Harry Dean Stanton as Homer Van Meter in Dillinger (1973)
Vitals
Harry Dean Stanton as Homer Van Meter, doomed and desperate Depression-era bandit
Wisconsin, Spring 1934
Film: Dillinger
Release Date: July 20, 1973
Director: John Milius
Costume Designer: James M. George
Background
Ninety years ago today in the late afternoon of Sunday, August 23, 1934, a 28-year-old named Homer Van Meter was rushing to keep an appointment in St. Paul, Minnesota. The tall, slender Hoosier nicknamed “Wayne” had been arrested multiple times and was currently wanted for the string of armed robberies and murders committed during his tenure with the infamous John Dillinger gang, which had all but crumbled after its eponymous leader was killed in Chicago a month and a day earlier.
The saga of the Dillinger gang continues to inspire an abundance of books and films, including the fiercely entertaining 1973 movie Dillinger. Written and directed by John Milius in his directorial debut, Dillinger dramatizes the facts and folks associated with the gang, benefiting from the involvement of Clarence Hurt, a retired FBI agent who was part of ace agent Melvin Purvis’ team and present when Dillinger was killed in July 1934.
Led by Warren Oates and Ben Johnson as Dillinger and Purvis, respectively, Dillinger‘s cast includes some of the most recognizable and reliable supporting players of the ’70s filling out the ranks of Dillinger’s gang, including Steve Kanaly, Geoffrey Lewis, John P. Ryan, a young Richard Dreyfuss as “Baby Face” Nelson, and Harry Dean Stanton as Homer Van Meter.
The real Van Meter was born December 3, 1905 in Indiana, where he was frequently being jailed for small-time stickups. Van Meter was serving a 10-to-21-year sentence for train robbery at the Indiana Reformatory, where he met his future criminal cohorts John Dillinger and Harry Pierpont. Though Dillinger liked him, Van Meter antagonized others like Pierpont due to his jocular attitude, a trait entertainingly transferred to the screen with Stanton’s screen-stealing supporting performance.
The real Homer Van Meter’s mugshot from his transfer to Indiana State Prison in July 1926.
Like Michael Mann’s 2009 film Public Enemies would do three decades later, Dillinger simplified the gang’s demise by having them all summarily executed by federal agents, local police, and vigilantes within hours of a gunfight at Little Bohemia, leaving only Dillinger alive. In reality, the opposite was true.
Federal agents had indeed surrounded the Dillinger gang at the Little Bohemia Lodge, a rural resort situated on Little Star Lake in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin, in the early morning hours of April 23, 1934. However, it wasn’t the terrific gunfight portrayed so many times on screen but rather a disaster for the fledgling FBI as agents managed only to kill one innocent customer at the lodge while letting the entire gang escape through the unguarded rear of the lodge. Not only that, but agent W. Carter Baum was killed when Nelson cold-bloodedly peppered him, fellow agent Jay Newman, and local constable Carl Christiansen with rounds from his modified .38 Super machine pistol.
Aside from ex-boxer Tommy Carroll, Dillinger would be the first major player of the gang to be killed after Little Bohemia when Purvis’ agents cornered him outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago almost exactly three months later on July 22, 1934, followed by Van Meter’s death on August 23rd and Nelson’s demise on November 22nd. Pierpont had been in prison during the Little Bohemia incident and was executed on October 17th. “Pretty Boy” Floyd, charismatically portrayed by Steve Kanaly in Dillinger (which exaggerated his participation with the Dillinger gang), was killed by agents and Ohio policemen five days later on October 22, 1934.
Despite its accelerated timeline, Dillinger decently represents the circumstances of each gang member’s death while condensing them to fit the narrative as part of the Little Bohemia aftermath. Indeed, Nelson was killed in a running gun battle with agents on a lonely stretch of rural road, and Floyd was shot by a group led by Purvis while attempting to escape through the fields behind a farmhouse where he had sought temporary refuge from a widow. Van Meter too was cornered and shot to pieces on a street, though it wasn’t “just a bunch of goddamned farmers” as Stanton groans of the armed men aiming shotguns at him.
Immediately following Dillinger’s death in July , the real Van Meter fled to St. Paul with his then-girlfriend Marie “Mickey” Conforti and attempted to lay low, but his one-time ally, the fiercely corrupt Detective “Big Tom” Brown, was alerted to Van Meter’s presence in the city. In Dillinger: The Untold Story, G. Russell Girardin speculates that Van Meter may have been portrayed by his former colleague “Baby Face” Nelson or even Mickey after she discovered his flirtation with a local waitress, but Bryan Burrough suggests in Public Enemies that he was set up by local casino owner Jack Peifer, an associate of the Barker-Karpis gang. (Indeed, Nelson was reportedly angered to read of Brown’s involvement, calling him “the son of a bitch” to colleague Fatso Negri as “he’s the fella that we paid a thousand dollars.”)
Regardless of who gave him the tip, Brown joined St. Paul detectives Jeff Dittrich and Thomas McMahon and Chief of Police Frank Cullen in a car at the corner of University Avenue and Marion Street, waiting to intercept Van Meter as he emerged from inside a nearby car dealership around 5:12 PM. Van Meter surely would have recognized Brown, having financially supported his earlier bid for sheriff in exchange for allowing Van Meter’s criminal allies to operate unimpeded in the city. This included the Barker-Karpis gang, who promised Brown a cut from their high-profile kidnappings of brewer William Hamm and banker Edward Bremer. “Brown had fallen under intense suspicion in St. Paul and presumably welcomed the idea of bringing in a noted yegg to burnish his image,” Bryan Burroughs explains.
After the officers demanded that Van Meter “stick ’em up!”, the outlaw drew his Colt automatic pistol—sources dispute whether it was a full-sized .45 or a more compact .380—and charged across University Avenue, firing as he ran. Eventually, he ducked into an alley off Marion Street, where the officers cornered him in a dead end. Armed with rifles, shotguns, and a Thompson submachine gun, the officers opened up on Van Meter to the extent that the severity of his mortal wounds prompted Van Meter’s family to later report he had been used for “target practice”.
“He struggled to stand, but all four men opened fire, riddling his body with fifty bullets,” described Burroughs. “Homer Van Meter, who always said he didn’t want to die in some filthy alley, did just that.”
What’d He Wear?
Like his fellow gang members, Homer Van Meter typically wears white shirts with his suits and ties. Throughout the Little Bohemia gunfight and its aftermath, Homer wears a white cotton shirt detailed with a point collar, front placket, and single-button barrel cuffs. The plain white cloth shows the dirt and blood accumulating as Homer’s attempts to getaway grow increasingly desperate.
Homer takes cover amidst the shooting and shouting during the Little Bohemia gunfight.
Dillinger portrays the gang surprised to find Melvin Purvis and a battery of federal agents surrounding their Wisconsin hideout in the early morning, with the outlaws given just enough time to dress and arm themselves before attempting a getaway. During the previous day’s bank robbery in Mason City, Iowa, Homer had worn a charcoal chalk-striped double-breasted suit so, unlike Dillinger, Floyd, and the others, he evidently had time to pull on different trousers ahead of the Little Bohemia gunfight.
At some point between the previous night and the morning gunfight, Homer changed into taupe-brown wool flat-front trousers, styled with curved front pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs). The trousers have belt loops that go unused and a visible zip fly, which would have been theoretically possible but not likely as it wasn’t until after the French waged the “Battle of the Fly” in 1937 that zippers claimed victory over the button-up fly on men’s trousers.
Homer holds the trousers up with black cloth suspenders that have silver adjuster hardware on the front and black leather hooks that connect the straps to buttons along the inside of his waistband.
Shot in the arm, Homer watches as Baby Face Nelson makes his own getaway in a stolen Ford coupe.
After being shot in the arm by police and left to fend for himself by “Baby Face” Nelson, Homer hijacks a 1933 Chevrolet two-door coach from Leroy (David Dorr), a wannabe collegiate Romeo, also taking his flask and raccoon coat.
Raccoon coats emerged as a collegiate status symbol during the Roaring ’20s, a fleeting trend of the Jazz Age’s “flaming youth,” alongside Oxford bags, the Charleston, and flagpole sitting. Originally favored by drivers for warmth in poorly insulated cars, these hefty fur coats became synonymous with fast cars and were embraced on college campuses like Princeton, where their collegiate origins were traced by fashion historian Deirdre Clemente (as noted by Ivy Style). By the time George Olsen and his Music recorded “Doin’ the Raccoon” in 1928, raccoon coats had become campus essentials, worn by Ivy League students at football games and other social events, embodying carefree prosperity and youthful exuberance that was also publicly championed by stars like singer Rudy Vallee and professional football halfback Red Grange. The trend peaked by 1929, when they were already being usurped by the more practical polo coats that dominated the stands during that season’s Yale-Princeton football game. Aside from some attempts at a revival through the ’30s and a wave of nostalgia in the ’50s, the Depression all but killed raccoon coats.
Leroy may have been among the students trying to keep raccoon coats alive through the decade, responding to articles like Men’s Wear magazine reporting in 1935 that “the raccoon coat is back in fashion. More were seen at the climax football games in the East this season than at any time in the past ten years. The best style, worn by undergraduates and alumni alike, is very dark in color, has a shawl collar and usually hefty leather buttons”. (Source: Messy Nessy)
This describes some of the voluminous fur coat that Leroy surrenders to Homer, crafted from taupe-brown raccoon pelts and styled with a full-bellied shawl collar and large angled side pockets. The collar tapers to the waist, where two loops extending from the left side ostensibly connect to a large taupe plastic button on the right side. The full-length coat features a double-breasted arrangement of four buttons on the front, with two on each side but only the lower right-side button actually functioning to fasten the coat.
Homer Van Meter’s last stand, as depicted in Dillinger.
Homer wears his usual black leather cap-toe derby shoes with black socks.
Things ain’t workin’ out for him today.
Homer wears an ornate gold ring on the ring finger of his left hand, likely something that belonged to Harry Dean Stanton himself.
Reel vs. Real
In reality, Bryan Burroughs describes Van Meter as having worn “a blue suit with a matching tie, white oxfords, and a straw boater,” when he was killed in St. Paul by Detective Tom Brown’s small squad of detectives in August 1934. “His straw boater teetered on his head and he grabbed it off, holding it in his hand as he ran.”
This description more closely aligns to what Stanton’s character had been dressed in for the previous day’s bank robbery, a charcoal chalk-striped double-breasted suit with a woven tie, black bulletproof vest, and straw boater.
Clad in a charcoal striped double-breasted suit and straw boater, Homer takes aim with a Browning Automatic Rifle during a gunfight outside the bank in Mason City, Iowa. Harry Dean Stanton may have had some real-life familiarity with the BAR during his Navy service.
At the time of his death, the real Van Meter also reportedly wore a money belt containing anywhere between six and ten thousand dollars, though only $923 (or $1,323) was reported by the St. Paul police, resulting in rumors that the irrepressibly crooked Brown had relieved Van Meter of not just his life but thousands of dollars.
The Guns
Designed by John M. Browning, the powerful Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) was designated the M1918 by the U.S. military and deployed as a portable light machine gun during World War I and World War II. Capable of firing the Army’s standard .30-06 Springfield round at a rate of up to 650 rounds per minute, the BAR’s formidability made it a favorite of Depression-era outlaws like Clyde Barrow, who preferred it over the iconic Tommy gun. While Bonnie & Clyde (1967) neglected to feature the BAR—despite its significance as Clyde’s weapon of choice—firearms enthusiast John Milius made sure to include it in Dillinger.
As he had done the previous day during the Mason City bank robbery and subsequent gunfight, Homer Van Meter returns fire from Little Bohemia with a BAR that he brings it into the Ford Model A that “Baby Face” Nelson commandeers for their escape (“Eat it, G-men!”). However, after being wounded in the arm, Homer is forced to abandon the BAR in the backseat as he falls from the car, only to be left behind in the Northwoods by Baby Face.
The abandonment doesn’t leave Homer totally unarmed, as he still carries his blued steel Star Model B pistol that he effectively uses to carjack—and coatjack—the hapless Leroy. The Spanish weapons manufacturer Star Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A. was among the earliest to replicate John Browning’s M1911 design, initially with the Model 1920 and Model A, both chambered in 7.63x25mm Mauser and 9x23mm Largo.
Star continued refining its design, leading to the launch of the Model B, which was chambered in the more common 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge. The Model B featured a nine-round box magazine—two rounds more than the .45-caliber M1911’s seven-round capacity. The Model B also incorporated updates that aligned with the newer M1911A1, including an arched backstrap that mirrors the M1911A1’s mainspring housing.
Dillinger is one of the most notable films where the 9mm Star Model B stands in for the standard M1911 and M1911A1 pistols, as 9mm blank ammunition cycled more reliably at the time than .45 ACP blanks. This practice dates back to at least 1951, when Richard Widmark’s team of Marines wielded them in Lewis Milestone’s Halls of Montezuma. The Model B also prominently stood in for the M1911 series in The Sand Pebbles (1966), The Wild Bunch (1969), The Getaway (1972), The Untouchables (1987), and in several episodes of The A-Team and M*A*S*H.
Though the M1911A1 and Star Model B are cosmetically similar—nearly identical to the untrained eye—the Model B can be distinguished by its lack of a grip safety and the brass-toned external extractor located on the right side of the slide behind the ejection port.
“Not a sound, Leroy.” Note the external extractor on the right side of the slide, one of the most distinguishing characteristics of the Star Model B compared to traditional M1911 and M1911A1 pistols.
How to Get the Look
Harry Dean Stanton as Homer Van Meter in Dillinger (1973)
Aside perhaps from his suspenders in lieu of a belt, there’s little that’s noteworthy about the white shirt and brown trousers that Harry Dean Stanton’s characterization of Homer Van Meter wears while making his desperate escape from Little Bohemia… until he pulls on a full-length raccoon coat seized from a college student whose taste is evidently stuck in the Jazz Age.
- Taupe-brown raccoon coat with wide shawl collar, double-breasted 4×1-button loop-closure front, and side pockets
- White cotton shirt with point collar, front placket, and single-button barrel cuffs
- Taupe-brown wool flat-front trousers with belt loops, curved front pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
- Black cloth suspenders with silver adjuster hardware and black leather hooks
- Black leather cap-toe derby shoes
- Black socks
- Gold ornate ring
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
Goddamnit, things ain’t workin’ out for me today.
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