"You'll be the death of me" might well have been something John Dillinger, Public Enemy Number One during the middle of the 1930's an era referred to as "Public Enemy era", when the likes of Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Ma Barker and others ran amuk throughout the Midwest and the Southwest.
Chicago Madam, Anna Sage (the "professional name" of Ana Cumpanas, was along with the robber and Polly Hamilton, Dillinger's date (and the Madam's friend, bad luck for John) for the movies at the Lincoln Park theatre, the Biograph, on the night of July 22, 1934.
"Little Mel" Melvin Purvis, the socialite turned FBI agent had #1 in his sights. He was in luck when Cumpanas came on the scene because she was deemed an "undesirable alien" and he was able to gain her cooperation via threats of deportation. And that cause was helping Dillinger to reach the end of the road in his short, explosive, publicly sensational bank robbing career.
Dillinger, 31, had been named Public Enemy Number 1 just a few short months before. Despite his high profile career, including an escape from the Crown Point jail with a wooden gun, he would pale in comparison to some of today's criminals. In fact, he killed few people and it was Hoover - in the hot seat and being threatened with removal from his post at the head of the young FBI operation - who despised the public enthusiasm for the "Robin Hood" type hero, flamboyant and handsome.
Cumpanas had recognized Dillinger when he visited Ana's apartment with his girlfriend, Polly Hamilton. She was able to "sell" her information for the promise of "a good word" with the Department of Labor (at that time the arm of government responsible for deportation and immigration follow-through). No doubt the promise of a $15,000 reward aided the madam in her complicity with the Feds.
Purvis eschewed the Chicago police who were believed to be corrupt and in the pay of a variety of bad guys. Instead a slew of FBI agents accompanied their boss and took up positions outside the Biograph. (In fact, because Cumpanas' information indicated she didn't know which theatre they might attend, there was a second compliment of agents at the Marbro that hot July night).
In order to guarantee that she was recognized and could give Purvis the high sign, Ana said she would be wearing an orange dress. She appeared with Dillinger and Hamilton at 10:30 that night, exiting the theatre following the showing of Manhattan Melodrama. Though Dillinger realized what was happening, and took off into the alley next to the theatre, the gun battle was short and fatal. He was pronounced dead at 10:50.
It was, in fact, the odd effect of the movie marquee lighting that made the dress appear red, which fact was later immortalized in the poem scrawled on the wall in the alley where Dillinger met his maker:
"Stranger stop and wish me well,
Just say a prayer for my soul in hell.
I was a good fellow, most people said,
Betrayed by a woman dressed all in red."
Despite her cooperation in bringing down Dillinger, the reward was reduced to a paltry $5,000, and Cumpanas was quickly deported to Romania where she lived the remaining 11 years of her life.
