Vincent D’Onofrio as Dock Newton in The Newton Boys (1998)
Vitals
Vincent D’Onofrio as Wylie “Dock” Newton, ex-convict and outlaw
Toronto, Summer 1923
Film: The Newton Boys
Release Date: March 27, 1998
Director: Richard Linklater
Costume Designer: Shelley Komarov
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One hundred years ago tomorrow on June 12, 1924, the notorious Newton brothers gang committed their last* holdup after a wildly successful five-year spree that robbed at least 80 banks across ten states, about half of these in their home state of Texas where brothers Willis, Jess, Joe, and “Dock” Newton were born in Uvalde.
“If there are any bank robbers you’d want as family members, it would be the Newton Boys,” writes Duane Swiercyznski in his volume This Here’s a Stick-Up: The Big Bad Book of American Bank Robbery, in which he describes the group as “unfailingly polite, nonviolent, and professional heisters.”
In addition to their preference for courtesy over cruelty, the brothers attributed their success to initially sticking to less risky nighttime robberies targeting specific old-fashioned safes that could be more easily blown open with nitroglycerin. It was only when departing from this formula that the Newtons encountered real trouble, such as their impulsive attempt to rob daylight messengers of the Imperial Bank of Canada in July 1923… which netted C$84,000 but broke the gang’s avoidance of violence when four guards were shot and wounded.
Just under a year later, the Newtons again should have stuck to their formula rather than agreeing to what would be one of the last—but biggest—train robberies in American history. On the evening of June 12, 1924, the Newtons joined a group of professional criminals in the attempted robbery of R.P.O. train 57 outside Rondout, Illinois, about forty miles up the Lake Michigan coast from Chicago.
“Ain’t this a helluva way to make a living?” Jess reportedly joked to the conductor, whose nerves at being robbed—even by the generally nonviolent Newtons—resulted in him failing to stop the train where the bandits expected. In the subsequent confusion and darkness, one of the outsiders recruited into the job mistook Dock for one of the guards and opened fire.
When the 79-year-old Joe Newton was interviewed on The Tonight Show in November 1980, Johnny Carson asked if this resulted in Dock’s death. “No… he shot him five or six times with a .45, he shoulda killed him,” Joe responded to considerable laughter from the audience.
Though the gang took more than $2 million in cash, jewelry, and securities, Dock’s grievous wounds prevented a clean getaway as the remaining Newtons sought care from an underworld doctor. In the meantime, all four Newton boys were swiftly in custody of American law enforcement… who were willing to make a deal, as long as the brothers would return as much of the loot as possible and inform on corrupt postal inspector William J. Fahy who masterminded the heist.
While Fahy was sentenced to 25 years in prison, the Newton boys each received considerably lighter sentences given the magnitude of their criminal career, with Willis and Dock each sentenced to 12 years in Leavenworth, three years for the young Joe, and merely nine months for the charismatic Jess, with the epilogue to Richard Linklater’s film The Newton Boys supposing that this could be attributed to “his colorful and congenial presence in the courtroom.”
The Newton brothers and their confederate Brentwood Glasscock stand to be sentenced on December 12, 1924. It’s been six months to the day since Dock was mistakenly shot by Glasscock during the Rondout robbery, and he remains bound to a wheelchair and bandaged while hearing his sentence.
The Newton Boys starred Matthew McConaughey as the charismatic Willis Newton, ostensibly the leader of his fraternal gang which also includes easygoing war veteran Jess (Ethan Hawke), reluctant youngster Joe (Skeet Ulrich), and the tough ex-convict “Dock” (Vincent D’Onofrio). The gang’s only non-Newton is explosives expert Brentwood Glasscock (Dwight Yoakam), depicted as the unwitting triggerman who wounded Dock during the Rondout heist and thus led to the end of one of the most successful gangs in American criminal history. Dock eventually recovered and, like the rest of his brothers, lived well into old age, dying at the age of 83.
*The Rondout train heist was the Newton boys’ last robbery… unless you consider when the 77-year-old Dock revived his criminal career in 1968 when he was arrested while attempting to rob a bank in Bonnie Parker’s hometown of Rowena, Texas. The getaway driver was never captured, but Linklater’s epilogue cleverly speculates on this by commenting that Willis denied the claims he was spotted behind the wheel and, “in fact, he called from Mexico a few hours later, posting Dock’s bail and establishing a strong alibi. Willis always did like to drive fast.”
What’d He Wear?
After a bank they targeted for one of their regular nighttime burglaries switched their safe from an old-fashioned square door to a harder-to-penetrate round door, the Newton boys are driving their red Studebaker touring car through the streets of Toronto on July 24, 1923, when Willis gets the impulsive idea to conduct an armed holdup of messengers transporting money from the Imperial Bank of Canada. Unfortunately for the boys, who still get away with at least a five-figure haul, the job is hardly the “lead-pipe cinch” that Willis promises as the tough Canuck messengers put up considerable resistance, with Dock himself fielding a bank guard and even a hotel bellboy clinging to him as he tries to schlep the loot back to their Studebaker.
Although depicted as a laconic ex-con from deep in the heart of Texas, Dock’s characterization emerges as a surprisingly dandy dresser in Toronto, clad in a striped morning coat over black waistcoat and trousers, complete with striped tie, wing collar, and tea shades.
The Newton boys in Toronto. While his brothers and Brentwood Glasscock all wear conventional three-piece suits, turndown collars, and fedoras (aside from Joe’s bowler), Dock distinguishes his more old-fashioned look with an informal inversion of morning dress, wing collar, and homburg.
Detailed with slubby black hairline stripes against the gray wool ground, Dock’s morning coat features notch lapels that roll to a three-button front, which then tapers toward the back. This gradually cut-away front differentiates the morning coat from the full-skirted frock coat. In his comprehensive glossary of jackets for Bond Suits, Matt Spaiser explains that the morning coat was “originally made for horseback riding and now part of the formal morning dress,” which can include all three matching pieces in gray or a black coat with contrasting waistcoat and patterned trousers. The most formal morning coats feature a single button and peak lapels, “but older versions with more buttons and notched lapels were common for less formal occasions,” Mr. Spaiser writes.
Dock’s gray striped morning coat lacks outer pockets, and the sleeves are finished with three-button cuffs. Above the long back vent, the coat features two decorative buttons—a holdover from the garment’s equestrian origins when riders would presumably button the tails of their coats up to their waist.
Under the morning coat, Dock wears a matching black wool tailored waistcoat and trousers. The single-breasted waistcoat (vest) has six buttons that fasten high to a shallow neckline framed by notch lapels. Cut straight across the bottom, the waistcoat also has four welted pockets—two on each side.
Dock’s pleated trousers follow conventions of the era by requiring suspenders (braces) rather than a belt, as belt loops were not yet widely standardized on men’s trousers until later in the decade; even then, gentlemen typically eschewed belts with waistcoats to avoid the unsightly bulge of the buckle under the waistcoat’s cloth. The trousers have quarter-top side pockets and turn-ups (cuffs) that break over the tops of his black leather oxford shoes, worn with thin silk black dress socks.
Appropriately covered by his jacket and waistcoat, all that we see of Dock’s suspenders are their dark cloth and the brown leather ears connecting them to the buttons along the inside of his trouser waistband.
In keeping with the old-fashioned formality of his quasi-morning dress, Dock wears a white cotton dress shirt with a stiff wing collar attached to the neckband via studs. The shirt also has double (French) cuffs that Dock secures with silver-toned links. His silk repp tie is patterned with black and silver balanced stripes in the “downhill” direction traditionally featured on American-made ties to distinguish them from the “uphill” stripes of English regimental, club, and school ties.
Dock wears an all-black homburg, a decidedly more formal hat than the business fedoras—and Joe’s bowler hat—sported by the rest of the gang. The body of the hat is black felt, accented with black grosgrain silk band and matching edge trimming the pencil-curled brim.
Unlike his brothers, Dock doesn’t wear any prominent diamond jewelry that he can leverage to help bribe his way out of capture. One could argue he makes up for this lack of ornamentation with his small gold-framed sunglasses with their dark ovular lenses, the roaring ’20s equivalent of the iconic round-lensed “tea shades” famously worn by countercultural icons of the 1960s and ’70s like John Lennon and Ozzy Osbourne.
The Guns
Preparing to intimidate the Toronto bank messengers into surrendering their money, Dock and Joe arm themselves with Winchester Model 1912 pump-action shotguns. Willis later explained that the gang’s regular use of firearms was part of their nonviolent strategy, explaining that “if you talk rough to them, then you don’t have to hurt nobody.” Unfortunately, this wouldn’t be true during the Toronto job which leaves four guards shot—none fatally.
John M. Browning designed the Winchester Model 1912 as an evolution of the earlier Model 1897 shotgun, retaining the pump action that fed rounds from a magazine tube under the barrel but without the external hammer that distinguished the Model ’97. Introduced in 1912 as the “Perfect Repeater”, this Winchester lived up to its name as it set a new standard for 20th century pump-action shotguns to follow over its 52-year timeline that included variations in 12-gauge, 16-gauge, 20-gauge, and 28-gauge and would be fielded by the U.S. military in every major conflict from World War I through Vietnam.
“Drop the bag or I’ll blow you straight to hell!”
As the gang makes their getaway through the streets of Toronto, Dock draws the nickel-plated M1911 pistol from his shoulder holster and fires it at the pursuing police. With its ornately engraved frame and white faux-pearl grips, the pistol resembles the customized M1911 carried by the sinister bodyguard Spicer Lovejoy (David Warner) in Titanic (1997), though we don’t see enough of the weapon on screen to clearly recognize any other similarities, nor am I sure if The Newton Boys also rented its weaponry from Stembridge Gun Rentals.
To Dock’s cowboy brothers, a “Colt .45” likely immediately conjures the Single Action Army revolvers they continue to carry, but—as the most experienced criminal at the time he joins their crime spree—Dock may have been more familiar with newer firearm technology like the John Browning-designed single-action M1911 semi-automatic pistol that entered U.S. military service in 1912. The classic M1911 configuration is a full-sized service pistol that feeds .45 ACP ammunition from seven-round box magazines, fired through a five-inch barrel.
Dock fires his 1911 as the gang makes their hasty getaway. To his left, note the attractive (but anachronistic) Bulova wristwatch on his brother Jess’ left wrist.
How to Get the Look
Vincent D’Onofrio as Dock Newton in The Newton Boys (1998)
Dock Newton distinguishes his appearance from his brothers with an inversion of old-fashioned morning dress with his striped light-gray morning coat over black waistcoat and trousers, wing collar, homburg, and natty little sunglasses.
- Light-gray (with slubby black narrow stripes) single-breasted 3-button morning coat with notch lapels, 3-button cuffs, and two decorative back buttons over long single vent
- White cotton shirt with detachable wing collar and squared double (French) cuffs
- Black and silver “downhill”-striped silk repp tie
- Black wool single-breasted 6-button waistcoat with notch lapels, four welted pockets, and straight-cut bottom
- Black wool pleated trousers with quarter-top side pockets and turn-ups/cuffs
- Black suspenders with brown leather hooks
- Black leather oxford shoes
- Black thin silk dress socks
- Black felt homburg with black grosgrain band and edges
- Gold-framed sunglasses with small oval lenses
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
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