The story ran just inches below the Shawano Evening Leader masthead. On Jan. 31, 1936, the paper’s faithful learned that Evelyn “Billie” Frechette, the “erstwhile sweetheart” of slain gangster John Dillinger, “stepped from the train at the depot at Shawano last night at 12:40 and was met with friends who took her immediately to the reservation.”
Frechette was newly paroled and heading home to her Menominee community after spending two years in the federal prison in Milan, Michigan. Described by the reporter as being “smartly dressed and wearing smoked glasses,” Frechette stated, “It’s good to be free … And I’m going to be good. The federal men said they’d send me back to prison if I don’t act like a lady.”
Immortalized as the lover of the very first “Public Enemy Number 1,” Frechette’s story helps everyone better understand the choices made during this tumultuous period in American history. The fact that she is a member of the Menominee Nation further reveals a rich local connection to national history.
Acclaimed crime historian John Oller’s latest book endeavors to humanize the effort to thwart crime sprees in 1930s America. “Gangster Hunters: How Hoover’s G-Men Vanquished America’s Deadliest Public Enemies” shares the stories of the men who brought law and order to national criminals. By illuminating the machinations of their lives and livelihoods, Oller enriches narratives about bullets and bank robbers with details of love, loss, sacrifice and persistence.
Specifics about kidnappings, robberies, jailbreaks and car thefts help paint a more complete picture of some of the decade’s most nefarious undertakings, but where Oller’s work most resonates is in the passages discussing lovers, spouses and descendants of those involved in the melee.
Oller describes Frechette as “the five-foot-two raven-haired beauty of the bunch” who met Dillinger “in a Chicago nightclub where Billie worked as a hatcheck girl” in November 1933.
Frechette, then an estranged wife of a man serving prison time, is quoted as saying about her new beau, “There was something in those eyes that I will never forget. They were piecing and electric; yet there was an amused carefree twinkle in them, too.”
The couple were enamored with each other, traveling the country and spending stolen dollars despite lawmen’s fruitless pursuits. Incredibly, “a hick town police force” in Tucson, Arizona, managed to arrest Frechette alongside of her murderous paramour in January 1934. She gave a false name and was released to travel back to Chicago.
Dillinger was extradited to Indiana to face murder charges, but on March 3, he escaped using what he claimed was “a wooden pistol that he used to bluff his jailers.” While Oller recounts details of unproven theories about bribes and accomplices, what’s known for sure is “a woman visitor … might have fed Dillinger details about the breakout plan, since they communicated in code.”
Led to believe that the woman’s name was “Ann Martin,” the FBI later “ascertained that her real name was something like ‘Fancette’ or ‘Fraschetti’ and, finally, Frechette.” Oller notes Frechette “practically leaped into his arms” when she and the escaped Dillinger were reunited.
Later that month, Dillinger was wounded in a shootout with law enforcement in St. Paul, and it was Frechette who transported him to a moonlighting doctor in Minneapolis.
On April 9, the life of lawlessness ended for Frechette. She was arrested in Chicago while serving in “the moll’s customary role of advance woman.” Dillinger escaped “reportedly weeping, knowing the loyal lover he was planning to marry” was apprehended by the FBI.
In June, Frechette was convicted in St. Paul for harboring Dillinger. The following month, Dillinger was killed by federal law enforcement in Chicago.
After leaving prison, Frechette shared the story of her rendezvous with criminals to reporters. Later, she toured with members of Dillinger’s family in a theatrical show titled “Crime Doesn’t Pay,” dutifully upholding her promise to “act like a lady” while perpetuating the allure surrounding Dillinger’s life.
From a humble birth in Neopit, to attending a mission school in South Dakota, to participating in some of the most flummoxing days in FBI history, Frechette lived quite the life before retiring to Shawano. She remarried twice before eventually succumbing to cancer in 1969. Interred in the Woodland Cemetery under a headstone reading “Evelyn Tic,” Frechette will forever be linked to the notorious outlaw who had a “carefree twinkle” in his eyes.
Newspapers of yesteryear carry some of the details of Dillinger’s illicit crimes, but texts like Oller’s prove that the man’s infamy cannot be understood without recognizing the role Billie Frechette played in maintaining it.
Ryan Winn, Ph.D., teaches communications, English, history and theater at the College of Menominee Nation. Visit www.menominee.edu for more information about the school.
Billie Frechette completes John Dillinger’s story
