The Vault

CHICAGO (CBS) ― A film about John Dillinger is all the rage as crowds await its nationwide premiere on Wednesday. But film of the real John Dillinger must be hard to find, right?

As it happens, CBS 2 has some archive film of the infamous Chicago outlaw, showing close-up shots of Dillinger staring into the camera while a small group surrounds him, a shot of Dillinger behind bars, and images police officers going off on the manhunt for Dillinger in Model T squad cars.

CBS 2's John Drummond used it for his 1981 story about Dillinger, 47 years to the day after Dillinger was gunned down in front of the Biograph Theatre, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave.

In the steamy summer of 1934, federal law enforcement had named Dillinger Public Enemy No.1, and the Hoosier native was probably the most feared man in America.

Born in Indianapolis in 1903, Dillinger began his life of crime with the robbery of a grocery store in Mooresville, Ind., in 1925. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison. He served eight years behind bars in the company of seasoned bank robbers, and started on a rampage of robberies when he was released in May 1933.

Dillinger and his gang robbed banks in Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and South Dakota, making off with more than $300,000 in total, and being captured and sent to prison never stood in Dillinger's way.

Dillinger's spree was interrupted in September 1933 when he was captured and sent to prison in Lima, Ohio, but he escaped.

In January 1934, Dillinger shot and killed a police officer during a bank robbery in East Chicago, Ind., and fled first to Florida, then to Tucson, Ariz., but was eventually caught and sent to jail in Crown Point, Ind., while he awaited trial. But yet again, he escaped again, using a wooden gun that cowed the correctional officers.

The FBI began an intensive manhunt for Dillinger as he evaded them in Chicago and St. Paul, Minn. He robbed a police station in Warsaw, Ind., and then headed to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and later northern Wisconsin, with the FBI always on his tail, but always a few steps behind.

But on July 21, 1934, the FBI heard from Ana Cumpănaş, an illegal Romanian immigrant and the madam of a brothel in Gary, Ind., who went by the name Anna Sage. Deportations against Cumpănaş had been started, but she was offered help from the FBI in avoiding deportation for giving up information about Dillinger.

So Cumpănaş told the FBI that she and another friend were going to the movies with Dillinger at the Biograph Theatre the following day. Cumpănaş agreed to wear a red dress so the FBI could identify her. Thus, she became known as the Lady in Red.

The mercury had climbed to over 100 degrees by the late morning on July 22, 1934. But the Biograph was cooled by refrigeration, and Dillinger and his two female companions went there to see "Manhattan Melodrama," starring Clark Gable and Myrna Loy.

As Chicagoans know well, Dillinger was gunned down outside the alley entrance to the theater.

The Biograph is now home to the Victory Gardens Theatre main stage, but in 1981, it was still showing movies. In honor of the 47th anniversary of the Dillinger showdown, the theater showed "Manhattan Melodrama" again, for its 1934 price of 25 cents per ticket.

In 1981, some people could still remember their reaction to the news.

"In those days, there was no television, and we didn't hear about it until on the radio later on that night," one man said, "and it was a big, big shock, because we didn't realize that he was in town. We thought he was hiding out somewhere up in Wisconsin, or Indiana or something."

"I remember the heat that day. It was 104 above; it hasn't been 100 above in Chicago in years," another man said. "There were a lot of people unemployed, and they had to do something, so they talked about Dillinger and his escapades. He was a Robin Hood, so to speak."

For some, Dillinger went down as a folk hero; a loan work who planned daring jail breaks and bank robberies. Some even believed the FBI agents killed someone else that steamy July night. But authorities scoff at such theories.

In "Public Enemies," Johnny Depp plays Dillinger, while Christian Bale plays Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent who shot him down. Marion Cotillard plays Dillinger's girlfriend, Evelyn "Billie" Frechette, and Billy Crudup plays FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

As you might remember, much of the filming took place on the very same streets where Dillinger was really shot down. Last year, the stretch of Lincoln Avenue just northwest of the three-way intersection with Halsted Street and Fullerton Avenue was transformed back to its appearance in the 1930s. Depp and Bale also attended the Chicago premiere of "Public Enemies" on June 18.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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