Crescent-News.com - Dillinger gang had NW Ohio connection

By DARLENE PRINCE

Shades of the 1930s! Tough economic times, some banks struggling to get by and now, bank robbers.

The bank robbers are just the movie version this time, though, with a new movie, "Public Enemies," about John Dillinger and his gang, that has just been released in the theaters.

Two well-known gangsters -- Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd are also being pursued by the FBI in this movie, with legendary FBI agent Melvin Purvis on the hunt for all of the criminals.

It has been almost 80 years since the notorious bank robber John Dillinger led law enforcement on a multi-state hunt for him and his gang as they easily robbed banks in Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Iowa, and Chicago, Ill. At least two dozen bank robberies were blamed on the Dillinger gang.

Murders of several law enforcement officers, robberies of state police arsenals in Auburn and Peru, Ind., jailbreaks and the theft of at least two vehicles can also be attributed to this dangerous criminal.

Dillinger was considered by many people at the time to be a sort of "Robin Hood," although there is no proof that he gave any of the thousands of dollars he stole to the poor. According to experts, more than likely, he was admired by many in the general population because he was taking money from banks, which were held responsible for much of the country's financial plight.

Many of Dillinger's robberies were conducted in the Midwest -- in Ohio and Indiana. The gang is credited with robbing banks in Bluffton; Fostoria, where they shot and injured the police chief; Bowling Green; Galion; Montpelier, Ind.; Indianapolis; Greencastle, Ind.; East Chicago, Ind.; and South Bend, Ind.

Dillinger's gang was also responsible for the murder of Allen County (Ohio) Sheriff Jess Sarber when several gang members came to the jail in Lima to break Dillinger out.

Dillinger was born in Indianapolis, in 1903, and after a rebellious youth of petty crimes and being dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Navy, ended up in the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Ind., for robbing a grocery store with a friend.

While he was in prison he became friends with hard-core bank robbers Harry Pierpont, of Muncie, Ind., and Russell Clark, of Terre Haute, Ind., who not only educated Dillinger in the craft of bank robbery, but later became members of his gang.

He was released from prison in May 1933 after serving eight and one-half years, and immediately proceeded to rob a bank in Bluffton, on Sept. 22. He was captured by police in Dayton and jailed in Lima.

Dillinger had been working on a plan to help Pierpont, Clark and six other prisoners escape from the Michigan City jail. He had friends smuggle guns into the prisoners and they escaped, killing two guards.

Six of the escapees, including Pierpont, Clark and Charles Makely, walked into the Lima jail where Dillinger was being held. They tried to pass themselves off as lawyers coming to take Dillinger back to Indiana. When Sheriff Sarber tried to reach for his gun, he was shot and then beaten by the criminals as they tried to get the key to Dillinger's cell.

After getting the key, they threw Sarber into a cell, where he died from his wound. His wife was with him at the jail and while she was not harmed, she was put into the cell where her husband died. The criminals then went back to Indiana where they began a series of bank robberies through the Midwest. This gang of seven men, including Pierpont and Makely, was the first Dillinger gang. Because of its with their fingerprint technology, the FBI was brought in to help identify the men.

Makely, Pierpont and Clark were arrested after the Dillinger's Lima jail break, and Pierpont and Makely were later executed for the sheriff's death. Clark was sentenced to jail for life.

There is a local connection with Dillinger and his gang. John Carnes, curator of collections at the Allen County Museum in Lima, said, "Makely is buried in a grave in Sugar Ridge Cemetery, near Leipsic, in Putnam County. He was from St. Marys and his family, because of the scandal of his life as a bank robber, did not want to bury him in St. Marys, but instead buried him in the plot near Leipsic."

Carnes said, "Pierpont actually shot Sheriff Sarber and was the head of the gang at that point. Pierpont's family owned two adjoining farms near Leipsic. There is evidence that when they broke Dillinger out of jail (in Lima), they stayed at the farms."

One of Dillinger's tricks to get information about the banks before he robbed them was to pretend to be a sales representative for a company that sold bank alarms. He supposedly went into a number of banks in Ohio and Indiana using this trick. The gang also attacked and stole guns and ammunition from two state police arsenals in Indiana.

Carnes also said it was common for gangsters, including Dillinger, to hold innocent bystanders as hostages during a bank robbery, sometimes making them stand on a car's running boards as the car was speeding away from a bank robbery. The hostages were used as shields so the police would not shoot at them.

"Dillinger was polite, though, to his hostages," Carnes said, commenting on an account where Dillinger stopped another gang member who was using rough language in front of a female hostage in the car.

A total of about $300,000 was stolen in the various bank robberies by the Dillinger gang.

Carnes said the gang spent most of their money on paying off people in the places where they hid from authorities.

"And," he added, "they spent their money as they stole it. They liked the good things in life."

Dillinger and four of his gang were arrested by police in early 1935 in Tucson, Ariz., where they were hiding out. They were extradited to Indiana where Dillinger escaped from jail, stole a sheriff's car and fled to Chicago. This act invoked the federal law against crossing state lines with a stolen vehicle, which drew in the FBI. The FBI immediately began a nationwide manhunt for Dillinger and his gang. Eventually, Dillinger was named "Public Enemy No. 1" on the FBI's Most Wanted List.

After more bank robberies and run-ins with the law, including a famous shoot-out at a lodge in northern Wisconsin where three innocent civilians were mistakenly killed by the FBI and an FBI agent was killed, Dillinger's gang escaped once again.

When it was discovered that Dillinger was hiding out in Chicago, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover created a special task force to find Dillinger. With the help of an illegal immigrant prostitute, who said she would be wearing a red dress and be one of two women with Dillinger, the FBI finally caught up with Dillinger coming out of the Biograph Theater in Chicago.

As he came out of the theater, Dillinger looked at a FBI agent, pulled his gun and ran into an alley. He was killed in the ensuing shootout. Dillinger was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.

After Dillinger's death, another well-known gangster, Pretty Boy Floyd, became first on the FBI list. Floyd was suspected in robberies in Sylvania and Whitehouse, and killed a police officer during a 1931 robbery and shootout in Bowling Green. Floyd was later killed by the FBI on a farm in East Liverpool in northeast Ohio.