Van Meter (1871–1918) and Julia Miller (1872–1924) in 1905 (according to other sources December 3, 1906)[citation needed] in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the son of an alcoholic railroad conductor.

During the sixth grade, Van Meter ran away from home, eventually ending up in Chicago, Illinois, where he worked as a bellhop and a waiter.

On July 28, 1925, Van Meter's repeated joking and violation of the Indiana Reformatory rules earned him a transfer to the state prison at Michigan City.

[1] In January 1926, Van Meter was transported to Chicago to testify in defense of a man wrongly suspected of being his accomplice for the train robbery in Crown Point.

On August 18, Van Meter aligned himself with Baby Face Nelson and Tommy Carroll to rob a bank in Grand Haven, Michigan.

On October 23, the trio, along with John Paul Chase and Charles "Chuck" Fisher, robbed a bank in Brainerd, Minnesota, escaping with $32,000.

On March 6, Dillinger, Nelson, Van Meter, Carroll, Eddie Green, and Hamilton robbed the Security National Bank & Trust Company in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

[2] On April 12, Dillinger and Van Meter robbed a police station in Warsaw, Indiana, stealing firearms and bulletproof vests.

On May 24, while driving a red panel truck, Van Meter and Dillinger were stopped by Detectives Martin O'Brien and Lloyd Mulvihill of the East Chicago Police Department.

[citation needed] A few days later, in an attempt to conceal their identities, both Dillinger and Van Meter underwent plastic surgery at the hands of Wilhelm Loeser in the apartment of Jimmy Probasco, a bar owner connected to the Chicago Outfit.

[citation needed] On June 30, Van Meter, Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and an unidentified fourth man robbed the Merchants National Bank in South Bend, Indiana.

[citation needed] On August 23, at the corner of Marion Street and University Avenue in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Van Meter was confronted by four police officers, including Chief Frank Cullen, Detective Tom Brown, and two other men, all heavily armed with shotguns and Thompson submachine guns.

[6] By this time Brown had been demoted and was under investigation for corruption and allegations that he had been an accomplice to the Barker–Karpis gang in the kidnappings of William Hamm and Edward Bremer.