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On the day Shaw and Dillinger met, June 4, 1933, they held their first robbery together the same night. The Original Dillinger Gang consisted of William A, Shaw (Kid), Noble Claycomb (Sammy) and John Dillinger (Dan). William A. Shaw drove the get-a-way cars during the Dillinger bank robberies. Shaw spent all of seventeen months of the last forty-four years of his life in prison and jails. Shaw was in prison when Dillinger walked out of the Biograph Theater in Chicago into a deadly hail of FBI gunfire. William A. Shaw died Dec. 6, 1977 in the Wabash Hotel, Chicago after a cigarette ignited his bed mattress. His body lay unclaimed for a week in the Chicago morgue. Autograph manuscript signed, Indiana State prison, April 1960. Thirty-eight pages all in a very neat hand of William A. Shaw addressed to Joseph M. Pinkston, Radio Station WIRE, 307 N. Penn Street, Indianapolis, Indiana. In two places on the manuscript is a rubber stamp; “APPROVED, April 25, 1960, Warden”. The entire manuscript is the detailed story from beginning to end of Shaw’s relationship with John Dillinger. The cover page (1,25 pages), in Shaw’s hand lists the original Dillinger gang and the names they went by. It is addressed to Joseph Pinkston, who later became the proprietor of the john Dillinger Museum at Nashville, Indiana. He writes: “Through the past twenty-six years I have been reluctant to talk or write about my association with the notorious and infamous outlaw John Dillinger. So much has been said about him that it makes my association with him trivial. I was introduced to John Dillinger the first part of June 1933. The newspapers lists our first robbery June 4, or the same night I met him”. A second cover page on the imprinted stationery of Indiana State Prison, Michigan City, Indiana, December 26, 1964 to Joe pinks ton, one and a half pages, neatly written, signed Bill”. A PS is also signed “Bill”. A friendly letter talking about Pingston’s book about Dillinger. He goes on to write: “Did you ever get the museum going as you planned? I have changed a bit in my way of thinking as far as the life of Crime is concerned. With just a little help and consideration I am sure I can make a go of it in the future. You are the first to hear me say this but I am sure you will not be the last... I have something in mind that may help others to avoid this kind of life...don’t get me wrong, I’m not coming home tomorrow, it is merely that I am trying to plan for the future if there is one for me. At long last I am tired of butting my head against these iron bars. I hope what I have on my mind can be put across to the official of the Correction Department. If experience means anything then I feel I am well qualified to do the job I have in mind. I will explain it later to you...” Included in this collection are two original photographs of William A. Shaw being interviewed by the press at the John Dillinger Museum. Also included are two newspaper articles, the first of Ex-Con Shaw outside the Biograph Theater where John Dillinger died with three columns of information about his association with John Dillinger. The second is a two column obituary “Dillinger Gang Survivor Dies in Chicago Hotel”. The collection is in fine condition .................$9,500.00       |