"Public Enemies" - Johnny Depp

Nancy from Downers Grove, IL, wrote a very nice letter to me describing an experience last year: being an extra in the upcoming movie, "Public Enemies" , starring Johnny Depp, Marion Cotillard, and Christian Bale:

In the action-thriller Public Enemies, acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, and Academy Award® winner Marion Cotillard in the incredible and true story of legendary Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger (Depp), the charismatic bank robber whose lightning raids made him the number one target of J. Edgar Hoover's fledgling FBI and its top agent, Melvin Purvis (Bale), and a folk hero to much of the downtrodden public. No one could stop Dillinger. No jail could hold him. His charm and audacious jailbreaks endeared him to almost everyone, from his girlfriend Billie Frechette (Cotillard), to an American public who had no sympathy for the banks that had plunged the country into the Depression. But while the adventures of Dillinger's gang (later including the sociopathic Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham)) thrilled many, Hoover (Billy Crudup) hit on the idea of exploiting the outlaw's capture as a way to elevate his Bureau of Investigation into the national police force that became the FBI. He made Dillinger America's first Public Enemy Number One and sent in Purvis, the dashing "Clark Gable of the FBI". However, Dillinger and his gang outwitted and outgunned Purvis' men in wild chases and shootouts. Only after importing a crew of Western ex-lawmen (newly baptized as agents), who were real gunfighters, and orchestrating epic betrayals, from the infamous "Lady in Red" to the Chicago crime boss Frank Nitti, were Purvis and the FBI able to close in on Dillinger.

Nancy writes:

I'm in the nightclub scene with dancers & band & singer (Diane Krall). You aren't likely to see me (sitting at a table or walking in the background), but you never know. It was a killer schedule - took way too long with very little time to sleep - but at least that scene only took 2 or 3 days to film (it took place last May '08). The costumes and hair took hours and hours (all day). Now I watch movies with a very different eye, knowing just a little bit of what goes into it. I was not at the audition for the dancers (it got screwed up and wasn't advertised), but I'm glad I didn't have to suffer standing up all night, wearing terrible shoes that were very painful. Those guys were tortured! The director was exceptionally picky and took SO many re-shoots and made us wait while he studied each re-shoot.

Odlly enough, though, all this ties in with a previous part of my life.

When I lived in Tucson, AZ, attending the University of Arizona, I lived at Dr. Tom's house, which was directly across the street from what was known as the "Dillinger House": where John Dillinger was once captured:

The Dillinger gang, hiding from its recent East Chicago, Ind., bank robbery, might have enjoyed Tucson weather longer if a grease fire hadn't started in the basement of the Hotel Congress. Flames roared up the elevator shaft, engulfing the third floor. Hotel occupants quickly evacuated, but gang members delayed trying to collect their bags. With the hall blocked by fire and smoke, the gang members retreated to a window, where the Tucson Fire Department rescued them with an aerial ladder. As soon as he was rescued, gang member Charles Makley tipped firemen William Benedict and Kenneth Pender $12 to climb back up and retrieve his bags. That baggage would be the downfall of the Dillinger gang.

Today, the actual 1928 LaFrance firetruck involved in the rescue of the gangsters is on display. When James Timney of Flagstaff looked at an old photograph of the Hotel Congress fire, he realized the dilapidated firetruck in his back yard was the one in the photo. He donated the truck to Tucson, which is trying to raise funds to restore the truck.

After the 1934 blaze, firemen Benedict and Pender were thumbing through a copy of True Detective magazine and noticed two of the magazine's "wanted men" seemed to be the same as the ones eager to have their luggage rescued. Suspecting they had big-time criminals there, the police set up stakeouts. The work paid off. Makley was captured at Grabe Electric Co., where he was looking for a radio that monitored police calls. The local lady with him was released and cautioned to "pick her friends more carefully."

Next to be drawn into the police net were Russell "Art" Clark and his girlfriend, Opal Long, arrested at a rented house at 327 N. Second Ave. (MPV note: I think the address is incorrect here, but nevermind) Clark and Long put up a fight until a knock on the head convinced Clark to cooperate.

Gang member Harry Pierpont and his girlfriend, Mary Kinder, actually drove to the police station, not knowing they were turning themselves in. The police had spotted Pierpont's car leaving a motor court and, thinking fast, stopped him. Ad-libbing, they politely explained that because he had out-of-state license plates, he must stop by the police station and pick up a "visitor sticker." Pierpont agreed, and one of the policemen rode with him to show him the way, pretending not to notice the machine guns under the back seat. Inside the police station, Pierpont realized he'd been duped when he spotted some of the vests and guns taken from other gang members. He reached for his gun, but policemen stopped him.

That left Dillinger and his girlfriend, Evelyn "Billie" Frechette. Again, police staked out the house on Second Avenue and surprised Dillinger as he arrived. Dumbfounded that the "hick-town cops" had caught him, he surrendered.

Dillinger and his gang resided in Tucson for only 10 days, from the time they arrived until they were extradited to Indiana, but Tucson still celebrates the capture with Dillinger Days.

So, it all ties together, somehow. The reason John Dillinger robbed them Indiana banks in the 1930's was so that Nancy would write me a nice letter 75 years later. Or something like that....