The Dead Sea Scrolls of John Dillinger

From the story on The Rumpus...

So let’s say you see Public Enemies. Let’s say, before or after, you decide to learn more about “the real Dillinger.” Your obvious play is to read Bryan Burrough’s Public Enemies, the carefully reported book used by Mann and his screenwriters. It’s a good book, and right now you can even read a copy graced by the smoldering, submachine gun-toting Depp. But I don’t think it’s the book for you. Burrough, you see, covers not only Dillinger but five other gangs, turning in 600 pages so complex they include a cast of characters and series of numbered maps. It’s a book that’s synthetic, not sexy, and there’s a better way to experience Dillinger—through a bizarre, largely forgotten book, a book with its own fascinating backstory.

It’s a story worth telling at length...

The Michael Mann movie with Johnny Depp: