John Dillinger's getaway car now on display at State Museum

INDIANAPOLIS -- The getaway car used by Indiana native and criminal legend John Dillinger, a 1933 Essex Terraplane, is now on display at the Indiana State Museum.

The car used in bank robberies has been permanently housed at the National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, D.C. It was previously on view at the Indianapolis International Airport and will remain on display at the museum until March 2015.

"Dillinger's car is a living piece of an American crime story," Indiana State Museum Vice President of Marketing Aja May said.

"While Dillinger wasn't a bootlegger, it ties in nicely with our upcoming fall exhibition 'American Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition.' The exhibition will take us back in time to another era involving real-life crime legends like Al Capone. The car's crime connection will indirectly help us prime our audience for the fall show."

On Oct. 23, 1933, Dillinger and his gang made their biggest score ever, robbing Central National Bank in Greencastle on the south side of the courthouse square of $75,000 in cash and negotiable bonds.

The car was not used, however, in the Greencastle heist, although the money taken might have funded its purchase.

Dillinger bought the Essex in March 1934 from the Potthoff Brothers Motor Co. in St. Paul, Minn., and used it until April 7, 1934 when he and his brother Hubert crashed the car in a farm field.

On March 31, 1934 in St. Paul, Dillinger and his girlfriend, Evelyn Frechette, escaped a shootout with the police. Dillinger took a bullet in his left leg and two slugs can still be seen from the front cowl panel of the Essex.

Dillinger was finally caught and killed by law enforcement officers on July 22, 1934 at the Biograph Theatre in Chicago.