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‘Public Enemies’ hits home with Cleveland Heights resident
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By ARLENE FINE
Senior Staff Reporter
When Maxine (Solomon) Margolis watches the newly released movie “Public Enemies,” the scene featuring John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson in their final bloody shootout will be more than a cinematic thrill ride. It will be a reminder of a dark day in her family’s history.
“One of John Dillinger’s last bank heists was in my family’s hometown, South Bend, Ind., on June 30, 1934,” explains Margolis, a resident of Cleveland Heights. “My great-uncle Jacob Solomon was walking home from shul on Shabbat the morning of the bank robbery. Even though he heard gunfire, he ended up in the middle of the shootout with the police and the infamous bank robbers. He received three bullets to his abdomen in the crossfire.”
When Margolis’s father, then 21, heard that the bank robbers had shot a Mr. Solomon, he ran to the scene. “My father wasn’t sure if it was his father or his uncle Jake that had been shot,” says Margolis. “When he got there, my father discovered Jake lying in a pool of blood and rushed him to the hospital, saving his life.”
Solomon, a scrap dealer, never fully recovered from the shooting involving outlaws pictured on posters that read “Wanted Dead or Dead.”
“Doctors could only remove two of the three bullets in his abdomen,” says Margolis. Her uncle died in his early 50s, 11 years after the shooting, leaving behind five children. “When I was born, my parents gave me a middle name that starts with a ‘J’ in memory of my Uncle Jake.”
Jake Solomon’s last surviving daughter BeBe Jacoby is 82 and living in California. “My sister and I called her and told her about the movie,” says Margolis. The family is hoping to make contact with Daniel Maldonado, the actor/stunt performer who plays Jake Solomon in ‘Public Enemies,’ so that he can meet his character’s real-life daughter “who was 7 years old when her father made the front page of The New York Times,” notes Margolis.
afine@cjn.org
“One of John Dillinger’s last bank heists was in my family’s hometown, South Bend, Ind., on June 30, 1934,” explains Margolis, a resident of Cleveland Heights. “My great-uncle Jacob Solomon was walking home from shul on Shabbat the morning of the bank robbery. Even though he heard gunfire, he ended up in the middle of the shootout with the police and the infamous bank robbers. He received three bullets to his abdomen in the crossfire.”
When Margolis’s father, then 21, heard that the bank robbers had shot a Mr. Solomon, he ran to the scene. “My father wasn’t sure if it was his father or his uncle Jake that had been shot,” says Margolis. “When he got there, my father discovered Jake lying in a pool of blood and rushed him to the hospital, saving his life.”
Solomon, a scrap dealer, never fully recovered from the shooting involving outlaws pictured on posters that read “Wanted Dead or Dead.”
“Doctors could only remove two of the three bullets in his abdomen,” says Margolis. Her uncle died in his early 50s, 11 years after the shooting, leaving behind five children. “When I was born, my parents gave me a middle name that starts with a ‘J’ in memory of my Uncle Jake.”
Jake Solomon’s last surviving daughter BeBe Jacoby is 82 and living in California. “My sister and I called her and told her about the movie,” says Margolis. The family is hoping to make contact with Daniel Maldonado, the actor/stunt performer who plays Jake Solomon in ‘Public Enemies,’ so that he can meet his character’s real-life daughter “who was 7 years old when her father made the front page of The New York Times,” notes Margolis.
afine@cjn.org
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