Tommy Carroll

Thomas Leonard Carroll (November 28, 1900 – June 7, 1934) was an American bank robber and Depression-era outlaw. A boxer-turned-criminal, he committed numerous robberies during the 1920s and 1930s, and was a longtime member of the Dillinger gang.

Biography

Early life and criminal career

An ex-boxer, who once had his jaw broken in the ring, giving him a "lantern-jaw" appearance, Carroll served in World War I. He was first arrested on January 24, 1920, and served 60 days in the Douglas County, Nebraska jail "for investigation." On October 24, 1921, Carroll was arrested for larceny in Council Bluffs, Iowa and remained in jail for nearly four months before his conviction on February 7, 1922. Sentenced to five years imprisonment, he spent a year in the Anamosa state reformatory before his parole in March 1923.

In February 1934, Carroll was sent by Homer Van Meter to Crown Point, Indiana, to deliver a "cash payment" to help break John Dillinger from the local jail. Carroll was not yet an associate of Dillinger's and was easily able to pass through the town without notice. On March 3, Dillinger escaped from Crown Point and went to St. Paul where he met Carroll. Three days later, he joined Carroll, Van Meter, Nelson, John "Red" Hamilton and Eddie Green in stealing $49,500 from a bank in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Carroll was assigned to watch the street and captured twelve police officers single-handed. Nelson, however, shot and wounded motorcycle officer Hale Keith before they made their getaway back to St. Paul.

Reporter Francis Veach, along with John Gwynne, the Black Hawk county attorney, and assistant county attorney Burr Towne, were admitted into Carroll's room at the St. Francis Hospital. Drs. Paul O'Keefe, Wade Preece, and J. R. O'Keefe were also at the bedside. Veach asked Carroll, who was now breathing heavily, if he had anything to say. "I'm hit, Buddy. That's all. I'm hit." Veach also asked Carroll if he wanted a priest. Thanking him, Carroll said the priest had already been in his room.

Veach left the hospital and went to the county jail to interview Jean Delaney. He asked her if she had a message to take back to Carroll. "Tell him that I said not to die and that they are going to let me see him in the hospital. Tell him that I love him. He was always good and kind to me, and the things they say about him aren't true. We just stopped in Waterloo to get my glasses fitted." Veach told her he would deliver the message. When he arrived back at the hospital, he learned that Carroll had died just before he got there, about six p.m. He returned to the jail and told Delaney that her message had been delivered, "thinking it might soften the blow somewhat." Two days after Carroll's death Delaney was sentenced to a year and a day for violating her parole, and later miscarried their child. Carroll was given a Catholic funeral at the Church of the Assumption in St. Paul and was buried in Oakland Cemetery, St. Paul, Lot 279, Block 71. Carroll's grave marker has long been missing.

In other media Tommy Carroll is played by actor Spencer Garrett in the 2009 film Public Enemies. In the film he is shown being shot in the back of the head during a disastrous bank robbery in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and is then tortured by BOI agents attempting to gain information regarding the gang's hideout. In reality, Carroll was killed by police in Waterloo, Iowa, with wounds to the chest and spine.