He is best known as the "good natured" member of the John Dillinger gang and participated in armed holdups with them in a three-month crime spree across the Midwestern United States from October 1933 until his capture in January 1934.

A native of Oaktown, Knox County, Indiana, Russell Clark's criminal career began shortly after his dishonorable discharge from the United States Marines in 1919.

That same year, both Jack Morrison and Clark confessed to robbing the Bellevue Club in Evansville, Indiana on August 26 but the owner, Charles "Cotton" Jones, refused to press charges and the case was dropped.

Clark was finally caught after his first robbery, from either Huntertown or Fort Wayne, Indiana, and sentenced to twenty years imprisonment on December 11 or 12, 1927.

[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] When Dillinger was paroled in May 1933, he launched a series of bank raids to finance the escape of his friends and was able to smuggle guns into the prison only four months after his release.

[1][2][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Dillinger had been arrested in Dayton, Ohio four days prior to the prison break and Clark and the others quickly began planning to free him from custody.

Clark and the rest of the gang began raiding police stations in Auburn and Peru, Indiana stocking up on weapons, ammunition and bulletproof vests in preparation for a violent three-month crime spree across the Midwest.

Dillinger was extradited to Indiana to stand trial for the murder of an East Chicago police officer while Clark and the others were returned to Michigan City.

The convicts were then met by guards who fired at them, killing Makley and leaving Pierpont seriously wounded, while Clark and the other prisoners retreated back to their cells.