August 22, 1972. It was hot. Not just "summer in the city" hot, but that oppressive, humid Brooklyn heat that makes people do crazy things. John Wojtowicz, a 27-year-old guy with a complicated life, walked into a Chase Manhattan branch at the corner of Avenue P and East Third Street. He wasn't a master criminal. He was basically a guy who had run out of options and decided that a bank heist was the only way to save the person he loved. Most people know the Al Pacino movie, but the true story dog day afternoon is actually weirder, sadder, and way more chaotic than the Hollywood version.
John, who went by the name "Little John" or "Sonny," didn't act alone. He had two accomplices: Salvatore Naturile, an 18-year-old with a rough past, and Robert Westenberg. Things went sideways immediately. Westenberg saw a police car outside before the robbery even really started and just... left. He literally walked away. That left Sonny and Sal inside a bank with nine hostages and a plan that was disintegrating by the second.
What the Movie Got Right (and Very Wrong)
Sidney Lumet’s film is a masterpiece of 1970s cinema. It captures the sweat. It captures the tension. But movies need a narrative arc, and real life is usually a mess of loose ends. In the film, Sonny is portrayed as a sort of counter-culture anti-hero. In reality, John Wojtowicz was a Vietnam veteran and a member of the Gay Activists Alliance. He had a wife and kids, but he also had a male partner, Elizabeth Eden (born Ernest Aron).
The motive? It wasn't greed. It was surgery. Elizabeth desperately wanted gender reassignment surgery, which was almost impossible to access and afford in 1972. Sonny thought he could get the $12,000 needed by hitting a bank. He actually told the hostages this. It wasn't a secret. He was a guy trying to fund a medical procedure through a shotgun stick-up.
- The Crowd: The movie shows a massive, cheering crowd. This actually happened. Because it was the 70s and New York was basically a powder keg, the neighborhood turned out in droves. People were shouting "Attica! Attica!"—a reference to the prison riot from the year before. Sonny became an accidental folk hero for a few hours.
- The Pizza: Yes, they really did order pizza for the hostages. Sonny was weirdly polite to the people he was holding captive. He wanted to be liked.
- The FBI: Agent Sheldon (played by James Broderick in the movie) was based on real-life agents who had to navigate a hostage situation that was being broadcast live on the nightly news.
A Heist Built on Amateur Mistakes
The true story dog day afternoon is a masterclass in how not to rob a bank. When they first arrived, they realized they forgot their tools. Then, they couldn't get the vault open because it was on a time lock. Instead of the hundreds of thousands they expected, they were stuck with a much smaller amount of cash and a building surrounded by the NYPD.
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Sal Naturile was the real wild card. Unlike the quiet, brooding kid in the movie, the real Sal was reportedly much more volatile. He told Sonny he would rather die than go back to prison. That created a terrifying dynamic for the hostages. They weren't just dealing with a guy who wanted to pay for his girlfriend's surgery; they were dealing with a teenager who had a death wish.
The standoff lasted fourteen hours. Fourteen hours of sweat, screaming, and negotiations. John would go out on the sidewalk to talk to the cops, waving his gun around, then run back inside. It was theater. It was the first "media circus" robbery. At one point, Sonny even gave an interview to a local radio station over the phone while the robbery was still happening. Think about that. No cell phones, no internet, just a guy on a landline talking to a DJ while the FBI watched through the windows.
The Tragic End at JFK
The climax didn't happen at the bank. The FBI convinced Sonny and Sal that they would fly them to an undisclosed location. They were put in a limo driven by an undercover FBI agent named Murphy. They headed to JFK Airport.
It ended in a flash.
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When they got to the tarmac, the FBI moved in. Sal was shot and killed instantly. Sonny was tackled and arrested. None of the hostages were physically harmed, which is a miracle considering how many guns were pointed at how many heads for over half a day.
What happened to the money? John actually got paid for the rights to his story. Life Magazine published an article titled "The Boys in the Bank," which served as the basis for the movie. John used his $7,500 cut of the movie rights to actually pay for Elizabeth Eden’s surgery. So, in a twisted, tragic way, the robbery "worked," even though John ended up in federal prison for years.
Life After the Afternoon
John served about six years of a 20-year sentence. When he got out, he went back to New York. He lived with his mother. He tried to get a job as a security guard at—wait for it—a bank. They didn't hire him.
Elizabeth Eden eventually passed away from complications related to AIDS in 1987. John died of cancer in 2006. The legacy of the true story dog day afternoon lives on not just in film history, but as a bizarre snapshot of New York City at its most vulnerable and chaotic. It was a time when the lines between criminal, victim, and celebrity were starting to blur for the first time.
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Insights for the Curious
If you're looking into this story because you love the film or true crime, there are a few things to keep in mind about how history remembers "Sonny":
- Check the Sources: Read the original Life magazine article by P.F. Kluge. It captures the atmosphere of the 70s better than any modern retrospective.
- Watch the Documentary: There is a documentary called The Dog (2013) that features extensive interviews with the real John Wojtowicz. He’s exactly as loud and intense as you’d imagine.
- Context Matters: You can't understand this story without understanding the post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS era of NYC. The city was broke, the police were distrusted, and the social fabric was tearing.
- The Hostage Perspective: Many of the bank tellers actually liked John. They described him as "amusing" and "kind," which speaks to the weird psychological phenomenon of the situation.
The story isn't a simple "good vs. bad" narrative. It’s about a man who loved someone so much he was willing to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous. It's about a kid who didn't want to go back to a cell. It's about a city that watched it all on TV like it was a game show.
To truly understand the impact, look up the original news footage. Seeing the real John Wojtowicz pacing in front of that Chase Manhattan branch makes the movie seem almost understated. He was a man who wanted the world to see him, and for one hot August afternoon, they did.
Next Steps for Deep Research
- Locate the August 1972 archives of the New York Times for day-of reporting.
- Compare the "Attica" scene in the film to the actual police reports regarding crowd control that night.
- Research the life of Elizabeth Eden to understand the obstacles faced by trans individuals in the early 1970s.