Billie Frechette Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Billie Frechette
OCCUPATION: Theater Actress, Criminal, Singer
BIRTH DATE: 1907
DEATH DATE: January 13, 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH: Neopit, Wisconsin
PLACE OF DEATH: Shawano, Wisconsin
Full Name: Mary Evelyn Frechette
AKA: Evelyn Frechette
AKA: Billie Frechette

Best Known For

Evelyn "Billie" Frechette fell in love and lived with bank robber John Dillinger. She was arrested and served two years in prison for harboring a criminal.

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Billie Frechette

APA Style

Billie Frechette. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 10:44, May 24, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/billie-frechette-466520.

Harvard Style

Billie Frechette. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/billie-frechette-466520 [Accessed 24 May 2013].

MLA Style

"Billie Frechette." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 24 2013, 10:44 http://www.biography.com/people/billie-frechette-466520.

MHRA Style

"Billie Frechette," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/billie-frechette-466520 [accessed May 24, 2013].

Chicago Style

"Billie Frechette," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/billie-frechette-466520 (accessed May 24, 2013).

CBE/CSE Style

Billie Frechette [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 24] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/billie-frechette-466520.

Bluebook Style

Billie Frechette, http://www.biography.com/people/billie-frechette-466520 (last visited May 24, 2013).

AMA Style

Billie Frechette. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/billie-frechette-466520. Accessed May 24, 2013.

Dillinger drove around the block several times after her arrest before Pat Cherrington, the girlfriend of Dillinger gang member John Hamilton, convinced him that he would be killed if he tried to rescue Frechette. Cherrington later said that he started "crying like a baby."

Dillinger paid his own lawyer to take on Frechette's case. Before his death, Dillinger frequently met with his lawyers about Frechette's appeal,

even though he was already dating Polly Hamilton. In one letter Frechette sent Dillinger, she begged him not to try to rescue her, for fear he would be identified and killed. Despite her protests, Dillinger went to the prison to see if he could plan a rescue attempt. He reluctantly decided that it would be impossible.

Dillinger died in 1934, after a gunfight outside the Biograph theater. Frechette served two years in federal prison, and was released in 1936. After serving her sentence, Frechette toured with members of Dillinger's family to perform in a play called "Crime Doesn't Pay."

Billie Frechette died on January 13, 1969, in Shawano, Wisconsin, after a battle with cancer.