REEL FACE: | REAL FACE: |
John Boyega
Born: March 17, 1992 Birthplace: Peckham, London, England, UK | Melvin Dismukes
Born: September 8, 1942 Birthplace: Michigan, USA |
Will Poulter
Born: January 28, 1993 Birthplace: England, UK | David Senak
Born: June 18, 1944 Birthplace: Michigan, USA Renamed "Krauss" in the movie and fictionalized |
Jack Reynor
Born: January 23, 1992 Birthplace: Longmont, Colorado, USA | Ronald August
Born: abt 1946 Birthplace: USA Renamed "Demens" in the movie |
Ben O'Toole
Born: abt 1989 Birthplace: Brisbane, Australia | Robert Paille
Born: July 4, 1935 Birthplace: Michigan, USA Death: September 9, 2011, Roseville, Michigan, USA Renamed "Flynn" in the movie |
Algee Smith
Born: November 7, 1994 Birthplace: Saginaw, Michigan, USA | Larry Reed
Birthplace: USA |
Jacob Latimore
Born: August 10, 1996 Birthplace: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA | Fred Temple
Born: 1949 Birthplace: USA Death: July 26, 1967, Algiers Motel, Detroit, Michigan, USA (shot by police) |
Jason Mitchell
Born: January 5, 1987 Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA | Carl Cooper
Born: abt 1950 Birthplace: USA Death: July 26, 1967, Algiers Motel, Detroit, Michigan, USA (gunshot wounds) |
Nathan Davis Jr.
Born: January 18, 1994 Birthplace: Long Beach, California, USA | Aubrey Pollard
Born: abt 1948 Birthplace: USA Death: July 26, 1967, Algiers Motel, Detroit, Michigan, USA (shot by police) |
John Krasinski
Born: October 20, 1979 Birthplace: Newton, Massachusetts, USA | Norman Lippitt
Born: June 21, 1936 Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan, USA Renamed "Attorney Auerbach" in the movie |
Hannah Murray
Born: July 1, 1989 Birthplace: Bristol, England, UK | Juli Hysell
Born: abt 1949 Birthplace: Michigan, USA Photo circa 2017 |
In researching the Detroit true story, we learned that the riots began around 3:15 a.m. in the early morning of Sunday July 23, 1967 and lasted five days, ending for the most part on July 27.
In the early morning hours of July 23, 1967, police raided an unlicensed after-hours drinking club in the office of the United Community League for Civic Action, a community civil rights group that backed local political candidates and helped to give the neighborhood a collective voice. The group's office was located on the upper floor of the empty Economy Printing building at 9125 12th Street. Police expected only a few patrons inside but found 82 African-Americans celebrating the return of two local soldiers from Vietnam. The Detroit police decided to arrest all those in attendance.
While the police were inside waiting to haul off the revelers, a crowd began to form in the street outside. The riot is said to have started when Walter Scott III, the son of the unlicensed club's owner, threw a bottle at a police officer (at least that's what Scott later claimed in a memoir). When the police left the scene, the crowd (now a mob) began looting a clothing store next door. It didn't take long for widespread looting to erupt throughout the neighborhood. Initially, the police force was too small and did little but watch. Since it was a Sunday, it took longer for Police Commissioner Ray Girardin to mobilize the Michigan National Guard, state police, and the Wayne County sheriffs. As a result, the first arrest didn't happen until 7 in the morning.
By mid-afternoon, a raging fire had broken out in a grocery store and the mob prevented firefighters from extinguishing it, causing it to spread uncontrollably. The looting had also spread, reaching other parts of Detroit.
Yes. Fact-checking the Detroit movie revealed that the demographic makeup of the police force was not in line with the demographic makeup of the city. The police force was 95% white, while the city was 40% black. There were approximately 5,500 cops on the police force and only 100 were black. -CBS This Morning
During our investigation into the true story behind the Detroit movie, we discovered that a total of 43 people were killed during the Detroit riots, including the three young black men at the Algiers Motel, which is the focus of Kathryn Bigelow's movie. 33 of those killed during the riots were black and 10 were white. Approximately 1,189 people were injured and over 7,200 were arrested.
Will Poulter's character, the evil Philip Krauss, is largely fictional. He most closely correlates to 23-year-old Vice Patrolman David Senak in real life, but the connection is loose at best. Poulter's character is said to be a combination of a number of different officers from the Detroit Police Department who were present at the Algiers Motel that night. Because the three officers charged were found innocent in real life, their names were changed for the movie so as to not implicate them, even if the verdict is believed to have been biased.
During the riots, civilian snipers and looters shooting at police and fireman had become a problem. In fact, just hours before the Algiers incident, Detroit police officer Jerome Olshove was shot and killed by a looter. A few days earlier, Newark police detective Frederick Toto was killed by a sniper. The police force was on edge. It was made worse by the fact that, over the course of the riots, 2,498 rifles and 38 handguns had been looted from local stores.
On the night of July 25-26, police were alerted to a sniper, gunman, or group of gunmen in the vicinity of the Algiers Motel at 8301 Woodward Avenue. Upon arriving, the police and National Guard claimed they heard a pistol go off inside the motel (they later found only a starter pistol that fired blanks). They rushed the building and it wasn't long before three young black men were dead, including Fred Temple, Aubrey Pollard and Carl Cooper.
Yes. However, in the movie only Juli Hysell is forcibly stripped, and it happens largely by accident when Officer Krauss is being too rough with her. Fact-checking Detroit confirms that after the occupants of the motel's annex were lined up and hit by officers who demanded to know who was supposedly sniping from the motel, the two 18-year-old girls, Juli Hysell and Karen Malloy, were stripped naked and verbally harassed. It is unclear why this was toned down for the film. -The Algiers Motel Incident
According to Officer Ronald August, he took Aubrey Pollard into a room and Pollard pushed his shotgun away before trying to grab the gun. August testified that he shot Pollard in self-defense, describing it as "justifiable homicide." However, Guardsman Ted Thomas testified that he heard no words or signs of a struggle between Officer August and Pollard before seeing "a flash of clothing, heard a shotgun blast and saw Pollard's body fall."
No. This is one reason why Lippitt's name was changed for the Detroit movie. John Krasinski's character, Attorney Auerback, is largely fictional. Lippitt says that as a criminal defense attorney, it was his job to represent people charged with being involved in crimes. "Am I a soulless person?" he asks. "Well, criminal defense lawyers do this every day!" -NPR
Like in the movie, Melvin says that he went to the police station to share his side of the story, but he got everything turned around on him and was charged with first-degree murder. In the end, the police tried to pin a felonious assault charge on Melvin in connection with the beating of two of the motel's occupants, Michael Clark and James Sortor, in the first-floor hallway. Melvin had been guarding a store across the street from the Algiers before he entered the motel to help. According to Melvin, he tried to play peacemaker. "I just hoped to calm the situation down that was going on in the lobby," says Melvin. "I wanted to help people stay alive, so I did my best to do what I thought would protect them." He was the first to be tried and was acquitted of the charge. It took only 13 minutes for the all-white jury to come back with a verdict of not guilty.
Yes. Judge William Beer (pictured below) told the all-white jury that their options were to either convict Ronald August of first-degree murder or acquit him, never instructing them that verdicts of second-degree murder or manslaughter were options too. Judge Beer later made the news when it was exposed that he had been living a double life for over 30 years. While married to his wife Dora, with whom he had three children, he impregnated his 19-year-old secretary Barbara and secretly married her. The lie continued and he had a total of nine children with Barbara. Dora divorced him when his secret was exposed. -Detroit Free Press
A total of 2,509 businesses were burned or looted and 412 buildings were damaged so badly that they had to be demolished. 388 families were displaced or rendered completely homeless. In all, the riots resulted in an estimated $40 million to $45 million in property damage.
The Detroit movie was mostly shot in Boston, with only a small number of scenes actually filmed in Detroit. Director Kathryn Bigelow wanted to shoot the film in Detroit, but Michigan no longer offered the same tax breaks of other cities.
Further investigate the Detroit movie true story by watching the Detroit riots documentary below that features an interview with the real Melvin Dismukes, the security guard portrayed by John Boyega in the Kathryn Bigelow movie.