Has anyone come across Billie's reaction to the news of Dillinger's death? After reading the account in Public Enemies, my first thought was "What about Billie?"

Did someone come tell her while she was in jail? Did she find out when she was released?

Sherilyn Fenn probably would know. She portrayed John Dillinger's girlfriend Billie Frechette in ABC's 1991 gangster TV movie "Dillinger" opposite Mark Harmon, according to Wikipedia. It's a Johnny world, eh? Sherilyn Fenn and Johnny were a couple in 1985-89.

PBS.org has the following bio information. Looks like Dillinger and Frechette still cared deeply about each other even after they weren't a couple anymore:

"Dillinger paid Louis Piquett, his own lawyer, to take on Frechette's case, and try to free her through legal means. 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 that he vowed to kill Harold H. Reinecke, the agent in charge of Frechette's interrogation. Dillinger reluctantly gave up his intention only after Piquett threatened to leave him if he killed anyone.

Before his death, Dillinger frequently met Piquett or his legal investigator, Arthur O'Leary. Each time he asked about Frechette's appeal, even though he was already dating Polly Hamilton. In one letter Frechette sent Dillinger through O'Leary, she begged him not to try to rescue her, for fear he would be killed. In spite of her protests, on July 11, 1934, Dillinger told O'Leary on about a recent trip to Milan, Michigan. He had driven there to see the federal prison where Frechette was being held. After looking over the surrounding area, he reluctantly decided that any escape attempt would be impossible.

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 January 13, 1969, in Shawano, Wisconsin."

Thanks so much Carpediem for all that info! I found this little bit in Dary Matera's "John Dillinger"... it doesn't say who told Billie but page 359 has this;