Justice Story: How a botched bank job for sex-change loot inspired the classic 'Dog Day Afternoon'
The story of the 16-hour ordeal in Brooklyn in 1972 that inspired the Al Pacino movie a few years later.
By Mara Bovsun / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, August 18, 2012, 11:18 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/justice-story/justice-story-a-botched-bank-job-sex-change-loot-inspired-classic-dog-day-afternoon-article-1.1139499People may rob banks for a lot reasons, and tops on the list is because "that's where the money is," as Willie Sutton famously observed.
But on Aug. 22, 1972, John Wojtowicz, 27, offered a novel motive — a sex-change operation.
Wojtowicz, a married father of two, had fallen hard for willowy cross-dresser, Ernest Aron, 26. The couple needed cash for the gender switch.
A little before 3 p.m. on that sultry afternoon, just as the customers were leaving, an assistant manager noticed three men enter the Chase Manhattan Bank at Avenue P and E. Third St. in Brooklyn.
