Death of a Gangster

July 22, 1934 — At 10:50 p.m., John Dillinger was pronounced dead after being gunned down by federal agents of the Bureau of Investigation (the forerunner of the FBI) outside Chicago’s Biograph Theater.

 The ambush was arranged with the help of Anna Sage, a Romanian-born madam facing deportation. Hoping to secure her place in America, she agreed to accompany Dillinger and his girlfriend, Polly Hamilton, to the movies and identify him to the agents by wearing a conspicuous orange dress.

 When the trio emerged from the theater, Agent Melvin Purvis lit a cigarette — the signal to close in. Dillinger spotted the trap and bolted for a nearby alley, but the agents opened fire. He was struck several times, with a fatal shot passing through the back of his neck and out below his right eye. He collapsed and died almost instantly.

 Under the Biograph’s lights, Sage’s orange dress appeared red, and she passed into legend as the “Woman in Red.” But despite her cooperation, she was deported to Romania, where she lived out her life in obscurity.