An Indiana man has committed his life to defending the honor of the nation's former Public Enemy No. 1, John Dillinger, a report said.

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Jeffrey Scalf, great-nephew of the Depression-era bank robber, spends evenings scouting the Internet for people profiting from or besmirching Dillinger, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Since beginning his crusade, Scalf has had a hand in closing a Dillinger museum in Indiana and renaming a Dillinger festival in Iowa. He's settled Dillinger-related suits with a San Francisco game company and Indiana restaurant and he dreams of the day when licensing fees will not only help him recoup legal fees, but also fund a foundation for troubled youth or a family-approved museum.

"For good or ill, this is my family's legacy and no one is going to take that away from me," the 50-year-old Scalf said.

Dillinger stole the equivalent of $4.8 million during a 14-month bank-robbing spree in 1934 and 1935, destroying thousands of mortgage records as he plundered banks. Federal agents fatally shot him July 22, 1934, in an alley outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago.