Melvin Purvis

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Melvin Horace Purvis, Jr. (October 24, 1903 - February 29, 1960) was an American lawman and FBI agent.

In 1934, this young FBI agent was named as one of the most admired men in the United States. Melvin Purvis joined the FBI in 1927 after a brief career as a lawyer. He served until 1935 and captured more public enemies than any other agent in FBI history, a record that still stands. Purvis led the manhunts that tracked such outlaws as Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd.

Purvis is best remembered, however, for leading the manhunt for John Dillinger. Outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago on a hot night in 1934, he called out to the famous outlaw "Stick 'em up, Johnny." Dillinger was shot dead by FBI agents, supposedly going for his gun, though some dispute this since Dillinger did not have a gun and was shot six times in the back as he ran.

Purvis was given great acclaim for his role in this and reportedly incurred the wrath of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who had previously praised him. Many have said Hoover was jealous of the attention given to Purvis after Dillinger was killed.

Purvis resigned from the FBI in 1935 and afterward practiced law. He married and had three sons, and bought a radio station in Florence, South Carolina. During World War II he served in the Army as a colonel. On February 29, 1960, while at his home in Florence, Melvin Purvis died from a shot fired from the gun given to him by fellow agents when he resigned from the FBI. The FBI investigated the shooting and labeled it a suicide, but it was later determined that Purvis may have shot himself accidentally while trying to extract a tracer bullet jammed in the pistol.

[edit] Other media

• In the 1974 TV movie, Melvin Purvis, G-man, Purvis was played by Dale Robertson
• In the 1991 TV movie Dillinger, Purvis was portrayed by actor Will Patton.

Now his son Alston Purvis retells the story.

[edit] References and further reading

• Potter, Claire Bond (1998). War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men, and the Politics of Mass Culture. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-2487-3. 
• Purvis, Alston; and Tresinowski, Alex (2005). The Vendetta. Public Affairs. ISBN 1-58648-301-3. 
• People & Events: Melvin Purvis, 1903-1960. Public Enemy #1. PBS; American Experience.