Times of Northwest Indiana

How long should criminals live -- even after they're dead?

March 23, 2008

(College of Liberal Arts) -- A handsome criminal. A bank robber who left a police officer dead. An incredible escape from jail that turned the criminal into an infamous hero.And another crime story made for the movies. It's fascinating, says a Purdue University expert.

Those familiar with John Dillinger say it's both.

After robbing an East Chicago bank where Officer William O'Malley was killed, Dillinger was charged and eventually brought to the Lake County Jail in Crown Point. Dillinger escaped from the jail and drove off in the sheriff's car.

He was killed in an FBI ambush and never faced trial in O'Malley's death.

That piece of Northwest Indiana history has been immortalized by Hollywood and will be so again with the film "Public Enemies," starring Johnny Depp. The cast and crew are expected to be filming this week in Crown Point.

Depp aside, part of the fascination with the movie is the attraction Americans have to crimes and the people who commit them. While there are some who resent movies such as "Public Enemies" that potentially glorify criminals, Purdue University history professor Randy Roberts said to ignore this fascination would be like saying crime doesn't exist.

"Do we glorify lawlessness? Maybe," he said. "But does it accurately reflect America's fascination with lawlessness? Yes."

Roberts said America always has admired the outlaw hero, and this was especially true in the era of the Great Depression, when the government structure seemed impotent and people applauded those who took matters into their own hands.

"(The 1930s' bank robbers) came from nothing and built empires. They were enacting the American dream," Roberts said.

Melanie-Angela Neuilly, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Justice Studies at the University of Idaho, said crime always has been a staple element of storytelling as far back as in Greek tragedies.

"It is something that happens to other people and thus is entertaining," Neuilly said in an e-mail.

Except when it happens to you.

Highland resident Ruth Barton, now 87, said she was in the deli across the street from the First National Bank in East Chicago when Dillinger robbed it. The officer who died was the father-in-law of Barton's cousin.

"I think (the movie's) not so good. Could they come up with nothing else to write about?" she said.

Speros A. Batistatos, the president and chief executive officer of the Lake County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the bureau acquired a number of Dillinger's personal belongings in the 1990s for the same reason Hollywood is coming to Northwest Indiana: "It's historically relevant and a significant piece of history."

Batistatos said he worked closely with then-Sheriff John Buncich to make sure the exhibit told an accurate story and didn't glorify Dillinger. The exhibit currently is closed, pending litigation.

Current Sheriff Rogelio "Roy" Dominguez has his own thoughts about furthering Dillinger's movie stardom. The Thompson submachine gun Dillinger stole during his escape from the county jail was returned to Lake County shortly before Dominguez took office in 2003. When deciding what to do with the artifact, Dominguez said he would "even consider melting it down."

Today, the gun sits in the sheriff's vault.

"I don't believe we should glorify John Dillinger or his lifestyle," he said. "We should glorify those who protected our community."

Dominguez hasn't seen any of the Dillinger movies that have been made and, he said, "I'm sure I won't see this one either."

Both Neuilly and Roberts said they don't believe displaying criminals' personal belongings is glorifying crime, especially because those crimes and criminals are long gone.

And maybe that type of underdog criminal who refuses to be a pawn is gone, too. Roberts has a difficult time coming up with a modern-day Dillinger.

"Unfortunately, it's only in the movies ... or maybe it's fortunately."