FROM
Crime Story
The saga of gangster John Dillinger's
associate Sam Goldstein.
I
Elizabeth Applebaum
Contributing Editor
Q: Did John Dillinger have any
Jewish members in his gangs?
A: Yes. In his
early years,
Dillinger
worked with
two Jewish
criminals, Fred
Brenman and
Sam Goldstein
(aka Sam
Goldstine).
Dillinger,
born in
Indiana in
1903, was the
country's first
famous gang-
Sam Goldstein
ster. He got an
early start in
petty crime, then
made a name for
himself as a
John
bank robber.
Dillinger
Unlike other
criminals, such
as his sometime
partner, the vio-
lence-loving "Baby Face" Nelson,
Dillinger was usually a calm and
restrained man. He loved cars and
women, and he was extraordinarily
clever. Dillinger was as famous for his
escapes as he was for his robberies; he
managed to get out of the Crown Point,
Ind., jail using nothing but a piece of
wood, carved and colored black with
shoe polish, to resemble a gun.
According to Dary Matera, author of
Dillinger, the famous gangster was
friendly early on with Sam Goldstein,
whom he met at Indiana State Prison.
Goldstein was born Nov. 16, 1891, in
Ft. Wayne, Ind. His first arrest was in
1909, after which he spent plenty of
time in prison, usually for robbery. In
early 1933, he was released from prison
and again entered the world of crime.
Working with Harry Copeland and John
Dillinger, he helped rob the Citizens
National Bank of Bluffton, Ohio, (taking
$2,100) and the First National Bank of
Montpelier, Ind., (stealing $10,000) in
August 1933. On Sept. 6, 1933, the three
.
struck again, taking $25,000 from the
State Bank of Massachusetts Avenue in
Indianapolis.
Goldstein was in prison for much
of the 1940s and 1950s before being
paroled, for the last time, in 1961.
He settled in Ft. Wayne, the city
where he was born and died
there in 1975.
Dillinger also worked briefly
with Fred Brenman, a Jewish
immigrant from Poland who
became a bootlegger in the
United States. He joined the
Dillinger Gang in the 1930s,
working alongside Goldstein and
the fiery Whitey Mohler, among
others, says author Matera.
Dillinger
has a few
interesting
connections
to Michigan
as well.
Before
being shot
down on July
22 1934, out-
side the
Biograph
Theater in
Chicago,
Dillinger spent a few days hiding out in
Sault Ste. Marie in April 1934. (Dillinger
did not, however, do any jobs in
Michigan because this state was one of
the few at the time to boast police
radios, which Dillinger wanted to
avoid.)
Danger's longtime sweetheart, Mary
"Billie" Frechette, was briefly impris-
oned in Milan, at the Federal Detention
Home, while Dillinger gang member
Russell Clark spent his last years in
Madison Heights, where he died in 1968.
Additionally, Mary Butcher, the ex-
wife of Dillinger gang member John
Hamilton, is buried in Livonia.
Hamilton was one of Dillinger's closest
friends, a longtime criminal who died in
1934, most likely at a hideout belonging
to Ma Barker. Mary Butcher is buried at
the Parkview Cemetery.
We're reintroducing this monthly feature
filled with fascinating facts about Judaism
and Jewish history.
THE WIRE
Federation Adds Staff
Local Skaters Earn Silver
Daniel Greenberg of Franklin has joined
the staff of the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit as senior endow-
ment development
manager.
Greenberg will be
responsible for
boosting fund-rais-
ing efforts in the
area of major gifts
and endowments,
part of a compre-
hensive plan to
Greenberg
develop a focused
and tactical
approach to building awareness and
donor response to the Jewish communi-
ty's needs.
Greenberg most recently co-chaired
the capital campaign "Design for
Dignity" as vice president at Jewish
Home and Aging Services. Prior to join-
ing Federation, he was the vice president
of DataNet Quality Systems.
Turin/JTA — U.S. Jewish ice skater
Ben Agosto and his partner, who
trained at Arctic Edge in Canton,
earned a silver medal in ice dancing at
the 2006 Olympics. Agosto and Tanith
Belbin finished second to Russians
Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov
in the ice dancing competition.
Jewish ice dancer Jamie Silverstein
and partner Ryan O'Meara, who also
trained at Arctic Edge, finished in
16th place. Israelis Galit Chait and
Sergei Sakhnovski finished eighth.
Beth El Hosts Reverend
The Rev. Kenneth James Flowers, pastor
of Greater New Moriah Missionary
Baptist Church, will be the guest speaker
at Shabbat services at Temple Beth El,
7:30 p.m. Friday, March 3.
The Reverend Flowers began his pas-
toral career as director of the
Ecumenical Black Campus Ministry at
UCLA and associate minister for evan-
gelism and pastoral care at Wilshire
United Church before becoming pastor
at Messiah Baptist Church in Los
Angeles.
The New Zimriyah
On Sunday, March 19, 200 children will
sing in concert at the Federation's
Alliance for Jewish Education New
Zimriyah! 2006. The program features
Jewish youth choirs from several metro
congregations as well as the Kidz Klez
. Band of Michigan.
The event will be held at 2 p.m. at
Temple Israel in West Bloomfield.
Admission is free and light refreshments
will be served; dietary laws will be
observed.
Congregations participating include:
Adat Shalom , Beth Shalom, B'nai
Moshe, Chaye Olam, Shaarey Zedek and
Shir Tikvah, Beth El, Emanu-El, Temple
Israel, Kol Ami and Shir Shalom.
Sponsors include the Michigan Board
of Cantors, Elaine and Michael Serling
and the late Muriel Jacknow.
For information, call Judy Lewis,
(248) 642-4260, ext. 374 or
lewis@jfmd.org .
France Probes Murder
Paris/JTA — The French government
is considering the recent murder of a
Jewish man to be an anti-Semitic act.
French Prime Minister Dominique de
Villepin said Monday night that the
minister of justice had ordered that
last week's torture and murder of 23-
year-old Ilan Halimi be considered
premeditated murder motivated by
religious affiliation.
Villepin spoke at the annual dinner
of the Representative Council of
Jewish Institutions in France, or CRIF,
the umbrella organization of secular
French Jewish groups. The dinner has
increasingly become an occasion to
solidify the relationship between the
Jewish community and the French
government.
Terror T-shirts Rapped
Copenhagan/JTA — Denmark cracked
down on a clothing company that sold
T-shirts with the logo of a Palestinian
terrorist group. Danish police said
Tuesday that four people connected
with the firm Fighters and Lovers,
which offers shirts with the insignias.
of the Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine and the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, have been
charged with supporting terrorist
groups.
Authorities also confiscated almost
$4,000 from the company and shut
down its Web site. The European
Union considers the PFLP and FARC
to be terrorist groups.
Magazine Profiles Jews
Vienna/JTA — One of Austria's lead-
ing magazines ran a cover story on
Vienna's young Jews. The headline for
the story in Profil provides insights
into young Jews from Reform to fer-
vently Orthodox and how they balance
their commitment to Judaism with
their participation in Austrian society.
Vienna is home to 10,000 Jews.
February 23 • 2006
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