If he didn't, he learned it from real authorities some few hours later when two physicians (top pathologists; I interviewed both of them) told him that the man killed outside the Biograph could not have been John Herbert Dillinger. Watch this trailer for the 1945 movie Polly Hamilton was 26 years old when she met John Dillinger at a Chicago nightclub in early June 1934. } In spite of her protests, on July 11, 1934, Dillinger told O'Leary on about a recent trip to Milan, Michigan. The gang's three women, Helen Gillis (Baby Face's wife), Jean Delaney (Tommy Carroll's wife) and Marie Comforti (Homer Van Meter's girlfriend), were taken into custody without additional incident. William Powell, Clark Gable and Myrna Loy. He wasn't a 'junior.' Sign up now to get the Washington Examiners breaking news and timely commentary delivered right to your inbox. [Billie starts to cry as Winstead gets up to leave] Billie Frechette : Boy, you are in a hurry! Shortly after she was separated from Spark to serve his term, she met John Dillinger in a dance hall one fateful night in October 1933. Purvis talked with Zarkovich about this and Zarkovich, acting as if amazed and that he himself had been duped by that conniving Anna Sage (sure) helped Purvis out by providing a planted fingerprint card with Dillinger's prints on them (a Chicago Police Department fingerprint card no less, not an FBI card), which Purvis marked in his own handwriting "FBI" as if the prints had been taken by FBI agents of the dead man (none were ever taken as the physicians and the coroner's people told me-and they were in charge of that body). Holley posed for photos with Dillinger, in Ana Cumpanas, who used the alias Anna Sage, came forward after meeting Dillinger through her friend Polly Hamilton. Frechette began a. What is the net worth of Billie Frechette, 404 Error, content does not exist anymore. I obtained a copy of that autopsy through one of the pathologists that conducted it years later--he kept copies of that particular autopsy where he held on to none of the many thousands of others he conducted, knowing, as he said to me, that "I knew somebody would come along some day to dig into this story. Myth #1: Dillinger died expressing his love for Billie Frechette. Although she later claimed that she had nothing to do with Sage's plan, the D.O.I. [citation needed] Spark was sentenced, with two others, on July 20, 1932, to a 15-year term at Leavenworth for three counts of robbery of postal substations in drug stores. When FBI Agent Melvin Purvis spotted them arriving at the Biograph Theatre, the rest of the FBI and police were called to the location. followed by an interview with an She lived on the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin until the age of 13. [citation needed] Their marriage ceremonies were conducted at the Cook County Jail by Chaplain E. N. Ware. Dillinger was freed and the sheriff's wife Lucy and Deputy Sharp were locked up. Frechette lived on the Menominee Reservation and attended a mission school there until the age of 13, when she moved to a government boarding school for Native Americans in Flandreau, South Dakota. Let them have it!". This document no longer exists, to my knowledge, in the FBI files. All hell broke loose-the agents firing submachine guns, BARs, rifles, pistols and automatics. From what he said I though then and do now that he could have been that man. This. Charles Winstead, Clarence Hurt and Herman Hollis were all recognized by J. Edgar Hoover for their actions but none were credited with his death. By that time, Purvis must have known that it was Little Bohemia all over again-another innocent man killed and his and Hoover's careers down the drain. Part 1 of 3, this documentary includes In the next year, Billie played the role of lover and companion to America's #1 gangster. bank robber, who became Public Enemy #1 in On the night of March 30, 1934, the FBI set up surveillance on the apartment and the next morning they knocked on the door. Martin Zarkovich, made sure that Polly Hamilton disappeared and Anna Sage was deported, undoubtedly with Hoover's collusion as he by then wanted to get rid of everyone associated with the case, including Purvis, whom he fired the next year. The boy died within three months. RE. Early Life And Background Born on September 15, 1907, in Neopit, Wisconsin as Mary Evelyn "Billie" Frechette, her father was a French man who died when she was 8, while her mother came from the Native American lineage. She attended a mission school on the reservation, and then was sent to a government boarding school for Indians in South Dakota. She relocated to a government boarding school located in Flandreau, South Dakota that catered for Native Americans of which she attended for 3 years before relocating again. -PBS. As society fought to overcome the Great Depression, Evelyn tried to make ends meet by . Zarkovich told Purvis that he could arrange for him to talk with Sage about it, if he liked. She called two day later (much of this was recorded by Purvis' secretary, who I talked with years later) to tell Purvis that she, Polly, and "her man" would be going that night, July 22, 1934, to either the Marlboro or Biograph Theaters-the "man" had not made up his mind about which film to see. On May 18, 1934, laws were created with regard to the killing of federal officers, crossing state lines to avoid prosecution, prison employees assisting prisoner escapes, and the death penalty for bank robbers. When they passed him, the women saw Zarkovich and dropped back. She was a member of the Menominee Tribe and had a mixed French and Menominee heritage. On July 21, 1934, Anna contacted the FBI looking to receive a cash reward and protection from deportation by aiding in his capture. Zarkovich got $5,000 of the overall federal reward for Dillinger's capture, in addition to what he reportedly got from Dillinger. [4] Frechette assumed more marital roles with Dillinger than an accomplice. while her boyfriend and fugitive, John Dillinger, watched helplessly nearby on April 9, 1934. Sage, the legendary "Woman in Red," was actually wearing an orange skirt and white blouse. -PBS, Yes. "John was good to me," she later told reporters. Frechette was arrested in Chicago while her boyfriend and fugitive, John Dillinger, watched helplessly nearby on April 9, 1934. However, she went public because she believed the government was not keeping its bargain. He pressured Melvin Purvis, chief of his Chicago office every day to "get Dillinger and get him quick!" The producers of that film would have been better served if Moe Howard was still alive and had been cast in that role--he would have been far more entertaining! She made purchases for him, such as clothing and cars, but for the most part, she performed the role of a housewife. In September 1933, Dillinger was able to have guns smuggled into a thread shipment to the shirt factory where the prisoners were working. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. eluded the FBI and became a national He was nevertheless murdered by Zarkovich, who, according to Audett, was paid $10,000 or more to set up the wrong man by Dillinger, and that makes him, Dillinger and Audett and, most likely, Sage, parties to murder. this celebratory news reel describes how His "ace" agent had killed an innocent man in April 1934 in the FBI's frantic attempt to capture Dillinger, and the same "ace" did the same thing three months later in July 1934. "Get the hell out of here!" Frechette later toldTrue Confessionsmagazine that as result of her husband's incarceration, she had a "blurred attitude toward life." When he did, he instituted absolute control over the Bureau in that all agents had to report directly to him from all field offices. Frechette, who had met Dillinger in 1933, was charged with harboring a fugitive in her St. Paul, Minnesota. He vowed to kill the agent in charge of her interrogation after she testified that she had been beaten and deprived of food for two days. So John buried himself, you see. Since she was still unaware of which theatre, FBI agents were posted at both theatres while the rest of the agents remained at headquarters. It's only when Billie Frechette enters his life, that obvious reasons he starts to have even the idea that there's something beyond the immediate right now. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. Dillinger was dissuaded from rescuing her by fellow gang members. Audett had promised to take Dillinger West to Oregon to live with Indians on a reservation there Dillinger's first girl friend, Evelyn "Billie" Frechette, was a Menominee Indian girl, but she had been captured and imprisoned and, according to Audett, "John wanted to meet another Indian girl and settled down with her, which is why I took him to that reservation in Oregon. Meanwhile, Hoover was waiting for Purvis' report and it did not come. Not exactly. The prisoners successfully escaped that day while Dillinger was sitting in a Lima, Ohio jail after being arrested while visiting his girlfriend. cordial to one another is shown. After four years in a boarding School for Indian children, she moved to Chicago and during the onset of the great depression fell in with petty criminals. The goal of both mission and boarding schools was to use education as a tool to assimilate the First Nations. 1 | People & Events", People & Events: Evelyn "Billie" Frechette, 19071969, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evelyn_Frechette&oldid=1150861316, This page was last edited on 20 April 2023, at 14:06. Frechette continued to struggle in order to make ends meet, doing housework and waitressing to pay the bills. The unyielding violence that ravaged the Native American Race made survival extremely dangerous. In answering the question, "How accurate is the Public Enemies movie?" It started with the following line: "This case contains discrepancies that we cannot explain and for which, no doubt, there will be serious ramifications." It was not out of Melvin Purvis' grandiosity, but his expediency to appease J. Edgar Hoover's grandiosity, that Purvis, the FBI agent in charge that night in Chicago, allowed the wrong man to be killed. It sold for twenty-five cents. Some music for this commentary camePodington Bear. Dillinger saw her arrest from nearby and wanted to stop it but was talked out of it because it was too dangerous. On March 3, 1934, Dillinger escaped from Indiana's Crown Point Jail with a fake gun and had his hostage drive him away in Lake County Sheriff Lillian Holley's new Ford V-8. Dillinger and Frechette reunited in Chicago after Dillinger escaped from prison in Crown Point, Indiana. (AP) A southern Indiana woman now faces a federal hate crime charge in addition to attempted murder in the stabbing of an Indiana University student of Chinese descent on a public bus. Dillinger not killed by FBI! She started waitressing again, and eventually married a salesman named William Black. interview had stepped outside for some The man in the The farmer said it was his life savings and that he had just drawn it out. Hamilton wrote that Dillinger was generous and considerate; "he never liked to hurt anyone's feelings." His father's name was John Wilson Dillinger. In early 1928 she gave birth to a baby boy, but as an unwed mother felt she was compelled to give the child up. While we can't be sure what exactly happened that day, none of the stories credit Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) as the shooter. He totally controlled the public mouth and words of the FBI. which the prosecutor's arm can be seen Although her establishments suffered frequent police raids, she received two pardons from Indiana Governor Harry Leslie in 1932. Although Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) tried to keep Anna Sage from being deported, it was out of his jurisdiction and the Immigration and Naturalization Service continued with the deportation proceedings. She once drove a getaway car after Dillinger was shot by the police. In the wake of John Dillinger's death, In an interview with Melbourne's The Age newspaper, Public Enemies movie actor Johnny Depp confirmed that Dillinger did see photos of himself on the police station wall. theater by the FBI. Why he gave me the name Puente, California, I do not know, but I went there and met a man who talked to me while we both stood in a dark room. The federal courts maintained that only the Department of Labor had any authority in deportation cases, and was not obligated to honor promises made by Justice Department "gangbusters." Discover the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst who helped bring down gangsters and break up a Nazi spy ring in South America. That I did something wrong? crime. Zarkovich said that, in return for setting up Dillinger, he wanted Purvis' promise that he, Zarkovich, would be the ONLY person to shoot and kill Dillinger, but that the FBI could have all the credit for it. When I interviewed Zarkovich, he became suspicious of my questions, then outright challenged me--he stood up, about six feet five, unbuttoning his pistol holster and holding his hand on the butt of the gun--saying: "Are you telling me something's wrong here? She informed the FBI that they would be attending a movie at the Biograph or Marbro theatre on Sunday night and she would wear a white blouse and orange skirt so they could be recognized. During her trial in St. Paul, Frechette testified that during her D.O.I. The two became inseparable. She described the background of her mother (ne Mary Labell) as "half French and half Indian",[1] and that of her father as simply French. Frechette later told reporters that she never fully understood what Sparks had done. . Dillinger followed by shooting through the apartment door and then into the hallway, before escaping with Billie down a back stairwell and fleeing in a getaway car. Required fields are marked *. On April 15, 1936, Anna was deported back to Romania for being considered an "alien of low moral character". A man who had been working the night shift There was no junior. and criminal ways of America's original Dillinger's mother died when he was three and he was seeking maternal affection and everything that a man gets from a woman, and his only mode of courtship was caring; was . ", Then Clark blurted: "Go to Puente, wise guy. Frechette eventually had two subsequent marriages. He looked after me and bought me all kinds of jewelry and cars and pets, and we went places and saw things, and he gave me everything a girl wants. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. Sage was murdered in Rumania some years later. He treated me like a lady.". "John was good to me. The hitch was that Zarkovich knew that Anna Sage, Polly Hamilton and "James Lawrence" were going to the Biograph all along. For four years, she attended a boarding school for Native Americans in Flandreau, South Dakota. surgery to disguise his appearance before -FBI.gov, Yes. He does. In the 1940s she returned to the Menominee Reservation and lived a quiet life. The tour, In 1926, Chicago Gangsters Fled to Tomahawk, In 1958, Buddy Holly Stopped in Rhinelander on the Summer Dance Party Tour. According to Melvin Purvis's obituaries, he shot himself through the jaw with a .45 caliber automatic pistol in the upstairs hallway of his Florence, South Carolina home on February 29, 1960. At the time, Sage was facing deportation charges as an "alien of low moral character." Goin' Back to T-Town: Revisit a thriving Black community in Tulsa, which rebuilt after a 1921 racially-motivated massacre. Frechette is known to have been involved with Dillinger for about six months, until her arrest and imprisonment in 1934. An incredible woman who faced the unthinkable. Frechette served two years at the Federal Correctional Farm in Milan, Michigan, for violating the Federal Harboring Law. Mary Evelyn "Billie" Frechette (September 15, 1907 January 13, 1969) was an American Menominee singer, waitress, convict, and lecturer known for her personal relationship with the bank robber John Dillinger in the early 1930s. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). Billies lawyer was the flamboyant Louis Piquette, a fellow Wisconsinite who would be immortalized as the lead male character in the musical CHICAGO. After looking over the surrounding area, he reluctantly decided that any escape attempt would be impossible. With twenty some agents, recently authorized to carry weapons and make arrests without local authority, Purvis and his men spread out in front of Little Bohemia Lodge, which has considerable frontage (I know, have been there several times), and slowly advanced in the darkness toward the place, where lights were showing on the ground floor. She died on January 13, 1969, in Shawano, Wisconsin. On June 6, 1934, they added the ability to offer reward money for capturing criminals. Dillinger introduced himself as Jimmy Lawrence, a clerk at the Board of Trade. UnlikeBonnie Parker, who wasClyde Barrow'sactive accomplice, Frechette gave Dillinger minimal assistance. She thought that if she turned Dillinger in to the authorities, the government would allow her to stay in the United States. He looked after me and bought me all kinds of jewelry and cars and pets, and we went places and saw things, and he gave me everything a girl wants. "You dumb bastards!" I should point out that one of those letters was sent to Melvin Purvis and, after he read it, he took out his old FBI service automatic, walked into his back yard, and blew out his brains. I got out. On October 12, 1933, former inmates Harry 'Pete' Pierpont, Russell Clark and Charles Makley posed as police officers and walked into the Ohio jail. Frechette married Welton Sparks, who was sentenced to prison in 1933 for committing a mail robbery. (It was later determined that the men did not hear the FBI due to the car radio.) They took up positions behind trees and waited. The press is showing him standing up to the banks that they believe have failed the country. (This documented event was later wrongly attributed to those two snakes Bonnie and Clyde, and appears in that 1968 movie about them and which you, Roger, became one of its first champions). Shortly before they left, one of the gang members fatally shot a police officer while picking up a car at a repair shop. of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover then puts a Frechette, who was then 26, fell in love with Dillinger, then 30, despite his criminal activities. eyewitness, who saw John Dillinger's death On October 11, 1934, Anna Sage, whose real name is Ana Cumpanas, received a $5,000 cash reward for her help in locating Public Enemy Number One. Billie Frechette greeted them, saying her name was Mrs. Hellman and that she needed to get changed before they entered the apartment. They recorded the eyes of the dead man as brown (Dillinger's were blue or blue-gray); they found none of Dillinger's well documented scars and bullet wounds; they took out the heart and closely examined it and determined that the dead man had had a rheumatic heart condition since childhood and was terminal close to the time of his being shot to death (Dillinger could never have played semi-professional baseball--as second baseman for the Martinsville, Indiana, team--or ever leaped over the six-foot partition cages in banks as he was routinely seen to do in his many bank robberies, with such a heart condition); the body was shorter and heavier than that of Dillinger, that he was prone when shot and had been executed (as accurately described through the path of the bullets outlined by the pathologists) and many more discrepancies in a autopsy that disappeared from the Coroner's office the day it was filed. The real John Dillinger did smuggle guns to the inmates but was not present during the escape. Let's get the hell out of here." criminal whose law breaking ways This John Dillinger movie stars She served 2 years in prison for her crime. She was arrested and served two years in prison for harboring a criminal.
how did billie frechette die
