Lori Hyde looks forward to viewing the film "Public Enemies" when it's released in 2009 and expects it to be more factual than previous movies about Indiana outlaw John Dillinger.
"They're working very hard to make it look authentic but it's Hollywood and they have to add drama," she said after reading about Universal Studios transforming downtown Columbus into a movie set for a bank robbery re-enactment in the old First National Bank building.
Hyde of Corunna, Ind., about eight miles north of Auburn, where Dillinger and two accomplices raided a police station arsenal in 1933, has researched the colorful desperado for nearly 35 years.
"Like this Greencastle robbery," she said. "They were in and out fairly quickly with no shots fired. People don't want to see that when they go to a movie. They want to see action."
Police Slow to respond
Just before closing time, on Monday, Oct. 23, 1933, Dillinger, Harry Pierpont and Charles Makley entered the Central National Bank in Greencastle, Ind., while John Hamilton waited in a stolen black Studebaker sedan and Harry Copeland stood guard outside.
"I believe it was prearranged," Hyde said of the heist. "The robbery didn't start until bank guard Leo Radcliff left the steel cage to stoke the furnace in the basement."
Some accounts state that Hamilton looked up to see a woman leaving the bank, told her to get back inside and she responded with, "I go to Penney's and you can go to hell." But, actually the elderly foreign woman couldn't understand English and remained in the bank unharmed, Hyde said.
Inside, Dillinger vaulted over the railing, broke open a door leading to the teller cages, pulled out a sugar sack and emptied out all the drawers. Bank employee William Stiles stepped out a rear door and, unable to find some large tacks to place under the tires of the Studebaker, called the police.
"It was odd that it took them 20 minutes to get there even though they were only two blocks away," Hyde said. "No one apparently thought to phone the sheriff's office across the street where a deputy and state police officer had high-powered rifles."
Pierpont forced bank teller Harry Wells to open the combination vault which he achieved on the first try — usually it took him longer — and the gangster pillaged its contents. Dillinger, Pierpont and Makley then proceeded to leave when they saw A&P store manager Rex Thorton walk in. Thorton reached for his bank book and one of the gangsters slugged him because they thought it was a gun.
Hyde said one legend has it that Thorton accidentally knocked Dillinger's hat off as he fell down, picked it up and politely handed it to the desperado before staggering back to his store and collapsing. But that's a myth, she said.
Dillinger, Pierpont and Makley then jumped into the Studebaker, and with Hamilton, picked up Copeland and drove to a hideout in Terra Haute, Ind.
Although several accounts of the Greencastle robbery state that the Dillinger gang escaped with nearly $75,000 in cash and security bonds — the biggest heist up to that time — Hyde said the outlaw later claimed they only made off with $32,000.
But there's a true story about bank teller Edith Browning who was known as the Chewing Gum Lady throughout the Greencastle area because she handed out sticks of Juicy Fruit to children.
Hyde said: "Someone asked her once 'Did you give a piece of chewing gum to the bank robbers?' and she said, 'Oh no, I didn't.'"