BANGOR – “Al Brady” held a news conference Wednesday morning at the former home of Dakin Sporting Goods located at 25 Central St. Among the topics he discussed was where he has been since he last visited Bangor on Oct. 12, 1937, and that he would be returning to the downtown on Sunday, Oct. 7, to reprise his role as Public Enemy No. 1, designated so by then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. He also introduced his driver, Clarence Lee Shaffer Jr., a former resident of Indiana.

Brady, played by Bangor writer and historian Dick Shaw, allowed that it was “good to be back on top of the ground after 70 years of eating dirt.” When asked why he came to Bangor from the Midwest, Brady replied, “Guns. We really needed a Thompson submachine gun.” The implication was that people in the woods of Maine wouldn’t be as suspicious as people in Indiana where the gang already had killed a state policeman and an Indianapolis police officer.

Shaffer, portrayed by Thomas Fiske, a 10-year veteran of the Maine State Police, was the strong, silent type who chose to chew his gum instead of speak during the interview.

In October, 25 Central St. will become Dakin’s again for the day thanks to Jeff Robinson, owner of Top Shelf Coins, Comics & Collectibles, which now occupies that space.

The re-enactment on Oct. 7 will start with a 2 p.m. parade down Main Street of 50 period vehicles, including a replica of Brady’s stolen 1937 Buick with Ohio license plate YK 747. The grand marshal will be former special agent William R. Walsh, who was part of the FBI contingent that October day in 1937 and took a bullet in his shoulder from one of the Brady gang. Walsh was a sharpshooter and trick-shot artist who went on to become a colonel in the Marine Corps and fought on Okinawa in World War II. He is 100 years old.

Central Street will be closed off for the afternoon activities, which will include an orchestra and a dance after the replay of the disposal of the Brady gang on Central Street. The event is the brainchild of Gerry Palmer, the head of Northeast CONTACT, a local consumer protection organization. Palmer, aware of the fact that 2007 marked the 70th anniversary of the breakup of the Brady gang, conjured up the re-enactment as a fundraiser for Northeast CONTACT.

Northeast CONTACT has established a Web site, www.albradygang.com, with information about the event. The public is urged to attend in dress as close to styles of the late 1930s as their closets can furnish.