Public Enemies
THE HUDSON
surges forward. The car proceeds to an intersection and stops.
DILLINGER (CONT’D) m.on! Shouse cant find his place on the.git.
HAMILTON Right! Goddamnit! Right! As Shouse makes the turn…
INT. FORD, TRAVELLING – DILLINGER
grimaces with pain. Hamilton helps him off with his overcoat.
EXT. LITTLE BOHEMIA – FORD – TWILIGHT (LATER)
pulls in. Its a tourist lodge -a two-story log cabin with a bar, kitchen and dance floor downstairs and bedrooms above. EMIL WANATKA, comes out, trailed by his two collies and Nelson’s girlfriend, Vi Scott.
DILLINGER How’d you find this place? Dillinger looks at Wanetka. He’s uneasy. He trusts nothing about it.
NELSON Couple of Chicago guys told Tommy. Don’t worry, nobody’s gonna find us. He thinks were salesmen.
INT. DILLINGER’S ROOM – MONEY – NIGHT
being counted.
DILLINGER How much? Nobody wants to answer. Hamilton meanwhile uses Atropine sulphate to clean Dillinger’s wound.
$46,120.
DILLINGER That would be less than $800,000, right? Right!
VAN METER Still more than $8,000 a man.
DILLINGER Leave my money and get out. Van Meter, Nelson and Shouse exit.
DILLINGER (CONT’D) We gotta cut loose from Nelson.
HAMILTON You need to rest up awhile.
DILLINGER No. We don’t get out of here in the morning, we’re going to wind up dead.
HAMILTON We could head to Reno… Dillinger lies back in bed, looks around the room, angry and frustrated. Hamilton gets up to leave…
DILLINGER I need two more guns, Red. OVER we HEAR the SOUND OF SOMEONE SCREAMING and CALLING OUT —
INT. SIOUX FALLS HOSPITAL – TOMMY CARROLL – NIGHT
in the bed, his head swathed in bandages. He lapses in and out of consciousness, thrashes with pain, shouting out.
WERE ACUTELY AWARE OF PURVIS.
Uncomfortable, Purvis stands apart from the others. Agents Rorer and Clegg are by the bedside.
CARROLL Gimme the shot, Doc. Please. I’m begging you.
RORER Not until you tell us! As the pressure inside his skull becomes unbearable —
CARROLL Oh, Mother! Help me! Please, God! He begins to scream. It is harrowing. A DOCTOR hurries into the room, Purvis blocks him from the patient. He shoves him back out the door and follows him…
DOCTOR
(spits it out, fury) T h e bullet entered the back of his head. It is resting over his right eye. His brain is swelling. He will be dead soon. He is suffering and I need to sedate him.
PURVIS Not yet. If you interfere, I’ll arrest you. From inside.
RORER Where is he?!
CARROLL Give me a shot!
RORER Di.llinger! Then you get the shot! Where is he? The Doctor looks at Purvis. Purvis remains steadfast. But we see Purvis struggling with this. Maybe his soul has just gone to hell.
Rorer hovers over Tommy Carroll. He blocks our view but his hands press down onto Carroll’s skull. Screaming. The Doctor walks away. He will not be a witness to torture. More screaming. CLOSE ON PURVIS: looks up to see Rorer looking at him. Rorer is sweating. He nods. He has an answer.
INT. SIOUX FALLS AIRPORT – NIGHT
Urgent activity, Purvis, Baum and Winstead are racing. In the background, Rorer is on the phone. Hurt is checking weapons and ammo. A charter Ford Trimotor’s engines rev.
RORER (into phone) .place is called Little Bohemia in Manitowish, Wisconsin.
PURV I S
What’s the nearest airport to Manitowish?
RORER Rhinelander.
INT. BANKERS’ BUILDING, OFFICE – COWLEY – NIGHT
listens. Agents are throwing on coats, grabbing greiades, steel vests, Tommy guns.
PURVIS (O.S.) Our group will fly down in the plane. (to Cowley) Sam, you drive up.
(RECITES)
Little Bohemia. Manitowish, Wisconsin.
INT. LITTLE BOHEMIA, DILLINGER’S ROOM – DILLINGER – NIGHT
looks at
THE COURTYARD
fifteen feet below, which is lit up. Dillinger positions a Winchester..351 autoloader next to the window. Moves stiffly across the room to the other window…
A DROP FIVE FEET ONTO A LOWER ROOF –
Dillinger positions a Thompson on the window sill. Then he turns on the radio and tries to sleep.
EXT. PINE WOODS – TWO BUREAU HIRE CARS – NIGHT
approach the lodge and stop 300 yards away. No lights. Purvis, Baum., Winstead, Hurt and Agents Rice and Rorer get out and whisper:
PURVIS If you can get Dillinger alive, do it. If not, then you put him down. Rice, Rorer – take the back. Carter, you cut through the woods and come up on the front from the northwest. Get up close enough to see if they’re in the barroom.
WINSTEAD If he is?
PURVIS We know where he is. We go in.
WINSTEAD If he isn’t?
PURVIS o in anyway.
WINSTEAD Too much real estate out here. Too many ways for’em to get out. And too few of us to blockade ’em in.
(BEAT) We need road-blocks. An assault plan. This ain’t how to do it. We gotta wait for Cowley’s group… Purvis hesitates. Then.
PURVIS I will not risk them escaping and humiliating us. Take the southwest corner. Cover that and the front. (to Hurt) Block the road we came up — Winstead has to accept this. He is not happy. Baum moves off through the woods. As Winstead and Hurt start to move off…
EXT. LITTLE BOHEMIA LODGE – THREE LOCAL MEN, CCC WORKERS
enter from the barroom. They seem relieved to be away from the garrulous Nelson. They get into the Chevrolet and start the engine. Turn on the radio. Loud. Collies begin to bark.
INT. BARROOM – NELSON
hears the dogs barking.
EXT. LITTLE BOHEMIA LODGE – CHEVROLET
engages first gear.
PURVIS Stop that car! Federal Agents!
INT. CHEVROLET – NIGHT
The three men inside cannot hear them. They’re loaded. Their radio is BLARING.
EXT. LITTLE BOHEMIA LODGE – NELSON
appears in the front doorway, gun in hand.
CARTER BAUM
in the woods sees the armed man framed in the doorwa
BAUM (shouts out) Bureau of Investigation, nobody move! Chevrolet slowly starts towards Purvis and the others —
PURVIS Police! Stop!
(HEAT)
Fire! Purvis and from the woods Baum open up. Agents Madala, and Clegg FIRE as well.
CLOSE ON CHEVROLET
takes hits from the Agents’ tommy guns. Glass shatters, tires explode. It stops, dead. Meanwhile…
WINSTEAD + HURT deeper in the woods, cover the side windows from where they know gunfire will soon erupt. It DOES as…
INT. BARROOM – NELSON
and the others inside are FIRING out windows, killing lights.
EXT. WOODS – WINSTEAD + HURT
FIRE only on windows from which they see muzzle flashes.
INT. DILLINGER’S ROOM – DILLINGER + HAMILTON
at Dillinger’s window, exchange furious fire with Rice and Rorer at the side of the lodge, forcing them back behind out buildings. Splinters fly. Glass shatters. Gunsmoke is thick.
EXT. LITTLE BOHEMIA, BARROOM – NELSON, SHOUSE + VAN METER
fire back, forcing Purvis to cover.
PURVIS Where the hell is Cowley? Purvis – low – runs to the Chevrolet, opens the door. The driver and one passenger are dead. A middle aged, unarmed man steps out. Bullets zing around him. He promptly sits down on the ground.,, dead drunk. These are not Public Enemies.
THE TEXANS
UNLOAD only on real targets. Bullets CUT through the trees.
SHADOWY FIGURE
darts from a side door and leaps over the porch FIRING a Tommy gun. Bullets strike the trees around Purvis.
BAUM Someone got out!
PURVIS Is it Dillinger?
BAUM I think so.
PURVIS See if you can head him off. Go! Purvis runs into the woods after the fleeing figure. Carter Baum races off in a car.
EXT. PINE WOODS – PURVIS
runs hard, glimpses the figure. He FIRES but misses, keeps running, desperate…
INT. LITTLE BOHEMIA, SECOND STORY – ROOF – DARK NIGHT
Bullets TEAR into the wooden walls. Two Men jump out of a back window, not clear who they are… Its chaos.
EXT. LITTLE BOHEMIA – THE TWO MEN
sprint down wooden steps to the beach, turn LEFT and run along the lake behind the lodge, trading SHOTS with Rorer and Rice. Rice is hit in the leg and cartwheels forward. Rorer stays with him.
NOW WE SEE THIS IS DILLINGER
running but impeded by his shoulder wound. Hamilton helps him. In the background, we SEE Van Meter and Shouse have also bailed out of the house for the beach but disappear into woods to the RIGHT.
DILLINGER + HAMILTON run along the line of the lake, but in woods now.
WINSTEAD runs through trees parallel to them but further away from the water. He catches sight of two figures through the :trees playing against the water from 100 yards away.
DILLINGER + HAMILTON move fast. Not much brush to slow them. Dillinger senses, reacts…
HARD CHARGING WINSTEAD,
from 50 yards FIRES his pump-action 10 gauge shotgun FOUR
TIMES.
DILLINGER + RED in a burst of speed, cover behind heavier trees, which are cratered by the heavy shot. And Dillinger, never stopping, out the other side, is FIRING his Thompson at Winstead as.
rolls forward under the two 5-SHOT BURSTS from Dillinger and…
SLO–MO. WINSTEAD’S HANDS,
while rolling, feed three 10-gauge rounds into the loading port of his shotgun, .and he rolls right up onto one knee, bringing the 10 gauge onto the FAST MOVING glimpses thru trees and he’s FIRING at…
GHOSTS
because Dillinger and Red are beneath the brow of the bank, moving fast, now, and Dillinger reloads as…
WINSTEAD signals above and behind him. to…
HURT who crossed at a higher point on the contoured landscape, giving the,,-Texans cross fire possibilities, and…
DILLINGER FIRES — whrthe bank’s cut by a ravine – exactly where Winstead should be…
DILLINGER’S POV: NOTHING
Winstead’s gone. And Dillinger knows the level of play has been raised by the addition of whoever these men are. As he and Red race across the ravine for the high ground advantage…
HURT FIRES
Hamilton’s legs give way. Dillinger hauls him up, still on run…
DILLINGER You hit, Red?
HAMILTON I don’t think so. Dillinger looks at Red’s shirt. A blood stain blooms just above his belt. It’s bad.
DILLINGER Come on, Red. We can make it.
On the high ground, past rock outcroppings towards a house. Meanwhile…
EXT. WOODS – PURVIS – NIGHT
runs desperately after the shadowy figure. Now we SEE it’s…
BABY FACE NELSON who turns and FIRES at Purvis, who drops behind a. felled tree. Ahead, Nelson sees car lights through the trees and…
EXT. ROAD – NELSON
tumbles down the bank onto the road. Nelson flags it down an approaching car. It screeches to a stop. Its a Bureau car. Did they think Nelson’s an agent?
INT. BUREAU CAR – CARTER BAUM
is at the wheel. He realizes its Nelson. Nelson, aiming his Tommy gun…
NELSON I know you bastards wear bulletproof vests, so I’ll give it to you high and low… Nelson OPENS UP. Baum, hit, manages to fall out of,-te passenger door and run.
EXT. PINE WOODS – PURVIS
hears distant shooting. He races for the road.
EXT. ROAD — BAUM
twists, turns, fires a handgun, misses. Nelson FIRES again. Three slugs tear into Baum’s neck. Baum topples over a white fence, lands on his face. Nelson shoots Baum again.
INT. CAR – NELSON’S
in, pulls out. Purvis spills down through trees. He FIRES, ineffectually at the disappearing car. He rushes to Baum. A sick gurgling sound is coming from his throat.
PURVI S Carter!
Baum’s eyes flicker.
PURVIS (CONT’D) Who was it? Was it Dellinger? Baum shakes his head a fraction.
BAUM (barely audible whisper) Nelson. Baum’s eyes roll back in his head. Purvis runs after the car. He dives through the woods to cut it off at a turn in the road.
EXT. HOUSE – A CAR
is outside. A man’s on the porch, having reacted to gunshots.
DILLINGER Gimme the keys to that car! He tosses them. Dellinger already has Red inside, starts it and blastsr,…away from the house. Winstead cjim:bing out of the ravine SEES the car pulling away. It’s gone. He and Hurt run for the shoreline to get back to…
EXT. LITTLE BOHEMIA LODGE – WIDE – NIGHT
Tear gas billows out the windows.
(ARRIVING)
Cease fire! Stop shooting! The shooting stops. There is no return fire from the lodge. Winstead puts a handkerchief over his nose and mouth and
ENTERS
E /I. LITTLE BOHEMIA LODGE – WANETHA + NAN
coughing their lungs out and cowering behind the furniture. No one else is there. Meanwhile…
INT. STOLEN BUREAU CAR, MOVING – NELSON
speeding, sees Two Men step into the road, raised weapons. He slams on the brakes. The two men run up, shouting “Get out of the car!”
Nelson bursts out laughing.
NELSON You dumb bastards.
HOMER VAN METER + ED SHOUSE
streaked with mud jump in. Nelson takes off.
EXT. WOODS NEAR THE ROAD — PURVIS
tumbles out of the woods onto the road just in time to see Nelson in the stolen Bureau car disappear around the next corner. He keeps running, desperately, futilely…
INT. PACKA.,.RD – COWLEY
drives. Madala is next to him, reading a map. Clegg and Smith are in back. They see an oncoming car.
COWLEY Who’s that? Cowley slows. The other car doesn’t. Ahead Cowley slams on the breaks.
MADALA Somebody’s on the road!
PURVIS running towards them, jumps in the Packard.
PURVIS Turn it around! .the car…
COWLEY Who was in it?
(BREATHLESS)
Baby Face Nelson. He killed Carter. Cowley u-turns and accelerates.
INT. STOLEN BUREAU CAR- NELSON
sees the Packard gaining on them.
NELSON Who are these birds? He pulls the wheel to the right.
EXT. HIGHWAY
The Stolen Bureau Car is on the shoulder past a blind curve.
INT. PACKARD – COWLEY
blasts around the curve, tires screaming, passes the Stolen Bureau Car. Now Nelson pulls out behind them!
COWLEY Look out…!
INT. STOLEN BUREAU CAR – NELSON
accelerates, closing in on the Packard. He assaults the FBI.
NELSON Let’em have it.
INT. PACKARD – PURVIS
PURVIS `’aster, Sam!
EXT. ROAD ,SPLITS …
becomes twbjanes of blacktop separated by a median with trees. Trees are between them.
INT. PACKARD – PURVIS
sees Homer Van Meter steady his Thompson. Madala ducks. Cowley hits the brakes, locks the wheels. Nelson’s car surges past, spoiling Van Meter’s aim, Purvis FIRES. Madala FIRES.
INT. STOLEN BUREAU CAR – LOSING SPEED!
Packard’s coming up on them. Nelson stomps on the gas.
NELSON Hit the engine! Nelson spins the wheel to veer off the highway onto a…
EXT. DIRT ROAD — BUT NELSON’S CAR.
hits a berm, bounces high and rolls over.
INT. STOLEN BUREAU CAR – NELSON
struggles to free himself from under Shouse. Shouse’s neck has been broken. He is dead. Van Meter is clear and running.
NELSON Come back here, help me, you son of a bitch! Homer doesn’t. He’s gone. The Packard hurtles towards him, screeches, skids sideways, stops!
PURVIS, COWLEY + MADALA
are out. Purvis FIRES.
VAN METER is cut down right away, hit 14 times. While…
NELSON opens up with the Tommy gun, ripping
COWLEY across the chest. As
MADALA ‘ S
12-gauge FIRES. Nelson, slammed in the chest, drops-to his knees, fights on, as…
PURVIS’
Thompson and Madala’s second round HIT at the same time. The 45s and double odd shot tear into Nelson’s chest and slam him back. Purvis rushes to Cowley…
PURVIS (moving towards him) Rest quiet and you will be alright, Sam.
COWLEY Call my wife and tell her.
INT. DILLINGER’S STOLEN CAR, PARKED IN A SMALL TOWN –
HAMILTON – DAY
is in agony. Dillinger gets in back beside him. He’s bought medical supplies from a drug store and whisky. He helps Hamilton to a slug and. some pills.
HAMILTON Not like you ain’t seen a man die before.
He puts his bloody hand in Dillinger’s.
HAMILTON (CONT’D) (reading Dillinger’s mind) You gotta let… (grimacing with pain) You gotta let me go, John.
DILLINGER Bullshit.
HAMILTON And you gotta let Billie go too. Flash of anger in Dillinger’s eyes.
HAMILTON (CONT’D) I know… you… never let no one down you care about. But this… time… you gotta let go… Hamilton desperately searches Dillinger`s eyes for a response. Hamilton squeezes Dillinger’s hand and grimaces in pain. He lets out a’7-`gasp. His grip relaxes. Dillinger looks away… A car pulls in next to his. As the DRIVER gets out, he happens tc…giance at Dillinger’s car.
DRIVER’S POV: TWO MEN
in the back of a car. One lying motionless, covered in blood, the other looking dishevelled and distraught. The Driver turns, restarts his car and pulls quickly away.
EXT. FIELD – NIGHT
Bleak and desolate. Dillinger is digging. Even a shallow grave takes time. He drags Hamilton’s body to the grave. Streaks of dawn light the sky.
DILLINGER I’m sorry to do this to you, Red. Dillinger empties boxes of lye bought from the pharmacy on Red’s face and starts shovelling earth on his friend’s body.
EXT. FIELD – DAWN
Dillinger sitting on a rock by the grave, whisky bottle in hand, sweaty and cold at the same time. His stomach is empty and his spirits are rock bottom. He gets up, throws away the empty bottle, takes a last look at the grave and walks to his car.
INT. BLACK HUDSON, CHICAGO – JOHN DILLINGER ._ NIGHT
drives west on Troy. The neighborhood streets are cold and empty. But ahead Dillinger sees…
1933 CHEVROLET 2-DOOR COUPE
parked at the curb. Two men are inside. Silhouettes against steamed windows. They’re waiting, watching.
EXTREMELY CLOSE: DILLINGER’S FACE
Impassive. He knows exactly who they are. He cruises past without glancing and continues west…
INT. 1933 CHEVROLET SURVEILLANCE CAR – NIGHT
The men inside are Agents Reinecke and Rorer. Reinep wipes the condensation from the windshield. Across the sty” =et he sees Billie through her second story window. He makes a notation. Rorer is asleep.
TNT. ASHLAND AVE. FURNISHED APARTMENT – BILLIE – NIGHT
checks her watch., rises past her window to turn on the radio. Paul Whiteman’s band signs off followed by a Geritol commercial telling Radiol.and to stay tuned for the Will Rogers commentary.
INT. ASHLAND APARTMENT, FOYER – BILLIE + NEIGHBOR,
also a dark haired woman. Billie slips her $20. She made her a sandwich. Neighbor takes Billies place in front of the window by the radio. Meanwhile…
EXT. REAR ALLEY – SNOW FLURRIES: BILLIE
in a man’s overcoat and hat, crosses the alley to the rear of the buildings opposite.
EXT. ALLEY – A SECOND FBI CAR + AGENTS
watch the rear of Billie’s building. Agents ignore a man crossing the alley in the cold night.
INT. REINECKE’S CAR
RORER What’s she doing?
(LOOKS)
Listening to the radio…
EXT. WABANSIA AVENUE – BILLIE
emerges from the passageway between buildings in men’s clothes, looks over her shoulder, and crosses into the street. She just stands there. Nothing moves under the skeletal elms in the white snow.
THEN: LIGHTS
come on. They stab at her. She can’t see in the glare.
BLACK HUDSOWI;PULLS THROUGH — JOHN DILLINGER
opens the door. She jumps in. He’s already pulling away…
INT. AGENTS”OFFICE – DAY
Madala, Clegg and the other agents are waiting for a briefing to begin. Purvis enters.
PURVIS Agent Cowley died this morning at 5:17am. Grim reactions among the men.. ,their lost colleagues and friends…
PURVIS (CONT’D) Right now all of Dillinger’s friends are dead. He’s out there alone. There won’t be a better chance to run him down.
RORER He could be anywhere – California, Florida…
PURVIS He could be anywhere – but he is not. What he wants is right here. Billie Frechette.
Purvis looks up and sees the open door. Reinecke stands there…a desolate look of failure. Purvis knows what’s happened. They lost Billie.
INT. NBC RADIO STUDIO (LOS ANGELES, CA)- WILL ROGERS – DAY
smokes a cigarette in front of a ribbon microphone. The smoke curls into the air. His commentary is intimate and folksy.
WILL ROGERS (into ribbon microphone) Well, they said they were going to get Public Enemy #1. And they had John Dillinger surrounded… They was all ready to shoot him as soon as he came out. But a bunch of folks came out ahead, so they shot all them instead. (radio audience laughter)
INT. DILLINGER’S BLACK HUDSON – BILLIE + JOHNNY – NEW YEAR’S
EVE
drive carefully, south on Clark St. Sidewalks are filled with revelers and crowds.
WILL ROGERS(O.S.) They will get Dillinger someday. Probably when he’s with a group of innocent bystanders they’re shooting down, and he’ll get killed by accident…
(PAUSE) Meanwhile, President Roosevelt got Congress to pass a second crime Bill…
INT. FRANK NITTI’S LIVING ROOM (CICERO, ILLINOIS) — FRANK
NITTI – EVENING
listening to Will Rogers. He’s sober.
WILL ROGERS(O.S.) .which the example of Public Enemy Number One has helped push through Congress. It will make all criminal enterprise across state lines a federal crime… Nitti’s hand picks up a telephone and dials. He puts the earpiece next to his ear. And he blows up.
NITTI (to D’Andrea) Okie inbred sonsabitches … backwoods cocksuckers. They did this.
D’ANDREA Did what?
NITTI Karpis. That syphilitic idiot Babyface Nelson. Dillinger. All of them. Another interstate crime bill?!
D’ANDREA What do we care? We don’t rob banks.
NITTI Everything is interstate. Wake up. That’s the point of being nationwide. Fix it.
INT. FBI – HOOVER’S OFFICE — HOOVER — NIGHT
listens.
WILL ROGERS (O.S.) -.-v -so after they missed all the Public Enemies at Little Bohemia, the Bureau =axrrested their girlfriends. The FBI may “bat get their man, but they always get his woman. (radio audience laughs) J. Edgar Hoover does not.
INT. BLACK HUDSON – BILLIE + JOHNNY – NEW YEAR’S EVE
head south out of downtown on Michigan Blvd. A blast of horns declares the death of 1933 and the birth of 1934.
INT. TELEPHONE COMPANY EXCHANGE- PURVIS – NEW YEAR’S EVE –
enters. They’ve got 15 recorders, now. It’s a rat’s nest of cloth-insulated wiring. Most of the listening stations are abandoned.
PURVIS SEES: AGENT MADALA
with headphones noting a conversation on a steno pad. Two stenographers are still around. Each machine is labeled. Madala listens to “PROBASCO.” Next to him is “AUSTIN STATE
TAVERN.” MOVE IN. WELL SEE THAT AGAIN…
PURVIS Agent Madala… (can’t hear) Agent Madala!
MADALA (headphones come off)
YESSIRL
PURVIS Its New Year’s Eve, Roger. Go home to your family.
MADALA Thank you sir. Purvis leaves.
INT. PURVIS’S APARTMENT OFF MICHIGAN AVENUE – PURVIS – NIGHT
lets himself in. He’s alone. “Auld Lang Syne” is heard in the streets below. The apartment is dark. He stands for a moment, letting the darkness wash over him. He allows himself one shot of Bourbon. He moves to the large window overlooking the city. He goes out onto the balcony in the cold air.- He sees the sparkling lights, the traffic, the couples, the-revelers, the relaxed celebration. Horns blow. Cheering can be heard across the city. He is alone. It is 1934 in Chicago. He downs the shot of bourbon.
EXT. ROAD THRU DUNES – DILLINGER + BILLIE – NIGHT
drive across the southern tip of Lake Michigan in te`Indiana dunes. Dunes are lit by the silver moonlight. Her head is on his shoulder. She loosely holds his arm. She drifted asleep. Now she wakes. She realizes it is New Year’s Day.
DILLINGER Happy New Year, doll.
BILLIE Happy New Year, baby. He looks at her. Its a concerned look. She reads his mind.
BILLIE (CONT`D)
Johnny. I’d rather live on the run with you, than live any other way. That says it all. They are both quiet for a long beat.
DILLINGER For how long?
BILLIE However long.
DILLINGER Next week? Next year? Alvin said this wasn’t gonna last. He was right. The world has turned. Everything’s different.
(BEAT) And there’s a sweet score. Enough money to go away and stay away for a long time.
(BEAT) So whattya say we lit out of here? Lit out of here, altogether.
BILLIE glows to the prospect. For the first time there’s a tangible future.
BILLIE Cuba?
DILLINGER Too close. How about we fly to Caracas and then to Rio on Pan Am. Then an oanliner to Manila or Singapore. We are f6reign-looking to them. So they will ,have no idea who the hell we are. We can go out dancing all night and have a lotta laughs anytime we want…
BILLIE I think that’s a great idea! They drive on into the pre-dawn of the year 1934.
EXT. DILLINGER FARM (MOORESVILLE, INDIANA) – SOMEHOW JOHN
DILLINGER – DAY
sits in plain view on a chair. His Thompson rests against the wall. His sister, Audrey, is giving him a haircut. His father, John Wilson Dillinger, drinks coffee next to him. The January sunlight is so direct, it’s like Spring.
DILLINGER Not too short on the sides.
BILLIE comes out the door. Dillinger’s niece comes up with a Kodak Brownie.
NIECE
Can we take a picture?
DILLINGER Of course. (to nephew, approaching) You got an eye on those federal boys?
NEPHEW
Yes sir. They’re over having breakfast at Myra’s Diner. They’ve been hanging around, here, doing nothing for so long, they just know this is the last place you’re going to show…
CLOSER: BILLIE watches Johnny. This is who he would be if he had not had the troubles in this life, a charismatic young man.
EXT. FIELD – BILLIE + DILLINGER SR. – LATER
walk through winter wheat.
BILLIE That how he was when he was a boy? Carefree and laughing…?
JOHN SR. Not right when his mother died. But after„- awhile, yes.
BILLIE You love him, don’t you? She touches his arm. He looks back at the house.
JOHN SR. He grew up a motherless child… After he was there he never had a woman’s comfort. So I loved him but didn’t know how to raise him. And that’s the truth.
(PAUSE) When he come out of that prison, he had so many worries. Restless. Bitter. He had a desire to get even. A covey of quail flush out of the wheat.
JOHN SR. (CONT’D) Well, now he has gotten even. And he has seen the country. And he has you. So, he is carefree.
(BEAT) But what is next for you and Johnnie?
BILLIE To try to live somewhere else.
JOHN SR. (knows more) Well, if it goes okay, good. Whatever happens, he has been my boy. And I have loved him in my heart, always. Right or wrong, no matter what. He is as straight and truthful as the land is flat. She takes his hand and they walk through the fields.
EXT. CHICAGO’S CROWDED DOWNTOWN STREETS – DILLINGER +
BILLIE — DAY
in the black Hudson. We’ve entered mid-scene.
DILLINGER :Eartender’s name is Larry Streng.
BILLIE `–W re ‘ s the apartment?
DILLINGER Oakley and Potomac. He’ll give you the keys. They drive north over the Clark Street Bridge. Dillinger gives her an envelope.
DILLINGER (CONT’D) 5,000 dollars. It buys us a month, but we’re not staying that long.
EXT. AUSTIN STATE TAVERN – 416 NORTH STATE STREET –
DI.LLINGER’S CAR – DAY
pulls to the curb on the east side of the street. Billie gets out, walks through the crowds, down the sidewalk and crosses the street to the bar. MOVE IN on the sign. This is the location we saw being tapped at the Telephone Exchange.
OVER DILLINGER’S SHOULDER
watching the distant front of the tavern into which Billie disappeared. Then…
FOUR BUREAU AGENTS, REINECKE + MADALA
run right past Dillinger’s Hudson. They join 12 more agents flooding into the Austin State Tavern from the other side.
INT. CAR – DILLINGER
is shocked. Frozen. Inside…
INT. AUSTIN STATE TAVERN – REINECKE
roughly handcuffs Billie.
(SHOUTS) Who brought you? How’d you get here?
BILLIE .I took a taxi.
EXT. TAVERN – REINECKE + MADALA LEADING OUT BILLIE
There’s20 of them, now. She’s totally surrounded.
INT. HUDSON – DILLINGER
races around the block. Comes up on the same side of the street as the tavern behind the Federal cars.
THE THOMPSON
in his lap. He checks his 45.
HE SEES.. .HER
There she is. Where’s an opening? His eyes dart.
MORE CHICAGO POLICE
arrive. It’s now a sea of blue.
CLOSER: DILLINGER
20-30 men surround her.
BILLIE .hauled towards a Bureau car by Reinecke. He tips her off balance. He bounces her off the door pillar on purpose. Dillinger sees all this.
DILLINGER can do nothing. Tears of frustrated rage stream down his face. Later, he would say he “cried like a baby.”
EXT. STATE STREET — DILLINGER + THE HUDSON
are waved away, irritatedly, by uniformed Chicago police trying to clear traffic. Dillinger’s Hudson drives off into the distance.
INT. BANKER’S BUILDING – BILLIE – NIGHT
under a bare lightbulb.
REINECKE If you tell us all about him, maybe you’ll get a break. Maybe you end up doing a couple of months on a work farm., like a girls’ home or something.
ANOTHER AGENT
Where is he? Where were you meeting? Where were you hiding out?
REINECKE …or we drop you in a black hole. And you et to shit and piss on the floor and then lie in it all night in the dark with the bugs and the rats. Billie’s eve’lids fall. She drifts off. Reinecke kicks her awake.
(SHOUTS) Where is he?! Billie startles! CLOSER on her chair.
BILLIE I have to… He kicks the chair again. She’s being denied a toilet. The humiliation is part of the pressure. Billie’s embarrassed. Billie urinates on the chair now and the floor. Another Agent makes a face…
OTHER AGENT
What was that movie, “Squaw Girl”…? Reinecke has gone out to get water for himself.
INT. OUTER OFFICE – REINECKE
drinks from a water cooler. In the background are a dozen agents with Tommy guns in every corner as if Public Enemy Number 1 will assault at any moment.
INT. INTERROGATION ROOM – REINECKE
re-enters.
REINECKE Lady, you’re stinking up my office. Where were you supposed to meet him! He slaps her. Billie’s shoulders collapse.
REINECKE (CONT’D) I can’t hear you.
BILLIE (nods, very low…) We were supposed to meet…at our apartment…
REINECKE Where?
BILLIE On Addison. 1148…
REINECKE When?
BILLIE Now.
