John Dillinger robbed banks across the Depression-era Midwest and became, to some, a folk hero, a modern Robin Hood taking from institutions that had foreclosed on farms and ruined savings. This film traces the path that made him: a troubled youth, a botched early robbery that landed him in prison, and the hardened crew he formed on release. It follows the escalating manhunt that made him Public Enemy Number One, the shootouts and jailbreaks that built the legend faster than newspapers could correct it, and the Chicago ambush outside the Biograph Theater where FBI agents shot him down. The film also takes seriously the rumors that persisted for years afterward that Dillinger had faked his death and escaped, weighing them against the physical evidence. Interviews and period photographs, newsreel clips, and archival documents are used throughout to separate the charismatic outlaw of popular memory from the more violent, calculating man the historical record describes.