Original segment here: • John Dillinger collect...
AUBURN, Ind. (WPTA21) - It was a rare opportunity for the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum to host the Hoosier Hoodlum’s famous jail escape vehicle. John Dillinger historian and collector Mark Love found and restored the 1933 Ford V8 the anti-hero stole from Crown Point Jail Sheriff Lillian Holley. For the past year, it has been on display in a community once ravaged by Dillinger’s gang.
Though the car’s time at the museum has come to an end, Love brought what he says, is an even rarer artifact to share with ABC21. The story begins with Dillinger’s legendary jail break. According to the FBI, the gangster was finally arrested, and thrown into jail in Crown Point - awaiting trial for the murder of a police officer. But Dillinger broke out on March 3, 1934, in a way that would cement his name in history. Authorities reported he used a wooden gun to trick guards, robbing them of two machine guns, giving him leverage to lock up jail staff. That all happened before he made the getaway in Holly’s car. “You could pretty much say it’s the most valuable item that has anything to do with Dillinger,” Love said of the fake gun. “No matter where I go throughout the years, I’ve always been asked about the wooden gun. It has become quite an icon in people’s eyes.”
“I had been contacted before about the wooden gun, but because of traveling around with the car, I didn’t have time to contact the family,” he continued. “They thought I might be a good person to figure out if the gun was real, or wasn’t real. They didn’t know themselves.” Newspapers often preserve some of the best information. Love found and used an article published on November 11, 1934 - it included several photos of the gun, from three different angles. And the author of the tell-all had about the closest relationship with the Hoosier Hoodlum - his father, John Dillinger, Sr. Its lengthy title read in part: Dillinger’s Own Story of his Wooden Gun Escape and other Crimes Now Revealed by his Father! Revealing for the First Time Intimate Facts and Photos of the Dead Desperado’s Astounding Holiday Reunion with his Family, At a Time When He Was Quarry in the Greatest Man-Hunt America Has Known - TODAY: An Amazed Young Man’s Version of His Crown Point Jail-Break.
Fast-forward to 2022, and the story becomes a little more convoluted. There is more than one person making the claim that the wooden gun they own, is the authentic faux weapon used by Dillinger. But here is why Love believes his artifact is the real deal - case closed.
Through his research, Love believes Dillinger worked with his lawyer Louis Piquett and investigator Arthur O’Leary to smuggle in a wooden gun, concealed in a carved out Bible. He claims they had help from the inside. Love claims that to fashion the gun they used, they had to seek help from a wood craftsman in Chicago - but spread the lie that Dillinger carved it from within his cell, to protect the official that helped them.
Love acknowledges that members and known associates of Dillinger may have made more than one copy of the wooden gun. “Even back then, its been told that Blunk [jail official and alleged accomplice] received a thousand dollars for that gun. Had this photo been made right here,” he said gesturing to the newspaper article, “before they sold it, they would’ve plainly seen that that gun wasn’t the real gun.”
Love says the real wooden gun was given by Dillinger to his father - a keepsake to remind him the time he escaped out of one of the nation’s most secure jails, with a toy. He believes it was then handed down to Dillinger, Sr.’s daughter Audrey. He says her oldest son sold it to a man in Chicago. Love obtained it from descendants of the man that made that purchase. Using the newspaper’s detailed photos, Love says his gun, is an exact match.
But do a quick google search for other Dillinger wooden guns, and the most popular you’ll find - is in Northwest Indiana. In 2015, the IndyStar reported the John Dillinger Museum opened up at the Historic Lake County Courthouse in Crown Point. A follow-up story revealed it abruptly closed two years later. Among that collection, is another wooden gun, they claim is the authentic version owned and used by Dillinger.
Read the full story here: www.wpta21.com...