Curiouser

On August 22, 1972, John Wojtowicz, along with two accomplices, attempted to rob a branch of the Chase Manhattan bank at 450 Avenue P in Gravesend, Brooklyn. A major motivation for the robbery was to gather funds for his girlfriend, Elizabeth Eden’s, sex reassignment surgery.

The couple had met the previous year at Manhattan’s Feast of San Genarro and quickly fell in love. Although Wojtiwicz was technically still married to his first wife, he married Eden in a public ceremony a few months later.

Eden, a trans woman, struggled with severe depression. After several suicide attempts she was admitted to a psychiatric institution. Wojtiwicz attributed these struggles to not being able to afford the sex reassignment surgery that Eden badly wanted.

Unbeknownst to Eden, Wojtowicz began planning the bank heist. On the day in question he held bank employees hostage for 14 hours. He reportedly based his plan on the movie The Godfather. He spent the next 15 years in and out of prison and has stated that Eden visited him every month.

A movie based on the robbery, Dog Day Afternoon, starring Al Pacino and Chris Sarandon was relased in 1975. Wojtowicz used the money he made from selling the movie rights to his story to pay for Eden’s surgery.

Eden eventually remarried and passed away from AIDS related pneumonia in 1987. Wojtwowicz, freshly released from prison, attended her funeral and delivered the eulogy.

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