Makley dropped out of school in the eighth grade and turned to crime in his teens, first with petty theft, then bootlegging and bank robbery in at least three Midwestern states.

Makley was not a model prisoner, but incurred only minor infractions during his stay at Indiana State: possessing contraband cigarette papers.

Dillinger was paroled in May 1933, but swore to liberate his friends, and had pistols smuggled in to Makley, Pierpont, Hamilton, Clark, and several other convicts.

Dietrich, Fox, Burns and James Clark commandeered a car at gunpoint from a sheriff that was taking a prisoner to Michigan city and split from the others.

It was around this time that the gang learned that Dillinger had himself recently been arrested for bank robbery and was being detained at the Allen County jail in Lima, Ohio.

[1] (The 3rd chapter of "Dillinger: The Untold Story", "And Every Man's Hand," listed the persons differently---"About half past six on the evening of October 12 a car drove up to the red brick jail at Lima.

On October 14, Dillinger, Makley, and the gang stole guns, ammunition and bulletproof vests from a police station in Auburn, Indiana.

By the end of the year, Makley ranked fourth on Illinois' list of "public enemies", behind Dillinger, Pierpont, and Hamilton.

[1] On January 25, 1934, while the gang was lying low in Tucson, Arizona, a fire broke out in a leaky furnace at the Hotel Congress, where Makley and Clark were staying.

Dillinger was extradited to Crown Point, Indiana to stand trial for the murder of Officer William O'Malley during his and Hamilton's robbery of the First National Bank in East Chicago on January 15, while Pierpont, Makley and Clark were sent back to Indiana State Prison under the supervision of Sheriff Don Sarber, the son of the Allen County sheriff they had killed.

Testimony from Ed Shouse saw Makley, Clark and Pierpont convicted in three consecutive trials over the course of two weeks in March 1934, while Dillinger, who had escaped Crown Point and joined up with Baby Face Nelson, robbed banks in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Mason City, Iowa.

[1] While waiting for their turn in the electric chair, Makley and Pierpont carved a pair of revolvers from large bars of soap, and blackened them with shoe polish.

A story often told of Makley is that some time in the mid-1920s after robbing a bank he went straight to a civic luncheon at which he was giving the keynote speech.