Overview: During the Great Depression the American public looked for real-life anti-heroes to match the gangster movies - and found one in John Dillinger. A desperado, a bank robber, a bad man no jail could hold, his reputation grew until he was named the country's first Public Enemy Number One. But J Edgar Hoover would use Dillinger's celebrity to burnish his own reputation and that of his new national police force, the FBI. 5/6.