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She paid dearly for this action which resulted in her being arrested on April 9, 1934, on the charge of harboring a criminal in her Minnesota apartment. eyewitness, who saw John Dillinger's death ", Then Clark blurted: "Go to Puente, wise guy. "John was good to me," she later told reporters. Frechette is known to have been involved with Dillinger for about six months, until her arrest and imprisonment in 1934. Frechette served two years at the Federal Correctional Farm in Milan, Michigan, for violating the Federal Harboring Law. What a joke. Sheriff Lillian Holley being overly She worked as a nurse there, but work was hard to come by. He reluctantly decided that it would be impossible. At the age of 25, she tied the knot with Welton Walter Spark on August 2, 1932. In April 1934, Purvis got a tip that Dillinger and his gang were holed up in a lodge in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin and Purvis gathered every agent in the area, flying with them to that lodge, driving through back roads in the middle of the night to get there. The only federal charge ever made against Dillinger was that he drove a stolen car across a state line (the sheriff's car he stole when making his escape from the jail at Crown Point, Indiana and driving it into Illinois), and it was upon that charge alone that Hoover made Dillinger Public Enemy Number One-simply because he was getting more publicity in 1934 than was Hoover and his FBI. Frechette served two years in federal prison for harboring a criminal. 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. Dillinger later meets Mary Evelyn "Billie" Frechette (Marion Cotillard), a singer drawn to the focal criminal. She died at the age of 61 on January 13, 1969, on Shawano, Wisconsin after battling cancer. Zarkovich told Purvis that he could arrange for him to talk with Sage about it, if he liked. John 'Red' Hamilton, John Dillinger and Homer Van Meter escaped out a back door and headed north along the lake to Route 51 where they held up a local man and had him drive them away. film. Dillinger's 'moll' took to the stage 80 years ago - oregonlive On October 12, 1933, former inmates Harry 'Pete' Pierpont, Russell Clark and Charles Makley posed as police officers and walked into the Ohio jail. The 90s saw Sherilyn Fenn in the role, and in Johnny Depps 2008 film DILLINGER, she was played by French actress, Marion Cotillard. Part 1 of 3, this documentary includes (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). A man who had been working the night shift Customers would line up to watch him knock over the targets." Frechette is known to have been involved with Dillinger for about six months, until her arrest and imprisonment in . At the age of 18, she moved to Chicago to be closer to her sister. Yes. After Dillinger's death, she sold her story to True Confessions, True Romance, and the Chicago Herald and Examiner. Sheriff Sarber died later that evening from his injuries. Dillinger paid Louis Piquett, his own lawyer, to take on Frechette's case, and try to free her through legal means. From what he said I though then and do now that he could have been that man. He simply walked up behind the man, pushed him down to the cement and fired two bullets into the back of his head (proved by the autopsy), murdering him at close range, then walked away and Purvis and his agents rushed to the scene. I lost track of him right away. O n this day, Jan. 13, in 1969, Evelyn "Billie" Frechette, best known for her relationship with the bank robber John Dillinger in the early 1930s, died at age 61. His father's name was John Wilson Dillinger. John Dillinger's lover arrested 1934 served jail time with machine gun kelly's wife died on indian. Only once did she drive a getaway car, when the St. Paul police had discovered their apartment -- and that was only because Dillinger had been wounded in the leg. Despite her protests, Dillinger went to the prison to see if he could plan a rescue attempt. As a young girl, she attended St. Anthony's Catholic Mission School in Neopit, Wisconsin, and in her early teens she was taken from her family and culture and placed in boarding school at Flandreau, South Dakota. Evelyn Frechette took on the nickname "Billie" in her late twenties. interrogation, she had been slapped and deprived of food and sleep for two days. morgue deceased. Upon her release in 1936, Frechette toured in a theatrical show calledCrime Doesn't Paywith members of Dillinger's family. Also, John had his name put on that tombstone to read John H. Dillinger, Jr. According to the book John Dillinger Slept Here by Paul Maccabee, the manager reported the couple as being suspicious after they insisted on using the rear entrance and stayed in most of the time. Evelyn "Billie" Frechette (1907-1969) | American Experience | PBS Part 3 of 3, this installment of the Frechette served two years in federal prison, and was released in 1936. Before his death, Dillinger frequently met Piquett or his legal investigator, Arthur O'Leary. Frechette, who was then 26, fell in love with Dillinger, then 30, despite his criminal activities. if ( 'querySelector' in document && 'addEventListener' in window ) { On the night of March 30, 1934, the FBI set up surveillance on the apartment and the next morning they knocked on the door. theater describes seeing Dillinger lying When he saw that face, Purvis gasped and blurted to himself (but heard by several persons, including a reporter) "That doesn't look like Dillinger." [Billie starts to cry as Winstead gets up to leave] Billie Frechette : Boy, you are in a hurry! starring Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, The two became inseparable. this celebratory news reel describes how After Dillinger was caught in Tucson, Arizona, it was decided that he would be extradited to Indiana to stand trial for the murder of Officer William Patrick O'Malley, who was killed during the First National Bank robbery in East Chicago, Indiana. 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. Public shoulder. This. } The man in the Sage received a $5,000 reward for giving information leading to Dillinger's capture. Aside from being his lover and companion, Frechette often cooked, cleaned, and ran Dillinger's errands. They were piercing and electric, yet there was an amused carefree twinkle in them too. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a number of laws that Congress passed during Dillinger's crime spree. This brought them into contact with more than a few gangsters, one of which was John Dillinger. Together they went dancing, to the movies, and to the amusement park. The gang began running as soon as Purvis and his men opened up on the CCC workers. Frechette, who had met Dillinger in 1933, was charged with harboring the fugitive in her apartment. Holley posed for photos with Dillinger, in No. Besides being Dillinger's lover and companion, Frechette did his cooking and cleaning. Mary Evelyn "Billie" Frechette was an American Menominee singer, waitress, convict, and lecturer known for her personal relationship with the bank robber John Dillinger in the early 1930s. [2] In answering the question, "How accurate is the Public Enemies movie?" 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. Dillinger reluctantly gave up his intention only after Piquett threatened to leave him if he killed anyone. Because of this, she was not with Dillinger during his famous shootout with FBI agents at the Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters. As the FBI agents were closing in on the Little Bohemia Lodge, the owner's dogs began to bark but Dillinger's gang thought nothing of it. ' "Why there?" She lived on the Menominee Reservation in Keshena, Wisconsin until she was 13. She was a member of the Menominee Tribe and had a mixed French and Menominee heritage. After looking over the surrounding area, he reluctantly decided that any escape attempt would be impossible. [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. Your email address will not be published. Billie Frechette greeted them, saying her name was Mrs. Hellman and that she needed to get changed before they entered the apartment. She would later pay heavily for the act. The shootout actually occurred at the Lincoln Court Apartments in St. Paul, Minnesota where John Dillinger and Billie Frechette were living as Mr. and Mrs. Carl Hellman. The tour, In 1926, Chicago Gangsters Fled to Tomahawk, In 1958, Buddy Holly Stopped in Rhinelander on the Summer Dance Party Tour. As society fought to overcome the Great Depression, Evelyn tried to make ends meet by . Evelyn "Billie" Frechette was born in 1907 in Neopit, Wisconsin, to a French father and a Native American mother. No. A riveting account of the event that helped give rise to the modern American militia movement. John had that "junior" put on as a way of a joke, that the man taking his place in that grave was a 'junior' his own." Yes. Dillinger saw her arrest from nearby and wanted to stop it but was talked out of it because it was too dangerous. He could not, this dead man, bring himself to remain dead, however, and he began sending letters and his picture to several persons many years later, pointing out that the "wrong man" had been "shot outside the Biograph theater," and it was one of those letters that fell into my hands and initiated my many years of research into the case and producing two full books on the subject.