Post by Brian on Jan 18, 2015 3:24:51 GMT -5
11/12/07 at 07:28 PM
Maria
We've all heard how a note purported to be from John Dillinger was nailed to Hillary Hampton's door saying he, Dillinger had been at the Law son house that day and the sheriff never recognized him. According to Sadie Hampton, wife of Hillary Hampton, John Dillinger was indeed at the Lawson house that day. The only problem is, it was a man named John Dillinger who was a deputy Sheriff in Stokes County, not John Dillinger the infamous bank robber!!!!!!!!! Sadie also said that John Dillinger and Hillary were best friends and that the note that was put on his door was UN-true. She said such a note never existed. So folks, mystery solved. Same name, different men!!!!!!!
Maria
11/12/07 at 09:19 PM
LuvMyDog
As usual....you have solved another mystery for us Maria. Of course I believe I can speak for most of us here when I say that no one actually believed that "The" John Dillinger had anything to do with this murder. The only sharp shooter involved here was Charlie Lawson.
LuvMyDog
11/12/07 at 09:23 PM
Maria
That was good, him being the only sharp shooter part. Brilliant!!!
Maria
11/12/07 at 09:53 PM
NascarLover
I think this is amazing Maria. Congratulations. I don't know how you do it but this forum is so full of information that I could just sit and read it all every day if I didn't have to work and not get bored. Keep up the good work and thank you again for telling me about this forum.
Tim.
NascarLover
11/13/07 at 08:14 AM
hillbillyghosthunter
Cool....great Maria. You know you have uncovered enough stuff to do your own book.
HillBilly GhostHunters
11/13/07 at 08:38 AM
Maria
Until the Scrapbook is finished and I see how it does I can't really even think about writing a book. But it has crossed my mind lately. But I keep reminding myself that I'm a researcher, not a writer, except of poetry. I would rather work as a researcher with someone who is an established and well respected author and contribute to a book about it that way. A ghost writer sort of thing. I provide the story line and info and they put it in written form. My first choice would be Ann Rule.
Maria
11/13/07 at 09:40 AM
Angel71242
Ann Rule!! Yes, that would be awesome!!!!! As to John Dillinger - you are just incredible Maria! A new thing discovered about the Lawsons after 78 years!!! That's really cool! You rock!
Angel71242
11/13/07 at 10:25 AM
Angel71242
A quote from WC/BC
"A short time after the murders, Mr. Hill Hampton became a Deputy Sheriff in Stokes County. One day he found a note on the front door of his home. It read, 7 came through today, but you didn't even recognize me." The note was signed by John Dillinger. Mr, Hampton had been at the Lawson home earlier that day during the time that people were touring, and obviously had not noticed that one of the customers was one of the most infamous outlaws of the century. John Dillinger was a notorious gangster and killer. He had casually walked past Hampton as just another face in the crowd and was never noticed.'
And from the second book - a picture of the ACTOR that played John Dillinger in the movie was said to be THE John Dillinger.
Maria solved this with one phone call. What the heck was Trudy Smith doing with these 2 books?? Certainly not researching -I guess she was stretching her "artistic license" as far as it could possibly go!!
Angel71242
11/13/07 at 11:06 AM
Maria
I knew that John Dillinger was a bank robber, not a killer. The only person he killed was a policeman who kept shooting at him. So knowing that murder was not John Dillinger's MO...Method of Operation, I pretty much doubted he had killed the Lawsons. Also, I knew that during the 5 years the house did the tours, John Dillinger was in prison except for a few months when he escaped. He was captured again and returned to prison. Within a| very short period of time after his next escape by using a wooden gun to effect his escape he was gunned down by the FBI. Therefore, chances of him traveling from Illinois to North Carolina to go on a tour of a house where a family was murdered was remote at best. So I set out to prove that John Dillinger had not killed the Lawsons nor had he toured the cabin. It was so easy to do it was almost not worth it.
Maria
11/13/07 at 01:05 PM
Maria
Another thing I'd like to clear up or clarify is the statement that Hillary Hampton did not become a Deputy Sheriff
soon after the murders as it says unless you call ten years soon. Hillary's daughter said he became a Deputy
Sheriff in l940 or 41. No biggie but I like everything to be as close to right as I can get it.
Maria
11/13/07 at 02:56 PM
Michael818
Great find, MARIA! I could have seen the real gangster Dillinger having heard of the killings (it made big city papers,
after all) and being curious enough to visit if he came through.
Now we know he didn't. Thanks!
Michael R.
11/13/07 at 06:07
Maria
Betty Rutledge just confirmed for me that there was indeed a man in Stokes County named John Dillinger. But she said he was a highway patrolman rather than a Deputy Sheriff. I was real glad to get that confirmed because that makes 3 people in Stokes County to say that. My second source had also said she was pretty sure he was a highway patrolman so I asked Hillary's daughter about it and she said she had meant to say that John Dillinger was a Trooper (Highway patrolman) at the same time her Dad Hillary was a Deputy Sheriff. The John Dillinger that was a highway Patrolman retired in 1954 according to Richard Rutledge but I don't know when he first started out as a Trooper.
Maria
11/14/07 at 10:41 AM
Angel71242
Third times a charm!!! I'd say this mystery is most definitely solved with your three confirmations!! Thanks Maria!!!!!
Angel71242
11/14/07 at 03:09 PM
Maria
Hillary Hampton's wife said the other day that she nor Hillary ever knew what happened to the John Dillinger who was the Highway Patrolman, that he just suddenly disappeared one day and they never knew where or why he went or what happened to him. But I heard from one of my confirmation sources last night that Trooper Dillinger was run out of town. She didn't know what he had done, only that it was pretty bad. I'd sure love to know what it was.
Maria
11/14/07 at 03:11 PM
Angel71242
There is no telling what he did. But (I'll say again!) if anybody can find out it's you Maria!!!!
Angel71242
11/15/07 at 05:21 PM
Maria
I just had a fourth person confirm for me that John Dillenger was indeed a Highway Patrolman in Stokes County at the time of the Lawson murders. He said he knew John Dillinger real well, that he was a very dapper man who always dressed to perfection, always looked so good in what he wore and that he thinks he might have a photo of him in his boxes of photos and he would look for it and if he has one he will send it to me. But he also told me that John Dillinger did not get run out of town. That he resigned over some problem or another but he couldn't remember what. He said John left the Highway Patrol (resigned) then went to work for Tuttle Ford Company in Walnut Cove then left there and went to work for Pine Hall Brick Company as a salesman. He died around 10 years ago.
Maria
11/15/07 at 05:25 PM
Angel71242
Awesome as always Maria!!
Angel71242
11/17/07 at 03:34 PM
Michael818
10 years! Ack! Soooo close! If only we'd known about him, maybe he could have solved that particular legend long ago!
Michael R.
Michael818
11/17/07 at 04:13 PM
Maria
What, and deprive me of the joy of solving it. No way!!!!!!!!
Maria
11/17/07 at 04:15 PM
Michael818
But, I'm sure YOU would have been the one to find him, Maria! So it STILL would've been you!!!
Michael R,
11/19/07 at 10:42 AM
Angel71242
Ain't that the truth! I!!!!!! (I wish I had a Sherlock Smiley!!)
Angel71242
11/19/07 at 02:36 PM
Maria
Here you go Angel!!!!
Maria
11/19/07 at 05:07 PM
Michael818
"Holmes! Holmes! The Hound Of The Baskervilles! It's after me!!!!" _ Watson
Michael R.
Michael818
11/20/07 at 11:55 AM
sissy
If "SOMEBODY" was even half the researcher that Maria is we wouldn't have to make fun of her stupid book. And all of her so called information!! Good find Maria!!
sissy
11/20/07 at 09:45 PM
LuvMyDog
Hey Michael....do you think you are Watson now....or is this something you quoted from a Sherlock Holmes mystery?
LuvMyDog
01/17/08 at 01:04 PM
Maria
No Michelle, Michael wasn't pretending to think of himself as Watson. He was quoting from one of the most famous Sherlock Holmes mysteries, The Hounds of Baskerville, one of my favorite Sherlock Holmes stories. My very favorite one by him is The Last Vampyre.
Maria
01/19/08 at 10:14 AM
laurie1125
I'm myself am a researcher and not a writer. Like one person told me long ago, everybody had a book in them. So many good murder cases here in Roanoke and I would love to see two of them become a book
laurie1125
01/19/08 at 11:37 AM
Michael818
Send me the idea, and I'll look at it. I am just now getting things together to write my third book of ghost stories (This one covers all the South), but I might be interested in a true crime book. Often, the two subjects intertwine.
Michael R.
01/19/08 at 12:07 PM
Matt32
Has it been noted that the 'infamous' Dillinger was 5 years into a 9 year sentence at the Indiana State Prison on Christmas Day, 1929? That he wasn't released until 1933, and was dead by the summer of the next year, after movements that have been tracked pretty extensively by historians?
I just say this because I still get emails from people who believe not only did Dillinger visit the house, but that he was bragging about getting away with the murders there.
Although in the film, we Do get an explanation from Wade Nichols about how big events in folklore get 'tied' to other more well known events (such as Dillinger's crime spree) in order to 'keep the story alive'.
many can do what no One can-
together, we Can beat domestic violence-
Matt32
01/19/08 at 01:22 PM
Michael818
I believe the name similarities between him and the Stokes deputy, coupled with the suggestions of his gang's 1933 or 34 trip to Florida, can be the source of the Dillinger legend. As you say, he WAS in prison at the time of the killings, so there's no way he could have done in the Lawsons.
Michael R.
01/19/08 at 02:17 PM
Maria
It started because someone said they saw a note nailed to the door of the Sheriff's office, someone else said to Hillary Hampton's front door...that said "I was at the Lawson house today and you didn't recognize me." The note was signed John Dillinger. No one bothered to clarify that the John Dillinger who allegedly wrote the note was a Highway Patrolman in Stokes County by that name. They just assumed wrongly that it was the infamous bank robber by the same name. Hillary Hampton's wife Sadie said that while she and her husband Hillary were real good friends of the Highway Patrolman by the name of John Dillinger that a note from him was never received by| them.
Maria
01/19/08 at 03:26 PM
Michael818
Ooops! Forgot he was a patrolman, not a deputy. Incidentally, he MUST have been one of the first patrolmen, if not THE first, over there, because the NCHP wasn't created til 29291
Michael R.
01/19/08 at 04:25 PM
Maria
Actually he was there was in the 30's on a tour of the Lawson house. Unfortunately, like Payne Road getting mixed up with the Lawson murders, the notorious bank robber named John Dillinger will always be mixed up with the murder of the Lawsons. And we all know why.
Maria
01/19/08 at 04:32 PM
Michael818
Yep. I just gave directions to the cemetery for McPepper in the thread where he/she asked. Wonder why the USGS maps misplace it over there on Payne? Maybe THAT is why the legends get mixed up all together sometimes!
Michael R.
01/20/08 at 12:56 AM
Angel71242
I gotta say thanks again to Maria for solving this one! I think that was a pretty big rumor to crack! We may have never known the truth!
And Michael I've seen that USGS map too..it is really weird why it places the cemetery there. I have a friend who drove out there to see the cemetery based on that satellite map and of course she never found it!!
Angel71242
01/20/08 at 10:39 AM
Maria
What boggles my mind is why that was never researched in the beginning or in all those years since. There are 10 people in my hometown named Maria Hodges. Why would anyone assume there was only one person in the world or in Stokes County by the name of John Dillinger.
Maria
01/20/08 at 05:05 PM
Michael818
Vanity. Or, celebrity gah-gah-ism. For some reason, Dillinger was revered as something of a Robin Hood by a lot of people.
Michael R.
01/20/08 at 05:10 PM
Maria
Robin Hood? Why? Did he give any of the money he robbed from the banks to any poor people?
Maria
01/20/08 at 05:19 PM
Michael818
I don't know. A LOT of these Twenties and Thirties gangsters were seen this way. For some odd reason, people like Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, The Barkers, and such, captured imaginations nationwide.
Michael R.
01/21/08 at 11:25 AM
Angel71242
I definitely think people would have preferred that it had been the bank robber John Dillinger instead of the highway patrolman. Just because it adds even more notoriety to an already notorious happening! Plus they probably think its cool that a famous person would come here, no matter the reason. But, thanks to Maria, we know the truth and I agree with you Maria - I prefer the good people as well!!
Angel71242
Maria
We've all heard how a note purported to be from John Dillinger was nailed to Hillary Hampton's door saying he, Dillinger had been at the Law son house that day and the sheriff never recognized him. According to Sadie Hampton, wife of Hillary Hampton, John Dillinger was indeed at the Lawson house that day. The only problem is, it was a man named John Dillinger who was a deputy Sheriff in Stokes County, not John Dillinger the infamous bank robber!!!!!!!!! Sadie also said that John Dillinger and Hillary were best friends and that the note that was put on his door was UN-true. She said such a note never existed. So folks, mystery solved. Same name, different men!!!!!!!
Maria
11/12/07 at 09:19 PM
LuvMyDog
As usual....you have solved another mystery for us Maria. Of course I believe I can speak for most of us here when I say that no one actually believed that "The" John Dillinger had anything to do with this murder. The only sharp shooter involved here was Charlie Lawson.
LuvMyDog
11/12/07 at 09:23 PM
Maria
That was good, him being the only sharp shooter part. Brilliant!!!
Maria
11/12/07 at 09:53 PM
NascarLover
I think this is amazing Maria. Congratulations. I don't know how you do it but this forum is so full of information that I could just sit and read it all every day if I didn't have to work and not get bored. Keep up the good work and thank you again for telling me about this forum.
Tim.
NascarLover
11/13/07 at 08:14 AM
hillbillyghosthunter
Cool....great Maria. You know you have uncovered enough stuff to do your own book.
HillBilly GhostHunters
11/13/07 at 08:38 AM
Maria
Until the Scrapbook is finished and I see how it does I can't really even think about writing a book. But it has crossed my mind lately. But I keep reminding myself that I'm a researcher, not a writer, except of poetry. I would rather work as a researcher with someone who is an established and well respected author and contribute to a book about it that way. A ghost writer sort of thing. I provide the story line and info and they put it in written form. My first choice would be Ann Rule.
Maria
11/13/07 at 09:40 AM
Angel71242
Ann Rule!! Yes, that would be awesome!!!!! As to John Dillinger - you are just incredible Maria! A new thing discovered about the Lawsons after 78 years!!! That's really cool! You rock!
Angel71242
11/13/07 at 10:25 AM
Angel71242
A quote from WC/BC
"A short time after the murders, Mr. Hill Hampton became a Deputy Sheriff in Stokes County. One day he found a note on the front door of his home. It read, 7 came through today, but you didn't even recognize me." The note was signed by John Dillinger. Mr, Hampton had been at the Lawson home earlier that day during the time that people were touring, and obviously had not noticed that one of the customers was one of the most infamous outlaws of the century. John Dillinger was a notorious gangster and killer. He had casually walked past Hampton as just another face in the crowd and was never noticed.'
And from the second book - a picture of the ACTOR that played John Dillinger in the movie was said to be THE John Dillinger.
Maria solved this with one phone call. What the heck was Trudy Smith doing with these 2 books?? Certainly not researching -I guess she was stretching her "artistic license" as far as it could possibly go!!
Angel71242
11/13/07 at 11:06 AM
Maria
I knew that John Dillinger was a bank robber, not a killer. The only person he killed was a policeman who kept shooting at him. So knowing that murder was not John Dillinger's MO...Method of Operation, I pretty much doubted he had killed the Lawsons. Also, I knew that during the 5 years the house did the tours, John Dillinger was in prison except for a few months when he escaped. He was captured again and returned to prison. Within a| very short period of time after his next escape by using a wooden gun to effect his escape he was gunned down by the FBI. Therefore, chances of him traveling from Illinois to North Carolina to go on a tour of a house where a family was murdered was remote at best. So I set out to prove that John Dillinger had not killed the Lawsons nor had he toured the cabin. It was so easy to do it was almost not worth it.
Maria
11/13/07 at 01:05 PM
Maria
Another thing I'd like to clear up or clarify is the statement that Hillary Hampton did not become a Deputy Sheriff
soon after the murders as it says unless you call ten years soon. Hillary's daughter said he became a Deputy
Sheriff in l940 or 41. No biggie but I like everything to be as close to right as I can get it.
Maria
11/13/07 at 02:56 PM
Michael818
Great find, MARIA! I could have seen the real gangster Dillinger having heard of the killings (it made big city papers,
after all) and being curious enough to visit if he came through.
Now we know he didn't. Thanks!
Michael R.
11/13/07 at 06:07
Maria
Betty Rutledge just confirmed for me that there was indeed a man in Stokes County named John Dillinger. But she said he was a highway patrolman rather than a Deputy Sheriff. I was real glad to get that confirmed because that makes 3 people in Stokes County to say that. My second source had also said she was pretty sure he was a highway patrolman so I asked Hillary's daughter about it and she said she had meant to say that John Dillinger was a Trooper (Highway patrolman) at the same time her Dad Hillary was a Deputy Sheriff. The John Dillinger that was a highway Patrolman retired in 1954 according to Richard Rutledge but I don't know when he first started out as a Trooper.
Maria
11/14/07 at 10:41 AM
Angel71242
Third times a charm!!! I'd say this mystery is most definitely solved with your three confirmations!! Thanks Maria!!!!!
Angel71242
11/14/07 at 03:09 PM
Maria
Hillary Hampton's wife said the other day that she nor Hillary ever knew what happened to the John Dillinger who was the Highway Patrolman, that he just suddenly disappeared one day and they never knew where or why he went or what happened to him. But I heard from one of my confirmation sources last night that Trooper Dillinger was run out of town. She didn't know what he had done, only that it was pretty bad. I'd sure love to know what it was.
Maria
11/14/07 at 03:11 PM
Angel71242
There is no telling what he did. But (I'll say again!) if anybody can find out it's you Maria!!!!
Angel71242
11/15/07 at 05:21 PM
Maria
I just had a fourth person confirm for me that John Dillenger was indeed a Highway Patrolman in Stokes County at the time of the Lawson murders. He said he knew John Dillinger real well, that he was a very dapper man who always dressed to perfection, always looked so good in what he wore and that he thinks he might have a photo of him in his boxes of photos and he would look for it and if he has one he will send it to me. But he also told me that John Dillinger did not get run out of town. That he resigned over some problem or another but he couldn't remember what. He said John left the Highway Patrol (resigned) then went to work for Tuttle Ford Company in Walnut Cove then left there and went to work for Pine Hall Brick Company as a salesman. He died around 10 years ago.
Maria
11/15/07 at 05:25 PM
Angel71242
Awesome as always Maria!!
Angel71242
11/17/07 at 03:34 PM
Michael818
10 years! Ack! Soooo close! If only we'd known about him, maybe he could have solved that particular legend long ago!
Michael R.
Michael818
11/17/07 at 04:13 PM
Maria
What, and deprive me of the joy of solving it. No way!!!!!!!!
Maria
11/17/07 at 04:15 PM
Michael818
But, I'm sure YOU would have been the one to find him, Maria! So it STILL would've been you!!!
Michael R,
11/19/07 at 10:42 AM
Angel71242
Ain't that the truth! I!!!!!! (I wish I had a Sherlock Smiley!!)
Angel71242
11/19/07 at 02:36 PM
Maria
Here you go Angel!!!!
Maria
11/19/07 at 05:07 PM
Michael818
"Holmes! Holmes! The Hound Of The Baskervilles! It's after me!!!!" _ Watson
Michael R.
Michael818
11/20/07 at 11:55 AM
sissy
If "SOMEBODY" was even half the researcher that Maria is we wouldn't have to make fun of her stupid book. And all of her so called information!! Good find Maria!!
sissy
11/20/07 at 09:45 PM
LuvMyDog
Hey Michael....do you think you are Watson now....or is this something you quoted from a Sherlock Holmes mystery?
LuvMyDog
01/17/08 at 01:04 PM
Maria
No Michelle, Michael wasn't pretending to think of himself as Watson. He was quoting from one of the most famous Sherlock Holmes mysteries, The Hounds of Baskerville, one of my favorite Sherlock Holmes stories. My very favorite one by him is The Last Vampyre.
Maria
01/19/08 at 10:14 AM
laurie1125
I'm myself am a researcher and not a writer. Like one person told me long ago, everybody had a book in them. So many good murder cases here in Roanoke and I would love to see two of them become a book
laurie1125
01/19/08 at 11:37 AM
Michael818
Send me the idea, and I'll look at it. I am just now getting things together to write my third book of ghost stories (This one covers all the South), but I might be interested in a true crime book. Often, the two subjects intertwine.
Michael R.
01/19/08 at 12:07 PM
Matt32
Has it been noted that the 'infamous' Dillinger was 5 years into a 9 year sentence at the Indiana State Prison on Christmas Day, 1929? That he wasn't released until 1933, and was dead by the summer of the next year, after movements that have been tracked pretty extensively by historians?
I just say this because I still get emails from people who believe not only did Dillinger visit the house, but that he was bragging about getting away with the murders there.
Although in the film, we Do get an explanation from Wade Nichols about how big events in folklore get 'tied' to other more well known events (such as Dillinger's crime spree) in order to 'keep the story alive'.
many can do what no One can-
together, we Can beat domestic violence-
Matt32
01/19/08 at 01:22 PM
Michael818
I believe the name similarities between him and the Stokes deputy, coupled with the suggestions of his gang's 1933 or 34 trip to Florida, can be the source of the Dillinger legend. As you say, he WAS in prison at the time of the killings, so there's no way he could have done in the Lawsons.
Michael R.
01/19/08 at 02:17 PM
Maria
It started because someone said they saw a note nailed to the door of the Sheriff's office, someone else said to Hillary Hampton's front door...that said "I was at the Lawson house today and you didn't recognize me." The note was signed John Dillinger. No one bothered to clarify that the John Dillinger who allegedly wrote the note was a Highway Patrolman in Stokes County by that name. They just assumed wrongly that it was the infamous bank robber by the same name. Hillary Hampton's wife Sadie said that while she and her husband Hillary were real good friends of the Highway Patrolman by the name of John Dillinger that a note from him was never received by| them.
Maria
01/19/08 at 03:26 PM
Michael818
Ooops! Forgot he was a patrolman, not a deputy. Incidentally, he MUST have been one of the first patrolmen, if not THE first, over there, because the NCHP wasn't created til 29291
Michael R.
01/19/08 at 04:25 PM
Maria
Actually he was there was in the 30's on a tour of the Lawson house. Unfortunately, like Payne Road getting mixed up with the Lawson murders, the notorious bank robber named John Dillinger will always be mixed up with the murder of the Lawsons. And we all know why.
Maria
01/19/08 at 04:32 PM
Michael818
Yep. I just gave directions to the cemetery for McPepper in the thread where he/she asked. Wonder why the USGS maps misplace it over there on Payne? Maybe THAT is why the legends get mixed up all together sometimes!
Michael R.
01/20/08 at 12:56 AM
Angel71242
I gotta say thanks again to Maria for solving this one! I think that was a pretty big rumor to crack! We may have never known the truth!
And Michael I've seen that USGS map too..it is really weird why it places the cemetery there. I have a friend who drove out there to see the cemetery based on that satellite map and of course she never found it!!
Angel71242
01/20/08 at 10:39 AM
Maria
What boggles my mind is why that was never researched in the beginning or in all those years since. There are 10 people in my hometown named Maria Hodges. Why would anyone assume there was only one person in the world or in Stokes County by the name of John Dillinger.
Maria
01/20/08 at 05:05 PM
Michael818
Vanity. Or, celebrity gah-gah-ism. For some reason, Dillinger was revered as something of a Robin Hood by a lot of people.
Michael R.
01/20/08 at 05:10 PM
Maria
Robin Hood? Why? Did he give any of the money he robbed from the banks to any poor people?
Maria
01/20/08 at 05:19 PM
Michael818
I don't know. A LOT of these Twenties and Thirties gangsters were seen this way. For some odd reason, people like Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, The Barkers, and such, captured imaginations nationwide.
Michael R.
01/21/08 at 11:25 AM
Angel71242
I definitely think people would have preferred that it had been the bank robber John Dillinger instead of the highway patrolman. Just because it adds even more notoriety to an already notorious happening! Plus they probably think its cool that a famous person would come here, no matter the reason. But, thanks to Maria, we know the truth and I agree with you Maria - I prefer the good people as well!!
Angel71242