John Wojtowicz
Encyclopedia
John Stanley Wojtowicz was an American
bank robber whose story inspired the 1975
film Dog Day Afternoon
.
(later to be known as Elizabeth Eden) in 1971 at an Italian feast
in New York City
. The two were married on December 4, 1971 in Greenwich Village
.
On August 22, 1972, Wojtowicz, along with Salvatore Naturile
and Robert Westenberg, attempted to rob a branch of the Chase Manhattan bank on the corner of East Third Street and Avenue P in Gravesend, Brooklyn
. The heist was meant to pay for Aron's sex reassignment surgery
. Wojtowicz and Naturile held seven Chase Manhattan bank employees hostage for 14 hours. Westernberg fled the scene before the robbery was underway when he saw a police car on the street. Wojtowicz, a former bank teller, had some knowledge of bank operations. However, he apparently based his plan on scenes from the movie The Godfather
, which he had seen earlier that day. Ironically, Al Pacino
, star of The Godfather, would later go on to portray Wojtowicz in Dog Day Afternoon
.
The robbers became media
celebrities. Wojtowicz was arrested, but Naturile was killed by the FBI during the final moments of the incident.
According to Wojtowicz, he was offered a deal for pleading guilty, which the court did not honor, and on April 23, 1973, he was sentenced to 20 years in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary
of which he served 14. He made $7,500 selling the movie rights to the story and 1% of its net profit, and helped finance Aron's sex reassignment surgery with these funds. Wojtowicz was released from prison on April 10, 1987. Elizabeth Eden
(Wojtowicz's girlfriend's post-surgery name) died of AIDS
-related pneumonia
at 41 in Rochester
on September 29, 1987.
. The movie was released in 1975, and starred Al Pacino
as Wojtowicz (called "Sonny Wortzik" in the film), and John Cazale
, one of Pacino's co-stars in The Godfather, as Naturile. Eden, known as "Leon" in the film, was portrayed by actor Chris Sarandon
.
In 1975, John Wojtowicz wrote a letter to The New York Times
out of concern that people would believe the movie version of the events which he said was only 30% accurate. Wojtowicz's main objection was the inaccurate portrayal of his wife Carmen Bifulco as a plain, overweight woman whose behavior led to his relationship with Elizabeth Eden, when in fact he had left her two years before he met Eden. Other concerns he had that were fictionalized in the movie were that he never spoke to his mother and that the police refused to let him speak to his wife Carmen. In addition, the movie intimated that John 'sold out' Sal Naturile to the police, and although he claims this to be untrue, several attempts were made on John's life following an inmate screening of the movie. He did however praise Al Pacino and Chris Sarandon's characterizations of himself and Ernest Aron as accurate. In a 2006 interview, the screenwriter of the movie, Frank Pierson, said that he tried to visit John Wojtowicz in prison many times to get more details about his story when he wrote the screenplay but Wojtowicz refused each time to see him because he thought he was not paid enough money for the rights to his story.
Wojtowicz was also the subject of two documentaries, The Third Memory in 2000 and Based on A True Story in 2005. In 2001, The New York Times reported that he was living on welfare in Brooklyn
.
Wojtowicz died of cancer
on January 2, 2006.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
bank robber whose story inspired the 1975
1975 in film
The year 1975 in film involved some significant events, with Steven Spielberg's thriller Jaws topping the box office.-Events:*March 26 - The film version of The Who's Tommy premieres in London....
film Dog Day Afternoon
Dog Day Afternoon
Dog Day Afternoon is a 1975 drama film directed by Sidney Lumet, written by Frank Pierson, and produced by Martin Bregman. The film stars Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, Penny Allen, James Broderick, and Carol Kane. The title refers to the "dog days of summer".The film was...
.
Background
Wojtowicz, the son of Polish immigrants, married his first wife, Carmen Bifulco, in 1967. They had two children, and separated in 1969. Wojtowicz later met Ernest AronElizabeth Eden
Elizabeth Debbie "Liz" Eden was an American transsexual woman whose boyfriend John Wojtowicz attempted to rob a bank to pay for her sex reassignment surgery. The incident was made into the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon...
(later to be known as Elizabeth Eden) in 1971 at an Italian feast
Feast of San Gennaro
The Feast of San Gennaro, originally a one-day religious commemoration, began in September 1926 when newly arrived immigrants from Naples congregated along Mulberry Street in the Little Italy section of New York City, to continue the tradition they had followed in Italy to celebrate San Gennaro as...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The two were married on December 4, 1971 in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
.
On August 22, 1972, Wojtowicz, along with Salvatore Naturile
Salvatore Naturile
Salvatore Antonio Naturile, also known as Donald Matterson and "Sal" was an American bank robber who, along with John Wojtowicz, inspired the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon. In the film he is portrayed by actor John Cazale.-Early life:Little is known about Naturile's background except for...
and Robert Westenberg, attempted to rob a branch of the Chase Manhattan bank on the corner of East Third Street and Avenue P in Gravesend, Brooklyn
Gravesend, Brooklyn
Gravesend is a neighborhood in the south-central section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, USA.The derivation of the name is unclear. Some speculate that it was named after the English seaport of Gravesend, Kent. An alternative explanation suggests that it was named by Willem Kieft for the...
. The heist was meant to pay for Aron's sex reassignment surgery
Sex reassignment surgery
Sex reassignment surgery is a term for the surgical procedures by which a person's physical appearance and function of their existing sexual characteristics are altered to resemble...
. Wojtowicz and Naturile held seven Chase Manhattan bank employees hostage for 14 hours. Westernberg fled the scene before the robbery was underway when he saw a police car on the street. Wojtowicz, a former bank teller, had some knowledge of bank operations. However, he apparently based his plan on scenes from the movie The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
, which he had seen earlier that day. Ironically, Al Pacino
Al Pacino
Alfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy and Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way, though he has also appeared...
, star of The Godfather, would later go on to portray Wojtowicz in Dog Day Afternoon
Dog Day Afternoon
Dog Day Afternoon is a 1975 drama film directed by Sidney Lumet, written by Frank Pierson, and produced by Martin Bregman. The film stars Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, Penny Allen, James Broderick, and Carol Kane. The title refers to the "dog days of summer".The film was...
.
The robbers became media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
celebrities. Wojtowicz was arrested, but Naturile was killed by the FBI during the final moments of the incident.
According to Wojtowicz, he was offered a deal for pleading guilty, which the court did not honor, and on April 23, 1973, he was sentenced to 20 years in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary
Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary
The United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg is a male inmate high security federal penitentiary and satellite minimum security prison camp housing some 1,000 and 500 respectively, just outside Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The Lewisburg Penitentiary was opened in 1932...
of which he served 14. He made $7,500 selling the movie rights to the story and 1% of its net profit, and helped finance Aron's sex reassignment surgery with these funds. Wojtowicz was released from prison on April 10, 1987. Elizabeth Eden
Elizabeth Eden
Elizabeth Debbie "Liz" Eden was an American transsexual woman whose boyfriend John Wojtowicz attempted to rob a bank to pay for her sex reassignment surgery. The incident was made into the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon...
(Wojtowicz's girlfriend's post-surgery name) died of AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
-related pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
at 41 in Rochester
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
on September 29, 1987.
Dog Day Afternoon
Wojtowicz's story was used as the basis for the film Dog Day AfternoonDog Day Afternoon
Dog Day Afternoon is a 1975 drama film directed by Sidney Lumet, written by Frank Pierson, and produced by Martin Bregman. The film stars Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, Penny Allen, James Broderick, and Carol Kane. The title refers to the "dog days of summer".The film was...
. The movie was released in 1975, and starred Al Pacino
Al Pacino
Alfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy and Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way, though he has also appeared...
as Wojtowicz (called "Sonny Wortzik" in the film), and John Cazale
John Cazale
John Holland Cazale , was an American film and theater actor. During his six-year film career he appeared in five films, each of which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture: The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon and The Deer Hunter.From his...
, one of Pacino's co-stars in The Godfather, as Naturile. Eden, known as "Leon" in the film, was portrayed by actor Chris Sarandon
Chris Sarandon
Chris Sarandon is an American actor who was married to actress Susan Sarandon between 1968 and 1979. He is best known for playing Prince Humperdinck in the film The Princess Bride, the vampire Jerry Dandridge in Fright Night and Detective Mike Norris in the first entry of the Child's Play series,...
.
In 1975, John Wojtowicz wrote a letter to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
out of concern that people would believe the movie version of the events which he said was only 30% accurate. Wojtowicz's main objection was the inaccurate portrayal of his wife Carmen Bifulco as a plain, overweight woman whose behavior led to his relationship with Elizabeth Eden, when in fact he had left her two years before he met Eden. Other concerns he had that were fictionalized in the movie were that he never spoke to his mother and that the police refused to let him speak to his wife Carmen. In addition, the movie intimated that John 'sold out' Sal Naturile to the police, and although he claims this to be untrue, several attempts were made on John's life following an inmate screening of the movie. He did however praise Al Pacino and Chris Sarandon's characterizations of himself and Ernest Aron as accurate. In a 2006 interview, the screenwriter of the movie, Frank Pierson, said that he tried to visit John Wojtowicz in prison many times to get more details about his story when he wrote the screenplay but Wojtowicz refused each time to see him because he thought he was not paid enough money for the rights to his story.
Wojtowicz was also the subject of two documentaries, The Third Memory in 2000 and Based on A True Story in 2005. In 2001, The New York Times reported that he was living on welfare in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
.
Wojtowicz died of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
on January 2, 2006.
External links
- Wojtowicz's comments on Dog Day Afternoon
- Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator Results for John Stanley Wojtowicz
- Photos of Wojtowicz and the Robbery
- Photos of Wojtowicz and the Robbery
- Littlejohn & the mob: Saga of a heist First person account by account of by Arthur BellArthur Bell (journalist)Arthur Bell was a journalist, author and LGBT rights activist.Bell, an early member of the Gay Liberation Front and a founding member of the Gay Activists Alliance in New York City, wrote two books. Dancing the Gay Lib Blues was published in 1971 and he published Kings Don't Mean a Thing in 1978...
Village Voice reporter and Gay LiberationGay LiberationGay liberation is the name used to describe the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement of the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s in North America, Western Europe, and Australia and New Zealand...
activist of his acquaintance with Wojtowicz and his involvement in events. Published by the Village Voice August 31, 1972