‘Public Enemies’ and Fox River Grove’s 
notorious history

FOX RIVER GROVE – Limelight from the new blockbuster “Public Enemies” conjures up some shadowy figures from the history of this village.

The film, starring Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, chronicles the first years of the FBI and the crime sprees of Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and other outlaws. Both Nelson and Dillinger frequented Fox River Grove in the 1930s under the protection of one of the village’s most prominent citizens, Louis Cernocky Sr.

“Cernocky was a liquor distributor for the Capone gang, and he owned most of the town,” said Craig Pfannkuche, a local historian and former history teacher. “His place was a hangout for the Dillinger gang.”

It is not clear how Dillinger – a bank robber, prison escape artist, and national folk hero – came to know Cernocky or Fox River Grove, but the time he spent here is well documented.

Dillinger and Nelson not only slept here, they also staged a “stunning convention of the Dillinger crew” in Cernocky’s Crystal Ballroom in mid-April of 1934, according to Alston W. Purvis and Alex Tresinowski in their book, “The Vendetta.”

Several other books note the meeting, including Dary Matera’s “John Dillinger: The Life and Death of America’s First Celebrity Criminal,” and Bryan Burrough’s “Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34,” on which the eponymous movie is based.

Historical accounts differ slightly on the dates, but provide interesting context for this memorable rendezvous of some of the most wanted men in America in the Bohemian enclave of Fox River Grove. The gang, which included Dillinger, Nelson, Homer Van Meter and Tommy Carroll, had separated after a raid in St. Paul, Minn., and were looking for a place to hide out and regroup. 

Robbers’ respite

Baby Face Nelson, a bank robber born Lester M. Gillis, and Carroll arrived before the rest of the gang to relax in Fox River Grove. At that time, the village’s population was about 700, and it was known for its resorts along the Fox River, said Nancy Fike, administrator for the McHenry County Historical Society.

Once the gang and their girlfriends arrived, Cernocky served them dinner and drinks and talked with them. The proprietor also suggested a hideout.

Cernocky gave Nelson a letter of introduction to his friend Emil Wanatka, the owner of the Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters, Wis.

The next day, the gang left Fox River Grove in four cars for the 400-mile drive to northern Wisconsin. Cernocky’s choice of hideout would prove disastrous.

The FBI caught up with the gang on April 23, 1934, and a shootout erupted at Wanatka’s retreat. The gang escaped the botched raid, but Nelson’s wife and two other women accompanying them were taken into custody, according to a detailed history on the lodge’s Web site, www.littlebohemialodge.com. The lodge is in operation today, and director Michael Mann filmed several scenes there last year. Mann also filmed in Chicago and Aurora.

Though Cernocky fails to make an appearance in “Public Enemies,” Wanatka is portrayed by Stephen Spencer in the film.  

That was not the only time the gangsters visited Fox River Grove. Earlier in 1934, Cernocky gave Dillinger a bottle of whiskey and a basement room after Dillinger’s girlfriend, Evelyn Frechette, was taken into custody. Other biographies of Nelson and Dillinger note several other meetings and interactions between Cernocky and the gangsters. And Nelson’s final gunbattle with the FBI took place on what now is Route 14 in Barrington, just down the road from Fox River Grove.

A local demise

Shortly after Dillinger was killed outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago, FBI agents spotted Nelson and John Paul Chase, a small-time gangster from California, driving a stolen car in the area Nov. 27, 1934. Nelson and Chase pulled up behind the agents, and Chase fired five rounds into their car, according to FBI documents. Chicago FBI Inspector Samuel Cowley and agent Herman Edward Hollis approached Nelson and Chase in another car as the gangsters pulled off Route 14 at the entrance to Langendorf Park. There, Chase and Nelson opened fire on their pursuers.

After five minutes of shooting, Hollis was dead, and both Cowley and Nelson had been wounded. Nelson died that night, and Cowley died the next day.

Fox River Grove’s connection to the gangsters has been documented, but it isn’t talked about much, Pfannkuche said.

“People don’t even know the Cernocky story anymore,” he said. “But some little landmarks remain if you know where to look.”

One of those landmarks – a plaque honoring Hollis, Cowley and another special agent, W. Carter Baum – recently was removed from its place at Langendorf Park in Barrington for construction work at the site. Once the work is done, the plaque again will be displayed, Barrington Park District officials said.

Hollis was one of three agents who fired on Dillinger outside the Biograph Theater, according to the FBI. 

Yellowing page

Most of the other landmarks of the gangster era – such as Cernocky’s Crystal Ballroom – are gone. The ballroom, on the southwest corner of Lincoln at Route 14, was damaged by a fire in November 1939, said Shirley Beene of the Cary-Grove Historical Society. What was left of the original ballroom was destroyed by a wrecking ball in 1961, Fike said.

Still, the stories live on.

Elroy Fitzgerald, 80, a longtime Cary resident and former member of the District 155 school board, remembers the gangster era. Once, when living in a rented home behind the Crystal Ballroom, he came home from school and “saw more state troopers than I ever have since” raiding the property. Fitzgerald also can remember his father taking him to see a bullet-riddled tree near Langendorf Park. However, he, and many others, remember Cernocky not for his connections to the underworld, but for his philanthropy and service to the community.

“Louis Cernocky was a great guy,” Fitzgerald said. “He was a really nice guy, and he was as common as you and I.”

Though some remember the village’s ties to public enemies such as Dillinger and Nelson, much of the lore has been forgotten or written off as myth.

“Fox River Grove is no longer a Bohemian enclave. There has been an influx of new people, and it has changed,” Pfannkuche said. “There is no connection to the history.”