John Dillinger Museum In Indiana Opens For Preview
(CBS) -- March 3 marks 81 years since the still famous or infamous John Dillinger fled from the Crown Point Indiana jail using a carved wooden pistol.
The owners of the John Dillinger Museum used the escape anniversary for a sneak preview of the remodeled museum which will formally reopen July 22, another auspicious day, the day he was gunned down by FBI bullets outside Chicago's Biograph Theater.
Museum owner Spiros Batistatos says the exhibit focuses mostly on Dillinger's bloody end though it does acknowledge he was regarded as something of a Robin Hood by those suffering through the great depression, which many blamed on the banks Dillinger was robbing.
Batistatos says the exhibit is serious history, not just blood and guts. He says it explains how Dillinger helped upgrade law enforcement by stimulating the FBI's "Most Wanted List," and spurring Indiana State Police to first install radios in their cars to head off Dillinger's mobile crew.