Tour The Jail That Dillinger Escaped From In Crown Point
These days it is referred to as “The Old Sheriff’s House” but the old jail located at 232 South Main Street is famously referred to as “The Escape Proof Jail that John Dillinger Escaped From.”
Of course, Dillinger was known for many daring escapes from bank robberies to homes in the woods, but his break-out of the Lake County jail is probably his most famous.
This same building is also where several scenes from the movie “Public Enemies” were filmed.
photo of Old Sheriff's House, Crown Point. AroundCrownPoint.com
On a recent tour, however, I was able to get much of the real history behind this building’s storied past and learn the truth about the Dillinger escape and the movie filming as well.
The Dillinger Cell Block
Movie Set "Public Enemies" At The Old Sheriff's House Crown Point
At first I thought about writing the entire true story here, but since have decided to concentrate on one important overlooked detail of the entire ordeal. (you can take a tour yourself, see below)
But first, I need to bring the story to light of just how John Dillinger became a resident of the Crown Point Jail in the first place:
Dillinger and his gang swept the Midwest wreaking havoc, robbing and plundering. They broke into and robbed the weapons cache at Auburn, Indiana, and Peru, Indiana, taking many guns, equipment and ordinance. On December 14, John Hamilton, a Dillinger gang member, shot and killed a police detective in Chicago. A month later, the gang murdered a police officer during the robbery of the First National Bank of East Chicago, Indiana.(this murder is important later on)
They fled then to Florid and later onto Arizona. In Arizona, a fire occurred in the hotel they were holed up in and fireman turned them all in. The entire gang, including Dillinger were captured and take into custody. They police also recovered some of the stolen weapons and more than $25,000 in cash that had been taken in the First National Bank of East Chicago robbery.
As the story goes, Dillinger was stowed away in the county jail in Crown Point, Indiana, to await trial for the murder of the East Chicago police officer. Authorities boasted that the jail was “escape proof.” But on March 3, 1934, Dillinger cowed the guards with what he claimed later was a wooden gun he had whittled. He forced them to open the door to his cell and finagled himself through several more locked doors to escape, stealing the Sheriff’s new car from the motor pool.
Now, I encourage you to go the the Old Sheriff’s House and take a personal tour yourself! There you can get all the details about the house and its infamous residents. But before you do, I think it is important to reveal a little known fact about this story.
In almost all of the written historical accounts of the story, the police officer murdered in the hold-up of the East Chicago Bank is not named. I don’t know why this is but it just doesn’t seem right.
John Dillinger is held up as some romantic hero when in reality, he was a thug and murderer. The police officer, however, was a family man working a job and serving the public.. yet he is never named… until now.
Detective William Patrick O’Malley was the detective murdered in the holdup. Today in the Old Sheriff’s House hangs a picture and letter commemorating Det. O’Malley’s service.
There are many things to see when you tour the house including:
Dillinger’s actual cell
Prisoner visitor and public area
The movie set and movie set cell
The place Dillinger stood during the famous picture with his arm around officials posing
How many doors Dillinger actually got through in order to escape
Actual escape route through the jail and house used by Dillinger
much, much more
Jim Emerson, Board Of Directors, stands in the spot of the famous photo.
Emerson demonstrates the use of the locking mechanism used to close down the cells, including #4 where Dillinger was housed.
The house has been remodeled over the last few years and is now open for public tours.
Public Tours
Tours are given regularly from 9AM to 1PM on Saturdays and the cost is $5 per person. I highly recommend you take the family on a tour of the Old Sheriff’s House any Saturday while you are visiting the Crown Point Farmers Market. The tour guides will give you many more details of the history of the house and answer all your questions. Be sure to tell them you heard about them from Around Crown Point!
Leave a Reply
Stay Up To Date
Recent Video Reviews
Videos
Smash Mouth TV
Allyn – this is a great, low-cost outing for residents of NW Indiana. All too often, we (…I…) overlook the cool places to see that are right in my backyard. Thanks for reminding me and thanks for the photos. It definitely makes me want to do the tour for myself! On an aside, we, at the Lake County Public Library, had lots of questions from researchers while Public Enemies was in the making. At the time, we had no idea what they were planning or that they were actually going to film parts in NW Indiana.
One question — do the tours go on throughout the year on Saturdays, or is it just certain months?? Thanks!
Hi Debbie, thank you for stopping by!
For right now, the tours are happening in conjunction with the Farmers Market. I am not sure if they will stay open during the winter or not. I will give Jim a call and find out as others will want to know as well.
The jail tours are not open during the winter months at this time due to not having heat in the building ! Brrr….
For right now we are also open for tours on Thursday nights from 6pm to 8pm. In October, we will be opening the jail and sheriff’s house for a haunted house attraction that will be a fundraiser for the continuing restoration of the jail with the Southlake chapter of the Indiana Ghost Trackers. This will be our first Haunted House and we expect to have a fun, spooky, safe Halloween time !
Sandy– thank you so much for coming in to clarify! feel free to stop over and contribute anytime. I am definitely interested in coming out to the haunted house as well.
AL