We knew these “gangster tours” were coming. As soon as the Wisconsin Department of Tourism said it was going to be highlighting various gangster-related locations – in particular, the places Public Enemies was filmed – a modest-sized backlash erupted because it was only weeks after Governor Doyle proposed castrating the Film Wisconsin moviemaking incentives program. So, our state’s government was cutting a potentially lucrative arts program while simultaneously planning on profiting from the very same program. Yes, it’s a crazy world.

Well, the Department of Tourism has made good on its promise and is now offering a guide to Gangster Sites in Wisconsin (whether a movie staring Johnny Depp was involved or not). From the website:

• The Prohibition and the Great Depression of the 1920s and '30s were lucrative times for outlaws like Al Capone and John Dillinger. Charismatic and successful, they were polarizing figures unpopular with the FBI and local police-the honest ones, anyway. The usual suspects were often on the run. And that usually meant Wisconsin.

They offer lots of info on both southern and northern tours. They’ve even got a few video tours to watch. Early reports mentioned a display case celebrating all the innocent people who died or had their lives destroyed at the hands of these gangsters, but those reports were completely made up by me and only mentioned in this sentence.