This is the 1933 Ford V-8 stolen by John Dillinger and Herbert Youngblood from Sheriff Lillian Holley to escape from the heavily guarded jail in Crown Point, Indiana on March 3, 1934.

During his escape, he managed to lock up 20 guards, all the jail staff, take two machine guns, and a number of pistols from the jail’s arsenal by brandishing a wooden pistol he had whittled in his cell. He then forced deputy sheriff Ernest Blunk and mechanic Edward Seger to accompany him in the sheriff’s car. They were later released near Peotone, Illinois.

Once in Chicago, he took officers along on two high-speed chases but avoided capture by wielding his newly acquired machine gun.

The next day, Sheriff Holley's Ford V-8 was found abandoned on Chicago's northside next to an apartment building at 1057 Ardmore Ave. This ended up being the most famous jailbreak in US history, with newspapers from around the country making John Dillinger more famous than any movie star of the era. He was wanted dead or alive, and was named “public enemy number one.”

Dillinger had yet to commit any federal crimes at this point, but that would soon change when he drove the stolen Ford across state lineS into Illinois, committing a federal crime in violation of the Dryer Act, and allowing J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI to officially begin pursuing him.

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Come see this piece of history in person until August and catch a glimpse at the life of a gangster in the era of the Great Depression!