The Dog Page #7

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, we got almost a quarter

of a million dollars.

Quarter of a million dollars.

From the bank.

No, no, no. A quarter

of a million dollars.

That's $250,000.

Yeah.

You know, being we're down

here, we'll take a peek.

Yeah.

OK. Let's see

what they did.

Where, down here?

OK, that...

let's see.

That red awning that's

across the street,

that should've been

where the bank is.

Do you believe they

changed my bank into a...

The bank I robbed right here.

They changed it into

a Brooklyn Medical.

MAN:
I'm here since 1929.

I had a ladies fashion store.

Well, anyway, when I had my store

there, I was having a check certified.

And I went into the bank

not realizing these...

So I understood, they were waiting for the

last one to leave the bank, which was me.

The guy who did it,

I think he's still alive.

Where he is,

the detective may know.

You know where he is, this guy?

WOMAN:
Yeah.

Oh, you can tell me.

I'm not gonna...

Well, he's actually across the

street right now, with us.

I don't know if you'd

want to meet him.

Oh, I don't care.

STAN:
How do you do?

TONY:

Good, Good. And you?

Stan.

Tony.

How do you do, Tony?

Big John, how are you?

How's everything?

OK. how are you?

I give two.

I'm Italian.

OK. Now, wait a minute, were

you Al Pacino in the movie,

or was the other guy?

Who was Al Pacino?

WOJTOWICZ:
I'm the bank robber.

F*** Al Pacino.

WOJTOWICZ, VOICE-OVER: I'm like Babe

Ruth, but I'm the gay Babe Ruth, right?

I hit a home run.

Know why I hit a home run?

Because I beat

the f***ing system.

I won.

I didn't lose. I won.

Ernie got the sex change.

Ernie lived.

Ernie was happy.

Ernie survived,

and I'm happy for that.

Am I rattling too much?

WOMAN:
No, no.

Oh, you want detail.

OK.

OK. hold on a minute.

I have to clarify one thing.

I have skin cancer of this ear,

which is my right ear.

I have breast cancer.

I ain't gonna go

through that crap.

I'm waiting for them to

tell me how many days,

so I can go party.

OK. Let's go.

Quiet on the set.

Scene 5.

[Claps]

OK, they took me to the

Port Authority Headquarters

at Kennedy Airport.

Then the Port Authority police

accompanied me to FBI headquarters

on 69th Street in Manhattan,

and that's where

they grilled me further.

They wouldn't believe

the true story...

that I was robbing the bank to get

my lover a sex change operation...

so I had to invent a story,

and then I signed the confession

that it was the Vice President

of Chase Manhattan Bank

that told us everything

and how to do it.

From there, they took me

to the Federal Holding Pen

in Lower Manhattan

on West 11th Street.

WOMAN:
There was someone else

that had walked in with them,

and he ran out,

he chickened out.

MAN:

So, there's a third man?

Mm-hmm.

MAN:
This individual,

the third arrested,

is Robert Arthur Westenberg.

He was arrested

by FBI agents today.

We're charging that Westenberg

fled from the scene

before the police

actually moved in.

WICKER:
This was

the story of the hour,

but the reaction of

the Gay Activist Alliance

was one of horror.

They would simply say, we don't

want to be involved with him

in any way 'cause he's

a mentally ill person.

I mean, that was generally the

consensus of the gay community.

He was nuts.

WANDEL:
At the time, we thought it

was a terrible thing, you know?

The fact is, he terrorized however

many people were in the bank,

and he was the direct cause

of somebody being blown away

and witnessed by some

of these hostages, also,

whatever that did to

their heads, you know.

That's not a Robin Hood to me.

That's a very sick person.

WICKER:
So I was the only voice

in the gay activist community.

I mean, I felt that John was

being railroaded to some degree

because he was homosexual

and no one seemed to care.

As a gay reporter,

I wanted to go out and

find out what I could.

So I met Bobby Westenberg and I talked

to friends of Sal's in the Village,

who said he wasn't the nasty person

everyone portrayed him to be.

He just hated jail, because I guess he

had been raped in jail or whatever,

said he'd rather die

than go back to jail,

and I wrote these long,

detailed articles about this.

So I had a whole different take.

Today, I'm Randy Wicker and

I'm talking with Ernest Aron,

the boy who John Wojtowicz demanded be

brought to the scene of the robbery.

Now, do you consider yourself a

homosexual or a transsexual or what?

No, I'm a transsexual.

I'm attempting to pay for a

sex change which is in the...

right now, it seems impossible

but I'm attempting to do it.

I have to raise somewhere in

the neighborhood of $2,500,

and, uh... l just hope

I can do it.

I know John wants it now.

He never did want it before, but now

he wants it more than anything.

WICKER:
Liz Eden, suddenly

she has this national fame

as a pre-operative

transsexual.

So now, if you're gonna live that moment of

fame out, you've got to have the operation.

I understand that John was

very opposed to this operation

when you first told him that you

wanted it a few months ago.

Yes, he was.

He didn't want me to have it

because he didn't know

what his reactions would be

to me after the sex change,

but now he feels that he

could love me either way,

as a man or as a woman.

I understand that John is

still married to Carmen,

his wife, and they

have two children

and in my conversations

with his wife Carmen,

she feels that John isn't

really a homosexual.

Well, I don't even

consider him a homosexual

as long as he goes

to bed with women.

I think he's bisexual.

I think he leans

heavily towards women,

otherwise he wouldn't want me to make

such a drastic change in my life.

He continued going

to bed with women

even after he was

married to you?

Yes.

He saw his wife at least

once or twice a week.

Sexually?

Oh, yeah, sexually.

I believe that John sometimes uses

his friends to fight his battles.

He sort of makes sure that each person

knows that he's in love with him only,

and then, of course,

when they get together,

they fight over him.

I think it's a wrong

thing he's doing,

but unfortunately,

there are a lot of people

that do care for John and

if we have to fight over him,

we have to fight over him, and

that's all there is to it.

WOJTOWICZ:
My lawyer came to me,

I think in October and said

people have been talking about making

a movie and if I was interested.

Right?

And I told him, "Hell no,

I don't want no movie." Right?

Then Liz came and said, "Hey, hey, hey,

they want to make a movie," you know.

"We're gonna get money, you know. I

gotta get the sex change," you know.

"You make the movie, you get the money,

I get the sex change," you know.

And then I says,

"Yeah, all right,"

and then I signed the paper.

And the last time I saw him was

after he had the sex change.

OK, he had it on March 27, 1973.

He came to see me and he said, "I talked

to my doctors and my psychiatrist."

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