To raise funds, the society will throw the party from 7-11 p.m. that Saturday night at 327 N. Second St. in Hamilton. Tickets cost $50 apiece and come with two drink tickets, casino tickets and a chance for a trip to Las Vegas for two.
“Toast the past with a glass of giggle juice, listen to some jazz and enjoy the ritzy side of our Little Chicago,” the society suggested in its announcement of the event.
Vintage 1920s cars will be parked out front, as they might have been when the likes of Dillinger, gang leader Bob Zwick and bootleggers George “Fat” Wrassman and Lyman Williams lurked in Hamilton.
Citing research by the late Hamilton historian and Journal-News Editor Jim Blount, the historical society’s executive director, Kathy Creighton, said Dillinger met gangster Harry Pierpont while they served in an Indiana prison together.
“Dillinger was in the Indiana pen with the Pierpont gang, who were bank robbers,” and gave Dillinger tips about their craft. Before he was released from prison, he promised to smuggle guns in to them for their escape.
He did get them weapons, and the group with those guns “marched diagonally across the whole prison grounds and out the front door without meeting opposition from guards,” according to an Associated Press account from the time that Blount quoted in a column.
But when the gang escaped from the Indiana prison, Dillinger was locked in a county jail in Lima on bank-robbery charges. So the gang plotted his break-out from a house on Hamilton’s Second Street. They planned to pose as Indiana agents assigned to take Dillinger back to that state, but that plan didn’t work. Allen County Sheriff Jess L. Sarber was shot dead in front of his wife, Creighton said.
A massive manhunt led to Hamilton in October, but the group, which some called the Dillinger gang, escaped. Dillinger and three accomplices later were caught in Phoenix, thanks to an investigation by Hamilton police and a postmaster, who found a letter Dillinger mailed a Hamilton woman, mentioning where he was.
Historical society President Brian Smith said fundraiser partiers are encouraged to dress like people did during the 1920s, although that isn’t required. People should at least dress “smart-casual,” and definitely not jeans or T-shirts.
Municipal Brew Works will create a special beer for the event, and there will be a silent auction to help finance future projects.
Tickets can be purchased through the BCHS facebook event page or eventbrite, or by contacting the society directly at 513-896-9930.
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