True Crime Historian presents Yesterday's News, a reading from America's historic newspapers.

I'm Richard O. Jones, here to present Chapter 1 of The Gangster Chronicles, a special edition of yesterday's news,

focusing on the notorious scoundrels of the Prohibition and Depression eras.

We're going to begin this series with newspaper accounts of the Trail of Terror blazed by one of America's most famous, dare I say, most beloved gangsters, John Dillinger.

From the time he was paroled from the Michigan City

prison in May, 1933, to the time he was gunned down by police on the Chicago sidewalk 14

months later, John Herbert Dillinger was one of America's most notorious scoundrels. In this

ongoing series, The Gangster Chronicles,

True Crime Historian will take a look at the newspapers of the era to see how Dillinger's

reputation and legend grew. Bear in mind that we are reading from the first draft of history

and that there may be factual errors and inaccuracies. Notorious as he was, Dillinger was

often blamed, or credited, if you will, of crimes he may not have committed. Chapter

1 will detail some of Dillinger's earliest known robberies and his murderous escape from

the Lima Jail. And now,

Chapter 1 of The Gangster Chronicles. Muncie, Indiana, July 18, 1933, 233. Two bandits who cleaned cash drawers and vaults of the

Commercial Bank of Daleville of $3,500 yesterday appeared to have escaped without leaving a clue.

The hold-up was accomplished quietly and systematically, and the bandits drove away

in a waiting automobile before the alarm could be sounded.

It happened at noon, when the summer sun was beating down mercilessly on the streets and

flat-roof buildings, when many Hoosiers were adopting the Spanish custom of a midday siesta.

Everyone in the bank had gone home to lunch. Mr. J. N. Bernard and a girl clerk, Margaret Good, were the first to return.

The girl was in the bank alone, Mr. Bernard having gone up the street to visit with a friend for a few minutes.

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