WEBVTT

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And the last of these traceable
to that same general area,

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one of my boyhood heroes--

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he wasn't a hero, he was
just famous on our block.

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It was a peculiar block
as I look back on it now.

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Perhaps that's true of
where everybody grew up.

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But one of the boys I used
to play with on my block

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was the unsuccessful
assassin of Castro

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in the early days
of the revolution.

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Remember the American Naval
pilot who didn't make it,

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who got caught.

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And others have wound up in
reform schools and all places.

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I don't have to tell a
sophisticated audience

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like this--

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I don't suppose who John
Dillinger was certainly

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not at the time the
revival of Bonnie

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and Clyde and the whole time.

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He-- Dillinger there was the man
who practically singlehandedly

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invented the FBI by devising
a method of Interstate Bank

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robbery that made state police
departments nearly obsolete.

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Well all I can say
about this poem

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is that everything
in it that sounds

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as though it might possibly
be a fact, is a fact.

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Aside from the more outlandish
metaphor simile its all true.

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It's called 'The shooting
of John Dillinger

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outside the Biograph
Theater July 22 1934.

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Chicago ran a fever
of 101 on that groggy

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Sunday, a reporter fried
an egg on a sidewalk,

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the air looked shaky.

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And 100,000 people were in the
lake like shirts in a laundry.

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Why was Johnny lonely?

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Not because two dozen solid
citizens heat-struck and keeled

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over backwards.

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Not because those lawful souls
had fallen out of their sockets

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and melted, but because
the sun went down

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like a lump in a furnace
or a bull in the stockyard.

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Where was Johnny headed?

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Under the Biograph
Theater sign that said,

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'our air is refrigerated.

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Have 17 FBI men and
four policemen who

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stood in doorways and sweated.

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Johnny sat down on
a cold seat to watch

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Clark Gable get electrocuted.

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Johnny been mistreated?

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Yes, but Gable told the
D.A. He'd rather fry than

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be shut up forever.

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Two women sat by Johnny.

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One looked sweet, one
looked like J Edgar Hoover.

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Polly Hamilton
made him feel hot,

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but Anna Sage made him shiver.

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Was Johnny a good lover?

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Yes, but he passed out
his share of squeezes

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and pokes like a jittery masher,
while Agent Purvis sneaked

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up and down the aisle like
an usher trying to make sure

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they wouldn't slip out
till the show was over.

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Was Johnny of four-flusher?

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No not if he knew the game.

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He got it up or got it back.

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But do you like to take
snapshots of policemen

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with his own Kodak
and once in a while,

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he'd like to take them
with an automatic.

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Why was Johnny frantic?

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Because he couldn't take a
walk or sit down on a movie

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without being afraid
he'd run smack

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into somebody who'd pointed
his rearranged face and holler,

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'Johnny!

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Was Johnny ugly?

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Yes, because Dr. Wilhelm
Loeser had given him

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a new profile with
a baggy jawline

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and squint eyes and
an embrace dimple

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with kangaroo tendons cheekbones
and a gigolos mustache,

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that should have been illegal.

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Did Johnny love a girl?

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Yes, a good looking, hard-headed
Indian named Billie Frechette.

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He wanted to marry her and
lie down and try to get over,

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but that she was locked
in jail for giving him

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first aid and comfort.

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Did Johnny feel hurt?

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He felt like breaking a bank
or jumping over a railing

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into some panicky
teller's cage to shout,

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'reach for the ceiling'
or like kicking some vice

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President in the bum
checks and smiling.

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What was he really doing?

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Going up the aisle with the
crowd and into the lobby

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with Polly saying, 'would
you do it Clark done?

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And Johnny saying,
'Maybe' and Anna saying,

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'if he'd been smart he'd
have acted like Bing Crosby'

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Did Johnny look classy?

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Yes, white on white
shirt and tie luminous.

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His trousers were like knives
to the tops of his shoes,

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and his yellow straw hat came
down to his dark glasses.

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Was Johnny suspicious?

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Yes, and when agent
Purvis signaled

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with a trembling
cigar, Johnny ducked

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left and ran out of the theater.

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An innocent Polly and squealing
Anna were left nowhere.

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Was Johnny a fast runner?

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No, but he crouched and scurried
past a friendly liquor store

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under the coupled arms of
double-daters, under awnings,

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under stars.

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The curb at the
mouth of an alley.

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He haunched there.

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Was Johnny a thinker?

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No, but he was thinking more or
less of Billie Frechette, who

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was lost in prison for longer
than he could possibly wait,

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and then it was probably too
hard to think around a bullet.

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Did anyone shoot straight?

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Yes, but Mrs. Etta
Natalsky fell out

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from under her picture hats.

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Theresa Paulus sprawled
on the sidewalk clutching

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her left foot, and both of
them groaned loud and long

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under the streetlight.

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Johnny like that?

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No, but he lay down with
those strange women, his face

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in the alley, one shoe
off, cinders in his mouth,

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his eyelids heavy.

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When they shouted questions at
him, he talked back to nobody.

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Did Johnny lie easy?
yes, Holding his gun

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and holding his breath
of the last trick,

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he waited, when the
agents came close,

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his breath wouldn't work.

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Clark Gable walked his last
mile, Johnny ran half a block.

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Did he run out of luck?

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Yes, before he was cool,
they had him spread out

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on dished-in marble.

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In the Cook County
morgue surrounded

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by babbling people
with a crime reporter

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presiding over the
head of the table.

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Johnny have a soul?

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Yes, and it was climbing
his slippery windpipe

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like a burglar.

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It was beating the
inside of his rib cage

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hollering, 'let me out
of here' maybe it got out

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and maybe it just stayed there.

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Was Johnny a moneymaker?

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Yes and thousands paid $0.25
to see him, mostly women,

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and one said 'I
wouldn't have come,

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except these a moral lesson.

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And another, 'I'm disappointed.

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He feels like a dead man'

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Did Johnny have a brain?

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Yes and it always worked best
through the worst of dangers,

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through flat- footed hammerlock,
through guarded doors,

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around corners, but it got
taken out in the morgue

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and sold to some doctors.

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Could Johnny take orders?

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No, but he stayed in the
wicker basket, carried by 6 men

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through the bulging
crowd to the hearse

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and let himself be
locked in, and he

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stayed put as it went driving
South in a driving rain.

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And he didn't get stolen?

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No, not even after
his old hard nosed dad

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refused to sell the
quick drawing for $10,000

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to somebody in a carnival.

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He figured he'd let Johnny
decide how to get the hell.

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Did anyone wish him well?

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Yes, half of Indiana camped
in the family's pasture,

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and the minister
said, 'with luck,

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he could have been a
minister' and up the sleeve

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of his oversized gray suit,
Johnny twitched the finger.

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Does anyone remember?

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Everyone still alive,
and some dead ones.

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It was a new holiday
with hot and cold drinks,

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and hot and cold tears, they
planted him in the cemetery

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with three Unknown vice
presidents, Benjamin Harrison

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and James Whitcomb Riley.

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Who never held up anybody.

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