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Jun 22, 2009 6:59 pm US/Central
Johnny Depp Plays Mobster Who Hid In St. Paul
ST. PAUL (WCCO) ―
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To tie in with the Hollywood film's upcoming release, the Landmark Center will put the Dillinger story on display, beginning July 11.
CBS
Universal Picture's summer release of the latest Johnny Depp thriller, "Public Enemies," is fewer than two weeks away. Depp will portray the FBI's most wanted mobster of the 1930's, John Dillinger.
While the film will trace the bank robbing career of Dillinger from the streets of Chicago to the north woods of Wisconsin, the famed criminal nearly met his match in a St. Paul apartment building.
Prohibition and the mob activity it inspired brought many of the biggest mobsters to Minnesota, and particularly to the streets of St. Paul.
Oddly, it was a former St. Paul chief of police, John J. O'Connor, who gave the mobsters the invitation. He formed an unwritten pact with the criminals to turn a blind eye on their activities so long as they didn't carry out any crime or killings in his city.
"As a result every major gangster and hoodlum in America came to St. Paul and the Twin Cities for a little R&R," said author, Paul Maccabee. His book, "John Dillinger Slept Here," traces the local connections that Dillinger and other mobsters made during their time in the Twin Cities.
Soon, moviegoers will see Depp portray Dillinger as the notorious bank robber of the 1930s. But author Maccabee traces something the film won't show in much detail -- Dillinger's exploits and near capture at a Lexington Avenue apartment building.
On March 19, 1934, Dillinger and his girlfriend, Evelyn "Billlie" Frechette, moved into the Lincoln Court Apartments at the corner of Lexington and Grand. Two weeks later, on March 30, FBI agents pounded on the couple's door and were met by a hail of gunfire. They got away by escaping out the back entrance.
"He didn't expect that the landlady at the Lincoln Court Apartments in St. Paul would notice there was something suspicious in apartment 303 and she called the FBI," Maccabee explained.
Frechette was later captured and put on trial for "aiding and abetting" in St. Paul's Federal Courthouse, now the historic Landmark Center. She was eventually convicted and set to prison.
To tie in with the Hollywood film's upcoming release, the Landmark Center will put the Dillinger story on display, beginning July 11. It will feature a series of lectures and exhibits, including artifacts, like the hat that Dillinger's machine gunner was wearing when he was shot dead near the Minnesota State Capitol.
"From here he left and probably went to Chicago and some other places. Then eventually not too long after that was gunned own by agents in Chicago," added the Center's Executive Director, Amy Mino.
From the speakeasies and caves of St. Paul where Dillinger and his cronies hung out, to the unwritten rule that led to their presence. It's a period of history about to be retold in both Hollywood film and local artifact.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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