John Dillinger: I was raised on a farm in Moooresville, Indiana. My mama died when I was three, my daddy beat the hell out of me cause he didn't know no better way to raise me. I like baseball, movies, good clothes, fast cars, whiskey, and you... what else you need to know?
Billie Frechette: They're looking at me because they're not used to having a girl in their restaurant in a $3 dress.
John Dillinger: Listen, doll. That's 'cause they're all about where people come from. The only thing that's important is where someone's going.
Billie Frechette: [smiles] Where are you going?
John
Dillinger: Anywhere I want.
Melvin Purvis: What keeps you up nights, Mr. Dillinger?
John Dillinger: Coffee.
[last lines]
Billie Frechette: They say you're the man who shot him.
Charles Winstead: That's right. One of 'em.
Billie Frechette: So why are you coming here to see me? To see the damage you done?
Charles Winstead: No. I came here because he asked me to. When he went down, he said somethin'. I put my
ear next to his mouth, and what I think he said was this. He said, 'Tell Billie for me: Bye bye, Blackbird.'
[Billie starts to cry as Winstead gets up to leave]
Billie Frechette: Boy, you are in a hurry!
John Dillinger: If you were looking at what I'm looking at, you'd be in a hurry, too.
John Dillinger: You wanna know if we're armed? We're armed.
Melvin Purvis: Pretty Boy Floyd, you are under arrest
Pretty Boy Floyd: It's Charles, Charles Floyd. Who are you?
Melvin Purvis: Melvin Purvis, Bureau of Investigation. Where's your friend, Harry Campbell?
Pretty Boy Floyd: I believe you've killed me, so you can go rot in hell
[Hoover is at a Senate Appropriation Committee hearing]
Senator Kenneth McKellar: Why do we need this?
J. Edgar Hoover: Because criminals flee in fast automobiles across state lines, thereby defeating local jurisdiction because there is no federal police force to stop them.
Senator Kenneth McKellar: By my tally, your bureau
wants to spend more taxpayer's dollars catching crooks, than what the crooks you catch stole in the first place.
J. Edgar Hoover: Well that's ridiculous. The Bureau has apprehended kidnappers and bank robbers who have stolen up to and in excess of...
Senator Kenneth McKellar: Really?
[Hoover stops midsentence]
Senator Kenneth
McKellar: How many have you apprehended?
J. Edgar Hoover: We have arrested and arraigned 213 wanted felons.
Senator Kenneth McKellar: No, I mean *you*, Director Hoover.
J. Edgar Hoover: Well, as Director, I administer.
Senator Kenneth McKellar: How many have you arrested, personally?
[long pause as Hoover stares at McKellar]
J. Edgar Hoover: I have never arrested anybody.
[Other men in the chamber gasp in shock]
Senator Kenneth McKellar: You've never arrested anybody?
J. Edgar Hoover: Well of course not. I'm an administrator...
Senator Kenneth McKellar: With no field
experience. You are shockingly unqualified, aren't you, sir? You have never personally conducted a criminal investigation in the field in your life. I think you're a front. I think your prowess as a lawman is a myth, created from the hoopla of headlines by Mr. Suydam, your publicist there. Crimebuster? G-Man? You're setting yourself up as a Czar? That's running wild in my estimation.
J. Edgar Hoover: A *crime* is what runs wild...
Senator Kenneth McKellar: If this country requires a bureau such as yours, I question whether you are the person fit to run it.
J. Edgar Hoover: [getting angry] Well I will not be judged by a kangaroo court of venal politicians...
Senator Kenneth McKellar: Your
appropriation increase is denied.
[taps his gavel, signifying the end of the session; Hoover and his aides get up and leave]
J. Edgar Hoover: Feed the following to Walter Winchell: "McKellar is a Neanderthal, and he is on a personal vendetta to destroy me." We will not contest him in his committee. We need to fight him on the front page. Where's John Dillinger?
John Dillinger: I was a wild boy, and, well, I was foolish. I held up a grocery store, which I never should have done 'cause Mr. Morgan was a good man. And they sentenced me to 10 years in the state penitentiary for a $50 theft. When I was in prison, I met a lot of good fellows. So sure, yeah, I helped set up the break at Michigan City. Why not? I stick with my pals and my pals
stick with me.