‘Public Enemies’ rekindles interest in gangster’s local exploits

Johnny Depp stars as legendary Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger, the charismatic bank robber whose lightning raids made him the No. 1 target of J. Edgar Hoover's fledgling FBI, in the new film

Photo Credit: Peter Mountain Johnny Depp stars as legendary Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger, the charismatic bank robber whose lightning raids made him the No. 1 target of J. Edgar Hoover's fledgling FBI, in the new film "Public Enemies." Photo contributed by Associated Press.

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BILL REINKE Dillinger's .38 automatic gun taken from him during his arrest by Dayton Police. Dayton Daily News archive photo

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Dayton Daily News front page from Sept. 22, 1933. Dayton Daily News archive photo

By Joanne Huist Smith, Staff Writer Updated 4:38 PM Monday, June 29, 2009

Dayton police detectives Russell Pfauhl and Charlie Gross jammed the muzzle of their guns into John Dillinger’s face, never giving the bank robber a chance to reach the .45 automatic in his pocket or the smaller pistol hidden up his sleeve.

The Dayton police mug shot taken after that Sept. 22, 1933, arrest of the gangster J. Edgar Hoover labeled public enemy No. 1 moves from the annals of true crime to cinematic history this week.

Johnny Depp stars as Dillinger in the movie “Public Enemies,” which opens Wednesday at Regal Hollywood 20 at Fairfield Commons in Beavercreek.

Depp posed for a mug shot in the film holding a police placard identifying Dayton as the locale of his capture. The still photo, also used in the movie trailer, replicates the authentic Dillinger mug shot preserved in the Dayton Police Department Collection in the Special Collections Archives at Wright State University.

The mug shot of Depp flashes across the screen in a scene with the Dillinger gang seated in a theater watching a newsreel about the gangster’s arrest in Dayton at a high-class rooming house.

The mug shot is part of a cache of Dillinger-related artifacts here in the Miami Valley that includes the Colt .38 Super semiautomatic handgun tucked up Dillinger’s sleeve the night of his arrest. Dayton Police Chief Rudolph Wurstiner carried the gun until 1949.

A member of the former chief’s family donated the gun to Dayton History, where it is now in storage. Dillinger’s fingerprints and wanted poster, along with FBI and other law enforcement correspondence chronicling a nationwide manhunt also are part of the Dayton Police Department Collection at Wright State.

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