Jun 30, 2009 6:30 pm US/Central
A Look At John Dillinger's Real Life Hangouts
Gangster Movie 'Public Enemies' Opens Today; In 1930s The Real Dillinger Ran The Streets Of Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
The movie "Public Enemies" starring Johnny Depp as John Dillinger promises to run theaters across the country this summer. But before this year's gangster flick, well before, the real John Dillinger ran the streets of Chicago. CBS 2's Mike Parker retraced Dillinger's hangouts, which most of us never knew existed.
At the height of the great recession of 2009 John Dillinger is back in our consciousness as he was during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
FBI agent Melvin Purvis was headquartered up on the 19th floor of the Bankers Building at Clark and Adams. They were so close yet so far away for so long.
In May of 1934, the FBI had no idea Dillinger was holed up in a house owned by one of his thug buddies, one Jimmy Prabasco.
In the house at Pulaski and Altgeld, now part of an auto repair shop, at the hands of a third rate doctor, Dillinger underwent crude plastic surgery to change his looks.
Does his ghost haunt the place?
"I hear noises once in a while," auto shop owner Luis Avila said, "But no. Just noises, nothing there."
The FBI didn't find him at the apartment he rented at 4310 North Clarendon. But they did find him in July of 1934 at the Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue, where Dillinger saw his last movie - the gangster thriller, "Manhattan Melodrama."
Melvin Purvis was waiting across the street when he lit a cigar; that was the signal. They drew their guns, Dillinger saw them, ducked into this alley, got about four steps in, and they let him have it. It was all over.
Dillinger site tourist Mike Haines acknowledges the Dillinger period was not America's proudest time, but still accepts it as a part of America's past.
"It wasn't what I'd call 'good' history. But it's still history."
"Public Enemies" opens tonight at midnight.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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