SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The 1933 Ford V8 police car that John Dillinger stole from an Indiana sheriff during his daring escape from a Crown Point jail in 1934 is up for auction.
The meticulously restored Ford V8 is estimated to be worth between $100,000 and $250,000. A hefty sum that still falls short of the $300,000 that the Dillinger Gang is accused of stealing during their heyday (a sum that would be equivalent of roughly $6 million today).
Born in Indianapolis, John Dillinger may be one of the most infamous bank robber in United States history who was known for his daring jail breaks and bank stickups throughout the Midwest during the Depression-era. At one point, Dillinger was named “public enemy number one” by the FBI.
Dillinger’s escape from the Crown Point jail that authorities called “escape proof” ended up being one of his most infamous acts, along with being a fatal one. Using a fake gun whittled from wood, Dillinger rounded up the Indiana deputies and escaped in Sheriff Lillian Holley’s Ford V8.
But the theft of the Ford was the very crime that brought the FBI into the manhunt for Dillinger. A manhunt that ended in Chicago where special agents shot and killed Dillinger on July 22, 1934, only two months after fellow notorious criminals Bonnie and Clyde were gunned down.
The very same Ford V8 Dillinger used to escape Crown Point jail has been on display at the California Automobile Museum in Sacramento and can now become yours — if you’ve a few hundred thousand dollars to spare.
Other Dillinger items that will be part of the Witherell’s Auction House include the wooden gun whittled by Dillinger in his Crown Point cell, Dillinger’s hat recovered from a shootout in Wisconsin, a bullet proof vest reportedly worn by Dillinger in bank robberies and vintage photographs, newspapers, wanted posters and more from the 1930s.
More than 200 items from the Dillinger era will be included as part of the auction. Bidding for the Ford V8 and other items is currently underway at Witherell’s Auction House website.
Auctions on other memorabilia from the era are available here.
Bidding closes on August 27.
Dillinger is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis. Several years ago, a relative of Dillinger wanted to exhume the notorious criminal’s grave as part of a planned documentary by the History Channel. Crown Hill Cemetery refused and the family member attempted to sue the cemetery but a judge dismissed the lawsuit. The History Channel canceled the documentary.
