How a botched Brooklyn bank robbery inspired the movie Dog Day

In 1972, John Wojtowicz, Sal Naturale, and Robert Westenberg attempted to rob a Chase Manhattan bank branch in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn. What came out inspired Al Pacino to create the movie “Dog Day”. Three armed men entered the bank ready to make off with cash to pay for sex-reassignment surgery for Wojtowicz’s ex-lover. They thought it would be an ordinary robbery, but fate had other plans. Unknown to the robbers, the money held in the vault had already been collected, leaving the branch with half of the expected funds, setting off a chain of events that had New Yorkers on the edge of their seats.