Grim plastic surgery plot 'Public Enemy No1' John Dillinger used to evade FBI

dailystar.co.uk:

crime spree.The handsome, personable bank robber who became known as "Gentleman Johnny” for his habit of flirting with female bank customers during his crimes, was a nationally-known figure.

His picture could be seen in every newspaper and newsreel.But that became a problem for Dillinger, who was shot and killed on this day in 1934 (July 22), as J Edgar Hoover mobilised his newly-formed FBI to track him down.READ MORE: Real dead body ended up as fairground attraction and inspired He-Man's SkeletorDillinger was fatalistic. "I'm travelling a one-way road," he told a friend, "and I'm not fooling myself as to what the end will be.

If I surrender, I know it means the electric chair. If I go on, it's just a question of how much time I have left."But in a bid to put off his appointment with death, Dillinger paid $5,000 in April 1934, (almost £100,000 in today’s money) for plastic surgery to alter his well-known features and keep him one step ahead of the authorities.

Wilhelm Loeser, a former doctor who had been jailed on drugs charges, later told prosecutors about the operation: “I asked him what work he wanted done,” he said.He wanted two moles removed on the right lower forehead between the eyes and one at the left angle, outer angle of the left eye; a depression of the nose filled in; a scar; a large one to the left of the median line of the upper lip excised, wanted his dimples removed and wanted the angle of the mouth drawn up.Referring to an operation he had performed on himself to burn off his own fingerprints, Loeser added: “He didn't say anything about the fingers that day to me."The operation didn’t go well.