{ "id": "eppma394ts", "slug": "public-enemy-eppma394ts", "title": "Public enemy", "updated": "2026-10-25", "topic_path": [ { "id": "society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society" }, { "id": "society.law", "label": "Law and justice", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.law" }, { "id": "society.law.criminal", "label": "Criminal law and penal justice", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.law.criminal" }, { "id": "society.law.criminal.organized-crime-biographies", "label": "Organized-crime figures (biographies)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.law.criminal.organized-crime-biographies" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1800.society.law.criminal", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945: Criminal law and penal justice", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.society.law.criminal", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.society" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.society.law", "label": "Law and justice", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.society.law" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.society.law.criminal", "label": "Criminal law and penal justice", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.society.law.criminal" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Public enemy: a person seen as a menace to the public, especially a wanted criminal; older sense, a nation at war with one's own. Known from the 1930s Chicago Crime Commission list and FBI labels on Capone and Dillinger.", "snippet": "Public enemy: a person seen as a menace to the public, especially a wanted criminal; older sense, a nation at war with one's own. Known from the 1930s Chicago Crime Commission list and FBI labels on Capone and Dillinger.", "node": "society.law.criminal.organized-crime-biographies", "markdown": "# Public enemy\n\nA **public enemy** is a person considered a danger or menace to the public, especially a wanted criminal; in its older legal sense, the phrase meant a nation or government with which one's own state is at war.[1](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/public-enemy) The term is best known from the United States of the early 1930s, when newspapers, a Chicago civic group, and the Bureau of Investigation (renamed the [Federal Bureau of Investigation](https://www.edgepedia.org/federal-bureau-of-investigation) in 1935) applied it, with a numbered ranking, to Depression-era bank robbers and gangsters such as [Al Capone](https://www.edgepedia.org/al-capone) and [John Dillinger](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-dillinger).[2](https://time.com/3742696/history-fbi-top-ten-list/) • [3](https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2008/july/dillinger_072208)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Core meaning | A person or thing considered a danger or menace to the public, especially a wanted criminal widely sought by the FBI and local police; also a nation or government with which one's own is at war[1](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/public-enemy) |\n| Word history | First recorded in English in 1750–60; Merriam-Webster's 1934 dictionary still gave the first sense as \"a government or nation with which a state of war exists\"[1](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/public-enemy) • [4](https://www.deseret.com/1997/8/31/19331701/public-enemy-no-1-appeared-in-1930s/) |\n| First numbered list | April 1930, a list of \"public enemies\" issued by the Chicago Crime Commission, headed by Al Capone[2](https://time.com/3742696/history-fbi-top-ten-list/) |\n| Most famous holder | John Dillinger, branded Public Enemy #1 by the Bureau and killed by FBI agents outside Chicago's Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934[3](https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2008/july/dillinger_072208) |\n| Official status | Not an official FBI term, though by 1934 the Bureau of Investigation used it internally and for public relations; not a formal legal status in modern statutes[4](https://www.deseret.com/1997/8/31/19331701/public-enemy-no-1-appeared-in-1930s/) • [5](https://vertexlegal.org/what-is-legal-meaning-public-enemy/) |\n| End of the era | By the end of 1934 most of the named public enemies had been killed or captured[6](https://www.fbi.gov/history/history-of-the-fbi/the-fbi-and-the-american-gangster) |\n\n## Meaning and legal standing\n\nThe phrase has two distinct senses. The older one, recorded in English by the 1750s and still listed first in Merriam-Webster's 1934 dictionary, is a state or government at war with another; for more than two centuries the dictionary held only this sense.[1](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/public-enemy) • [4](https://www.deseret.com/1997/8/31/19331701/public-enemy-no-1-appeared-in-1930s/) The newer sense, a notorious individual who menaces the public, became dominant in American usage during the 1930s crime wave.[4](https://www.deseret.com/1997/8/31/19331701/public-enemy-no-1-appeared-in-1930s/)\n\nIn law, \"public enemy\" is not a single formal status in modern statutes. Courts and lawmakers address the underlying conduct, such as organized crime, terrorism, or public nuisance, through established doctrines, and the phrase survives mainly as rhetoric in court opinions and law-enforcement language for serious threats to public order.[5](https://vertexlegal.org/what-is-legal-meaning-public-enemy/) Commentators on the term also note that labeling a person a public enemy must not chill speech, assembly, or political advocacy protected by the First Amendment.[7](https://bridgelegal.org/what-is-legal-meaning-public-enemy/)\n\n## The Chicago Crime Commission list\n\nThe numbered \"public enemy\" label originated with a civic watchdog group, not the FBI. The Chicago Crime Commission formed in response to a surge of organized crime in the city, and in April 1930 it released a list of \"public enemies\" headed by Al Capone. Reporters took note, and the list format spread.[2](https://time.com/3742696/history-fbi-top-ten-list/) Capone held the top spot until his 1931 conviction for income-tax evasion, after which John Dillinger was widely described as having inherited the title.[8](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1936-pt6-v80/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1936-pt6-v80-1-2.pdf)\n\nThe Bureau of Investigation under [J. Edgar Hoover](https://www.edgepedia.org/j-edgar-hoover) adopted the language even though it was never an official designation. By 1934 the agency was using \"public enemy\" both internally and for public relations, and Hoover used the outlaws' celebrity to build the reputation of his national law enforcement agency.[4](https://www.deseret.com/1997/8/31/19331701/public-enemy-no-1-appeared-in-1930s/) • [9](https://cgi.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dillinger/filmmore/index.html) TIME noted in 1939 that the FBI \"usually considers it undesirable to dignify Public Enemies by listing them,\" but that the agency sometimes did so anyway.[2](https://time.com/3742696/history-fbi-top-ten-list/)\n\n## Dillinger and the FBI's war on crime\n\nThe label reached its peak with John Dillinger, whose bank robberies, shootouts, and jailbreaks in the [Depression](https://www.edgepedia.org/depression) years earned him nationwide notoriety. To the Bureau he was simply Public Enemy #1.[3](https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2008/july/dillinger_072208) His death outside the Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934, shot by agents under [Melvin Purvis](https://www.edgepedia.org/melvin-purvis), signaled the beginning of the end of the Gangster Era.[3](https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2008/july/dillinger_072208) • [6](https://www.fbi.gov/history/history-of-the-fbi/the-fbi-and-the-american-gangster)\n\nThe title passed as holders fell. After Dillinger's death the FBI declared Charles \"Pretty Boy\" Floyd Public Enemy No. 1 for his alleged role in the June 1933 Kansas City Massacre, a shooting at a train station that killed four lawmen including a Bureau agent; Floyd was killed in an Ohio farm shootout on October 22, 1934.[6](https://www.fbi.gov/history/history-of-the-fbi/the-fbi-and-the-american-gangster) • [10](https://time.com/3518207/pretty-boy-floyd/) By the end of 1934 most of these public enemies had been killed or captured, and in July 1935 the organization was renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation.[6](https://www.fbi.gov/history/history-of-the-fbi/the-fbi-and-the-american-gangster)\n\nThe label outlived the Gangster Era. On April 6, 1939, FBI agents shot and killed America's \"Public Enemy Number One,\" Ben Dickson, as he left a St. Louis hamburger shop. Agents claimed he refused to surrender and threatened them with two guns, but FBI documents and witness accounts show he was shot in the back as he tried to run away; Bureau officials then worked with agents to craft a version of events more amenable to heroic media portrayals.[11](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0196859903261796?download=true)\n\n## Popular culture\n\nThe phrase fed a film cycle as well as a manhunt. Warner Brothers' 1931 gangster film *The Public Enemy*, with [James Cagney](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-cagney) as Tommy Powers, presented an all-American anti-hero and joined *Little Caesar* and *Scarface* as the classic early-1930s gangster trilogy.[12](https://cgi.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dillinger/peopleevents/e_hollywood.html) • [13](https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~bjackson/bfs/publicenemy21.pdf) In 1934, when [Dillinger](https://www.edgepedia.org/dillinger), Pretty Boy Floyd, and [Baby Face Nelson](https://www.edgepedia.org/baby-face-nelson) were killed by FBI special agents, the slangily named \"G-men\" became an overnight sensation, and the rising popularity of the FBI's agents spawned hundreds of toys and games.[12](https://cgi.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dillinger/peopleevents/e_hollywood.html) • [6](https://www.fbi.gov/history/history-of-the-fbi/the-fbi-and-the-american-gangster)\n\nContemporary usage keeps both the literal and figurative senses: dictionaries define a public enemy as a menace to the public, and \"public enemy number one\" is applied figuratively to anyone from athletes to business rivals.[1](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/public-enemy)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Public enemy, Dictionary.com](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/public-enemy)\n2. ['Most Wanted': The Long History of the FBI's Top Ten List, TIME](https://time.com/3742696/history-fbi-top-ten-list/)\n3. [FBI 100 – Dillinger's Last Steps, FBI Archives](https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2008/july/dillinger_072208)\n4. ['Public enemy No. 1' appeared in 1930s, Deseret News](https://www.deseret.com/1997/8/31/19331701/public-enemy-no-1-appeared-in-1930s/)\n5. [What Is the Legal Meaning of Public Enemy, Vertex Legal](https://vertexlegal.org/what-is-legal-meaning-public-enemy/)\n6. [The FBI and the American Gangster, 1924–1938, FBI](https://www.fbi.gov/history/history-of-the-fbi/the-fbi-and-the-american-gangster)\n7. [What Is the Legal Meaning of Public Enemy, Bridge Legal](https://bridgelegal.org/what-is-legal-meaning-public-enemy/)\n8. [Congressional Record, House, 1936 (GPO-CRECB-1936-pt6-v80)](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1936-pt6-v80/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1936-pt6-v80-1-2.pdf)\n9. [American Experience | Public Enemy #1 | Film & More](https://cgi.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dillinger/filmmore/index.html)\n10. [Hero or Villain? Why Thousands Mourned a Bank Robber, TIME](https://time.com/3518207/pretty-boy-floyd/)\n11. [Matthew Cecil (2004). \"Monotonous Tale\": Legitimacy, Public Relations, and the Shooting of a Public Enemy, Journal of American Culture](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0196859903261796?download=true)\n12. [Public Enemy #1: People & Events – The Era of Gangster Films, PBS American Experience](https://cgi.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dillinger/peopleevents/e_hollywood.html)\n13. [The Public Enemy (1931) critical essay, Buffalo](https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~bjackson/bfs/publicenemy21.pdf)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Law and justice › Criminal law and penal justice › Organized-crime figures (biographies)*\n\n*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [ "https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~bjackson/bfs/publicenemy21.pdf" ], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/public-enemy-eppma394ts", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/public-enemy-eppma394ts.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Public enemy\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/public-enemy-eppma394ts. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Public enemy](https://www.edgepedia.org/public-enemy-eppma394ts)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/public-enemy-eppma394ts](https://www.edgepedia.org/public-enemy-eppma394ts). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Public enemy\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/public-enemy-eppma394ts. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Public enemy: a person seen as a menace to the public, especially a wanted criminal; older sense, a nation at war with one's own." }