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Opal “Mack Truck” Long
Believed to have been born in Texas, Long earned the nickname “Mack Truck” because of her size. She was a member of John Dillinger’s Terror Gang, brought in as the wife of Russell Clark. A caretaker by nature, Long—who preferred to be called Bernice Clark—happily cleaned the hideout and cooked for the whole gang, whom she considered family.
Things soured when her husband was arrested in Tucson, Arizona, on January 25, 1934. She attacked the police who made the arrest, and later begged Dillinger for money to fund an appeal of Clark’s case. Her demands ultimately ostracized her from the group. That summer she, too, was arrested. She never squealed on her cohorts, yet earned parole by November 1934. She lived out her days in Chicago.
