Little Bohemia. painting on canvas 45″ x 50″ inches. ft John Dillinger
Little Bohemia 45″ x 50″ inches acrylic painting on canvas. This painting depicts the botched raid by the FBI (then called the Division of Investigation) against the John Dillinger Gang who were staying at the Little Bohemia Lodge, a rural vacation lodge and restaurant located off US Highway 51 in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin. Dillinger was an American gangster active during the Great Depression.
Johnny Depp’s appearance in the 2009 film ‘Public Enemies’ where he played Dillinger was used as the central focal point for the Angels 2 painting.
In this painting, Little Bohemia, the male in the drab suit on the left represents a G-Man entering the Lodge with a gun blazing but only ends up killing or wounding innocent customers and alerting the gang. In the chaos, Dillinger and members of the gang escaped from the back of the Lodge.
The chaos is portrayed by the poses of the gangsters on the right fleeing in disarray in brightly coloured suits which are in contrast to the G-Man’s drab suit. One of the gangster’s suits is in a check pattern, common to Doug’s work but has multi-colours with the checks further divided, almost as per Harlequin, and which is still obviously out-of-plane.
Interestingly, the other gangster has an almost camouflage pattern suit, albeit in bright colours and is not normally encountered in Doug’s work. Both are, effectively, representative of being dressed like circus clowns. The female figure adds a little glamour, perhaps as a showgirl that might have been appearing at the Lodge at the time, but she is shown standing on a typical circus plinth and therefore could just be a construct of the image. All three are all under a circus big top roof.
Such chaotic episodes like the botched raid and ensuing confusion are often referred to as a circus. However, if she is actually being represented as present at the scene, she appears to be very unmoved by the events around her.
Dillinger was finally caught up with and shot dead outside The Biograph Theatre in Chicago – see the painting The Biograph. Dillinger’s famous dying words were, “Tell Billie for me, ‘Bye-bye Blackbird'”.
Dillinger operated with a group of men known as the “Dillinger Gang” or the “Terror Gang” which was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations, among other crimes.
Dillinger escaped from jail twice. He was also charged with the murder of an East Chicago police officer who shot Dillinger in his bullet-resistant vest during a shootout, prompting him to return fire; he was not convicted of this crime. However, it was Dillinger’s only homicide charge, despite his infamy.
The Great Depression began in the United States and which filtered out across the globe, was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place in the 1930s but began following the stock market crash of October 29, 1929, (this was known as Black Tuesday). It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century.
In contrast with the Great Recession which happened more recently during 2008 and 2009 where worldwide GDP fell by around 1%. The 1930s Great Depression saw (GDP) fall by an estimated 15%. Poverty and the prolonging of prohibition resulted in a continued increase in organised crime.
The Dillinger Gang is also known as (The Terror Gang) and was the name given to a group of American Depression-era bank robbers led by John Dillinger.
The Dillinger gang gained notoriety for a successful string of bank robberies, using modern tools and tactics, in the Midwestern United States from September 1933 to July 1934. During this crime spree, the gang killed ten and wounded a further seven.
They also managed to pull off three jailbreaks which resulted in wounding two guards and the death of a US sheriff.
New law enforcement techniques put in place by the Bureau of Investigation (The FBI’s predecessor) led to the dismantling of the gang where most of the gang members were killed or later imprisoned. Most notably, John Dillinger was killed during a shootout when he exited a cinema. (Photo of the artist Doug Kemp on the spot where John Dillinger was shot).
Read more about the Dillinger Gang on Wikipedia
Way back when!! A photo with my mate Tony Jones, and would you believe it, The Biograph Cinema was showing “The Untouchables”. We caught the matinee and at the end of the show, the audience cheered!!
On the afternoon of April 20, 1934, Baby Face Nelson, John Dillinger, Homer Van Meter, Tommy Carroll, John Hamilton, and gang associate (errand-runner) Pat Reilly, accompanied by Nelson’s wife Helen and three girlfriends of the other men, arrived at the secluded Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin, for a weekend of rest.
The gang’s connection to the resort apparently came from the past dealings between Dillinger’s attorney, Louis Piquett, and lodge owner Emil Wanatka. Though gang members greeted him by name, Wanatka maintained that he was unaware of their identities until some time on Friday night. According to Bryan Burrough’s book Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933–34, this most likely happened when Wanatka was playing cards with Dillinger, Nelson, and Hamilton. When Dillinger won a round and raked in the pot, Wanatka caught a glimpse of Dillinger’s pistol concealed in his coat, and noticed that Nelson and the others also had shoulder holsters.
The following day, while she was away from the lodge with her young son at a children’s birthday party, Wanatka’s wife informed a friend, Henry Voss, that the Dillinger gang was at the lodge, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was subsequently given the tip early on April 22. FBI agent Melvin Purvis and a number of his fellow colleagues arrived by plane from Chicago. Because the gang’s departure was imminent, the agents moved in with little preparation, and without notifying or obtaining help from local authorities.
Emil Wanatka offered a one-dollar dinner special on Sunday nights, and the last of a crowd estimated at 75 people were leaving as the agents arrived in the front driveway. A 1933 Chevrolet coupé was leaving at that moment with three departing lodge customers, John Hoffman, Eugene Boisneau and John Morris. The agents shouted at the men to stop, but the shouting was apparently not heard over the car radio and the men began to drive away. The agents quickly opened fire on them, instantly killing Boisneau and wounding the others, and alerting the gang members inside.[3]
Adding to the chaos, Pat Reilly returned to the lodge after an out-of-town errand for Van Meter at the same time, accompanied by one of the gang’s girlfriends, Pat Cherrington. Accosted by the agents, Reilly and Cherrington backed out and escaped under fire, after a number of misfortunes.
Dillinger, Van Meter, Hamilton, and Carroll immediately escaped through the back of the lodge, which was unguarded, and made their way north on foot through woods and past a lake to commandeer a car and a driver at a resort a mile away. Carroll was not far behind them. He made it to Manitowish and stole a car, making it uneventfully to St. Paul.
Nelson was outside the lodge in the adjacent cabin, and he characteristically attacked the raiding party head-on. He exchanged fire with Purvis before retreating into the lodge under a return volley from other agents. He slipped out the back and fled in the opposite direction from the others. Emerging from the woods ninety minutes later, a mile away from Little Bohemia, Nelson kidnapped the Lange couple from their home and ordered them to drive him away. Apparently dissatisfied with the car’s speed, he ordered them to pull up at a brightly lit house. It was the home of switchboard operator Alvin Koerner.
Already aware of the ongoing events, Koerner phoned authorities at one of the involved lodges to report a suspicious vehicle in front of his home. Shortly after this, Nelson entered the home, taking the Koerners hostage. Emil Wanatka arrived with his brother-in-law George LaPorte and a lodge employee. A fourth man remained in the car. The three new arrivals were also taken, prisoner. Nelson ordered Koerner and Wanatka back into the vehicle, where the fourth man remained unnoticed in the back seat.
As they were preparing to leave, with Emil Wanatka driving at gunpoint, another car arrived with federal agents W. Carter Baum and Jay Newman, and a local constable, Carl Christensen. Nelson asked the men who they were and upon the agents identifying themselves, Nelson opened fire with a custom-converted machine gun pistol, severely wounding Christensen (who was seriously wounded 9 times in the chest, arms and legs) and Newman (who was seriously wounded by a single gunshot wound in the head) and killing Baum, who was shot three times in the neck. Nelson was later quoted as having said that Baum had him “cold” and couldn’t understand why he hadn’t fired. It was later discovered that the safety catch on Baum’s gun was on.
Nelson then stole the FBI car. Less than 15 miles away, the car suffered a flat tire and became mired in mud as Nelson attempted unsuccessfully to change it. Back on foot, he wandered into the woods and took up residence with a Chippewa family in their secluded cabin for several days before making his final escape in another commandeered vehicle.
Three of the women who had accompanied the gang, including Nelson’s wife Helen Gillis, was captured inside the lodge. After gruelling interrogation by the FBI, the three were ultimately convicted on harbouring charges and released on parole.
With a federal agent and a civilian dead, and four more severely wounded, including two more civilians, and the complete escape of the Dillinger gang, the FBI came under severe criticism, with calls for FBI director J. Edgar Hoover’s resignation and a widely circulated petition demanding Purvis’s suspension.
