Lake County Jail (John Dillinger Escape Location)

"The Sheriffâ??s House (built in 1882) is currently being refurbished through efforts of the Sheriffâ??s House Foundation. The front portion of the building was home to sheriffs for 76 continual years. The back portion of the building was the Lake County Jail, the place where John Dillinger made his fantastic escape in 1934." -CrownPoint.net This is the jail John Dillinger escaped from in 1934. Also, filming finished here last week for Johnny Depp's new Dillinger movie: Public Enemy. "On March 3, 1934, Dillinger escaped from the "escape-proof" (as it was dubbed by local authorities at the time) Crown Point, Indiana county jail which was guarded by many police and national guardsmen. Dillinger apparently escaped using a hand-carved bar of soap shaped like a gun , although this was disputed by some witnesses. Dillinger further embarrassed the town, as well as then-42-year-old Sheriff Lillian Holley, by driving off in her brand new V-8 Ford. The press augmented her chagrin with such headlines as: "Slim woman, mother of twins, controlled Dillinger as sheriff." Incensed, Holley declared at the time, "If I ever see John Dillinger again, I'll shoot him dead with my own gun. Don't blame anyone else for this escape. Blame me. I have no political career ahead of me and I don't care." Driving across the Indiana-Illinois state line in a stolen vehicle, Dillinger violated a federal law and thus caught the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. An investigation concerning the facts of the escape was carried out some time later by the Hargrave Secret Service of Chicago, Illinois on the orders of the Illinois governor. The governor and Illinois state Attorney General Philip Lutz eventually chose not to release information because they did not want Dillinger to know of the informants with whom they spoke. As a result the findings about the gun in the escape were never made public, and this, coupled with Dillinger himself actively perpetuating the wooden gun story as an ego boost, is a reason many believe the "wooden gun" escape was real." -Wikipedia More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dillinger