Frederick Grant Dunn

For four decades, Frederick Grant Dunn lived a life of crime that newspapers chronicled with a grudging sort of glamour, calling him the "modern John Dillinger." He was a skilled bank robber and burglar, notorious for his use of nitroglycerine to blow open safes. But the final chapter of his life was a solitary and mysterious one, ending not in a hail of bullets, but in the tall grass along the Smoky Hill River in rural Kansas. His story is one of a life lived in defiance of the law, and a death that remains an unsolved homicide.

Born in Iowa in 1905, Frederick, a 54-year-old male, began his criminal career at the age of 14, a path that would lead him in and out of some of the nation's most formidable prisons, including Leavenworth federal penitentiary. His criminal resume was long and varied, featuring everything from burglary to violent shootouts with guards during prison escape attempts. In the 1940s, he led a small gang on a crime spree across Kansas, cementing his reputation. His expertise with explosives and his repeated success in evading capture made him a priority for law enforcement.

Dunn’s final brush with the law began on November 21, 1957, when he was arrested in Russell, Kansas, for a burglary in the nearby town of Palco. He was transferred to the county jail in Lincoln to await trial. But on the night of January 11, 1958, the veteran outlaw escaped from custody. Five days later, the FBI issued a warrant for "unlawful flight to escape prosecution," and on July 29, 1958, Frederick Grant Dunn was officially added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. Investigators presumed he had fled the state, and for 20 months, he seemed to have vanished completely.

The mystery of his whereabouts ended on Labor Day, September 7, 1959. A farmer checking on his cattle in a seldom-used pasture near Ellsworth, Kansas, discovered skeletal remains huddled in the grass. The man who had once been one of America's most sought-after fugitives was found wearing an expensive topcoat. The Ellsworth County Sheriff, Charles B. Soukup, was contacted, and the remains were sent to the FBI's laboratory. A post-mortem examination confirmed they belonged to Frederick Grant Dunn.

Initially, there was speculation that Dunn may have succumbed to the elements. A severe snow and sleet storm had blanketed the area just days after his escape in January 1958, and some believed the bitter cold might have "knifed his life away" as he hid from the massive manhunt. He had been on the run, and the harsh Kansas winter could have been a more formidable foe than any lawman. However, despite this theory, the official cause of death was ultimately and unequivocally ruled a murder.

The investigation into who killed Frederick Grant Dunn ran cold almost as soon as it began. Details about what evidence led authorities to rule his death a homicide have not been made public. There were no known witnesses, no suspects were ever named, and no one was ever arrested for the crime. The man who had spent his life creating headlines died in obscurity, and the circumstances of his death became just another layer of his criminal legend.

Decades have passed, and the case of Frederick Grant Dunn's murder remains unsolved. The once-feared bank robber, who considered himself an heir to the likes of Dillinger, met a quiet and lonely end. The questions of who killed him, why, and how have been lost to time, buried with the skeletal remains found in that Kansas pasture. The final chapter of the "modern John Dillinger" was not written by the FBI or a rival gangster, but by an unknown killer who has never been brought to justice.