J. Edgar Hoover

A signed letter from the FBI regarding John Dillinger and Eva Frechette.

• J. Edgar Hoover (American).
• Washington, D.C. Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1937.
• 7 pages.
• Letter drafted to assist the addressee (a State Department journalist) with his publication of a series of articles "dealing with the activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation." 
• Stapled letter typed on official FBI letterhead and signed by Hoover on the final page in blue ink. 

Letter is dated June 22, 1937 and discusses the FBI's pursuit of John Dillinger and Eva Frechette following Dillinger's escape from an Indiana state prison in March of 1934. The hunt culminated in a violent standoff between Dillinger-Frechette and the FBI at a Minnesota apartment complex. The two would escape, but Dillinger was wounded and Frechette would be apprehended a few weeks later in Chicago.

Excerpt from Page #5:

"Subsequently the apartment occupied by Dillinger and Frechette was searched and there were found a Thompson sub-machine gun with stock missing, two automatic rifles, one .38 calibre super Colt automatic revolver with twenty shot magazine clips and two bullet- proof vests. Identification in the Technical Laboratory of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of latent fingerprints found in this apartment confirmed the presence of the fugitive and his paramour."

The letter also briefly discusses two other cases: Margaret Allen (1936) and Alice Gordon (1927).