John Dillinger’s corpse meets his adoring fans. July 23, 1934.
JD met death at 10:50pm on July 22nd 1934, walking out of a late night movie arm in arm with his best girl. Hordes of FBI agents ambushed the fearsome Dillinger and he died in a hail of gunfire, cursing those g-man rats with his dying breath!
Ah, I can’t lie to you good folks. It wasn’t that romantic. As he came out of the theater, they closed in. There were three agents. The plan was to take him alive but Dillinger saw them and panicked, drew first and ran down a dark alley. They then drew their weapons & called out for him to stop. 5 shots were fired by the g-men and 3 shots hit Dillinger in the back. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Fun fact: The FBI’s July 2019 Artifact of the Month was the death mask of John Dillinger.
On this day, 7 August 1970, the Marin County courthouse incident took place when 17-year-old Jonathan Jackson attempted gain the freedom of the Soledad Brothers, three Black prisoners charged with the murder of a prison guard. George Jackson, Jonathan’s brother, John Clutchette and Fleeta Drumgo were accused of killing a white guard in retaliation for the prior killing of three Black prisoners by another white guard. Jonathan Jackson brought three guns into the courtroom, armed the defendants, including Black Panther Ruchell Cinque Magee and took the judge, prosecutor and three jurors hostage. The aim was then to demand the freedom of the Soledad Brothers. But as the group drove away, a firefight broke out in which four people were killed, including Jackson, all of the defendants except one, and the judge. The guns used by Jackson were registered to Angela Davis, who was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping and murder, and was later acquitted of all charges. The only surviving defendant, Magee, was subsequently imprisoned for life, where he remains today.
Davis later penned a collection of writings about her imprisonment and the US criminal justice system, available here: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/if-they-come-in-the-morning-angela-davishttps://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2052575461594260/?type=3
