[Josh] John Dillinger was one of the most wanted men in America.
How much money did he get away with?
In today's money, just under $11 million.
Wow.
[Stewart] There's actually a good portion of it that was never recovered.
So this is one of the guns that John Dillinger
stole from the LA County Sheriff's Department.
- Like the actual gun? - Yes.
[gunfire]
[laughs, whoops]
[Josh] You have an idea where it might be?
[Stewart] He decided to go to his family farm.
Home is where the heart is.
It also might be where the money is.
[metal detector beeping, whirs]
Whoa, whoa, whoa. [chuckles]
Look at that!
Things go bad up here, right?
Things go real bad up here.
[gunfire]
- [Josh] Oh, look at this! - [man] Here we go.
[Stewart] I'm thinking, is this some kind of evidence,
crime someone didn't want found?
[Josh] So either on land or in the water.
- [metal detector whirring] - Definitely manmade, incredible.
For many, the Great Depression ushered in some of the darkest days
in American history,
but it heralded a golden age for a new breed of outlaw.
Violent and highly organized bank robbers
and none were more charismatic or more wanted
than John Dillinger.
He knocked over more than a dozen banks,
running from the law with a brazen and well-armed gang.
To the cash strapped masses, Dillinger became a kind of Robin Hood,
a rogue with a pension for fast cars
and beautiful women.
To J. Edgar Hoover and to the burgeoning FBI,
he was a dangerous villain and a PR nightmare.
By the time the Bureau gunned Dillinger down on the streets of Chicago,
his gang had made off with the equivalent
of millions of dollars, much of it never recovered.
Now, Dillinger's stolen cash may be within reach.
Armed with a trove of government documents,
a former FBI agent has just made a major find
in Dillinger's hometown, that could lead to a buried stash.
And in the woods, surrounding a remote Wisconsin Lodge,
investigators are hot on the trail of a suitcase
packed with plunder.
So grab your badge and join me on a manhunt
a century in the making,
to uncover the true nature of an American legend
and to crack the case of Dillinger's lost loot wide open.
- My name is Josh Gates. - Hello.
Explorer, adventurer.
This is sick.
Help!
And a guy who ends up in some very strange situations.
Oh, [bleep]. Whoo! That was exciting.
With a degree in archaeology and a passion
for the unexplained.
- [whoops] - I travel to the ends of the earth,
investigating the greatest legends in history.
Let's punch it.
This is Expedition Unknown.
March 3rd, 1934,
the jail in Crown Point, Indiana,
prisoners are free to leave their cells to stretch their legs.
Among them, America's most notorious bank robber,
John Dillinger.
And right about now.
A prison custodian makes a critical mistake.
He opens the outer door before ensuring
the prisoners are back in their cells.
Dillinger seizes the moment.
Using a wooden gun that he stashed
for just such an opportunity.
He makes his move.
Taking a hostage to facilitate his escape
and racing toward his life's final chapter,
and a bloody crime spree that would make him
Public Enemy Number One.
More than 80 years after the infamous jailbreak,
I'm back at the scene of the crime to meet retired FBI agent.
Real deal G-man, Stewart Fillmore.
- Stewart. - Josh.
- Hey, man. - Hey.
- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
This is an incredible building.
It is really a time capsule.
We are actually in what was in those days was the book.
- And speaking of the law. - Mm-hmm.
- You were with the FBI for how long? - For 29 years.
- Wow. - Yeah.
And what sort of cases would you work, what was your specialty?
Um, my specialty was public corruption,
and I worked financial crimes and civil rights cases,
participated in numerous other cases like bank robberies and kidnappings.
Okay, so, John Dillinger territory.
John Dillinger territory.
And I know you're a real Dillinger aficionado,
when did that start for you?
Probably when I was nine years old,
when I saw the 1973 Warren Oates movie Dillinger.
[Josh] Right.
In fact, Dillinger has been immortalized
and somewhat romanticized in at least a dozen different films,
including a portrayal by Johnny Depp in 2009.
And is the Hollywood portrayal of him true?
I mean, was he all the things we think of him as?
He was a charismatic guy, he was, you know,
the whole flashy kind of almost a celebrity, really.
But you know when you peel a couple of layers back of the onion,
he had a really almost a contradictory personality,
one hand, you know, capable of violent crime,
and on the other hand, he was, you know, a likable, affable guy.
And this is him here?
Yeah, that's him right there, leaning on the prosecuting attorney.
- [laughs] - This is the guy who's prosecuting?
That is the guy that's trying him for murder.
And this is Dillinger, it looks like he doesn't have a care in the world.
- Not a care in the world. - Right.
[Josh] Accused of killing a police officer during a bank robbery
in East Chicago.
Dillinger seemed to enjoy his newfound infamy.
And ultimately we know he breaks out of this jail.
Yes.
And what does he do when he hits the front door?
Well, when he hits the front door, he takes the sheriff's car.
I mean, [laughs] he actually steals Sheriff Lillian Holley's car.
There's a picture of her right there.
- And he took her car. - Her car.
Oh, no, that's not good.
It was a Ford V8, one of the fastest cars of its day.
Three days later, Dillinger's robbing a bank.
The other thing about Dillinger that really surprised me
in reading up on him is how short his criminal career was.
- Yes. - His whole crime spree is how long?
Just a little over a year.
[Josh] In that one year, how many banks does he knock over?
Twelve for certain, okay.
Um, he was accused and as many as 24.
How much money did he get away with?
Just over $600,000, which in today's money
is just under $11 million.
And there's actually a good portion of it that was never recovered.
Now one of the reasons I'm very excited to meet you
is that I know that you've been looking into
this question of his lost money
and you have an idea where it might be.
- I do. - A good idea?
I think it's a very good and fruitful idea.
Okay, well, I'm very interested in that
and the other thing I'm interested in
is how did Dillinger pull off stealing $11 million?
Well, in each bank robbery,
each gang member had their own specific assignment,
- and it was carried out with a very strict schedule. - Right.
You know, we're only going to be in the vault
for three minutes, in and out, in and out.
He's taking bank robbery and he's turning it into a science.
Absolutely.
Like a real life Ocean's Eleven,
meticulous planning went into every heist,
they would case targets
and follow a coordinated timetable.
Dillinger would vault over bank counters,
earning him the nickname, Jackrabbit.
But to reveal what really gave the gang their edge.
Stewart leads me to the current Lake County police headquarters
for a very special meeting with the sheriff.
- This Sheriff Oscar Martinez. - Hi, nice to meet you.
- Please to meet you. - This is Commander Stahl.
- Nice to meet you, how are you? - I'm great, thanks.
Well, I think you'd be really interested to see what we have here for you.
Okay, what do we have?
- A Thompson submachine gun. - [exclaims]
[Josh] Here in the heart of the Police Training Center,
the vault has opened on a piece of American criminal history.
So this is one of the guns that John Dillinger stole
from the LA County Sheriff's Department during his escape.
- Like the actual gun? - Yes.
Wow.
How would you like to give it a try?
- It fires? - Absolutely.
Uh, yes.
Everybody should back away.
Developed for trench warfare in World War I.
The tommy gun was embraced by organized crime
during Prohibition,
earning it the nickname The Chicago Typewriter.
The drum magazine holds 50 .45 caliber bullets.
- It is on safe right now. - Yep.
That means you cannot pull the trigger back,
flip this around, now the gun can fire, okay?
- You are in single shot mode. - Copy.
- It is all yours. - Thanks, sir.
That's Stewart, what's your confidence here in me
- at this point? - About a three.
- Out of five? - Out of 10.
Ah, Jesus.
[gunfire]
Dead on. Safe? Good job.
I mean I'm doing all right.
- Josh, I think you're ready for sniper school. - Yeah?
Yeah.
After a few single fire test rounds.
- Okay, we're going to full auto? - Yes, sir.
It's time to say hello to my little friend.
[gunfire]
Set to fully automatic,
this 1921 model can pump out a staggering 900 rounds a minute.
Shredding everything in its path.
[gunfire]
- [laughs, whoops] - Good job.
So, Josh, you see how powerful this weapon is.
- Oh, it's crazy. - So just imagine that the Dillinger gang
was going up against cops and guards
who were carrying .38 special revolvers.
- Right. - Yeah, it's like a peashooter essentially
compared to that, you're actually holding history in your hand.
That's not lost on me that the experience of firing a gun,
you know that Dillinger himself may have fired.
- Exactly. - It connects you to the past in a really primal way.
- Yes. - All right, so now I understand
- how Dillinger stole all this money. - Yes.
- So let's get back to the other question. - Okay.
Where is it?
- I'll show you. - Just that easy?
It's that easy.
I think for everybody's safety,
I'm going to give this back to you now. There you go.
- Perfect. - [Josh] Cheers. Thanks, sir.
[Stahl] Thank you.
[Josh] So, with meticulous planning and military grade weaponry.
The Dillinger gang made off with a fortune in cash
and bonds,
much of it lost to history.
Now, Stewart's working with investigators
who have unearthed a new lead 150 miles south of Crown Point
in Mooresville, Indiana.
John Dillinger's hometown.
When we think of the people like Dillinger.
We don't think of him as a kid, as a boy.
- Yes. - What was his childhood like?
I think Dillinger was a restless child,
I think he was rebellious, Dillinger had actually kind of
started running, uh, with, I think what his father
thought was a bad element.
Dillinger was born in the city of Indianapolis in 1903,
but his father then moved the family here to the country,
but it wasn't enough to keep John out of trouble.
In 1924, Dillinger commits his first serious crime,
along with his buddy Ed Singleton,
Dillinger knocks over a local grocery store,
badly beating the owner.
The judge throws the book at him.
Just 21 years old, John Dillinger is sentenced
to 10 to 20 years for assault and battery with intent to rob.
When he's finally paroled at the age of 30,
he emerges a fully formed criminal.
So it's like this one event
at this grocery store
completely alters the course of his life?
Yes.
[Josh] In prison,
John Dillinger hooks up with seasoned bank robbers,
Handsome Harry Pierpont and Fat Charles Makley.
The gang later recruits
notorious killer, Baby Face Nelson.
Dillinger becomes a Depression era Robin Hood
celebrated for sticking it to the man
by sticking up banks.
But fame has its price.
After a string of bank robberies,
he is again caught and captured
and sent to Crown Point for trial.
After his infamous jailbreak
where he makes off with the sheriff's car,
Dillinger rendezvous with his girlfriend,
Evelyn Billie Frechette.
[Stewart] He decided to go to his family farm.
- [Josh] He went home? - [Stewart] He went home.
Home is where the heart is.
You know, it also might be where the money is.
[Josh] Aha! So we're going to the Dillinger farm?
[Stewart] We're going to the Dillinger farm.
[Josh] I'm eager to hear
what Stewart has uncovered here.
And just past the house
where John spent his formative years,
and where he posed for a now famous portrait
when he returned home on April 8th, 1934...
I meet Stewart's investigation team.
- [Josh] Hey, guys. - [Stewart] Hey, guys.
- Hey. - Hey.
Josh, this is Shane...
- Shane. - Nice to meet you.
- ...Mike... - Mike.
...and Travis.
Hey, how are you? Nice to meet you.
[Stewart] This is Josh Gates.
[Josh] So, okay.
You think there might be something significant
hidden here at the farm?
Absolutely.
Okay. I mean, look, logically, that makes sense.
Question is, is there any evidence to support that?
- Oh, yeah, there is. - There is.
There definitely is.
[Stewart] Well, we found something
that justifies what we're talking about.
- You wanna see it? - Yes, I wanna see it.
Here it is.
You found a broken jar?
What's inside was the big deal.
What was in this?
This was inside this jar?
[Stewart] Inside the jar.
[Josh] Are you kidding me?
[Josh] Infamous bank robber, John Dillinger,
is rumored to have stashed cash and savings bonds
on his father's farm in Mooresville, Indiana.
Now, a search team
being led by ex-FBI agent, Stewart Fillmore,
is on the case.
You think there might be something significant
hidden here at the farm?
- Yes, we do. - [Stewart] We do, yes.
I think the best source is
a legend from the Dillinger family themselves.
Mike Thompson is Dillinger's nephew
and Travis is his great-nephew.
- [Josh] Really? - [Travis chuckles]
I'm the closest living relative
other than my sister.
You can say, you know,
John's father is our grandfather.
Wow. You're not gonna rob me, are you?
- [Mike] Not yet. - [Josh] Okay.
-[all laughing]
And this is a family story
that there was money hidden here at the farm?
Yeah. There was always stories amongst the family
that there was definitely... could have been money hid.
[Josh] With generations of family reports
that loot was buried on the farm,
the team begins to search the property.
Stewart's shovel smashed a buried mason jar.
What they found inside
may rewrite the story of Public Enemy No. 1.
Are you kidding me?
A 1934 Shell roadmap.
[Josh] This was inside this jar?
[Stewart] Inside the jar.
And do we know anything about the jar?
[Stewart] It's also from the same time period.
It was manufactured between 1923 and 1933.
And you dug this up where?
Just a few feet from here on the property.
[Josh] This is so crazy to me.
Be prepared to look back into history.
[Josh] Ready?
[chuckling] Oh! Look at this!
- Yep. - It's marked up.
It is.
[Josh] Okay, so we've got this blue line
that goes all over.
I mean, really, top to bottom...
Yes.
...across the middle part of the country here.
And it goes through where?
That's Great Falls, Montana.
Great Falls, Montana up until Winnipeg, Canada...
south through Iowa, Kansas City, Wichita,
and then a bunch of things coming out of Little Rock.
...that seem to form an arrow.
- [Josh] Oh, this you mean? - [Stewart] Uh-huh.
[Mike] You can see it really well.
And then are these all dates?
Yes.
August 4th, July 29th, July 14th, June 22nd...
I mean, did theses dates line up to robberies
or significant events?
[Stewart] June 22nd, that's his birthday.
That can't be an accident.
But the other dates
do not match up to any known bank robberies.
Could this have been a future route
or banks they wanted to hit or something?
Possible. It was buried for a reason.
- Yeah. - He didn't want this found.
- [Josh] Right. - So what is it hiding?
What's it's meaning?
[Josh] This is an astounding artefact.
It is.
But how do we know it's his?
The same weekend that John and Billie came here,
John took a trip with his brother, Hubert.
Hubert who was driving,
fell asleep and wrecked the car.
When the FBI and the Indiana State Police,
uh, found the wreck, they recovered
a 1934 Indiana Shell roadmap
that had strange numbers written on it.
[Josh] There was another Shell map
- with weird markings on it... - Yes.
- ...found in a Dillinger car? - Yes.
It was a car that...
- I mean, you're home. - Yes.
- You're home. - Yes.
That's amazing.
This really has an excellent chance of being
an authentic part of this Dillinger story.
Yes.
This is really, really cool.
It's an untold story.
[Josh] And especially with the stories
that money was buried on this farm,
that may mean that there's more here to find.
That's actually the next stage of our investigation
is to scan with GPR, Ground Penetrating Radar,
metal detect it,
um, and really do a thorough search.
I'm ready to work. Let's go.
Everybody, pick up a shovel. Come on.
[Josh] We gear up to scour the old Dillinger property.
[machine beeps]
With a ton of ground to cover,
we divide and conquer.
[metal detector beeping]
Mike and I work our way
along the edge of the property,
while Stewart, Shane, and Travis
in what used to be the Dillinger orchard.
[metal detector beeping]
Got a good hit here.
[metal detector beeping]
Let's get a shovel in there and see what we got.
That's it, right there.
[Josh] And soon, Shane's team gets a hit as well.
- [metal detector beeping] - Right there.
You want me to dig right where that's at?
Yeah, right in the center,
right about where that leaf is.
What have you got?
There's something. I keep hitting it.
It's down in this hole.
[grunts]
[metal detector beeping]
We got something here.
Hey, I found a nut.
There it is, the wrench.
- A wrench. - We found a wrench.
Found a wrench!
We're one bolt away
from a home improvement project right now.
[man laughing]
Man, it looks pretty old to me.
This is about where the barn was.
Okay.
It could have been Grandad's tool.
- That would make sense. - Yeah.
Well, we're finding stuff. It's a start.
[metal detectors beeping]
[Josh] Our detectors keep beeping.
[metal detector beeping]
Yeah, we got a hit here.
[Josh] But all we pull out of the ground
is scrap metal.
Nail.
To kick this search into high gear,
Shane is bringing out the big guns,
Ground Penetrating Radar.
There are radio waves. They generate from the box,
they go down, once they hit an object,
it bounces back up and displays on our screen.
We're looking for evidence of ground that's been
churned up where something might have been buried.
And so, here in Indiana, in this kind of soil,
you're typically able to see down about how far?
- Four to six feet. - [Josh] Four to six feet.
[Josh] Stewart and his team
continue to search with metal detectors
working their way into a gully the bulky radar can't reach,
while I run tracks on the flat ground.
- Oh, wow. - Big hit.
Oh! Look at that.
Even I...
can tell that that is an anomaly.
We're looking at right about two feet down.
We got something over here.
The ginger beard club is on fire...
[chuckling]
...today.
I think there's a good chance, by the way,
that Mike and I might be related.
Does anybody else see that?
[all laughing]
[Josh] The signature is strong.
So we dig it right away.
[knocking]
There's something there.
Okay. Let's see what we got here.
It is...
a giant rock.
Okay.
[Josh] We flag more anomalies with the radar.
It's something.
Huge rock...
And unearth more buried boulders.
...is what that is.
[rock 'n' roll music playing]
Can you guys just dig a hole big enough for me and just lay me down in it?
- Is that possible? - Sure.
Appreciate that.
Meanwhile, in the ravine...
All right, what do we got here?
[laughs]
-Is that a "B"? -That is a "B". Look at that.
Oh, yeah.
[Stewart over radio] Stewart for Josh, come in.
Go for Josh.
Josh, can you come down to the gully?
We've found something really exciting.
You've got to see it.
[Stewart] We've got an intact mason jar.
Okay, I'm coming down. I'll be right back.
Okay, I'm coming. I'm on my way.
[Stewart] Josh, you gotta see this. Look.
Look at that, it's the exact same.
It's the exact same one, look.
[Josh] That's incredible.
-We wanna be as delicate as we can, um, -Sure.
To pull this out, so we're gonna dig around it
very, very carefully and brush as we go
and remove this dirt.
- [Travis] We got another jar. - [Josh] There's another jar beside it.
It looks to be substantially intact as well.
Look, right here.
- We got a lid on this. - Oh, wow.
- [laughs] - Oh, wow.
[Josh] The team has uncovered a cash of ball jars
from the Dillinger era,
mere feet from where the mysterious map was discovered.
- It looks clear underneath. - Yeah, come on.
- Like pullin' a fish out of the water. - Come on, you got it.
[all exclaiming]
- There it is. - Look at that!
[Josh] That's just awesome.
- Isn't that great? - [Stewart] That's awesome.
That is the same color as the map jar.
- That's amazing. - Yeah, yeah.
Okay, so I'm gonna hand this to you very carefully.
That jar could've been down there at least 87 years.
- [Josh] You see anything in there? - No.
But there's a lot of compacted dirt still in there.
Right, but doesn't look like anything significant?
No, no.
We got another one next to it here that's a lot looser.
- [Stewart] Smaller. - Yeah.
Intact with the lid on.
There's a little bit of debris in the bottom,
almost looks like two pieces of metal.
- Ooh. - I can't believe you can turn that.
Yeah.
The fact that it's in this kind of condition is just absolutely remarkable.
See what else is in this hole.
[Josh] Beneath the first three jars, we find shattered glass
and compelling evidence that something was hidden inside.
[Stewart] Cloth here. Oh, wow. Look at this.
- Is it inside a jar? - Yes.
Yes, it was in glass.
So this is a bottom of the jar, this was potentially in a jar.
- Like stuffed down in a jar. - Uh-huh.
[device beeps]
There's metal right beneath it.
Oh, hold on I got metal. Metal, metal, metal!
- [Stewart] Is that a coin? - [Josh] Oh, we got a coin I think. Ooh.
- Look at that. - Maybe, yup.
- [device beeps] - [laughs]
[Josh] Look at that!
[Josh] On John Dillinger's family farm in Indiana,
we're searching for missing loot and artefacts
left behind by America's most legendary bank robber.
- Is that a coin? - Oh, we got a coin I think.
[Stewart] That's it, right there.
That's unbelievable.
No, it's not a coin. It's too wide to be a coin.
[Stewart] You know what that is?
That is a shotgun shell.
- That's the back of the casing. - Exactly.
That primer cap has been dented in.
Which means, this was fired on the Dillinger property.
- This isn't a modern shotgun shell. - [Stewart] Exactly.
[Travis] What does it say on the head stamp?
"Winchester Repeater..."
- 20 gauge. - [Josh] 20 gauge.
-Right there in the middle. 20 gauge. -20 gauge.
- That is insane. - [all chuckling]
[Josh] This style shotgun shell was produced from 1896 to 1938,
which puts us right in the heart of the Dillinger era.
- When you think Dillinger... - [Stewart] Yeah.
- You think guns. - You think guns.
- I mean, you do. - Yeah.
Dillinger himself or his father may have shot this.
Well, it makes it personal.
The closest thing to shaking their hand is pulling this out of the ground.
He is this criminal, villain, mastermind, whatever you wanna call him,
but he also was a kid out at this farm,
- I mean, he was a teenager right here. - He was, that's right.
I have to ask the two of you, especially,
as family members,
Dillinger kind of has this reputation sometimes as like a Robinhood character,
how do you see him?
At the end he got such a raw deal the first time he went to jail.
[Josh] Because he did almost 10 years, right?
Took his young adult life away from him.
[Josh] Right.
The sentiment that Dillinger got a raw deal or a strict sentence for what he did,
- uh, was felt in the town so much so... - Right.
That they signed a petition to try to
- lower his sentence. - So you see him as, kind of, a product of the system?
- Yeah, basically. - He came out hardened from jail.
Exactly.
[Josh] Newsreel footage of Dillinger's father from after John's visit to the farm
reveals the emotional toll the crime spree took on the family.
I don't know where my son John is at.
If John could be exonerated from this crime and come back home,
I think he'd make a good citizen or a good officer of some kind.
- This is something really special. - It is.
So here you go, a little piece of family history right there.
Pretty cool.
- This farm is like, it's like a history book. - It is.
And we're just peeling one page at a time out of the ground.
- Exactly. No, I agree. - So there's more to be done here.
[Josh] The Mooresville team will continue to investigate the Dillinger family farm
in hopes of a big payoff.
Meanwhile, Stewart is making preparations to pull on
another loose thread in the case hundreds of miles away.
Before I join him there, I'm making a detour
to one of Dillinger's favorite haunts, the windy city.
I pull over in Lincoln Park,
the location of the final scene in Dillinger's outlaw life.
The Biograph theatre.
July 22nd, 1934.
Dillinger's out for a night on the town,
and he takes in a picture show.
But the FBI has been tipped off.
And when he exits the building, they make their move.
-G man Melvin Purvis gives the signal - [lighter clacks]
lighting his cigar.
Bullets fly, and when the dust settles,
John Dillinger is dead at the age of 31.
This alley, right in this spot
is where public enemy number one met his end.
Today, memorialized by a mural,
the authorities found a mere $7.70 in Dillinger's pocket,
which means there's a fortune in bonds and cash
still unaccounted for.
So, where did it go?
Well, we're headed north to find out.
Following Dillinger's footsteps, and a new lead from ex-FBI agent
Stewart Fillmore,
I head five and a half hours north of Chicago to Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin.
On a quiet road, I turn onto a tree line drive
which leads to a hidden and historic gem,
a lakeside lodge known as Little Bohemia.
On the I am, Dillinger arrived here in April of 1934.
He was hoping for a little R&R, but it was the last thing he'd find here.
Hey, long time no see!
- [Stewart] Hey, Josh! - What's goin' on man?
How are you?
-Hey, I'm Josh. -Hey, Josh, Dan. Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
So Josh, this is Dan Johns Jr.
His folks, Dan and Debbie Johns actually own Little Bohemia.
[Josh] This is a place that looms large in the Dillinger story.
- [Stewart] Very much so. - [Dan] Very much.
We're pretty far from Louisville, why up here?
- For that very reason, it's remote. - Right.
This is way off the beaten path for where the Dillinger gang was running.
[Josh] A rogue's gallery of Dillinger associates
made the trek to Little Bohemia.
Including Baby face Nelson, John Red Hamilton.
And gangster groupies, the press-stubbed Gun molls.
But ultimately, he doesn't lay low because things go bad up here, right?
Things go real bad up here.
How does it go bad?
If you wanna come inside, I can show you.
- You'll show me? - [Dan] Yup.
- Lead on. - Yeah.
[Josh] Inside the historic lodge is like a time capsule.
It might also be my new favorite bar.
Preserved in all of its gangster era glory.
Just be careful what shots you order.
Here we have some of the things that the gang left behind.
'Cause they left in a pretty big hurry.
- [Josh] These are original items? - [Stewart] They are.
Oh, come on!
So this is one of the gang member's toiletry kits.
Complete with Ex-Lax.
Look at that. They were smooth criminals.
- I'm sorry. - This one's even still packed.
- [Josh] Oh! - [Stewart] Wow!
- These are their clothes? - They are.
- Wow. - This is... this is mind melting
to see original clothing and items from the gang.
Now, all this stuff is here
because the gang ended up hightailing out of here, right?
So, what happens? The FBI raided this place.
[Stewart] It was actually the owner's wife that tipped them off.
[Josh] With Dillinger and his gang becoming feared national celebrities,
the locals here get nervous and tip off the FBI.
Desperate to collar Dillinger, the bureau rushes to Little Bohemia.
Their intelligence is, that the gang is about to leave imminently.
When they roll up, there are three people leaving.
A quick decision was made and they opened fire on the car.
[gun firing]
Tragically, it was three civilians
- and one of them was killed. - Wow.
[Josh] Alerted by the sound of gunfire and barking dogs,
Dillinger slips out a back window.
In the chaotic events that follow, an FBI agent is gunned down.
Take a look here, Josh,
some of the original bullet holes are in the window behind us.
- This is from the gun fight? - Correct. It is.
-They are all shot up. Look at these! -[Stewart] Oh, man.
- This lodge was just getting hammered. - Yes.
[Josh] Wow. And the FBI gets none of them?
None of them. They all get away.
[Josh] Over and over again,
Dillinger gets out of situations he has no right to survive?
That's exactly right. He's the jackrabbit.
- So he'll leave everything behind. - Right.
- Including the loot? - They didn't take it with them.
Well, what we know is,
there's a statement from gang member John Hamilton's girlfriend,
her name was Pat Cherrington.
She told a reporter that there was a suitcase buried here
with a large amount of cash in it.
They were here for several days.
So they had plenty of time to do this.
- This is more than a rumor. - Yeah. It is.
- It's actually the statement. - From an eyewitness.
Also, we know that the gang escaped toward the lake, right?
So if they had something that they wanted to get rid of,
it's better that the lake gets it than the cops, right?
So either on land or in the water.
We decide to start our search in Little Star Lake,
directly behind the lodge.
Until recently, the lake was covered in ice.
So, we called in reinforcements.
- What's going on? - Hey!
Josh, you remember these guys?
Oh, yes. I have PTSD from these guys.
What's going on? It's good to see you.
Dan Carlson is an ice diving expert.
And as far as I'm concerned, a sadist.
We nearly froze to death
looking for a lost pair of ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz.
Dan's terrific dive team and ROV pilots Dave Phillips and Tom Crossman
are the best in the business.
And now, we're ready to brave another frigid lake.
- Weather's a lot nicer today. - Yes.
It's warmer here.
The water though, ice was on here two days ago.
So, I didn't catch too much of a break.
To avoid hypothermia, we bundle up in dry suits.
While Tom, Dave and Stewart
setup an ROV equipped with sonar
to help guide us to potential targets.
We're also armed with metal detectors
as we make the long cold walk off the end of a short pier.
[Dan Josh speaking]
- [Josh speaking] - Josh, go for Stewart.
[Josh speaking]
[sonar beeping]
[Josh speaking]
[metal detector beeps]
[Dan and Josh speaking]
[Josh] With just four feet of visibility,
we're operating almost in the blind.
So the sonar acts as our eyes.
Hey, we got something right there. See it?
Hey, Josh, we've got a really good hit.
[Stewart speaking]
[Josh speaking]
Can't tell, but it is really interesting.
It's got a unique shape to it.
[Josh speaking]
[Josh] Dillinger is said to have chucked a container
filled with cash into the drink.
[metal detector beeping]
That is clearly manmade.
[Josh speaking]
[Stewart speaking]
[Josh speaking]
[Josh] I'm searching for John Dillinger's legendary lost loot
in a lake behind Little Bohemia lodge in northern Wisconsin.
[Josh speaking]
[Dan speaking]
[Josh speaking]
[Josh grunts]
[Josh and Stewart speaking]
- Josh, what is it? - [Josh speaking]
Yeah, it's starting to look like that.
[Josh speaking]
[Josh] We continue to scour the bottom,
until we've covered the entire shoreline along Little Bohemia lodge.
[Josh and Stewart speaking]
[Josh] With no other leads down here,
we return topside to warmup.
After drying off, Stewart and I reunite with lodge owner Dan Johns.
According to a historic eyewitness account,
Dillinger buried cash somewhere on this property.
So we grab metal detectors and head off into the woods.
- Okay, so how much land you got here? - About 13 acres.
- Thirteen acres. Okay. - That's a lot. Yeah.
Where do we start? Around the lodge?
Well, we know from one of the gang member's girlfriends Pat Cherrington,
that supposedly the suitcase of money
was buried near two pines and an oak.
- Well, I see a lot of pines. - It's a lot of pines.
We don't have as many oaks though and that does kinda ring a bell.
There was a jumbo oak back there with a couple of pines next to it.
You wanna show us where those oaks are?
- Absolutely. Let's go. - Let's go take a look.
Dan takes us to a grove that fits Cherrington's description
of where Dillinger buried the suitcase filled with cash.
So right in this area,
there was a really large oak that fell over in a storm and we cleaned it up.
And if you notice, there's two old pine trees
that kinda have grown together there.
I think it's just kind of divide and conquer.
- Let's just check out this whole area. - Yeah.
[Josh] The metal detectors start beeping right away.
[metal detector beeping]
[Stewart] Right on. Right here.
It's just an old piece of a beer can.
- Dillinger was a big beer drinker. - Yeah.
- What do you think of that? - [Dan] Looks like a bearing of some sort.
[Josh] It's tough searching.
The property is littered with scraps of metal
from cabins torn down long ago.
We got a genuine historic nail.
[metal detector beeping]
Ah, nuts!
Working our way along the footpath,
we continue to scour the woods
and eventually we emerge near the dock
where we get the most promising sounding hit of the day.
[metal detector beeps]
Got a good hit here.
[metal detector beeps]
- It's still there. - [Stewart] What'd you got?
[Josh] This is good. Whatever this is, it's like this is down ways.
[Stewart] Wow, it's lighting up the whole thing there.
[Josh] I like the depth, I like the sound of the hit,
I mean, I got a good feeling about this.
- Ooh! - Oh!
Got something metal, hollow and deep.
So yeah, I mean, we're two feet down, you know, whatever this is,
it's been here a long time.
Let's see what's in here.
-[device beeping] -Oh, you can see it. Look at that!
- Oh, it's there. - [Stewart] Oh, wow.
- Josh, it actually sounds hollo. - It does sound hollow.
What is that?
[Josh] Careful not to damage the artifact,
we glove up and slowly excavate around it.
[Dan] It's some kind of container.
Well, we're gonna dig a bigger hole here.
See if you can get access to it,
on that side.
Oh, removing that.
- [Dan] I got it, I got it. - [Stewart] He's got it, he's got it.
- Oh, look at this. - Here we go.
- [grunts]
-[both grunting] -[Josh] There we go. One, two, three!
Yes, that's it!
[Josh] At Norther Wisconsin's notorious gangster hideaway,
Little Bohemia Lodge,
even the menu is Dillinger themed.
How are the Baby Face Ribs?
- Dangerous. - Dangerous. I'll have those.
- Sure. All right. - Throw in the Public Enemy Pork Shank.
Gotta try that.
What did Dillinger eat when he was here?
Steak.
- All right. I'll take the Bank Robber Rib-Eye. - Got it.
Mm. Oh.
I might have ordered too much.
Hey, what did Dillinger have for dessert?
Anything he wanted.
Makes sense.
[Josh] According to an eyewitness,
Bank Robber John Dillinger buried money
somewhere on this remote property in Wisconsin.
Now, we've got an inside track
on a mysterious buried container.
Oh, removing it.
- [Dan] I got it, I got it. - [Stewart] He's got it, he's got it.
Oh, look at this.
- Here we go. - One, two, three. [grunts]
Yes, that's it!
What is that?
What are we looking at?
It's solid on the bottom.
What on earth?
Container?
Oh, there's something in here.
Loo at this.
Yeah, there is. Sure is.
Looks like a glove of some kind.
[Josh] Look at this, it's leather.
[Stewart] It's definitely a glove.
[Josh] It's not a suitcase filled with Dillinger's loot.
But we may have unearthed and even deeper mystery.
[Stewart] You know what's weird? There's almost char in here.
[Josh] A pair of singed gloves,
and traces of ash in and around the canister,
suggest that something was being burnt.
I'm mystified by the container.
Why would somebody put a pair of gloves in a container,
set it on fire and bury it.
- Not many good reasons to do that. - Right. Exactly.
So what were they getting rid of?
- [Stewart] Good question. - Yeah.
[Stewart] I'm thinking, is this some kind of evidence,
crime, someone didn't want found?
Maybe the answer is, they were burning something in the container.
- When they were done, took the gloves off... - Right.
- ...threw them in, buried the whole tying. - Right.
What were they burning?
That's the mystery.
Whatever it is, it's been eaten up by time.
There's no-- There's not even any traces
of what it was, that I can see.
The charred gloves, traces of ash,
and the burnt canister could date to the Dillinger era.
But without more evidence,
It's impossible to make a definitive link.
We only know one thing, for sure.
Someone did not want this to be found.
I don't know, man, that is one for the books.
I-- I-- I've never seen this before.
You know, there's every chance this is from the period.
- Is this part of the Dillinger story? - I don't know.
I don't know. It could be.
[Josh] The find is compelling.
And Dan will continue to comb the grounds
for Dillinger's fabled stash.
As for me, I have one more stop to make.
I've received a call from Sheriff Martinez,
asking me to come back to Crown point, Indiana.
It turns out that one part of the Dillinger mystery
is on the verge of being solved.
And I've been invited to help close the book.
I show up at an unmarked building
where I'm supposed to meet someone named Mark.
Yeah, I'm as confused as you are.
[laughs]
Wow!
Oh, my word. Hello! I'm Josh.
Hi, Josh. Mark. Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too. What an entrance!
This is unbelievable.
What am I looking at here?
You're look at Lillian Holley's police car.
- This is the car he escaped in. - Yes.
This is the car he drove away in.
Get outta here.
When Dillinger fled Crown Point,
he hijacked the Sheriff's car.
Now, 87 years later,
Dillinger's getaway vehicle has finally been recovered.
Mark found this notorious piece of outlaw history in a barn, in Maine.
And was able to match the serial number,
to Dillinger's Wanted card.
So, this says, John Dillinger...
Uh, feloniously and knowingly transporting Ford V8 four-door sedan.
And then we have a serial number.
So where's the serial number on here?
- [Mark] It's right here, on the chassis. - [Josh] Okay.
Dillinger stole Ford V8 four-door sedan. [reading]
- That's unbelievable. - [chuckles]
-This is it! This is the escape car! -This is the real car.
Tell you what, Josh. Why don't you jump in, and we can take a look?
[Josh] Mark has meticulously restored Sheriff Holley's car
to the state it was in, when Dillinger took it.
- I call shotgun. - [chuckling]
Sorry about that. It's a required joke.
This is one of the guns that was in the arsenal
in the Crown Point jail when Dillinger escaped.
- This is also original. - That's original.
This is the original staring heel, or gauges.
This is the real deal.
This is exactly what Dillinger would have seen sitting in here.
Now, Marcus, returning the car to its original owners...
The late County Sherriff's department, in the old Crown Point jail.
Whoa!
Hell, yeah, she moves!
So, Josh, you feel like going to jail?
In this? Yeah, absolutely.
I don't know how to tell you this, Mark
But I think I hear the Police. [laughs]
And the sheriff's department is rolling out the red carpet.
[sirens wailing]
A trio of motorcycle accidents take the lead,
and dozens of police vehicles, from across Lake County,
bring up the motorcade.
This is crazy!
Are you kidding me with this?
- How about the siren on this thing. Does it work? - Oh, yeah.
Light it off, Mark, Yeah, we go!
Dillinger was Public Enemy Number One.
And the return of this once-stolen police car
is a reminder. That even 87 years later,
justice can still be heard.
Job was in the air.
I gotta tell you, Mark, it takes a lot to shut me up.
But I'm speechless.
This car is going home.
Helicopters buzzed a parade route.
And crowds lined the streets.
The end of an epic journey.
Oh, my word! Look at this!
Hundreds of onlookers have gathered outside the old jailhouse.
Eager to see a piece of history restored to its rightful place.
- Hello! - [cheering]
How about this?
Amazing.
I'm struck by the fact that I'm back where our story began?
It's elegant.
There is something about the mysteries of John Dillinger.
That beckon for closure 04:
For a convenient conclusion.
As if the world were black and white, Good or bad,
Butt reality is never so clean.
Dillinger had been glorified as a dashing outlaw.
But he is undeniably a villain.
His firepower was lethal.
His gang killed.
And his deeds were fraught with terror.
His Robin Hood moniker feels unearned.
The money he stole was only used to enrich himself.
But beneath the Hollywood varnish of his crime spree,
lies tragedy.
Dillinger was a poor, depression era kid,
who ended up in prison for much of his young life.
Until the only road ahead, was the one that led away from the law.
As for Dillinger's lost loot and the mysterious map,
that tale is just beginning.
And there may be more treasures hiding at the Dillinger park.
After all, no great story ever really ends.
And the legend known as John Dillinger
may once again reach out from the past.