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Details
THE DILLINGER STUDEBAKER GETAWAY CAR
1932 STUDEBAKER COMMANDER
Chassis No. 8025145
Dark green with brown mohair interior
Engine: straight eight sidevalve, 4.1 liters, 80bhp at 3,600rpm; Gearbox: three speed manual; Suspension: front beam, rear live axle; Brakes: four-wheel mechanical drum. Left hand drive.
It was in 1851, the legend goes, that a lone rider found a parcel of land on a bend of the St. Joseph River in Indiana with the three attributes he had long sought. The land was rich in hardwood, water power and loam, and the horseman was one of the Studebaker boys. There, at South Bend, the brothers started building wagons and prospered. Studebaker remained a family business until 1915 when financial expert, Albert Erskine, took over the reins. His mid-range Studebakers, well designed, efficiently built and shrewdly marketed, were stiff competition for the big makers. The Commander was a powerful straight eight with a 4.70:1 rear axle ratio giving a useful top gear performance. For 1932 there was a free wheel, Synchronized Shifting, now Studebaker has simplified and improved the entire transmission without adding anything new for the driver to do! Also new was the Startix system which automatically kicked the engine into life if it stalled.
It is no surprise to discover that such a muscular automobile attracted the attention of John Herbert Dillinger, the Indianapolis-born bankrobber. He stole one for himself in 1933.
The Commander was the getaway car when Dillinger, declared by the FBI to be 'America's Public Enemy Number One', and his gang made their biggest strike, the Central National Bank robbery in Greencastle, Indiana in October 1933. The raid had been planned in detail. Armed with an arsenal of weapons stolen from a police armory at Peru, Indiana, they swarmed into the bank and left the getaway car at the curbside in the charge of another gang member. John Dillinger was particularly bold, for indeed the getaway Studebaker was itself a stolen and unmarked Sheriff's vehicle! (The Commander still retains its police issued siren). The stolen vehicle was fitted with false Ohio license plates originally issued to Dillinger's wife for an Essex Terraplane. The Greencastle Robbery went off without a hitch and the gang quietly left the bank. Accounts of the raid state that not a shot was fired. It was the largest bank robbery up to this point in history, totaling over $75,000, a fortune in the depths of the depression. The gang drove sedately out of the county on already chosen dirt roads and slipped past every roadblock set up by state and county police. Not suprisingly, John Dillinger abandoned the Studebaker soon after the famous Greencastle Robbery. The Studebaker Commander has no further criminal records.
On July 22, 1934 Dillinger was in Chicago with a female companion who, working undercover for the FBI, escorted Dillinger in front of the Biograph Theater where he was gunned down by special agent sharp-shooter Melvin Purvis. That was the end of the infamous 'Public Enemy Number One'.
In recent years the Studebaker has been on display at various shows and museums in the Eastern United States. It has benefitted from a bare metal respray and we are told that it runs and drives beautifully. It is fitted with an optional steel trunk that is lightened with bullet holes for a quick getaway! There is much documentation of the car that is available for examination prior to the sale.
1932 STUDEBAKER COMMANDER
Chassis No. 8025145
Dark green with brown mohair interior
Engine: straight eight sidevalve, 4.1 liters, 80bhp at 3,600rpm; Gearbox: three speed manual; Suspension: front beam, rear live axle; Brakes: four-wheel mechanical drum. Left hand drive.
It was in 1851, the legend goes, that a lone rider found a parcel of land on a bend of the St. Joseph River in Indiana with the three attributes he had long sought. The land was rich in hardwood, water power and loam, and the horseman was one of the Studebaker boys. There, at South Bend, the brothers started building wagons and prospered. Studebaker remained a family business until 1915 when financial expert, Albert Erskine, took over the reins. His mid-range Studebakers, well designed, efficiently built and shrewdly marketed, were stiff competition for the big makers. The Commander was a powerful straight eight with a 4.70:1 rear axle ratio giving a useful top gear performance. For 1932 there was a free wheel, Synchronized Shifting, now Studebaker has simplified and improved the entire transmission without adding anything new for the driver to do! Also new was the Startix system which automatically kicked the engine into life if it stalled.
It is no surprise to discover that such a muscular automobile attracted the attention of John Herbert Dillinger, the Indianapolis-born bankrobber. He stole one for himself in 1933.
The Commander was the getaway car when Dillinger, declared by the FBI to be 'America's Public Enemy Number One', and his gang made their biggest strike, the Central National Bank robbery in Greencastle, Indiana in October 1933. The raid had been planned in detail. Armed with an arsenal of weapons stolen from a police armory at Peru, Indiana, they swarmed into the bank and left the getaway car at the curbside in the charge of another gang member. John Dillinger was particularly bold, for indeed the getaway Studebaker was itself a stolen and unmarked Sheriff's vehicle! (The Commander still retains its police issued siren). The stolen vehicle was fitted with false Ohio license plates originally issued to Dillinger's wife for an Essex Terraplane. The Greencastle Robbery went off without a hitch and the gang quietly left the bank. Accounts of the raid state that not a shot was fired. It was the largest bank robbery up to this point in history, totaling over $75,000, a fortune in the depths of the depression. The gang drove sedately out of the county on already chosen dirt roads and slipped past every roadblock set up by state and county police. Not suprisingly, John Dillinger abandoned the Studebaker soon after the famous Greencastle Robbery. The Studebaker Commander has no further criminal records.
On July 22, 1934 Dillinger was in Chicago with a female companion who, working undercover for the FBI, escorted Dillinger in front of the Biograph Theater where he was gunned down by special agent sharp-shooter Melvin Purvis. That was the end of the infamous 'Public Enemy Number One'.
In recent years the Studebaker has been on display at various shows and museums in the Eastern United States. It has benefitted from a bare metal respray and we are told that it runs and drives beautifully. It is fitted with an optional steel trunk that is lightened with bullet holes for a quick getaway! There is much documentation of the car that is available for examination prior to the sale.