Polly Hamilton

The Biograph Theater was the scene of morbid hysteria after FBI agents gathered to capture notorious Bank Robber and Public Enemy, John Dillinger there on a hot night in July, 1934. John Dillinger was shot down by FBI agents at 10:20 P.M. on Sunday, July 22, 1934, in front of Chicago's Biograph Theater, on North Lincoln Avenue. Even before he dropped into the alley next to the movie theater, the two women accompanying him had disappeared.

Anna Sage is believed to have gone back to her apartment on Halsted Street. She most likely sidled through the alley, and ran to her apartment, by passing the rear of the theater.

Once back in her apartment, she hurridly changed out of her orange skirt. It is the skirt that made her notorious, that marked her as the "Woman in Red." The building that housed Anna Sage's apartment is no longer standing.

Anna Sage, as the Woman in Red, was immortalized.

The other woman, Polly Hamilton, had no intention of staying with her friend, Anna Sage. Polly chose to run to the corner of Fullerton Avenue, and Lincoln Avenue.There, she made a right turn, and ran for her life. The long block must have seemed endless. Yet, she kept on running. At the Fullerton Avenue stop

Polly jumped onto the northbound train. She rode to the Wilson Avenue stop. The ride took approximately 20 minutes. At Wilson Avenue and Broadway, she left the train and went down to the street.

She entered a diner restaurant at 1209 1/2 Wilson Avenue, where she'd worked as a waitress until her rich boyfriend, Dillinger, had told her to quit. Two weeks before, she had given notice.

After stopping into the Diner, Polly spoke to her friend and co-worker, Maxinne. Later, she called Maxine on the telephone and asked her to pick up her clothes. They were at the Malden Plaza Hotel. But Maxine was frightened and didn't want to be involved in the Dilliger case. So she called the police, and spoke to Captain Duffy of the Dillinger Squad. Polly had unwittingly placed calls from the restaurant, which were traced by Chicago police. Her calls were traced to 4619 Malden Avenue. But the landlord there, said she'd left the apartment five weeks before.

Anna Sage reputedly dropped Dillinger's ammunition into a canal off Lake Michigan after Dillinger's death. The cache was discovered in a shallow waterway near the Lincoln Gun Club, a short distance from the Biograph Theater.

Meanwhile, Captain Stege of the Chicago police, arrested Anna Sage with her son on July 24th, 1934. With Polly still in hiding, Anna Sage negotiated her reward for Dillinger's capture. With the promise of the money, Anna Sage agreed to contact Polly Hamilton and get her to surrender to the police. After Polly turned herself in, she and Anna Sage were hidden for a few days in Detroit. They returned for a short time to Chicago.

Polly Hamilton left Chicago for a short time after Dillinger's death. When it felt safe to return, she came back and made the City her home. She married and lived on the North Side until her death in 1969.