8. Bank robberies helped create the Federal Bureau of Investigation
In the 1920s a surge of bank robberies across the United States began which continued through the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Bureau of Investigation (BOI), formed in 1908, expanded into the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the 1920s and became involved in the investigation of bank robberies and the apprehension of the robbers in the 1930s. The depredations of the roving criminal gangs of the depression years led to bank robbery becoming a federal crime in 1934, if the bank was a National bank or a member bank of the Federal Reserve System. Prior to that action, a bank robber in Ohio could escape to a bordering state such as Kentucky or Indiana and avoid pursuit and arrest.
As in the earlier days in the west, where criminals such as Jesse James gained the sympathy and even the admiration of citizens who agreed with their activities, some of the famous robbers and murderers of the days of the roving gangs became folk heroes among the poor and the outcast of the depression. John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, and several others, were cheered by those who had been hurt by the banks during the collapse of many of them in the early days of the depression. Dillinger in particular exploited the image by robbing banks but not the customers who were present when he committed his crimes (he was not above stealing their cars though). The well-armed gangs often outgunned the police, and violent crime took an upsurge.