From the
Shawano Leader.
When living on Berry Lake I knew the area was full of a lot of interesting history. I would go through Neopit at least once a week for work. Who knew.
"Movie tells story of Frechette's time with Dillinger
By Cory Dellenbach, Leader reporter
After today, people will learn more about John Dillinger’s love interest Neopit native Evelyn Frechette — better known as Billie Frechette.
Played by Oscar winning French actress Marion Cotillard, Frechette is Dillinger’s love interest in the movie “Public Enemies” that opens today country-wide.
“Unfortunately there’s not a full biography of Evelyn,” said Michael Chapman of Keshena, who served as technical consultant for the film. “There’s just glimpses of her here and there during this era. Nothing really flushes out the full scope of her life here or in Chicago living with her sister.”
Frechette was born in 1907 to a French father and a Native American mother. She lived on the Menominee Reservation, in Neopit, until the age of 13 where she also attended St. Anthony Catholic School (now Menominee Tribal School).
When she was 18, Frechette moved to Chicago, where she worked as a nursemaid and waitress. Frechette married Welton Sparks, who was sentenced to prison in 1933 for committing a mail robbery.
It was in November 1933 when she met John Dillinger at a dance hall.
It was believed, Chapman says, that Frechette was attracted to Dillinger because she had a big distrust of authority and federal officials and that helped bond them.
“There was something in those eyes that I will never forget,” Frechette told “True Confessions” magazine in an interview. “They were piercing and electric, yet there was an amused carefree twinkle in them too. They met my eyes and held me hypnotized for an instant.”
Frechette, who was then 26, described the 30-year-old Dillinger as a gentleman.
“John was good to me. He looked after me and bought me all kinds of jewelry and cars and pets, and we went places and saw things, and he gave me everything a girl wants. He treated me like a lady,” Frechette told the magazine.
Frechette, however, gave Dillinger minimal assistance on his adventures. She made purchases for him, such as clothing and cars, but for the most part, she performed the role of a housewife.
“There are lots of stories (of Dillinger) coming to the reservation. My grandmother would actually fry fish for them when they were in town,” Chapman said. “I heard another story where he had come and he had a brand new car and he was parked in Neopit and he had come out and kids were all over his car. He gave all the kids a silver dollar and they all ran home and got off his car.”
Besides being Dillinger’s lover and companion, Frechette did his cooking and cleaning. Only once did she drive a getaway car, when the St. Paul police had discovered their apartment — and that was only because Dillinger had been wounded in the leg, according to the magazine.
The two were reunited in Chicago after Dillinger’s escape from a prison in Crown Point, Ind. — an escape which she may have helped with smuggling money and maps to him during a visit.
Frechette was arrested by Department of Investigation special agents on April 9, 1934. Dillinger drove around the block several times before Pat Cherrington, the girlfriend of Dillinger gang member John Hamilton, convinced him that he would be killed if he tried to rescue Frechette.
During her trial in St. Paul, Frechette testified that during her D.O.I. interrogation, she had been slapped and deprived of food and sleep for two days. Dillinger became so angry, he vowed to kill Harold H. Reinecke, the agent in charge of Frechette’s interrogation. He later gave up his intention.
Frechette served two years in federal prison for harboring a criminal. After Dillinger’s death, she sold her story to True Confessions, True Romance and the Chicago Herald and Examiner.
Upon her release in 1936, Frechette toured in a theatrical show called “Crime Doesn’t Pay” with members of Dillinger’s family. She talked about her life with Dillinger, and answered the audience’s questions about him.
Frechette eventually had two subsequent marriages. She died of cancer on Jan. 13, 1969 in Shawano and is buried in the St. Anthony Church cemetery in Neopit."
