John Wojtowicz
| John Wojtowicz | |
|---|---|
Wojtowicz during the 1972 bank robbery
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| Born |
John Stanley Wojtowicz March 9, 1945 New York City, New York, United States |
| Died | January 2, 2006 (aged 60) New York City, New York, United States |
| Criminal penalty | 20 years imprisonment |
| Criminal status | Deceased |
| Spouse(s) | Carmen Bifulco (divorced); 2 children, Elizabeth Debbie Eden |
| Conviction(s) | Bank robbery |
John Stanley Wojtowicz (March 9, 1945 – January 2, 2006) was an American bank robber whose story inspired the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon.
Wojtowicz, the son of a Polish father and an Italian-American mother, married Carmen Bifulco in 1967. They had two children, and separated in 1969. Wojtowicz later met Elizabeth Eden, in 1971 at an Italian feast in New York City. The two had a public wedding ceremony in 1971.
On August 22, 1972, Wojtowicz, along with Salvatore Naturale and Robert Westenberg, attempted to rob a branch of the Chase Manhattan bank at 450 Avenue P in Gravesend, Brooklyn. The heist was meant to pay for Eden's sex reassignment surgery. Wojtowicz and Naturale held seven Chase Manhattan bank employees hostage for 14 hours. Westenberg 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. The robbers became media celebrities. Wojtowicz was arrested, but Naturale was killed by the FBI during the final moments of the incident.
Arthur Bell, a respected Village Voice columnist and investigative journalist who knew Wojtowicz (and was tangentially involved in the negotiations), reported that paying for Eden's sex change was only peripheral to the real motive. The attempted heist was, in fact, a well-planned Mafia operation that went horribly wrong.
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 five. He made $7,500, which is approximately $40,000 today, by selling the movie rights to his story. He also received 1% of the movie's net profit. Ultimately, this helped finance Eden's sex reassignment surgery. Wojtowicz was released from prison on April 10, 1978, but was rearrested in 1986 for violating his parole.Elizabeth Debbie Eden died of AIDS-related pneumonia in Rochester, New York, on September 29, 1987.
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