When John Dillinger robbed the Central National Bank in Greencastle on the afternoon of Oct. 23, 1933, he made the largest haul of a violent, 14-month Midwest crime spree -- $76,000 in cash and negotiable bonds -- without firing a shot.

Don't expect the Greencastle robbery to be depicted so peacefully when "Public Enemies" -- starring Johnny Depp as Dillinger -- hits theaters next week.

After waiting a year and a half for the release of "Public Enemies" I'm bracing for a major disappointment. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think so.

Depp is a multi-talented actor; I enjoy his work in anything. At 46, he's 15 years older than Dillinger was when he was killed; still, Depp probably was the best choice to capture Dillinger's persona. Christian Bale as FBI agent Melvin Purvis and Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard as Dillinger's girlfriend, Billie Frechette, also are top notch. The film was written and directed by Michael Mann who has several major movies to his credit.

So what's the problem?

Based on the two previews of "Public Enemies" that I've watched over and over on the Internet and all that I've read, Mann appears to have sacrificed historical accuracy at several turns, including his depiction of the Dillinger gang's robbery in Greencastle. The small town of Columbus, Wis., was used as Greencastle during filming in March 2008 and a former bank building there, now a community art center, became the Central National Bank that was on the southwest corner of the courthouse square in 1933.

Expect guns to be blazing when Depp and company visit the re-created Greencastle.

I know, I know. Hollywood often plays fast and loose with facts. But why rewrite history when Dillinger's story is just as incredible when told accurately?

The Central National Bank robbery could have turned violent, were it not for the fact that Dillinger, Harry "Pete" Pierpont and Charles Makley walked in only moments after guard Len Ratcliffe -- who was stationed in a steel cage inside above the main entrance -- had climbed down and gone to the basement to stoke the furnace. By the time he returned the robbery was over.

The late Edith Browning, who was working in the bank that day, told me in a 1983 interview she was convinced that only divine intervention prevented tragedy that day.

"Had Len been in the cage, there would have been shooting," she said. "I will always believe it was a day when the Lord was watching over us."

The fourth member of the Dillinger gang that afternoon -- the man who remained at the entrance to keep onlookers back -- has been the focus of unresolved debate. Most law enforcement officers believed he was Russell Clark who, like Pierpont and Makley, had escaped from the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City less than a month earlier. But Harry Copeland, a minor crime figure, was the only man to be returned to Putnam County to stand trial for the Greencastle robbery. Copeland had bonds from the Central National Bank on him when he was arrested after a fight in Chicago three weeks later. He was sentenced to 25 years at Michigan City.

While Greencastle had been spared violence, Racine, Wis., wasn't as lucky. When Dillinger, Pierpont, Makley and Clark hit the American Bank and Trust Company there on Nov. 20, Makley wounded a police officer and an assistant cashier, then sent a volley of machine gun fire through the bank's front window. Dillinger forced the bank president and a female teller to stand as shields on the running boards of the gang's fleeing car before releasing them, unharmed, at the edge of town.

Violence was very much a part of the Dillilnger saga. He broke out of jails, shot his way out of FBI traps, and looted police stations of rifles, shotguns, bulletproof vests and thousands of rounds of ammunition. The Indiana National Guard manned machine gun roadblocks at the height of the search for him. Ultimately, Dillinger would die in an FBI ambush outside a Chicago theater on July 22, 1934.

Aside from the Greencastle robbery, keep these scenes in mind if you see "Public Enemies":

In one of the previews Depp appears to be firing a submachine gun at the Indiana State Prison walls as Pierpont, Makley, Clark and seven other convicts run out of the main gate on Sept. 26, 1933. That's a neat trick, since Dillinger wasn't there. He orchestrated the break by smuggling guns into the prison, but he was in Ohio the day the 10 convicts fled.

And there's a scene in which Depp, behind bars, says to Bale (FBI agent Purvis), "Well, here's the man who killed Pretty Boy Floyd." True, Purvis was one of the agents who gunned down Floyd in an eastern Ohio cornfield. But it was on Oct. 22, 1934 -- three months after Dillinger was killed.

Finally, a touch of authenticity: The 1932 Studebaker Commander that the Dillinger gang drove into Greencastle -- and left double-parked on Jackson Street along the west side of the Central National Bank -- will be used during the movie's Greencastle robbery scene. The producers borrowed it from a Roscoe, Ill., museum.