Dillinger's family backing youth fund

INDIANAPOLIS, July 23 (UPI) -- The great-nephew of the late U.S. bank robber John Dillinger says he donated $7,007.71 to help found the John Dillinger Troubled Youth Fund.

The initial fund donation by Jeff Scalf, owner of Dillinger LLC, is an homage to the $7.71 found in his great-uncle's possession when the notorious criminal was shot and killed in an alley outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago on July 22, 1934, The Indianapolis Star reported Thursday.

"It's a fund for young people that have made a choice to go down a path of crime," Scalf said. "John contributed the $7.71 to show that crime doesn't pay."

The fund, which was officially founded Wednesday, will offer Christian literature and motivational speakers to troubled youths to steer them away from crime.

Initial funds will be used to identify, via prosecutors and police agencies, at-risk young people in and around Morgan County, Ind.

Scaif told the Star he is hopeful the fund could one day help provide assistance to young people in each U.S. state where his Indianapolis-born great-uncle ever committed a crime.