Wheels Blog: John Dillinger’s Terraplane Revisits His Childhood Home

Janine Vaccarello/Crime Museum John Dillinger’s Terraplane on display at the Indianapolis International Airport.

An eight-cylinder 1933 Essex Terraplane briefly used by the notorious bank robber and jail escapee John Dillinger is on display at the Indianapolis International Airport, where, according to airport representatives, it is attracting crowds of visitors.

Associated Press John Dillinger

The car is owned by the Crime Museum in Washington, but has been shown at various other locations for the past four years. It was a guest at Baltimore-Washington Airport for two years, spent two more at the Richmond Convention Center and has now arrived in Indianapolis, where it appears roped off near the ticket counters. The Essex will be at the airport until March 2015.

“I saw people taking pictures of each other in front of it this morning,” the airport’s spokesman, Carlo Bertolini, said in a telephone interview. “They appreciate the chance to see an historic car. This one has a notorious past, but it’s one that’s linked to local history.”

Dillinger was born in Indianapolis in 1903, committed many of his early crimes there, and also served his first prison term in the state — at the Indiana State Reformatory in Pendleton, according to Biography.com. The Essex didn’t enter the picture until much later in Dillinger’s career, after many robberies and a number of jailbreaks.

In March 1934, Dillinger escaped from Crown Point Prison in Indiana, reportedly stole the sheriff’s car, and drove to Chicago. That same month, according to the Crime Museum, he acquired the Essex and used it briefly.

“The car is so representative of John Dillinger,” Janine Vaccarello, chief operating officer of the Crime Museum, said in a telephone interview. “He loved fast cars, which is how he was able to escape from law enforcement so often.”

On March 31, 1934 in St. Paul, Dillinger used the Essex to escape a shootout with the police — he took one bullet in the left leg and the car took two, which can still be seen in the front cowl panel.

In early April, Dillinger and his brother, Hubert, crashed the Essex in an Indiana farm field, and the car’s crime spree was over. Dillinger’s life on the lam was almost over, too — he was shot to death at the Biograph Theater in Chicago on July 22, 1934.

Ownership of the Essex was transferred to Dillinger’s brother, who repaired it, Ms. Vaccarello said. The car remained in the Indianapolis area for many years. The Crime Museum acquired it around 2007 from a Colorado-based collector of Dillinger artifacts. The car, originally black, is said to be drivable, though it has been drained of fluids for display.

The next stop for this much-traveled car may be Chicago, Ms. Vaccarello said. “We’re hoping to take it from John Dillinger’s birth place to his death site,” she said.