THE MURDER OF ALLEN COUNTY SHERIFF

JESS L. SARBER

ALLEN COUNTY SHERIFF’S RESIDENCE - 1933

THE PLAYERS

This is the actual arrest photograph of John Dillinger, taken September 9, 1933 in Dayton Ohio, after his arrest for the robbery of the Bluffton National Bank, in August of 1933.

Dillinger was brought back to Allen County by Sheriff Sarber, and booked into the Allen County Jail.

HARRY PIERPONT

RUSSELL CLARK

CHARLES MAKLEY

Ernest M. Botkins, Allen County Prosecuting Attorney, presents evidence for the State of Ohio in the Capital Murder case against Pierpont, Makley and Clark

Defendant Russell Clark, seen here exiting 3rd floor elevator, at the Allen County Courthouse, March, 1934.

All of the Defendants had their legs shackled, when they were moved from Jail, to the Courtroom.

All of the Visitors, Spectators, and Reporters were

physically search before entering the Courtroom, by members of the Ohio

National Guard who were called to assist in

Courthouse and Jail Security.

Note the paper (pass) in this persons hands. It needed to be signed by

acting military commander Gen Harold

Bush.

The Allen County Courthouse, circa 1933

Everyday during these trials, the Courtroom was filled to capacity and people were turned away from entering.

Donald F. Sarber, son of the slain Sheriff, was appointed to complete his Father’s Term as Sheriff.

Sheriff’s Donald F.Sarber (shown on the left) is poised with a Thompson .45 cal sub-machine gun in the Allen Courthouse during a court session. By law, as Sheriff, he was also charged to protect the men that killed his father.

Shown here, is Judge Emmit Everett the Common Pleas Court Judge who presided over each the Dillinger Gang’s trial, in March of 1934.

Judge Everett’s grandson (James K. Everett) later became a Allen County Sheriff’s Deputy.

Louis Fruchette, seated to the right, was Dillinger’s personal attorney from Chicago. He attended all of the trails here in

Allen County for the members of the Dillinger Gang.

Miss Jessie Levi, an attorney from Chicago, was the main counselor for the defense team, for all the members of the

Dillinger Gang. She appears in many of the photographs taken during the time of these trials.

Mrs. Lucy Sarber, wife of the slain Sheriff Jesse L. Sarber, is escorted to the witness stand to give testimony during her husband’s murder trail. Later on in life, this incident took a tremendous toll on her personal life.

Mrs. Lucy Sarber is shown here testifying in court as to the facts surrounding the murder of her husband, Sheriff Jess L. Sarber. She identifies each of the offenders Pierpont, Makely and Clark, as the perpetrators

PIERPONT DEFENSE TABLE - ALLEN CO. COURTROOM

These two men are unidentified F.B.I. Agents, who caught all of the members of the Dillinger Gang in Tucson Arizona, when the hotel that they were staying at caught fire. They also escorted Pierpont, Makely, and Clark back to Lima to stand trial for the murder of the Sheriff.

During the time of these trials, Dillinger himself had escaped jail, and was rummored to be coming to Lima to free his friends.

This was a joke gun sent to the Allen County Prosecutor’s Office in Lima, Oh.

It represents the “wooden gun” used by Dillinger to break out of the Crown Point Prison months before the trials of Pierpont, Makely and Clark started. It was carved out of wood, and no one seems to know where this is located.