Investigation Team: Rosie Miller, Jacque Kelly, Dave Miller
Investigation Date: June 2017
While visiting the Temple of Tolerance in Wapakoneta, I took a photo of the jail cell door that allegedly came from the Wapakoneta Jail where members of the John Dillinger Gang, Harry Pierpont & Charles Makley, were being held in 1933. They were extradited after being arrested in Arizona to stand trial for the murder of Lima, Ohio Sheriff Jessie Sarber. Both gangsters had broken into the jail to free John Dillinger and shot the Sheriff the previous year.
Findings: a researcher at Dayton Police History doing some preliminary research could not substantiate that those gang members were held at Wapakoneta Jail. Also, at the Temple of Tolerance is allegedly the marble countertop from a bank that John Dillinger jumped over when escaping. I cannot yet verify the authenticity of the countertop but Dillinger’s very first bank robbery was in nearby New Carlisle, Ohio.
