Heritage Auctions To Offer John Dillinger's Guns, Letters and Personal Effects

What is, without doubt, the greatest collection of John Dillinger artifacts ever to be assembled and offered for public auction will take place Dec. 12, at Heritage Auctions' December Signature Arms, Militaria and Civil War Auction at the company's Uptown Dallas gallery. The grouping comes to Heritage Auctions straight from Dillinger's half-sister, Frances Helen Dillinger, just 12 years old when Dillinger was killed on July 22, 1934.

The collection includes personal letters from Dillinger, the timepiece he was wearing when he was shot in Chicago, three different personal firearms belonging to him, and what is doubtless the most iconic of all Dillinger items, the wooden gun he used to escape from the Crown Point, Ind. Jail.

To generations of Americans, John Dillinger is the most famous bank robber to ever have captured the public imagination; to Frances Helen Dillinger, however, he is remembered simply and fondly as her big brother. The legendary criminal — half Robin Hood and half Public Enemy #1 — actually named her for his two favorite girlfriends.

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