The 'Dillinger' gangster who grew up across the river – part 2

From the archives of the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library:

At the end of last week's article, John 'Red' Hamilton and John Dillinger, key members of the John Dillinger Gang and constantly on the run from the law for their history of robbing banks and murders, had narrowly escaped from being captured in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan by federal government agents, while visiting John's sister, Mrs. Anna Steve.

The Dillinger Gang, after being on the run for quite some time and having lost many of their original members, had welcomed Baby Face Nelson into the fold. He accompanied the gang on an ill-fated vacation to a rural Wisconsin Lodge called Little Bohemia.

Instead of relaxation, they found themselves under attack by J. Edgar Hoover's federal agents. The agents arrived on Sunday, April 22, 1934, and pumped a hail of bullets into the building. The raid was considered an epic failure as not a single fugitive was killed or captured, and an innocent man lost his life along with a government agent.

Only the wives and girlfriends of the gangsters were apprehended, and they were a tight-lipped bunch. The day after the New Bohemia raid proved to be a turning point for Hamilton who was purportedly seriously wounded in the back by police as the desperados were on the run with every possible law enforcement agency on the hunt for them.

After evading the cops and stealing a different car, they headed for Chicago to get medical attention for Hamilton, but the Chicago underworld would not allow any doctor to tend to his wounds. Dillinger‟s gang had become too high profile and were causing too much police attention which was threatening illegal business and their profits in the city.

Red was then taken to Aurora, Illinois where it was claimed that he succumbed to his wounds. He was supposedly buried in a deep grave and four cans of lye were poured over the body. This was all according to Dillinger who had lied before about Hamilton being dead when in reality he had merely been lying low and recovering from a gunshot wound.

For quite some time there was no news about the Dillinger gang until it was reported on July 22, 1935, that Dillinger had met his demise, in a hail of gunfire, in front of the Biograph movie theatre in Chicago.

Then on Aug. 28, 1935, federal agents uncovered a body in Oswego, Illinois. The body was hurriedly identified as Hamilton, and Edgar Hoover and his agents were lauded in the media for winning the war on crime. But there were many inconsistencies in the story of Hamilton's death.

The book Running With Dillinger: The story of Red Hamilton and other Forgotten Canadian Outlaws by Edward Butts, does an excellent job of pointing out the many discrepancies in the story.

Firstly, Hamilton was supposedly in a deep grave, not a shallow one. Second, how would federal agents just “come across” his unmarked grave?

They maintained that local workers had noticed “suspicious stunted growth” in the area, but there can be stunted growth just about anywhere for a host of different reasons. According to author Edward Butts, the location of the grave was probably provided by the wife of Baby Face Nelson who was released from jail the day after the discovery of the body and her probation included a condition of secrecy.

The corpse itself afforded some other mysteries. The body was greatly decomposed due to the use of lye, so facial recognition or fingerprinting was impossible. Teeth were extracted and sent to the dentist at Michigan City Penitentiary. He identified them as Hamilton‟s but there is some controversy concerning whether or not he even worked on Hamilton, not to mention, the science behind forensic identification by dental records was still rudimentary.

There was also no mention of the body missing the requisite two fingers from the right hand (which he had lost during his childhood in the American Soo), or of another part of a finger he lost during a shootout in Chicago.

Two family members accepted publicly that Hamilton was dead. A brother, William J. Hamilton is said to have called John “the brains” of the Dillinger gang. J. Edgar Hoover retorted that Hamilton was a “cold calculating rat.”

Stories from Hamilton's family coming to light bring new twists to the story and possible evidence that Hamilton never died of this wound at all, but instead was able to escape punishment for his crimes and hideaway.

The book Running with Dillinger: The Story of Red Hamilton and other forgotten Canadian outlaws put forth the recollections of Bruce Hamilton. John 'Red' Hamilton was his great uncle. Bruce maintains that his great uncle survived his gunshot wounds and ended up living a long life in the Canadian wilderness.

This begs the question – whose body was in the shallow grave in Oswego? Some believe it to be the body of Dr. Joseph P. Moran, the doctor to many illustrious gangsters who disappeared in 1934. He reportedly refused to treat Hamilton.

According to Bruce Hamilton, when no medical help could be found for Red, Dillinger brought him to his brother in East Gary, Indiana who was able to find a doctor who could save him. He was then sent to Bruce Hamilton‟s grandfather in South Bend, Indiana where he was then spirited away to a secluded spot in a place called Rum Village Woods. Bruce's father Wilton would sneak out with food for him.

He was then taken to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario for more medical treatment. When he had healed further, he was put to work in a family-owned bowling alley. He was able to hide in plain sight as law enforcement had been told unequivocally that he was dead.

In 1945, Bruce's father Wilton started making trips to Northern Wisconsin under the guise that he was hunting deer. In reality, he was hunting for loot buried by the Dillinger gang before they were forced to flee from the New Bohemia Lodge. His search was a success - he found the treasure in 1947 and was supposedly awarded $10,000 by Red for his efforts.

In 1950 or 51, Bruce recalls a trip to Sault, Michigan to visit Anna Steve, Red's sister. He also remembers crossing the border to Canada and visiting a home in the woods on a dirt road. There he met his great uncle John and was told to tell no one about the trip.

Meanwhile, Red Hamilton's brother Foye was released from jail and mysteriously seemed to be quite rich. He set up a machine shop in Rockford, Illinois and then bought an island in Canada on Turtle Lake near the town of Atikokan. In the 50's this was quite an isolated area so Foye purchased a floatplane and boats to get there and built a large cabin.

The money for these ventures is believed to have come from Red and was the proceeds of his crimes that were found for him by Wilton. Red is said to have lived into his 70's on the island.

The notorious gangster and former “Public Enemy Number One” may have happily spent his retirement back in the country of his birth, hidden from prying eyes, alive and well, hunting and fishing in the wilderness. To read more about John 'Red' Hamilton, the book, Running with Dillinger: The Story of Red Hamilton and other forgotten Canadian outlaws can be borrowed through Hoopla, which can be accessed from the public library‟s website, www.ssmpl.ca

Each week, the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library and its Archives provides SooToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past.

Find out more of what the Public Library has to offer at www.ssmpl.ca and look for more Remember This? columns here