This Week In Cigar History July 21 - 25

Like a cat with nine lives, the elusive bank robber John Dillinger escaped from a law enforcement full court presses, most notably those led by the obsessed J. Edgar Hoover...for years. But the criminal to some, Robin Hood folk hero to others lost in life's tenth round. Dillinger went down in a hail of bullets unleashed by federal agents outside a Chicago theater -- after the FBI's Melvin Purvis' go-ahead signal of lighting his cigar, this week on July 22, 1934.

John Dillinger's knack for breaking out of jails with help from fellow gangsters or by menacingly wielding an ad-libbed weapon (reportedly a carved wood gun darkened with black shoe polish) earned him enemy #1 status. Yet, by April 1934, his life on the lam following the notorious high fatality shoot-out in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin was probably losing its allure. Dillinger soon moved to Chicago during that hot summer, under the alias "Jimmy Lawrence."

Wishing to escape the soaring temperatures (this time), Dillinger, his clueless girlfriend Polly Hamilton, and the totally clued in Romanian madam Ana Campanas (aka Anna Sage) went to the air-conditioned Biograph Theater for an afternoon flick. Sage had collaborated with the FBI in the now planned to the nth degree ambush in exchange for dropped deportation charges. Wearing a tip-off orange dress that seemed red in tone under the artificial lights, the "Lady In Red's" betrayal had an alert Purvis stationed at the front of the building, and armed agents staked out all-over. When Dillinger finally exited, and according to eyewitness accounts -- looked Purvis straight in the eyes -- the FBI agent fired up his stogy...and three gunshots later (conspiracy theories aside) the bank robber was dead.

Dillinger's mythical status appeals to many; musicians in particular 'borrow' his name (as if). Perhaps the most comedic twist on the criminal's legacy is in Woody Allen's mockumentary "Take The Money And Run" where the auteur, playing a petty thief, attempts an escape from armed guards with a carved soap gun, blackened with shoe polish. Alas, the parody stint was a failure, as the "gun" turned into a sudsy mess during a sudden rainstorm.

This Week in Cigar History

7/21/08

1 COMMENTS

Posted by Terry Penn - Jul 25 2008 @ 9:20 AM
Re: This Week In Cigar History July 21 - 25 Just saw where one of the cops that helped arrest Lee Harvey Oswald passed away. In a famous photo he had a stogie clenched in his teeth as they escorted Oswald away. Thought it might be appropriate for a future feature consideration.

You must sign in to add comments.