Public Enemies
INT. 1148 W. ADDISION, APARTMENT – WIDE ON DOOR – DAWN
Its shot off its hinges. A half-dozen AGENTS invac e.’One gun goes off. Everybody is about to open up until they realize its one of theirs.
REVERSE: THE APARTMENT INTERIOR
It is dead empty. Reinecke looks at the dust on the floor. No one’s been here for a month.
INT. COOK COUNTY JAIL .- PURVIS
walks past holding cell with assorted informants, hookers, family members. As he passes one we HOLD ON…
INT. CELL – PROBASCO
in a metal chair, hands at his side handcuffed to the floor. He shouts. A large man slams him across the abdomen with a lead-filled sap. Another agent waits indifferently.
INT. WOMEN’S SECTION – DRUNK TANK – PURVIS
enters and crosses through…he can’t help but SEE.
PURVIS POV: LIANE HAMILTON
Hamilton’s sister, 17, stares vacantly from the corner. Bruised, filthy, dress ripped, she’s among a sordid group of 30 older women: tough hookers, drunks, a couple of tough dykes in men’s lace-up boots. Liane catches Purvis’ eyes. He walks on…
INT. B OF I OFFICE, INTERROGATION ROOM – REINECKE’S
furious. He walks up to Billie, handcuffed, and slaps her across the face, two, three times. Hard. Her ear, her nose bleeds. He almost knocks her out.
REINECKE Where is he!
BILLIE (low voice) Well… (rising strength) he’s way the hell away from here by ,Tow, isn’t he? She looks up at him. And she drops the little girl act. She sent them on a wild goose chase to give her man time to get away.
(CALM) You wanted to know where he is, you dumb flatfoot? You were too scared to look around. You walked right past him on State Street. He was at the curb in that black Hudson.
(BEAT) You asked me “how I got there?” I told you I took a taxi. And you believed me?
(LAUGHS) He dropped me off and was waiting for me. And you walked right past him. He’s furious. Her Native American beauty doesn’t soften Reinecke. He visualizes smashing the bones in her face with his fist.
EXT. OUTER OFFICE – PURVIS + WINSTEAD
arrive. Dolores rushes up.
DOLORES
Mr. Purvis, you have to stop this. Those men cannot abuse a woman in that way. Purvis, with Winstead following, moves to the interrogation room.
INT. INTERROGATION ROOM – BILLIE
BILLIE (to Reinecke) .and when my Johnny finds out how you slapped around his girl? You know what will happen to you, fatboy? She looks Reinecke square in the eye. Reinecke swings…
WINSTEAD grabs his wrist, turns him, Reinecke resists, Winstead nearly breaks his wrist.
WINSTEAD Bad idea.
PURVIS Uncuff her. Reinecke tries to pull away. He can’t. The smaller man is built of steel cable. Rorer uncuffs Billie.
PURVIS (CONT’D) Restroom’s down the hall. Billie tries to rise. Stumbles.
BILLIE I can’t stand utp. Purvis doesn’t hesitate. He picks her up in his arms and carries her through the office to the restroom in the corridor. She puts her hand over her eyes in embarrassment.
PURVIS Miss Rogers… Doris Rogers follows them.
INT. JAMES PROBASCO’S HOUSE ( 2509 NORTH CRAWFORD) – PIQUETT –
DAY in the kitchen, waits. He’s agitated. So is PROBASCO. Rear door opens. Probasco jumps. In comes Dillinger… Dillinger throws him an envelope.
DILLINGER $5,000. You run her down.
(BEAT) Lake County jail or Cook County? I want layouts, blueprints. You visit her. Tell her I’m coming for her. I’ll get her out.
PROBASCO
You need a car? A place to stay? Wanna stay here? Is Probasco is trying to lure Dillinger here?
DILLINGER I’m fine. I got a place.
INT. BARREL OF FUN NIGHTCLUB – MARTY ZARKOVICH – NIGHT
walks in.
ANNA SAGE in a woman’s business suit, hat and sunglasses in the dark bar, reacts. Zarkovich sits next to her.
ANNA SAGE Immigration say they send me back to Romania. Zarkovich, the crooked cop, takes Anna’s hand. The 40 year old madam is the true love of his life.
ZARKOVICH You know what to do. He turns her chin so that her eyes look right into his.
ZARKOVICH (CONT’D) Plus there’s a $25,000 reward.
ANNA. SAGE
We split.
ZARKOVICH O’Neill’s got to be cut in, too. So it splits three ways.
ANNA SAGE Can they fix the deportation?
ZARKOVICH These guys can fix anything.
EXT. 707 WEST FULLERTON STREET – NIGHT
In car #1 is Marty Zarkovich and Melvin Purvis. In car #2 is Cowley and O’Neill. They wait.
LOW THICK BRANCHES
cast a deep pool of dark shadow concealing Anna Sage.
ANNA SAGE hesitates. Then she approaches and enters Purvis’ car. It pulls out.
EXT. LAKEFRONT – PURVIS’ CAR – NIGHT
is parked by “the rocks” where the lakeshore’s been,infilled. Its totally deserted.
ANNA SAGE I want guarantee.
PURVIS If you aid us apprehending John Dillinger, I will do everything I can to influence Bureau of Immigration to let you stay in America.
ANNA SAGE No good.
PURVIS That’s all there is.
(SUSPECTS)
I think you do this. I think you tell Immigration. to pick me up and to send me
PURVIS How do you socialize with him?
ANNA SAGE We go out. Maybe tomorrow night. Maybe not. Maybe in a week. A month. Maybe never.
PURVIS I will not guarantee what Immigration will do. What I can guarantee is what I will do. If you do not cooperate, you will be on a boat out of this country in 48 hours. Do not play games with me. Anna hesitates, caves in to Purvis.
ANNA SAGE Every Sunday night, we go out.
PURVIS Who’s “we”?
ANNA SAGE e. Him. One of my girls, Polly Hamilton.
PURVIS How will we know?
ANNA SAGE I call you Sunday when I know.
INT. POOLHALL PAYPHONE – MARTY ZARKOVICH – NIGHT
enters. SEE his car at the curb with Anna, solemn in the passenger seat. He drops a nickel and dials. Listens. Then.
ZARKOVICH She’s piayin` ball.
NITTI Be there. Make sure.
!NT. NITTI`S OFFICE – FRANK NITTI
is the co-author of this betrayal. For a moment Nitti looks regretful.
ZARKOVICH They are plenty serious all on their own.
NITTI They’re serious when they make speeches. Then they screw it up. You make sure.
ZARKOVICH Yes sir.
EXT. BLUFF OVERLOOKING TRAIN STATION (STEVENS POINT,
WISCONSIN)- U.S. MAIL CAR – DAY
is attached three cars back from the locomotive. PULLBACK: Dillinger and Karpis watch it. Dillinger’s appearance is different. He’s grown a moustache.
KARPIS The mail will carry the full whack this Tuesday.
DILLINGER Why Tuesday?
KARPIS That’s the day they ship two weeks of payroll for seven large factories around. Rockford. (points to roads) Route 14 and Route 11. Two ways in; two ways out. Harry handles the door and the..::, safe… WIDEN to include: HARRY CAMPBELL – ruddy face, large bodied. Also here is Freddie and Dock Barker and Jimmy Prohsco.
KARPIS (CONT’D) Dock cuts the telephone lines five minutes before we go. You and Harry and I go in strong. Dock comes down the pole and becomes the lookout. Jimmie and Freddie drive.
DILLINGER (studying layout) What do you figure?
KARPIS $1.5 to $1.7 million. About $300,000 each. (that’s $4.5 million each adjusted for inflation) Karpis is quiet. They are both feeling the ghosts of their friends…
KARPIS (CONT’D) Sorry about Red.
DILLINGER Thanks.
KARPIS Nelson was a hot-head. I liked him for some reason.
DILLINGER You were in a minority.
KARPIS Had a talk with him once, at Czernaky’s…
DILLINGER Yeah? Louis Piquett arrives and Dillinger interrupts..
DILLINGER (CONT’D) You see her? She okay?
PIQUETT Yes. He hands Diilinger a letter. Dillinger opens it.
BILLIE (V.0.)
Don’t try and break me out. I am too well guarded. Milan Prison is too tough. Two years is not a long time, anyway. Go away someplace where you’re safe like Mexico and wait for me. We will be together again. Your true love in life, Billie. And the air goes out of him.
PIQUETT She told me what was in it. Dillinger’s distracted …Karpis continues.
KARPIS I reminded him…
DILLINGER Reminded who?
KARPIS Nelson. .that he told me if he ever got $20,000 together, he’d up and quit forever…
(BEAT) After he hit the Janesville bank I said, “Yeah, so…?”
(BEAT) He said, “After I started, I couldn’t stop.”
DILLINGER Well, I can. We do this Tuesday, I’m gone on Wednesday.
KARPIS I thought about heading to Varadero Beach in Cuba, outside Havana. You been there?
DILLINGER For me, it’s maybe Mexico. And that’s the answer. Dillinger plans to score the train. Go to Mexico. Wait for Billie.
INT. ANNA SAGE APARTMENT – ANNA SAGE – SUNDAY
She is nervous. She hears a key in the lock. Spins., Door opens. John Dillinger walks in…
ANNA SAGE Jimmy, you’re back… We understand that Dillinger’s been harbored here all along. And he goes under the name Jimmy Alexander.
DILLINGER looks through the apartment like he always does. He goes to the sink and starts running cold. water on his wrists to cool down.
DILLINGER Tell you what, doll. You and Polly and me, we’ll go out to a movie tonight and get in the refrigeration. POLLY HAMILTON enters from a bedroom down the hall, dressed to go out.
ANNA SAGE Where you want to go? (to Polly) Jimmy take us to the picture show.
DILLINGER (to Anna) Marbro or the Biograph… (to Polly) Where you goin’?
POLLY Take the street car downtown to get my waitressing license.
DILLINGER I’ll take you. Its too hot in here.
ANNA SAGE I get us some butter and make fried chicken for dinner. We SLIDE onto Dillinger with his wrists under the water. He turns off the tap and starts out…
INT. PURVIS,’ OFFICE – CLOCK: 3PM
PHONE RINGS. ,Purvis snatches it up.
ANNA SAGE (O.S.) We go tonight. I don’t know if to Marbro or to Biograph. (hangs up)
PURVIS Miss Sage… She hung up.
PURVIS (CONT’D) It is tonight, Marbro. Or the Biograph…
AGENT MADALA
Biograph’s on Lincoln north of Fullerton… They’re split…
INT. AUBURN – DILLINGER. + POLLY – DAY
pull to the curb and stop. Surprised, Dillinger looks out the window with an ironic expression…
POLLY Be right back… REVEAL he is parked right in front of the Chicago Police station on 11th and State. Sunlight cuts through the gaps between downtown’s skyscrapers and illuminates Dillinger. He smiles…
DILLINGER I’ll go in with you.
INT. 11TH AND STATE STREET STATION, LOBBY – DILLINGER
strolls into the police station like he owns the place. Polly chatters away. He doesn’t hear her, We SEE what Johnny sees…
DILLINGER POV: REGISTRY
“Licenses Examination” is on the 8th Floor. “Detective Bureau” is on the 6th.
CU: DILLINGER Here, in the belly of the beast. The lopsided grin behind the dark glasses over the moustache…
DILLINGER How long will you be?
POLLY It might take ten minutes.
DILLINGER I’ll meet you back here… He waits as she boards an elevator. As her doors close, Dillinger follows a group of police, bail bondsmen, and civilian workers into a second elevator.
INT. SIXTH FLOOR, LOBBY – ON DILLINGER
entering the “Detective Bureau” and we MOVE with him past desks and detectives in the open plan office. He walks with cocky assurance. Now he turns down an aisle between desks because he’s spotted on one of the glass dividers a sign that exerts a magnetic pull on him. It designates the elite…
“DILLINGER SQUAD”
heads right for it.
ECU DILLINGER’S HAND
brushes under his jacket his .45, checking..
WIDE – JOHNNY
enters this section of desks. Shafts of light illuminate papers. A DETECTIVE we may have seen at Midway Airport right past him… Wall charts, crime photos from Crown Point, the American Bank, other banks, Billie, mug shots of all his crew, are posted on walls. Photos of Dillinger are on desks. It’s as if it was a shrine to him.
IN A CORNER SIX OR SEVEN DETECTIVES
listen to the ninth inning of a White Sox game. Three others work through reports in shirt sleeves. One glances his way. Johnny nods. Detective nods back.
JOHNNY
crosses thr4gh it all, strolls in the lion’s den, walks in the belly ;ofthe beast – among the hunters. His audacity elevates h-,It is triumph. With all their resources, modern technology”.`and organization, they cannot lay a glove on him. He is better than they are. His gratification is internal. He leaves behind, as he exits, a wake of absurdity. He passed through and they didn’t even know. History was made. Like a ghost, has gone.
EXT. CHICAGO POLICE STATION – AUBURN – POLLY – DAY
enters from the station and jumps in. As Dellinger drives off.
DILLINGER You pass?
POLLY I have to go back. They needed a blood test.
INT. PURVIS OFFICE – WIDE: BRIEFING – SUNDAY LATE AFTERNOON
We SEE the East Chicago cops and the ex-Texas Rangers Winstead, Campbell and Hurt. Twenty other agents are in the small office. 110 degrees outside.
PURVIS Is it the Marbro or the Biograph? We will be deployed at both. Whichever one he shows at, I will be outside that theater when Dillinger exits. I will give the signal to move in by lighting a cigar.
ZARKOVICH Anna Sage will wear a white blouse over an orange skirt. That’s how we’re gonna know it’s him.
WINSTEAD What’s playin’?
PURVIS Excuse me?
WINSTEAD What’s playin’ at the Marbro? What’s playin’ at the Biograph? It hadn’t occurred to anybody to find that out.
MANDALA
(from newspaper) Marbro…a Shirley Temple movie called “Moptop.” Biograph is playing a gangster-, picture starring Clark Gable. “Manhattan::: Melodrama.”
WINSTEAD John Dillinger ain’t going to a Shirley Temple movie.
PURVIS Sergeant Zarkovich and Special Agent Winstead will be at the Biograph. As will I and Special Agent Madala.
(BEAT) Virgil Peterson, coordinate the Marbro. The rest of you will wait here until it’s determined which theater. Looks between Zarkovich and Capt. O’Neill. They have to INSURE Dillinger is killed, not captured.
INT. ANNA SAGE APARTMENT, BATHROOM – DILLINGER – EVENING
shaves. His watch is open in front of him. In the inside of the case is a picture of Billie. He washes the soap from his face. He looks at her…
INT. BEDROOM – A LOCKED CASE
Opens. From it Dillinger pockets a Colt 380 automatic and loads $3,000 into a moneybelt from rubber-banded bundles and puts it around his waist.
EXT. MARBRO THEATER – SOPSIC – NIGHT
On a pay phone. Patrons buy tickets. He listens…
SOPSIC
Not yet.
EXT. BIOGRAPH – AGENT BROWN
puts down the pay phone. Mouths “not yet” to..
INT. CAR: VIS
down the street in a parked car. In the driver’s seat is Reinecke. He’s tense, trying to stay calm. On his upper lip sweat beads. Does he remember the words of Billie about what Dillinger would do to him?
CU: PURVIS
watches the crowds thin as showtime nears. He gets out of the car. Is Dillinger a no-show? Another failure? Another eviscerating memo from Hoover? THREE FIGURES BRUSH PAST HIM. A woman’s orange skirt. Its Anna Sage, Polly Hamilton, and John Dillinger. They sweep to the ticket booth, pay, and join latecomers rushing inside so that they don’t miss the start of the movie.
PURVIS is stunned. Dillinger passed three feet from him.
INT. THEATER
It’s packed. Anna Sage had to sit separately on the aisle some rows back.
Johnny and Polly sit three rows from the screen.”Manhattan Melodrama,” starring Clark Gable, William Powell, and Myrna Loy begins.
EXT. BIOGRAPH – TICKETSELLER
is quizzed by Purvis.
TICKETSELLER LADY
The movie runs an hour and 34 minutes and it started about 3 minutes ago so that means it will all be over in an hour,
30…
Purvis turns away. Agent Brown whispers in his ear…
AGENT BROWN
They’re on their way over here from the Marbro.
INT. THEATER — DILLINGER + POLLY
absorbed in the movie. ON SCREEN: District Attorney (William Powell) listens to his secretary. She is against her boss inviting gangster Blackie Gallagher (Clark Gable), his childhood friend, to his wedding…
SECRETARY
Remember what happened to that District Attorney in the Midwest. Just for having his picture taken with some gangster…?, The movie is referring to John Di.llinger’s Crown Point photo session with his arm around Prosecutor Robert Estill.
DILLINGER laughs out loud. The irony is that the gangster who inspired this Hollywood moment is sitting right here watching this movie.
EXT. BIOGRAPH – 19 BUREAU AGENTS + 5 EAST CHICAGO COPS
arrive and Purvis deploys them out. Except after Little Bohemia, he doesn’t tell Winstead what to do…
(LOW) Clarence and I are going to be in that doorway.
WINSTEAD (CONT’D) 30 feet south of the theater entrance. Gerry, you get in that car at the curb about 75 feet north…
PURVIS In case he walks north?
WINSTEAD He ain’t gonna head north. He’s gonna walk south and cut through that alley back to her place. Gerry, when you spot him through your rearview-you come up on him from behind. The “cowboys” are the only men not deployed by Purvis. They call their own shots.
EXT. REAR ALLEY – THREE BUREAU AGENTS
take up positions near a rear exit. Another two go further down.
CLOSER: A REAR DOOR
from the basfement opens. A trash can is put out by a JANITOR. He sees the=two groups of men in the alley and quickly closes the door.
INT. MANAGk’S OFFICE – JANITOR
enters.
JANITOR They’re comin’ to stick us up again. He’s talking to CHARLIE SHAPIRO, the Essaness theater manager.
CHARLIE Where?
JANITOR In the alley…
EXT. BIOGRAPH – CHARLIE SHAPIRO
approaches the ticket seller.
(LOW) Irene. Anything strange?
IRENE
(WHISPERS) There’s a sweaty little man that keeps asking when the movie’s gonna end… across the street, there’s three, four men and there’s two more around the corner-why are they wearing suitcoats on such a hot night?
CHARLIE Pretend like nothing’s going on… He leaves the booth, taking the cash receipts.
INT. MANAGER’S OFFICE – CHARLIE SHAPIRO
on the phone.
DESK SERGEANT’S VOICE (O.S.) District 37, Sheffield Avenue…
CHARLIE Get some detectives over here, this is Charlie Shapiro at the Biograph. They’re gonna stick us up again…
DESK SERGEANT’S VOICE (O.S.) How do you know, Charlie?
CHARLIE I see them getting in position, like they’re waiting ’til the movie’s over…
EXT. BIOGRAPH ALLEY – AGENT SURAN
The alley suddenly is illuminated by headlights from two directions. A rear door opens and before the car stops, a CHICAGO P.D. DETECTIVE has stepped off the running board with his sawed-off shotgun in Agent Suran’s face.
SURAN Wait, wait…! Hold it! Federal Agent!
CHICAGO P.D. DRIVER /SGT.
Before you shoot him, get his I.D.
CHICAGO P.D. DETECTIVE Who the hell are you?
SUB N
Department of Justice. Bureau of Investigation!
CHICAGO P.D. DETECTIVE What do you think you’re doing here?
SURAN Were on a federal stakeout! Put that gun down and back those cars out of the alley. But stay close because we may need you.
CHICAGO P.D. DETECTIVE You may need us?” Fuck you, college boy. Let’s see your goddamn badge! Suran’s looking down both barrels.
INT. BIOGRAPH – SCREEN: MYRNA LOY
MYRNA LOY
I love you more than anything, Blackie, you know…? She stops.
DILLINGER’S
mesmerized’ her eyes and soft skin. We SEE in his hyper reality thee satin tones on the screen. Myrna Loy’s insouciance,;like Billies, speaks to him. Meanwhile…
EXT. LINCOLN BOULEVARD – AGENT MCCARTHY + EAST CHICAGO COPS
SOPSIC + STRETCH
empty their pockets, trying to identify themselves to TWO HUGE CHICAGO P.D. DETECTIVE who’ve drawn down on them. Zarkovich starts arguing, not believing this is happening. More Chicago PD arrive. Meanwhile…
INT. CAR – PURVIS
starts across the street to straighten out the Chicago P.D. Sergeant. While…
INT. BIOGRAPH – SCREEN: BLACKIE GALLAGHER (CLARK GABLE)
walks the long walk through the cell block…
JOHN DILLINGER the actual Public Enemy #1 watches the celluloid gangster walk to the electric chair…
PRISONER
See ya, Blackie.
CLARK GABLE stops at the cell.
CLARK GABLE Die the way you lived. All of a sudden.
ECU: DILLINGER’S EYES
startle, Is this a message?
CLARK GABLE (CONT’D) Don’t drag it out.
GRAIN STRUCTURE OF THE FACE OF GABLE
speaking these important words…
CLARK GABLE (CONT’D) .that doesn’t count for anything. There’s no more point to it.
CU: DILLINGER He sees inwards. And he knows it won’t happen. Them=E no Mexico with Billie. There’s no freighter to Manila.- He will die. This day, this month, next month. He knows that in this instant.
JOHN DILLINGER. LOOKING UP AT THE SCREEN.
In this Hollywood version of life, the power of cause and effect operates on the end, as inescapably as gravity. It’s a core truth. This is the only end for Blackie Gallagher. And its as true for john Dillinger in his life as it is for Gallagher. Actions and historical forces have made his time be up. Dillinger SLOWS the flickering images. His concentration slices time into component parts. Gable exchanges last good- byes. He warns his D.A. friend, Ronald Coleman, not to commute his sentence. The images play on Dillinger’s face. They take him over-alone in the packed theater while 25 Federal Agents and five East Chicago cops wait outside.
BLACKIE GALLAGHER
enters the execution chamber.
EXT. BIOGRAPH – PURVIS
glances at his watch. He rips a match from the matchbook, ready to light the cigar. The lobby is empty. The dim music of the finale leaks out.
EXT. DOORWAY – WINSTEAD + CLARENCE HURT
wait. Winstead coolly watches Purvis.
INT. CAR – REINECKE’S
right hand shakes. He can’t control it. He grips the steering wheel to make it stop.
EXT. BAKERY STEPS – ZARKOVICH
ignores the Chicago detectives.
INT. BIOGRZPH – ANNA SAGE
looks at the backs of heads in the rows in front of her. She doesn’t want to miss Dillinger if he leaves. A celiblock. The cellblock lights dim, a convict says…
CONVICT (O.S.)
There he goes. They’re giving it to him now.
CU: JOHN DILLINGER
The grin. End title music. People stirring. The house lights come up. Johnny doesn’t move. He seems liberated. Released somehow. People in front and behind him start to exit. He sits there, holding onto his thoughts for a moment.
EXT. BIOGRAPH – PURVIS
anxiously scans faces emerging from the theater.
EXT. ALLEY BEHIND BIOGRAPH – SPECIAL AGENTS
are alert in case Dillinger exits a rear door.
EXT. BIOGRAPH LOBBY – POLLY, THEN DILLINGER + ANNA
file out. Polly takes his arm. Anna is behind him and off to the side. They’re in a loose knot of people.
PURVIS sees him. He lights his cigar. It’s the signal to move in.
ACROSS THE STREET: RICHMOND + ZARKOETICH
don’t see the signal because the Chicago P.D. detective is now shouting at Zarkovich.
PURVIS lights a second match. And as he lights his cigar, he looks up to see…
JOHN DILLINGER look right at him. BUT Dillinger does not recognize Purvis.
INT. CAR – REINECKE
saw the signal. He’s out of his car.
DILLINGER, POLLY + ANNA
turn left at the sidewalk heading south, like Winst”ad said. They pass doorways. Reinecke approaches from 20 feet behind.
ACROSS THE STREET: ZARKOVICH
looks up… sees Dillinger walking away. If Dillinger’s taken alive, he’s dead. The Chicago cop puts a hand on Zarkovich`s chest…
REAR SHOT: POLLY, DILLINGER + ANNA SAGE
down the sidewalk past shadowed doorways.
(COOL)
That’s Dillinger. Straw hat. Glasses. Hurt crosses the sidewalk in front of Dillinger and walks north. He’ll turn and position himself behind Dillinger on the right. These guys are pros.
E.X.T. BAKERY STEPS – ZARKOVICH
shoves the Chicago Sergeant out of his way and races across the street…
EXT. SIDEWALK – REINECKE
approaches Dillinger from the rear. He’s 15 steps behind him. Purvis is ten steps behind Dillinger, on the left close to the wall. Now Purvis reaches for his gun.
ECU: REINECKE
draws his weapon. He stares at the back of Dillinger’s head. Has getting closer. Sweat runs into Reinecke’s eyes. This isn’t the firing range with a paper target. This isn’t theory. This is the beast. The beast is a gunfighter. The beast is better than you. You beat-up his girl. Your shot will miss…
DILLINGER IN LARGE PROFILE
now passerWinstead in the doorway. Purvis is raising his 9mm Browning. Reinecke stalls. He doesn’t want to be first.
WINSTEAD steps out f, the doorway, now, and falls in up the center of the sidewalk. Reinecke’s eyes are riveted on Dillinger…
AND JOHN DILLINGER
senses something.
REAR SHOT: DILLINGER’S NECK + HEAD IN SLO-MOTION
Subconsciously his brain processes what his peripheral vision took in that his intuitive defenses don’t like about this landscape. He turns…
DILLINGER SEES REINECKE
Reinecke’s hand holding the gun is frozen in the air. He’s paralyzed. He lacks the power to pull the trigger.
DILLINGER’S EYES There’s the man who slammed Billie into that car. Dillinger’s lethal intent focuses on this one target. In milliseconds…
DILLINGER DRAWS
turning towards Reinecke. Reinecke has hijacked his attention. Dillinger hasn’t picked up the others.
PURVIS pulls the trigger. Nothing. He left the safety on. He fumbles with it.
PURVIS H–halt!
DILLINGER sees all of them RIGHT NOW. He pushes the .380 in SLOWED TIME towards Purvis.. .and bumps into a pedestrian named Ella Natasky.
ELLA NATASKY
starts to fall. Dillinger turns his attention to her for a millisecond. He’s a gentleman. His impulse is to reach for her to steady her…
CHARLES WINSTEAD
shoves aside the paralyzed Reinecke, pushes past Purvis, leans forward and shoots John Dillinger in the back of the head. The heavy 45 round punches through Dillinger’s,brain stem and exits underneath his right eye. John Dillinger stumbles into the alley opening and starts to fall. A second shot from Winstead and two more from Clarence Hurt hit him now. They don’t matter.
JOHN DILLINGER falls through the air.
EXTREMELY CLOSE ACROSS THE COBBLESTONES: JOHN DILLINGER’S
FACE
crashes into the FRAME. One lens of his eyeglasses breaks. The brim of his straw hat snaps. The hat falls away. He struggles, but can’t move. He breathes. He tries to speak..
WINSTEAD stands over him. Purvis snatches the .380 automatic out of Dillinger’s hand.
.WINSTEAD
sees Dillinger’s trying to say something.
CONTINUED:( 2)
JOHNNY’S LIPS
try to form speech and Winstead’s ear is next to his mouth. We and Winstead hear…
DILLINGER .tell Billie… Only Charles Winstead hears the rest.
PURVIS unloads Dillinger’s gun. His gun-handling of Dillinger’s gun is a lot better than his gun-handling of his own under stress.
PURVIS What did he say?
WINSTEAD I couldn’t hear him.
PURVIS You look after this. I need to call Washington. Zarkovich`houlders through the gathering crowd of
PEDESTRIAN
s=and newsmen, sees the head wound, the glazing over of Diflinger’s eyes. He knows he’s safe.
JOHN DILLINGER’S EYES
get dreamy, then they seem to focus far away. Then they seem to focus not at all.
PURVIS (CONT’D) Cover his face and keep the damn photographers away.
AERIAL: LINCOLN AVENUE
Purvis starts away and we SEE the Biograph marquee, the trolley tracks in the cobblestone street, the alley, and the hundreds of people moving towards the locus of the dead John Dillinger.
INT. CANAL STREET DRY CLEANERS (NEW ORLEANS) – HOOVER –
ANOTHER DAY
watches Tolson who is at the window. Tolson gets a sign. Hoover straightens his collar. He brushes lint off his pants leg. Tolson waits. Hoover waits.
EXT. CANAL STREET HOTEL – DOOR
opens. Alvin Karpis comes out. In the hot, humid New Orleans air, his suit coat is off…he carries it under his arm. He crosses the street towards his Lincoln Coupe. His eyes land on a man on a bench across the street looking at him over a newspaper. And while crossing the street, Alvin slows down.
THE MAN IS CHARLES WINSTEAD
The newspaper hides a sawn-off, 10 gauge Winchester lever action shotgun.
ALVIN LOOKS TO HIS LEFT: CLARENCE HURT
leans on a lamp post. His body hides a 351 Winchester rifle.
NOW ALVIN KARPIS
freezes. He doesn’t hesitate. He opens his hands to demonstrate he is holding nothing and lets his jacket; fall to the ground. He knows instantly who they are and that.,,they intend to kill him. Karpis’ eyes dart to the roofto is°. Snipers on both. In this instant, Karpis knows he is done. One objective races into his mind: stay alive.
KARPIS’
stretches out his arms, wide. Winstead has dropped the newspaper. The sawed-off 10 gauge is aimed squarely at Alvin’s chest. Karpis is displaying he is unarmed. Winstead approaches warily step-by-step. His weapon would cut Alvin in half. Clarence, the rifle at his shoulder, inches forward. The ex-Texas Ranger gunfighters with real trigger-time have taken Alvin Karpis.
ALVIN KARPIS I am unarmed.
WINSTEAD Don’t even breathe sudden.
WINSTEAD ± CAMPBELL + HURT
are 10 feet from him. Clarence pats him down. Karpis is clean.
The Texans cover Alvin and move him to the sidewalk near his car.
HURT Put your hands on the roof of that Lincoln. (he does) Other agents come running in. Someone’s yelling: We got him! We got him. Bring him in.” While they wait…
WINSTEAD Where you from?
ALVIN KARPIS Canada, but mostly Chicago. (to both) You?
WINSTEAD Fort Worth, thereabouts. Clarence is from Tyler.
(PAUSE) Well, Alvin. You’re a sly old dog. If ,you’d a even had that jacket on… A ring ofc tints with their revolvers out, now converge around Karpis.
HURT (to Agent) Any handcuffs around here? They don’t have any. They had not planned on needing them. One agent is excited. His gun pointed at Karpis shakes.
AL V I N KARP I S
Mind asking that man to…
HURT (to Agent) Put that down. The agent drops his gun.
EXT. STREET – HOOVER
in his white suit and Tolson rush in from the dry cleaners where they were stashed. The agents part. They suddenly stand in front of Alvin Karpis. Hoover’s 38 Chief Special is at his side.
