The Real Story Of John Wojtowicz And The Bank Robbery That Inspired ‘Dog Day Afternoon’

Jul 8, 2018
6 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

John Wojtowicz posing with money, alongside an older black-and-white photo.

John Stanley Wojtowicz, a name that may not be immediately recognizable, became infamous for orchestrating a dramatic bank robbery in Brooklyn, New York, in 1972. This event later inspired the critically acclaimed film “Dog Day Afternoon,” starring Al Pacino. Wojtowicz’s story is one of desperate love, social challenges, and a dramatic brush with crime.

Early Life and Background

John Wojtowicz was born on March 9, 1945, in New York City. He grew up in a traditional, working-class family in Brooklyn. After graduating from high school, Wojtowicz enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1965, serving in Vietnam. His time in the military was marked by discipline, but it also exposed him to different cultures and experiences that would shape his future decisions. During basic training, he had his first gay encounter with “a hillbilly by the name of Wilbur,” which was a significant and formative experience for him.

Upon returning from Vietnam, where he had survived a traumatic rocket attack on his base, Wojtowicz struggled to adjust to civilian life. He married Carmen Bifulco in 1967, and they had two children together. However, his marriage became strained due to his burgeoning realization of his bisexuality, which eventually led to their separation. Wojtowicz then became involved in New York’s gay community, where he met Ernest Aron (later known as Elizabeth Eden).

Bride in white dress arm-in-arm with groom in military uniform. — The wedding of John Wojtowicz and Ernest Aron (later Elizabeth Eden).

The Motivation Behind the Crime

The driving force behind Wojtowicz's infamous bank robbery was love, but the full story is more complicated and more poignant than that single word suggests. His partner, Elizabeth Eden, was a transgender woman who desperately wanted gender affirming surgery. In 1972, that surgery was not only prohibitively expensive but also almost impossible to access in the United States. Few surgeons performed the procedure, insurance never covered it, and the handful of clinics that did exist charged sums that were entirely out of reach for a working class New Yorker like Wojtowicz.

Eden had already attempted suicide once, a fact Wojtowicz would later cite as the moment he decided he had to find the money by any means necessary. He settled on the only solution he could see: rob a bank. It was a reckless, poorly conceived plan built entirely on desperation rather than criminal expertise, and it shows in how the robbery actually unfolded.

The Bank Robbery

On August 22, 1972, John Wojtowicz, along with Salvatore Naturile (known as “Sal”) and Bobby Westenberg, attempted to rob a Chase Manhattan Bank branch in Gravesend, Brooklyn. Wojtowicz had met both Sal and Westenberg at a gay bar, and he convinced them to join him in the heist. The trio was far from professional, as evidenced by their chaotic approach to the crime.

Initially, they drove around New York looking for a bank to rob. At their first target, they accidentally dropped their shotgun, causing it to go off, but they managed to flee. At the second bank, Westenberg ran into a friend of his mother’s, leading them to call off the attempt. They finally decided on a Chase Bank in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn, inspired by recently watching 'The Godfather' they passed a note to the bank employee saying "this is an offer you can't refuse"

Young man in white t-shirt, pointing and gesturing emphatically outdoors. — John courting the spectators outside the bank

The robbery quickly turned into a 14-hour standoff with police, FBI agents, journalists, and snipers. Around 2,000 spectators, including Wojtowicz’s own mother, gathered in the sweltering summer heat to watch the drama unfold. One journalist on the scene described it as a “full-blown show.”

Wojtowicz eagerly embraced his role as the ringleader. He ordered pizza for his hostages, paid the delivery guy with wads of cash taken from the bank, and even tossed more stolen money into the cheering crowd outside. His actions endeared him to the hostages, who began to see him less as a threat and more as a desperate man with a purpose. Teller Shirley Ball later recalled, “I realized that he was friendly…had a purpose for robbing the bank…he thought he would be in and out.”

Man in t-shirt points right from doorway of storefront, urban spaces.

However, the situation was far from an in-and-out job. As the hours dragged on, tensions rose. At one point, New York Daily News reporter Robert Kappstatter got the interview of a lifetime when he called the bank on a whim and Wojtowicz himself answered. Caught off guard, Kappstatter opened the conversation with a casual “so, how’s it going?” to which Wojtowicz snapped back, “How do you think?”

Person peeking from behind curtains at MANHATTAN BANK N.A window.

Arrest and Imprisonment

The standoff ended when FBI agents convinced Wojtowicz to surrender, promising that he and Sal would be safely transported to an airport for a flight out of the country. However, as they were being transported, law enforcement intervened, leading to Sal being fatally shot and Wojtowicz’s arrest.

Wojtowicz was subsequently charged with multiple crimes, including bank robbery and kidnapping. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and first released on parole in 1978 after serving five years. Parole violations sent him back twice more, in 1984 and 1986, before his final release in April 1987, the same year Eden died."

Young man in suit apprehended, escorted by plainclothes officers.

Life After Prison

After his release, Wojtowicz lived a relatively quiet life. He capitalized on his notoriety, at times selling the rights to his story and consulting on the film “Dog Day Afternoon,” which brought him some financial benefit. The movie depicted Wojtowicz as a sympathetic character driven by love, a portrayal that garnered him a unique form of celebrity.

Wojtowicz continued to express his love and dedication to Eden, who received her surgery with the help of the money from the film. Unfortunately, Eden passed away from AIDS-related complications in 1987, the same year Wojtowicz was released from prison.

A Strange Kind of Fame

Wojtowicz's relationship with his own story remained complicated for the rest of his life. While imprisoned, he was granted permission to watch Dog Day Afternoon itself, after reportedly threatening the warden that he would start a riot if refused. He was allowed to see it under guard, alongside other inmates. He later described the experience as moving, but he was furious about how the film had handled certain details, particularly around his marriage to Eden and the portrayal of his mother. He wrote an angry letter to the culture editor of the New York Times, accusing the film of distorting the truth.

After his final release in 1987, Wojtowicz settled back into his old neighbourhood, living with his mother and surviving largely on welfare. He never escaped the shadow of the robbery, not that he seemed to want to. At one point he applied for a job as a security guard at a Chase bank, reportedly telling the manager, "I'm the guy from Dog Day Afternoon, and if I'm guarding your bank, nobody's going to rob the Dog's bank." He did not get the job.

He spent his final years much as he had spent the years before, on the margins, broke, and instantly recognisable to anyone who knew the film. John Wojtowicz died of cancer on 2nd January 2006, aged 60.

Legacy

John Wojtowicz’s story is a complex blend of crime, love, and the quest for acceptance. His desperate actions highlighted the lengths to which he was willing to go to support his partner, against a backdrop of a society struggling to understand and accept LGBTQ+ individuals.

Man in 'I ROBBED THIS BANK' shirt beneath a 'BANK N.A.' building sign.

Wojtowicz passed away from cancer on January 2, 2006, but his story lives on, immortalized in “Dog Day Afternoon” and remembered as a peculiar chapter in the history of American crime. His life and actions, though criminal, evoke a mix of sympathy and reflection on the challenges faced by marginalised individuals and the extremes of human emotion.

Wojtowicz wasn't the only man to turn a moment of crisis into must-watch television. A decade later in France, a robbery defendant named Georges Courtois would do the same thing from inside a courtroom, demanding cameras and putting the judges themselves on trial