Andrew Davis> What's the story behind the death mask of Public Enemy #1 John Dillinger at the Florence County Museum?

Cherish Thomas> People were very angry at the banks.

They felt betrayed by the banks.

And I think most people saw John Dillinger as kind of a Robin Hood type figure who was avenging the common man and getting back at the banks who had done them wrong.

Davis> The Great Depression was a time of immeasurable frustration and uncertainty for Americans.

When the stock market crashed in 1929, many Americans felt disillusioned with the U.S. government and the bank system, which lost people's hard earned money.

The desperation and destitution led to a rise in crime.

Many criminals and gangsters gained notoriety during this era, but only a small number earned the title: "Public Enemy #1".

The death mask of one of these criminals, John Dillinger, can be viewed at the Florence County Museum.

But why?

What's Dillinger's connection with the Palmetto State?

I'm your host, Andrew Davis.

Today on Curiosity Trek!, we're making a trip to Florence South Carolina to peruse this rather macabre artifact.

Cherish Thomas and Stephen Motte of the Florence County Museum join us to unmask the story of this odd artifact.

Good to see you.

My name is Cherish Thomas, and I am the Registrar and Collections Manager of the Florence County Museum.

My name is Steven Motte.

I'm the curator of the Florence County Museum.

Davis> What was life typically like for folks living during the Great Depression?

Cherish Thomas> Well, compared to the 1920s, which was a time of economic prosperity and relative stability, in the lives of Americans, the 1930s were a period of uncertainty.

After the stock market crash in 1929, banks failed.

Businesses failed.

People lost their jobs, their homes, their livelihoods, farms.

And it was chaos.

lot of people are just living day to day and trying to survive, you know, not really knowing what the next day was going to bring or even how to plan for the future.

Davis> Why did organized crime ramp up so high during the Depression and what factors led to that?

Thomas> Part of it was likely due to just frustration with the conditions of everyday life at the time.

And also, just opportunity.

Outlaws, as they're commonly called were taking advantage of the new advancements in technology and infrastructure at the time.

But also just the ill-equipped local police forces, you know, they aren't like the ones we have today.

They didn't have the means to tackle crime of this caliber.

Didn't have technology or the means of communicating with each other like we do today.

So it was just it was a lot easier for them get away with crime.

Davis> With local law enforcement being so ill equipped to deal with a rise in crime.

Some individuals exploited these disadvantages.

One of these notorious figures was John Dillinger.

Thomas> He was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, to a middle class family.

Began dabbling in crime as a teenager.

Spent about eight and a half, nine years or so in jail for theft and assault.

And then as soon as he was released, he set his sights on robbing banks.

Stephen Motte> Dillinger had begun his most notorious crime spree in mid 1933, and he was killed in mid 1934.

John Dillinger was America's most prominent criminal at the time.

After he escaped prison, he ended up on the FBI's Most Wanted list and became known as Public Enemy #1.

Davis> In March 1934, Dillinger escaped from an Indiana prison and crossed state lines in a stolen car, violating the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act.

This caught the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI, needed an agent with the moxie and skill to take down a dangerous criminal like Dillinger.

Hoover found the perfect man for the job: South Carolina's own Melvin Purvis.

Motte> Melvin Purvis is best known as an FBI agent who was responsible for tracking down and bringing to justice several of the most notorious organized criminals during the 1930s.

He was born in Florence County in 1903 and pursued a career in law.

He attended local schools, and then he got a law degree from the University of South Carolina, after which he became a partner in a local law firm, but decided that he wanted to do something different with his career, so he applied for a position with the newly formed FBI.

After Melvin Purvis got his job with the FBI, he was assigned to several offices throughout the country.

He moved up quickly in the ranks of the FBI, which got J. Edgar Hoover's attention.

Hoover then assigned Purvis to be head of the Chicago field office.

Chicago at the time, had become the epicenter for organized crime in the American Midwest.

Purvis led a raid against Dillinger's gang in 1933, which Dillinger escaped.

It also led to the death of an officer, after which time it became more urgent to capture Dillinger.

Eventually, an informant told the FBI where Dillinger could be found, and in 1934 they surrounded Dillinger and his gang.

While they were leaving a theater in Chicago.

Purvis team then surrounded Dillinger.

He tried to escape and was shot.

Davis> After Purvis took down John Dillinger, morbid curiosity captured the minds of local citizens.

People were eager to catch a glimpse of one of the country's most infamous criminals.

While Dillinger's corpse was on public display, death masks with the gangster's likeness began to appear.

Now how did the Florence County Museum obtain this particular copy of Dillinger's death mask?

Thomas> It was donated to us in 2012 by Melvin Purvis's son Austin.

Motte> Because John Dillinger was such a celebrity after his death, the city of Chicago put his body on display and members of the public could come and view it.

And one person was able to sneak in some plaster into the city morgue, and they poured a mold of his face and used that to create the death mask and the death mask that we have in our collection is a copy of that original.

One of the most interesting things about the John Dillinger death mask is if you take a look, under his right eye, you can see the exit wound from the bullet that killed him.

He was shot several times, but also John Dillinger was such a well known criminal that by the time he became Public Enemy #1 on the FBI's most wanted list, he had some plastic surgery done to his face to make him less recognizable.

So the face of John Dillinger that we see in the death mask is not his actual face, but it's the result of that plastic surgery.

Davis> As creepy as the death mask may be, the Florence County Museum hopes that its collection of Dillinger and Purvis artifacts will help further cement the positive impacts of South Carolinians in American history.

Motte> We're always trying to connect local people and events with the larger context of history.

The rise of organized crime the 1930s was a major cultural event, as was John Dillinger's eventual capture and death and Melvin Purvis helped bring an end to that.

Because of this, Purvis became a national hero and a celebrity but ironically, because of J. Edgar Hoover's envy, it led to Purvis's dismissal from the FBI and some would even say to Purvis's death.

I think the story of Purvis encapsulates this moment in history, and it's our mission at the Florence County Museum to tell these stories.

Davis> It's amazing how an ordinary South Carolinian's contributions could make such an extraordinary impact in the history of US law enforcement.

We hope you found this episode on the Florence County Museum's death mask of John Dillinger... "Mask-nificent"!

I'm Andrew Davis.

Stay tuned, fellow viewers, because more artifacts are headed your way on Curiosity Trek!.