Great Depression-era folk followed the exploits of gangster John Dillinger with the same excitement that had captivated America upon contemporary Charles Lindbergh’s solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
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Both men rose to celebrity, folk-hero status because of their deeds, famous or infamous. In a time long before blogging, online news reports, cell phones and 24/7 TV news, people waited by their radios to hear when Lindbergh crossed the Irish coast on his way from New York to Paris. In the same way the American public followed Dillinger’s bank robberies and other criminal activity across the Midwest, including his gang’s theft of almost $28,000 from American Bank and Trust Company in Racine and a shootout with federal agents at Little Bohemia Lodge in Rhinelander.
The question to ask is not why Dillinger robbed banks, but instead, why did people care so much?
“We create celebrities in America… it’s what we want. Why did we want this guy,” said Jerald Podair, who teaches history and American studies at Lawrence University in downtown Appleton.
“It doesn’t matter if you do good things or bad things as long as you do noteworthy things. In this culture of economic want … someone who robs from the rich is a celebrity. John Dillinger is portrayed as fighting against an unjust system. When John Dillinger robbed a bank, in a sense the average American who was out of a job felt he was striking a blow for them. It’s not like there was a direct correlation, ‘I wish I could be like John Dillinger,’ but there’s a part of them that’s angry at the establishment, angry at rich people, angry at banks.”
The Oshkosh Public Museum’s new exhibit, “The Era of Public Enemies: A Wave of Crime in a Troubled Time,” explores the 1930s world of Dillinger. The exhibit brings to life a time when unemployment in parts of the Midwest was at 25 percent or higher and when gangsters often packed better shooting power — and horsepower — than the local authorities. It runs through Oct. 18.
Opening week of the exhibit coincides with the public debut Wednesday of the Dillinger biopic “Public Enemies,” starring Johnny Depp as Dillinger and based on author Bryan Burrough’s best-selling “Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34.”
The film focuses on the Midwest crime sprees of Dillinger and his gang. There’s action in the form of gunfire and getaways, but there’s also a love story.
“Public Enemies” is receiving special attention throughout Wisconsin because of scenes shot on location in Oshkosh, Eagle River, Woodruff and Manitowish Waters. The Oshkosh Public Museum has set up displays at select Fox Valley cinemas that offer opportunities to win exhibit passes and memorabilia.
Research and recollections from Dillinger’s times suggest the man had charisma, “the gift of gab,” as museum curator Debra Daubert put it. And, she said, he left impressions of being more genteel than other gangsters who were all about senseless killing and brutality.
“Hollywood movies also, until after Dillinger died, more or less glorified the gangster image or made them Robin Hood. What I think set him apart from so many others — he had a personality,” Daubert said. “When it so looked like this was going to be the end, they’ve got him, he escaped. That led to him having this persona of, he’s always going to get away. It was a form of entertainment to watch and kind of cheer on your favorite bad guy, unless he robbed you.”
In today’s troubling economic times the film “Public Enemies” might really resonate, Podair said.
“Just like in the ’30s, banks are unpopular and viewed as the root of our economic problems,” he said. “What Dillinger did is viewed as making a political statement.”
