Monmouth Originals: Salvatore Naturile

Salvatore “Sal” Naturile – Not His “Dog Day”

You probably don’t know of this county native. I didn’t until doing some research for this website. Born in Keansburg in 1953, Naturile was killed while robbing a NYC bank—and it’s a tale you just might know. The crime was made into a memorable film, Dog Day Afternoon, starting Al Pacino.

Salvatore "Sal" Naturile

The movie recounts some of the events during the wild, wacky, and deadly heist of a Brooklyn bank in August 1972. The troubled teenage Sal was portrayed in the 1975 movie by John Cazale—himself a story. Remembered as one of Hollywood’s premier character actors (he played Fredo in Godfather I and II), Cazle appeared in just five films—all nominated for Best Picture Oscars—before his untimely death in 1978 from cancer. Naturile, who had committed a laundry list of petty crimes in NJ, lived in several reform homes as a kid.

Cazale’s character dies in the movie, and of course, so did Naturile in real life. After holding several Chase Manhattan Bank employees hostage for 12 hours once the robbery fouled up, Sal was shot and killed by the FBI at JFK Airport before he and accomplice John Wojtowicz (Pacino’s character) were to board a plane. The pair had taken about $200,000 from the bank.

John Cazale

The movie was nominated for five Academy Awards and won for Best Original Screenplay by Frank Pierson. Wojtowicz, who praised Pacino’s performance of him, served 14 years in prison before his death in 2006. Naturile is buried in New Jersey. For a full telling of the bizarre robbery, read the 1972 Life magazine story, The Boys in the Bank.

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Monmouth Originals is a regular web column that will profile the lives of notable Monmouth County natives. Suggestions are welcome at e-mail. (Note: the person must have been born in Monmouth County.)