Film wrong! Dillinger not killed by FBI! Fact: Hoover coverup! | Roger Ebert
When the newly-elected FDR read about the Greencastle story, he called Hoover and said: "This man Dillinger is becoming a national hero, a Robin Hood. The press is showing him standing up to the banks that they believe have failed the country. You had better do something about this man, Edgar." Every time the publicity conscious FDR read another story about Dillinger-and that was almost every day-he called Hoover, asking: "What are you doing about this man?"
Desperate, Hoover latched onto the stolen car event and labeled Dillinger Public Enemy Number One so he could concentrate his forces on him. He pressured Melvin Purvis, chief of his Chicago office every day to "get Dillinger and get him quick!" 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 lodge was not officially open, except for its bar which was patronized by local residents and WPA and CCC laborers working in the area.
What Purvis did that night set in motion what later happened at the Biograph Theater three months later. He was on the spot. His boss, Hoover, had told him to either get Dillinger or resign.
With twenty some agents, recently authorized to carry weapons and make arrests without local authority, Purvis and his men spread out in front of Little Bohemia Lodge, which has considerable frontage (I know, have been there several times), and slowly advanced in the darkness toward the place, where lights were showing on the ground floor. They took up positions behind trees and waited. At that time, two reporters, who had heard about the agents flying into the area, followed them to the lodge and waited in thick brush just behind where the agents were positioned. They watched as three men emerged from the lodge and slowly went to a car, getting in. Just as the engine started and the lights turned on-the car was facing in the direction of the agents-the lights flooded the area to show the agents. One of them-it may have been the impetuous and sleepless Purvis-shouted: "They are getting away! Let them have it!"
All hell broke loose-the agents firing submachine guns, BARs, rifles, pistols and automatics. That car was shot to pieces, riddled by at least two hundred bullets. Then the lights in the lodge went out and the agents started firing into the lodge, shooting out the windows on the first and second floors. Neither Purvis nor any other agent ever announced their presence or demanded anyone to come out and surrender.
Purvis and some of his men then ran up to the riddled car and pulled open the doors. Two badly wounded men fell out. Behind the wheel, his face almost shot away and dead, was a third man. The two reporters then ran up to the car-I talked several times to one of them many years later-and began swearing. "You dumb bastards!" one reporter said. "You just shot three of our boys-they're CCC workers-and you killed Gene Boiseneau!"
