I was looking thru a lovely book called "Henry's Attic", which is a 400+ page oversized book, heavily illustrated, on some of the objects given to Ford for his Greenfield Village or Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
(This book was going for $40 everywhere several years ago, but I found a good price on Abe Books or Alibris.) Ennyway, the book is by Ford R. Bryan, c. 1995 Ford Books, Dearborn, Michigan. It turns out, both Dillinger and Clyde Barrow wrote to him. From pages 401 and 402:
Letter from Clyde Barrow
The quick acceleration of the Ford V-8 was popular with people on both sides of the law who liked to make fast getaways. On April 10, 1934, in between racing between one bank robbery and another, Clyde Barrow, of the notorious Bonnie and Clyde team, wrote this letter to Henry Ford.
"Tulsa Okla
10th April
Mr. Henry Ford
Detroit Mich.
Dear Sir: -
While I still have got breath in my lungs I will tell you what a dandy car you make. I have drove Fords exclusively when I could get away with one. For sustained speed and freedom from trouble the Ford has got ever (sic) other car skinned and even if my business hasen't (sic) been strickly (sic) legal it don't hurt eny-thing (sic) to tell you what a fine car you got in the V8 -
Yours truly
Clyde Champion Barrow
Letter from John Dillinger
John Dillinger, public enemy No. 1, also wrote to Henry in 1934 to congratulate him on his car. A bit more flippant than Clyde Barrow, Dillinger neglected to give his "old pal" any return address. Soon after writing this letter, Dillinger, betrayed by a girlfriend, met his end in a shootout with police.
(Stamped "Received May 17, 1934")
Hello Old Pal: -
Arrived here at 10 am today. Would like to drop in and see you (one word illegible).
You have a wonderful car. Been driving it for three weeks. Its a treat to drive one.
Your Slogan should be.
Drive a Ford and watch the other cars fall behind you. I can make any other car take a Ford's dust.
Bye - Bye,
John Dillinger
**********
According to John Dillinger.com, Dillinger died July 22, 1934 at 10:30 pm after exiting the Biograph theatre in Chicago, where Clark Gable in "Manhattan Melodrama" was playing (a gangster flick).
The last I heard, the Biograph was still standing.
I don't think I'd call it a shootout with the police. They got him, I think at first in the back, as Dillinger was walking out with the "woman in red" (tho I've read it was really an orange dress) and Polly Hamilton. Hamilton was his girlfriend. Anna Sage, of the dress fame, was a prostitute who knew Dillinger via Polly Hamilton, and Sage helped the FBI gun down Dillinger. I think he did pull his gun, and may have gotten like one wild shot out, but he started running down an alley and didn't make it far.
I think it's very coincidental that both criminals wrote to Ford at about the same time. Dillinger was known to have thought of Bonnie and Clyde as a couple of kids. Maybe Dillinger saw Barrow's letter in the papers and then decided to write his own. In any event, he wrote his just 2 months before his death.
Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed on May 23, 1934, about a month after he wrote to Ford.
I've seen one or both of the original letters on display at the Henry Ford Museum. Very cool to see!
I guess the recent movie was an accurate portrayal of him.