the buzz log

Nothing better to start the hot days of July than with some Tommy gun action. Unfortunately, director Michael Mann's mediocrity streak may be continuing with "Public Enemies," which packs star power but no pow with critics. (Time, for instance, tosses in adjectives like "perfunctory," "wall-eyed," and "predictable.")

A misfire or not, the movie's already stirred up a Search homage of sorts for killer folk hero John Dillinger, AKA Public Enemy No. 1. The robber's exploits captured the fancy of 1930s reporters. 21st-century media is showing some aw-shucks enthusiasm for him as well.

The Beacon News sketches the farmboy's life before robbing banks, his notorious Indiana jailbreak, and a plastic surgery job that made the real Dillinger look far less pretty than acting alter-ego, Johnny Depp. Indy Star's going all out for its homeboy,, including an "interactive look into the man and the myth."

The Cleveland Plain Dealer's history doesn't romanticize Dillinger as much, but its bio includes a map of Dillinger landmarks. Not on that map: Dillinger's grave at Crown Hill Cemetery, which is on marker No. 4 because visitors keep chipping at the granite for souvenir pieces.

Less glorified is the South Carolina FBI agent that got Dillinger, among other high-profile criminal conquests. The State give some ink to Melvin Purvis, and even puts a question mark around his death in 1960. The Post & Courier, in a chat with the G-man's son and nephew, fingers a jealous J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director, with ruining his star agent's life. Crime didn't pay during the Great Depression, but looks like justice didn't either.