PATRICIA YOUNG CHERRINGTON

Perky and vivacious with above average in intelligence and a bright and creative ambition, Pat loved poetry, music and excitement.  She also coined the description of John Dillinger that he was a "good piece of company."

Patricia was born in Arkansas on September 26, 1903 to William Long and Goldie Jacquas.  After the family moved to Texas, Pat's sister, Opal, joined the family on March 20, 1906.  Her father died when Patricia was about 5 years old after which she and her mother went to live with her grandparents.  Patricia was found to have above average intelligence, graduating from High School at age 13 and then going on to attend the University of Oklahoma at age 14 and later the University at Philadelphia completing one year before marrying. 

Patricia was first married in 1919 when she was just past 14 to a man from Oklahoma with whom she did not get along.  As a teenage bride living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she gave birth to a baby daughter, Beverly June Young on June 8, 1921.  

3 years after her disastrous marriage, Patricia moved out and she and her husband were finally divorced based on neglect in 1925.  

Following the divorce, Patricia packed up her little girl and headed to Chicago where she studied dancing and was later employed as a dancer working in cabarets and shows on the Keith's Circuit and the Orpheum in Choruses and performing Specialty Numbers, in order to support her young daughter.  Pat's sister Opal also moved to Chicago in 1926, taking on work as a waitress.  During the 1920's, Patricia commanded a high salary for dancing in the speakeasies of Prohibition-Era Chicago.

At the end of 1931 or the beginning of 1932, Patricia met an easygoing, friendly musician and cabby by the name of Arthur Cherrington and the two began to live together at 1832 Belmont Avenue, Chicago, IL.  It was through her association with Arthur that she became involved with Welton Spark and his wife Billie Freschette, a stage actress.

On June 14, 1932, Patricia was arrested for the first time in Michigan City, Indiana with her "husband", Arthur Cherrington, and taken to Chicago where she was held overnight for questioning after he committed Mail Robbery, though she and Arthur were not officially married until later that year after Arthur's sentencing.  Patricia had met Arthur, who was out on Parole from Joliet Prison.  She thought Arthur was supposed to be employed in legitimate business at the time that they met, but she later came to suspect that he was not, though she didn't ask a lot of questions about it.  It was noted in a court report on July 22, 1932 that Arthur was single, but that he was to be married to a young woman before he was to leave Chicago.  The judge granted Arthur a week's stay of sentence so that Arthur and Patricia could be married before he was taken to Leavenworth Prison to serve his sentence.  They were married on August 3, 1932 in Chicago, IL.

During Arthur's 15 years in Leavenworth and later Alcatraz, Patricia kept up a correspondence with her husband as well as Welton Spark, his co-defendant (and the husband of Billie Fraschette who would become known as the paramour of Dillinger himself).  With her husband in prison, and in order to support herself and her young daughter, Patricia went back to work dancing until beginning to fall ill with gall bladder disease.  With her health in doubt, she began to "date" men who had the funds to pay for doctors.  In the summer of 1933 she and her sister, Opal Long, met John Dillinger and Pat later reported that they "thrived on excitement."  Pat became acquainted with one of Dillinger's gang, Harry Copeland until Harry's arrest in November, 1933.  She was the quintessential Dillinger "moll"-- perky, vivacious and an ex-chorus line dancer while her sister, described as big, redheaded and near-sighted, Opal took on the role of caregiver--being described by members of John Dillinger's family as being considerate of others, always putting them ahead of herself.  

After the incarceration of Copeland, Pat set her sights on Dillinger's right hand man, John (Jack) "Red" Hamilton, nursing him back to health after his wounding in the East Chicago, Indiana bank robbery of January 15, 1934, during which he was shot 3 times--once in the groin.  Later she was known to be living with him as "man and wife" and becoming known as John Hamilton's Sweetheart, though she continued to visit Harry Copeland in the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City during frequent absences from Hamilton.

Sometime during these years, Patricia left her young daughter in the guardianship of Mrs. Betty Neats(z) at 142628 S. Washington in Chicago who Patricia paid to take care of her.  Patricia never allowed her daughter to be a part of her life with the Dillingers, nor to know about that portion of her mother's life--trying to bring her girl up right and give her daughter a good home and everything she needed.  While Patricia could have adopted her daughter out (she stated that "some of the best people wanted her"), it seemed that she was the one thing in Patricia's life, that Patricia could not give up and continued to love.  When asked about her daughter in later years, she would become emotional when speaking of the possible harm that her lifestyle and the stygma attached to it could do to her youngster.

In January of 1934, the Dillinger gang was arrested in Tucson, AZ during which time, it was reported that Patricia was arrested with them.  According to her 1935 parole hearing, the record in Tucson indicated that Patricia was arrested, questioned and released.  However, in her parole interview of 1935, she stated that she was NOT in Tucson, but in Detroit.  I would have to believe her statement based on the fact that her lover, Red Hamilton had been shot in the groin just a couple of days previously during a robbery and was holed up in Detroit and not present in Tucson.  I believe that the woman who was arrested with the Dillingers was her sister, Opal, who was by all accounts in Tucson with Russell Clark.  

In April of 1934, she traveled with Hamilton on Friday to Little Bohemia in Wisconsin arriving in the afternoon and staying the night.  Pat's sister, Opal was also there with her "husband" and Dillinger gang member, Russell Clark.  Pat did not recall seeing Billie Fraschette during the time that she was present at Little Bohemia as Billie was in jail.  Pat left Little Bohemia on Saturday morning with Pat (Albert W.) Reilly who was taking her to see a doctor.  She had been ill in February and had had an operation at that time and claiming she was feeling ill once again, left to find medical attention.  Upon their return late Sunday evening, everything was quiet, but when they got out of the car in the lane gunfire erupted.  Pat was grazed just under the right eye by a machine gun bullet which gave her a black eye.  She also fractured her arm, but didn't know how that came about during the excitement.  She and Reilly turned the car around and escaped to St. Paul where she again took up residence with John Hamilton and the gang and left just minutes before Dillinger shot his way out of the apartment there.

The gang then traveled to Detroit and on to Chicago where she was arrested on June 1, 1934 with Jean Crompton, John Hamilton, Homer Van Meter, Lester Gillis and Helen Gillis.  During the separation from Hamilton, she received a letter from Dillinger with the news that Hamilton was dead.  She was later transferred to Madison, Wisconsin for trial.  She was tried separately first entering a "not guilty" plea, but changing the plea to "guilty" after conferring with Dillinger lawyer Louis Piquett in Chicago, and finding herself abandoned by him.  Though Pat was offered no defense counsel by Dillinger,  Piquette was sent in as counsel for Billie Frachette, his girlfriend, and wife to Welton Spark.  Without legal counsel, she was committed to the Alderson Industrial Reformatory where she was examined for the possiblity of undergoing surgery for her abdominal condition but was turned down as "too risky".  Patricia was then sentenced to time at the U. S. Detention Farm, Milan, Michigan, dubbed by J. Edgar Hoover as a "Sttel cell for femal incorrigibles", as prisoner #F-17MM under the name Patricia Young, though still married at the time to Arthur S. Cherrington.

Patricia's sister, Opal Long (aka Bernice Clark), was also arrested at the time and sentenced to 6 months in St. Paul.

On April 26, 1935,  during a parole hearing Patricia was interviewed and gave her name as Patricia Young with the name of her husband incorrectly recorded as "Shellington".  By this time, her daughter was living in Chicago, IL with Patricia's sister, Opal, who was still married to Russell Clark--though Clark was in prison under a life sentence in Ohio State Penitentiary.  By this time, Beverly, at the age of 13, was old enough to work and was doing so while staying with her aunt.  It was Patricia's intent that if she was released in 1935, she would go back to Chicago and once again secure a position as a cabaret dancer.  With her parole denied, she stayed in prison, and was finally released in 1936, she found herself again on trial for harboring John Hamilton and John Dillinger during the historical visit to the home of Hamilton's sister, on the night of April 17, 1934.

Though both arrests were for harboring Dillinger and the gang, one was for the crime in Wisconsin while the other was for the crime in Michigan.

She died in 1949 at the age of 45.  She is buried in an unmarked grave in Wunders Cemetery in Chicago, IL.