Properly speaking, he was a member of Harry Pierpont's gang, but the newspapers called it Dillinger's gang, and Harry Pierpont decided that Dillinger sounded better and had better brand value because it evoked the Derringer firearm.
This is a head shot of Warren Oates who portrayed Dillinger in the 1973 film of the same name:
As a matter of weird irony, the FBI killed Dillinger was when he was leaving a movie house after having seen Manhattan Melodrama, a gangster film starring Clark Gable:
Though he was American's most wanted criminal, his face known to millions of newspaper readers, Dillinger couldn't pass on seeing a popular movie.
1 comment:
I thought Warren Oates came close to looking like Dillinger. If only the hair stylist on that picture had had the guts to give him the white sidewalls and slick the top down with hair old it would have been a better match.
There's another funny affect of movies, giving historical figures contemporary hair styles.
Outlaws have always seemed to enjoy seeing ganster movies. I read that after the "Godfather" came out all the mafia types started dressing in 1940s and 50s style clothes.
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