Public enemy (term)

Public Enemy is a term which was first widely used in the United States in the 1930s to describe individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society.

The term was first popularised in April 1930 by Frank J. Loesch, then chairman of the Chicago Crime Commission, in an attempt to publicly denounce Al Capone and other Chicago gangsters.

It was later appropriated by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI who used it to describe various notorious fugitives that they were pursuing throughout the 1930s. Among the criminals whom the FBI called "Public Enemies" were John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker and Alvin Karpis.

The term was used so extensively during the 1930s that some writers call that period of the FBI's early history the "Public Enemy Era". ^*,^*

Original Chicago usage

Frank J. Loesch first devised the term "Public Enemy" in the title of a list he wrote of Chicago's most prominent and influential gangsters.

The Public Enemies list, as printed in the Chicago Tribune on April 24, 1930, included the following:

All of those listed were reputated to be gangsters or racketeers and most were bootleggers. Although all were known to be consistent law breakers (most prominently in regards to the widely-broken "Prohibition" law banning alcohol) none of those named were fugitives or were actively wanted by the law. The lists purpose was clearly to both shame those named and spur the authorities to prosecute them.

In 1933 Loesch recounted the origin and purpose of the list:

"I had the operating director the Chicago Crime Commission bring before me a list of the outstanding hoodlums, known murderers, murderers which you and I know but can’t prove, and there were about one-hundred of them, and out of this list I selected twenty-eight men. I put Al Capone at the head and his brother next, and ran down the twenty-eight, every man being really an outlaw. I called them Public Enemies, and so designated them in my letter, sent to the Chief of Police, the Sheriff every law enforcing officer".

"The purpose is to keep the publicity light shining on Chicago's most prominent, well known and notorious gangsters to the end that they may be under constant observation by the law enforcing authorities and law abiding citizens".

Capone's ranking at the top of the list led to his gaining the sobriquet "Public Enemy No.1", a title he would continue to be referred to by newspapers and the authorities until his conviction on tax-evasion charges in 1931.

The term "Public Enemy" was later further popularised when Warner Bros. released the film The Public Enemy in 1931. Starring James Cagney as a ruthless criminal the films use of the term was clearly inspired by Loesch's original list.

FBI use of the term

Later, after the term Public Enemy was popularised by Loesch and the 1931 movie, J. Edgar Hoover and his then fledgling FBI began to use the term widely to describe prominent criminals whom they were pursuing.

However unlike Loesch's use of the term, the FBI's "Public Enemies" were wanted criminals and fugitives who were already charged with crimes.

As the FBI's website describes:

"FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice made use of the term, "public enemy," in the 1930s, an era in which the term was synonymous with "fugitive" or "notorious gangster." It was used in speeches, books, press releases, and internal memoranda. However, neither the FBI nor the Department had any type of publicity program which concentrated on a "public enemy" number 1, number 2, etc." [http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/tenfaq.htm#12

Among those widely-referred to as "public enemies" during this period were John Dillinger, Alvin Karpis, Baby Face Nelson, Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, Kate "Ma" Barker, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.

References

Bergreen, Laurence (1994). Capone: The Man and the Era. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0684824477.

The public enemy era

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Original Chicago usage

FBI use of the term

References