated the restaurant with Dillinger photos, a contingent of prominent local citizens protested, suggesting that McDonald's could sell its food elsewhere if it insisted upon glorifying Dillinger's unlawful career.  The restaurant took down the decorations in favor of more neutral images.

If we are faithful to local history, we can't ignore John Dillinger, but we needn't sensationalize him, either.  He is just another person in the tapestry of Mooresville's past, available to those interested who wish to learn about his story, one among many, many other stories that are equally worth telling.

John Dillinger's Mooresville Home

 Click Video (Above) to Play

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.

If you happen to drive by the Dillinger farmhouse, please don't disturb the occupants or owners.  The home is a private residence.  Also, you should probably ask permission before taking any photographs or videos.

 Dillinger Farmhouse in 2007

(courtesy of Google Maps)

Dillinger farmhouse in 1934 (photo by Walter

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

 

John Dillinger, Semi-Pro Baseball Player

Did you know that notorious bank robber John Dillinger played semi-professional baseball in Mooresville and Martinsville?  Our video (below) elaborates.

Mooresville Moments #22, by Mooresville Public Library

In her history of Mooresville, Clara Richardson wrote that Chester E. Lawrence, when he owned Bradley Brick Company (later, the Wooley Company), Lawrence sold a parcel of land to the Town of Mooresville to be used as the Town Baseball Park.  Bradley Brick (Wooley Co.) was located on the south side of South Street, just east of the railroad tracks, and it was on this land tract that the baseball park was built.  (Click images below to enlarge)

Bradley Brick Company was founded in 1904

(Mooresville Times, March 11, 1904)

Office of Bradley Brick Company (constructed circa 1904)(undated photos)

(William "Tommy" McElwain stands in front of office)

Bradley Brick Company was located just west (to the right, in the photo)

of Old Town Park (circa 1885 photo)

Approximate location of the Town Baseball Park

(Image courtesy of Google Maps © 2024)

  

Town Baseball Park was home to the Mooresville Walkovers, a semi-professional baseball team that won 26 straight games in 1919.  The Walkovers were hardly walked-over by their opponents; their won-loss record was quite respectable.

1919 Mooresville Walkovers won 26 straight games, a team record

(Mooresville Times, October 8, 1964)

  

1914 Mooresville Walkovers Team Photo

In 1924, John Dillinger played shortstop and second base, both for the Mooresville Walkovers and the Martinsville Athletics, another semi-professional baseball team.

Mockup Baseball Card for John Dillinger

1924 Martinsville Athletics Team Photo

(John Dillinger indicated by arrow)

One of the teams' umpires was Mooresville resident Ed Singleton, Dillinger's drinking buddy and accomplice in Dillinger's attempted holdup of Mooresville's West End Grocery owner Frank Morgan.  Some say that it was Singleton that talked Dillinger into committing this attempted robbery.  Regardless, Dillinger's conviction and severe punishment were directly responsible for turning his life toward crime.

What would have happened had Dillinger and Singleton not tried to rob Morgan?  Baseball would probably never have been more than a pastime for Dillinger.  Few baseball players have sufficient skills to make it to the major league, or even the minor leagues.  Mooresville and Martinsville's semi-pro teams were "minor minors," and Dillinger's athletic abilities were such that he likely would have risen no higher.  If not for his imprisonment, he might have pursued an ordinary, honest life.  But "what ifs" are better suited for alternative history novelists.  John Dillinger's history is what it is, and we're forced to accept its lessons as given.

Mooresville, Indiana Local History Links

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VINTAGE MHS YEARBOOKS (DIGITAL PHOTOS)

Click the links below to see vintage Mooresville High School (MHS) yearbook digital photos, courtesy of the Mooresville High School Alumni Association Facebook page.

• 1909 Senior Annual
• 1911 'Levenite
• 1914 The Argos
• 1917 The '17 Packet
• 1920 The Cauldron
• 1923 White Lick Review
• 1925 White Lick Review
• 1930 Arch Wisdom

To see digitized MHS yearbooks from 1946-2017, please visit the Mooresville Public Library website.

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MEMORIES OF MOORESVILLE (VIDEO)

The Mooresville High School Alumni Association has uploaded the complete video, Memories of Mooresville (2011), to YouTube.  Click the player (below) to watch the entire video, or visit Mooresville Public Library to checkout a physical copy on DVD (learn more from this blog post).

Memories of Mooresville (2011)

by Andrew Marine Video Productions

(courtesy of the Mooresville Alumni YouTube channel)

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TAKE THE DOWNTOWN TOUR

Take our "virtual" walking tour (click link below) of historic downtown Mooresville, Indiana.  Then, using this handout, walk the self-guided route yourself.

• "Virtual" Walking Tour of Historic Downtown Mooresville, Indiana
• "Virtual" Walking Tour (Video)
  
• Self-Guided Walking Tour of Historic Downtown Mooresville, Indiana
• Handout
  

 

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FAMOUS MOORESVILLIANS

Do you recognize these famous folks who hailed from Mooresville, Indiana? Find out here.

 

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Moore & Pearce's Pool Hall in Downtown Mooresville

Moore & Pearce ad from the

1923 Mooresville High School

yearbook, White Lick Review

(click image to enlarge)

In the 1920s, Moore & Pearce operated a pool hall in the basement of the Lindley Block at One West Main Street in downtown Mooresville, Indiana.  (The Lindley Block burned down on December 27, 1925.)  It was there that John Dillinger appeared following his aborted holdup of Frank Morgan, owner of the West End Grocery on West High Street. During the robbery attempt, Dillinger had struck Morgan with an iron rod, severely injuring him.  Later, at Moore & Pearce's pool hall, Dillinger asked about Morgan's condition, before news of the assault had reached there.  This made listeners suspicious, some of whom repeated Dillinger's comments to Mooresville Town Marshall Greeson.  This lead to Dillinger's arrest.

Some sources suggest that, prior to the robbery attempt, Dillinger was at Moore & Pearce's drinking with his cousin, Edgar Singleton, with whom he hatched the robbery plot.  According to some researchers, it was Singleton who persuaded Dillinger to commit the crime.

Watch the video below to learn more about Dillinger's attempted holdup.

John Dillinger's Hometown Holdup

(Mooresville Moments #7)

by Mooresville Public Library