Record
Case file
1934-09-06/1935-01-12
National Archives Catalog
The United States of America vs. Louis Piquette, Wilhelm Loeser, Harold Bernard Cassidy, and Arthur W. O'Leary (No. 28341)
Federal criminal case file at Chicago against Dillinger's attorney Louis Piquette and others. The National Archives says Piquette and his investigator arranged surgery to alter the appearance of Dillinger and Homer Van Meter.
- Date
- 1934-09-06/1935-01-12
- Kind
- case-file
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- NAID
- 411131513
- Docket
- 28341
- Rights
- A record of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, held by the National Archives in Record Group 21, Records of District Courts of the United States. A United States government work, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The National Archives catalog marks use "Unrestricted." Series "Criminal Case Files" (NAID 624785), National Archives at Chicago.
The National Archives’ note reads: “This is the criminal case filed against Louis Piquette, who was the attorney of bank robbers Homer Van Meter and John Dillinger. Piquette was accused and convicted of harboring the fugitives from justice; he was indicted after the 1934 deaths of Dillinger and Van Meter. With the assistance of surgeons William Loeser and Harold Cassidy, Dillinger and Van Meter underwent surgery to alter their appearance. Piquette and his investigator and employee Art O’Leary set up the surgery of the wanted robbers.”
The note adds that the indictment charged a violation of Section 141 of the Criminal Code, “Conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States.” The full title gives the aliases Ralph Robeind and Ralph Robind for Loeser and Harold Cass for Cassidy. The file has 198 page images; they were not read for this archive. A second file in the same prosecution, No. 28342, is in the catalog and is not filed separately here. The Seventh Circuit’s later opinion states that Piquett was tried and acquitted on the charge of conspiring to harbor Dillinger and convicted on a separate charge concerning Van Meter; the catalog’s “accused and convicted” is its own summary, and which charge this file carries was not read from the pages.