John Dillinger, by Dary Matera

In my book, Dary Matera introduces John Dillinger in the opening paragraph as "Nail tough, fiercly determined, and bounding with kinetic energy, the rambunctious ten-year-old reigned over a gang of pipsqueak thugs who stole profit" (9). As we know later on in life, he will be one of the biggest criminals in history. Even at a young age, Dillinger was a sort of gang leader. After this, Matera jumps backwards in the story to the Dillinger family history. His grandfather Mathias came to Indiana from France, and had a son, name John. John Sr. had a daughter named Audry, and fourteen years following; their second child, John Jr. Matera says that "he was a happy toddler... show a grinning kid who liked to ride carts and wagons, pedal trycicles, and skitter around outdoors" (11). I think this is where his love of fast cars started up, loving to ride carts and such. The need for speed at a young age. But is mother died when he was four years old. John Jr. was forced to live with his sister Audrey, who had started up a family of her own. Unfortunately, his mother dying was only the start of a constantly changing family for the little Dillinger.

A few years after his mother's death, John Dillinger Jr.'s grandfater Mathias died too. Ironically, this is where his father would meet his second wife, Lizzie Fields. John was forced to move in back with them, taking him from Audrey. "John Jr. was left to go it alone with the new stepmother-invariably a difficult transition" (11). With such a shifting family, a child is often feels neglected. As John was quickly torn from the place he grew to love twice between the age of ten and forced to start all over again, with at least one new person in the mix. Dillinger was set up for trouble. "There were reports of John Jr. being tethered to a wagon wheel or locked in the house while his parents worked" (12). A hard childhood made John Dillinger set up for a life of infamy that all will know of someday.