"Stranger stop and wish me well,
Just say a prayer for my soul in hell.
I was a good fellow, most people said,
Betrayed by a woman dressed all in red"
It was an "orange dress" to be exact but the lights of the Biograph theater on the North side of Chicago in the neighborhood of Lincoln Park made the dress appear red in color. That's where American bank robber and celebrity John Herbert Dillinger was killed by law enforcement agents one hot July night in 1934 while exiting the movie theater. The last film he saw was Manhattan Melodrama with Clark Gable and William Powell. The poem above was later anonymously scribbled on the wall in the alley where Dillinger fell and met his death. I have always had an attraction to John Dillinger going back to my own small-town childhood in the suburbs of Baltimore. I didn't hear any stories of his exploits from my elders, in fact, I can't remember the first time I became aware of the man. I think it might have been a book on Dillinger that I picked up from my school library. I saw the famous image of Dillinger with his squinty eyes and devilish grin on the cover and I believe I was hooked ever since. Johnny Depp will be portraying Dillinger in a film shooting now in Chicago, Indiana and Wisconsin called Public Enemies. It's being directed by veteran movie maverick Michael Mann (Manhunter, Heat, The Insider) and I believe it will mostly be based on Bryan Burrough's nonfiction bestseller of the same name.
There was already a movie made about Dillinger in the seventies by another maverick film director, writer and producer named John Milius (The Wind and the Lion, Conan the Barbarian, Red Dawn) who is more famous for writing or contributing to such classic films as Dirty Harry, Jaws, Apocalypse Now and was most recently the creator of the HBO series Rome. Milius' film on Dillinger (called simply: Dillinger) is a mixed bag. On the one hand it stars the late, great Warren Oates as the popular gangster. Oates not only looked like John Dillinger but he lends a certain grace, viciousness and authenticity to the character that will be hard to imitate. It also helped that he looked entirely too much like Dillinger for his own good. Strangely enough, Dillinger is not one of my favorite Oates performances. You would think that one of my favorite actors portraying one of my favorite historical figures should be a no-brainer but Milius' film has many problems. Even using the information on Dillinger and his cohorts known at the time the film strays too wildly into the mythic. It's portrayal of G-Man and Dillinger's final nemesis Melvin Purvis (here played by Academy Award winner Ben Johnson) is just too off-the-wall. Milius makes Purvis out to look like John Wayne (a feat not too difficult for Johnson, the often co-star of John Wayne) on crack and he even lets Purvis get the kill shot on Dillinger in the end -- which historically and factually is a plain lie.
Johhny Depp
Michael Mann
Christian Bale
The "real" Melvin Purvis
In actuality, Melvin Purvis (being played by Christian Bale in the upcoming Depp/Mann movie) was as far from Ben Johnson and John Wayne as you could get. Purvis was there when Dillinger was killed in front of the Biograph theater, in fact, he clumsily orchestrated the whole hit. He waited out front for the crowd to come out after the movie had ended. He became nervous as suddenly there were dozens of people (women and children included) now pouring onto the street while he waited for Dillinger and his two female companions to emerge. Didn't Purvis expect there to be this many bystanders and potential victims in a place as public as a movie theater? Not to mention the fact that Purvis had already exhausted every chance he had to catch the wily crook and this was his last resort -- a planned turkey shoot. That's right. The FBI led by Purvis were not there to apprehend John Dillinger that night, they were there to shoot him dead. A feat they luckily managed to finally get right. Purvis stood there sweating, knees shaking, waiting for the signal. The now infamous "woman in red" was on one arm of Dillinger while Polly Hamilton (a girlfriend) was on the other.
The "woman in red" was actually an illegal immigrant from Romania with a criminal record named Ana Cumpanas who was facing deportation charges for running a brothel. Purvis offered her a deal: give them Dillinger or face deportation. After what seemed like forever but was actually more like seconds, they emerged. Dillinger seemed completely unaware that he was walking into a trap. Purvis held a shaking cigar between his quivering lips as he raised a match to light it. This was to signal the hired guns waiting on the street and in the alley that the target was in place. But something unexpected happened. Purvis scanned the scene for his men and found some of them arguing with local policemen who had been called by a theater worker who thought the Federal Agents hanging around outside looked like crooks. Purvis drew another match in hopes of alerting someone that the fish was almost in the fryer. It appeared to him at first that no one was paying attention. He panicked even more. It was reported that he even muttered under his breath: "Come on" as he waited for Dillinger to be completely out on the street. Then, there he was, just a few feet in front of him. For just a split second the two men's eyes met. Purvis must have thought that the gig was up. In actuality, Dillinger had no idea what Purvis looked like in person. And the criminal kept moving toward an alley at the end of the block. By that time, Purvis had no need to worry. His agents in the alleyway were already alert and another man was already on the street and walking directly behind Dillinger. He was so close he could have touched him on the shoulder.
No one is sure at what point Dillinger became aware but he did glance behind him for a moment and used his peripheral vision to see that he was being followed. As he reached the alley it all happened so fast. A total of six shots were fired at Dillinger before he could even draw a gun. Witnesses claim it sounded like only one shot because they were all fired in such close proximity. What is known to be mostly true is Dillinger may have tried to make a dash for the alley but he was slowed down by a few things. First, there were the women at his sides who were abruptly pushed away as Dillinger crouched down in order to make a run for it. Then there was another woman who was passing by on the street who in some accounts Dillinger bumped into before he was shot and in others he bumps into her after he is shot. Either way, he didn't get very far after crouching as the bullets rang out and sliced through him at several angles. The worst being the shot from behind that entered through his neck (severing his spinal cord) passed through his brain and exited through his right eye. This was the fatal gunshot. Witnesses say that Dillinger was hit so many times that he actually spun around like a top before crashing dead to the ground face-first on the street at the entrance to the alley. A moment later, two women cried out that they had been shot.
the Biograph Theater as it stands today
the Biograph with the alley where Dillinger was murdered in view
the infamous death photo of Dillinger with the "arm" looking suspiciously like a "sexual organ" (that was later removed from all photos in circulation)
Ana Cumpanas (aka: Anna Sage, aka: The Woman in Red)
J Edgar Hoover (a photo most likely from the 'Dillinger era')
little seen photograph of Federal Agent Charles Winstead, the man who killed John Dillinger
One was the woman that Dillinger bumped into who may or may not have been struck by one of the actual bullets that passed though Dillinger himself. Another could have been struck by a fragment of bullet or brick from the nearby wall. It's surprising to me that more people weren't injured that hot July night in Chicago. The rest of the story goes that Dillinger hit the ground so hard that the brim of his straw hat broke as he smashed into the pavement. One of the agents (Charles Winstead who was finally credited with the Dillinger kill-shot) rushed up to the body and crouched down to hear Dillinger mutter his final words, but they were only gibberish. My guess is they weren't words at all but blood gargling through his mouth as he lay dying. A moment after that, Purvis approached the body and leaned over to take the gun from Dillinger's dead hand. Here's where I have my problems. Purvis removed the gun from Dillinger that he most likely was trying to pull out from his front pants pocket when he crouched down just before he was shot multiple times. The gun that no one claimed they saw him actually pull out on the street. How did it get in his hand when Purvis arrived at the death scene? I doubt Dillinger even had a gun on him -- crazy as that sounds he being a fugitive and all. I think Purvis used the story that he pulled the gun off Dillinger's dead body in an attempt to justify his hasty actions that fateful night -- just like he did in several news reports claiming that he called out to Dillinger to halt in the name of the law. Then again, the whole thing about the gun could be entirely true. What is not debated is the pool of Dillinger's blood that formed around his body that people in the crowd were dipping handkerchiefs and garments into as a momento of the tragic occasion. Ana Cumpanas, the woman in red was soon deported despite her deal with Purvis. She died in Romania in 1947 from liver problems. Purvis eventually shot himself to death in 1960 at the age of 56. Some say he was even murdered on orders from J. Edgar Hoover (the subject of many controversies), his own boss during the Dillinger days and Director of the FBI. The two men apparently had an unsettled rivalry. Hoover was obsessed with Dillinger and was said to have talked about him almost every day of his life. Hoover died in 1972.
There are several good books written about Dillinger if you want to draw your own conclusions. The first is Public Enemies by Burrough and another good one (albeit problematic) is John Dillinger: The Life and Death of America's First Celebrity Criminal by Dary Matera (Dillinger was certainly not the "First Celebrity Criminal" America ever knew, if you count Jesse James and Al Capone). I like Burrough's book because it incorporates the entire season of crime that took place in the Midwest between the years of 1933 and 1934 and the formation of the FBI as a direct result. If you want to know strictly more about Dillinger then Matera's book might be for you (with his hipster prose style and all). I'm looking forward to Mann's film which is set to be released sometime next year in 2009. I find it even more awesome that we are just as much enamored with John Dillinger in the 21st century as we have ever been. I suppose it's true what actress Helen Hayes once said: "Legends die hard. They survive as truth rarely does." Right on.
John Herbert Dillinger
June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934
Just say a prayer for my soul in hell.
I was a good fellow, most people said,
Betrayed by a woman dressed all in red"
It was an "orange dress" to be exact but the lights of the Biograph theater on the North side of Chicago in the neighborhood of Lincoln Park made the dress appear red in color. That's where American bank robber and celebrity John Herbert Dillinger was killed by law enforcement agents one hot July night in 1934 while exiting the movie theater. The last film he saw was Manhattan Melodrama with Clark Gable and William Powell. The poem above was later anonymously scribbled on the wall in the alley where Dillinger fell and met his death. I have always had an attraction to John Dillinger going back to my own small-town childhood in the suburbs of Baltimore. I didn't hear any stories of his exploits from my elders, in fact, I can't remember the first time I became aware of the man. I think it might have been a book on Dillinger that I picked up from my school library. I saw the famous image of Dillinger with his squinty eyes and devilish grin on the cover and I believe I was hooked ever since. Johnny Depp will be portraying Dillinger in a film shooting now in Chicago, Indiana and Wisconsin called Public Enemies. It's being directed by veteran movie maverick Michael Mann (Manhunter, Heat, The Insider) and I believe it will mostly be based on Bryan Burrough's nonfiction bestseller of the same name.
There was already a movie made about Dillinger in the seventies by another maverick film director, writer and producer named John Milius (The Wind and the Lion, Conan the Barbarian, Red Dawn) who is more famous for writing or contributing to such classic films as Dirty Harry, Jaws, Apocalypse Now and was most recently the creator of the HBO series Rome. Milius' film on Dillinger (called simply: Dillinger) is a mixed bag. On the one hand it stars the late, great Warren Oates as the popular gangster. Oates not only looked like John Dillinger but he lends a certain grace, viciousness and authenticity to the character that will be hard to imitate. It also helped that he looked entirely too much like Dillinger for his own good. Strangely enough, Dillinger is not one of my favorite Oates performances. You would think that one of my favorite actors portraying one of my favorite historical figures should be a no-brainer but Milius' film has many problems. Even using the information on Dillinger and his cohorts known at the time the film strays too wildly into the mythic. It's portrayal of G-Man and Dillinger's final nemesis Melvin Purvis (here played by Academy Award winner Ben Johnson) is just too off-the-wall. Milius makes Purvis out to look like John Wayne (a feat not too difficult for Johnson, the often co-star of John Wayne) on crack and he even lets Purvis get the kill shot on Dillinger in the end -- which historically and factually is a plain lie.
Johhny Depp
Michael Mann
Christian Bale
The "real" Melvin Purvis
In actuality, Melvin Purvis (being played by Christian Bale in the upcoming Depp/Mann movie) was as far from Ben Johnson and John Wayne as you could get. Purvis was there when Dillinger was killed in front of the Biograph theater, in fact, he clumsily orchestrated the whole hit. He waited out front for the crowd to come out after the movie had ended. He became nervous as suddenly there were dozens of people (women and children included) now pouring onto the street while he waited for Dillinger and his two female companions to emerge. Didn't Purvis expect there to be this many bystanders and potential victims in a place as public as a movie theater? Not to mention the fact that Purvis had already exhausted every chance he had to catch the wily crook and this was his last resort -- a planned turkey shoot. That's right. The FBI led by Purvis were not there to apprehend John Dillinger that night, they were there to shoot him dead. A feat they luckily managed to finally get right. Purvis stood there sweating, knees shaking, waiting for the signal. The now infamous "woman in red" was on one arm of Dillinger while Polly Hamilton (a girlfriend) was on the other.
The "woman in red" was actually an illegal immigrant from Romania with a criminal record named Ana Cumpanas who was facing deportation charges for running a brothel. Purvis offered her a deal: give them Dillinger or face deportation. After what seemed like forever but was actually more like seconds, they emerged. Dillinger seemed completely unaware that he was walking into a trap. Purvis held a shaking cigar between his quivering lips as he raised a match to light it. This was to signal the hired guns waiting on the street and in the alley that the target was in place. But something unexpected happened. Purvis scanned the scene for his men and found some of them arguing with local policemen who had been called by a theater worker who thought the Federal Agents hanging around outside looked like crooks. Purvis drew another match in hopes of alerting someone that the fish was almost in the fryer. It appeared to him at first that no one was paying attention. He panicked even more. It was reported that he even muttered under his breath: "Come on" as he waited for Dillinger to be completely out on the street. Then, there he was, just a few feet in front of him. For just a split second the two men's eyes met. Purvis must have thought that the gig was up. In actuality, Dillinger had no idea what Purvis looked like in person. And the criminal kept moving toward an alley at the end of the block. By that time, Purvis had no need to worry. His agents in the alleyway were already alert and another man was already on the street and walking directly behind Dillinger. He was so close he could have touched him on the shoulder.
No one is sure at what point Dillinger became aware but he did glance behind him for a moment and used his peripheral vision to see that he was being followed. As he reached the alley it all happened so fast. A total of six shots were fired at Dillinger before he could even draw a gun. Witnesses claim it sounded like only one shot because they were all fired in such close proximity. What is known to be mostly true is Dillinger may have tried to make a dash for the alley but he was slowed down by a few things. First, there were the women at his sides who were abruptly pushed away as Dillinger crouched down in order to make a run for it. Then there was another woman who was passing by on the street who in some accounts Dillinger bumped into before he was shot and in others he bumps into her after he is shot. Either way, he didn't get very far after crouching as the bullets rang out and sliced through him at several angles. The worst being the shot from behind that entered through his neck (severing his spinal cord) passed through his brain and exited through his right eye. This was the fatal gunshot. Witnesses say that Dillinger was hit so many times that he actually spun around like a top before crashing dead to the ground face-first on the street at the entrance to the alley. A moment later, two women cried out that they had been shot.
the Biograph Theater as it stands today
the Biograph with the alley where Dillinger was murdered in view
the infamous death photo of Dillinger with the "arm" looking suspiciously like a "sexual organ" (that was later removed from all photos in circulation)
Ana Cumpanas (aka: Anna Sage, aka: The Woman in Red)
J Edgar Hoover (a photo most likely from the 'Dillinger era')
little seen photograph of Federal Agent Charles Winstead, the man who killed John Dillinger
One was the woman that Dillinger bumped into who may or may not have been struck by one of the actual bullets that passed though Dillinger himself. Another could have been struck by a fragment of bullet or brick from the nearby wall. It's surprising to me that more people weren't injured that hot July night in Chicago. The rest of the story goes that Dillinger hit the ground so hard that the brim of his straw hat broke as he smashed into the pavement. One of the agents (Charles Winstead who was finally credited with the Dillinger kill-shot) rushed up to the body and crouched down to hear Dillinger mutter his final words, but they were only gibberish. My guess is they weren't words at all but blood gargling through his mouth as he lay dying. A moment after that, Purvis approached the body and leaned over to take the gun from Dillinger's dead hand. Here's where I have my problems. Purvis removed the gun from Dillinger that he most likely was trying to pull out from his front pants pocket when he crouched down just before he was shot multiple times. The gun that no one claimed they saw him actually pull out on the street. How did it get in his hand when Purvis arrived at the death scene? I doubt Dillinger even had a gun on him -- crazy as that sounds he being a fugitive and all. I think Purvis used the story that he pulled the gun off Dillinger's dead body in an attempt to justify his hasty actions that fateful night -- just like he did in several news reports claiming that he called out to Dillinger to halt in the name of the law. Then again, the whole thing about the gun could be entirely true. What is not debated is the pool of Dillinger's blood that formed around his body that people in the crowd were dipping handkerchiefs and garments into as a momento of the tragic occasion. Ana Cumpanas, the woman in red was soon deported despite her deal with Purvis. She died in Romania in 1947 from liver problems. Purvis eventually shot himself to death in 1960 at the age of 56. Some say he was even murdered on orders from J. Edgar Hoover (the subject of many controversies), his own boss during the Dillinger days and Director of the FBI. The two men apparently had an unsettled rivalry. Hoover was obsessed with Dillinger and was said to have talked about him almost every day of his life. Hoover died in 1972.
There are several good books written about Dillinger if you want to draw your own conclusions. The first is Public Enemies by Burrough and another good one (albeit problematic) is John Dillinger: The Life and Death of America's First Celebrity Criminal by Dary Matera (Dillinger was certainly not the "First Celebrity Criminal" America ever knew, if you count Jesse James and Al Capone). I like Burrough's book because it incorporates the entire season of crime that took place in the Midwest between the years of 1933 and 1934 and the formation of the FBI as a direct result. If you want to know strictly more about Dillinger then Matera's book might be for you (with his hipster prose style and all). I'm looking forward to Mann's film which is set to be released sometime next year in 2009. I find it even more awesome that we are just as much enamored with John Dillinger in the 21st century as we have ever been. I suppose it's true what actress Helen Hayes once said: "Legends die hard. They survive as truth rarely does." Right on.
John Herbert Dillinger
June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934
