Sheriff wants to melt down Dillinger's Tommy gun

pardus

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December 27, 2002

BY MICHAEL PUENTE AND LUCIO GUERRERO

A Tommy gun stolen by John Dillinger after a brazen 1934 jail escape in Indiana could soon be molten steel.

Newly elected Lake County, Ind., Sheriff Roy Dominguez--no fan of Dillinger because he killed a cop--is thinking about throwing the infamous Colt Thompson submachine gun into a furnace at one of the county's steel mills. History experts say the gun could be worth $1 million.

"I see no sense in glorifying him or that gun...[the Tommy gun] was used in the commission of a felony," Dominguez said. "I would consider melting it down or find another way to properly dispose of it.

"By giving it notoriety continues the glorification of John Dillinger, which I think is wrong," said Dominguez, who takes office next Wednesday.

Dillinger made off with two Tommy guns after he broke out of Lake County Jail on March 3, 1934. One of them belonged to Lake County; the other was on loan from neighboring Porter County.

The guns were thought to be lost until a gun-tracking expert found both of them in FBI storage in Washington, D.C. Porter County got its gun back last year and Lake County a few months later.

Lake County's gun hasn't been on display much; it was only last month that outgoing Lake County Sheriff John Buncich publicly displayed it for the first time.

Tony Stewart, an expert on early American crimes and author of Dillinger, The Hidden Truth , points to the historical significance of the Indiana outlaw.

"Dillinger was a very important factor to the FBI's existence in the '30s. It's true, with Congress breathing down the bureau's neck, the FBI was in trouble. [Director J. Edgar] Hoover needed a big catch to save the bureau," Stewart said.

But Dominguez and other Lake County officials said they see no reason to preserve the gun.

"I don't think [having the gun melted] would destroy history," said Dominguez.

It has not been proved that Lake County's gun was used to kill anyone, but it is believed to have been used by Dillinger and his cohorts in the holdup of three or four banks following their Crown Point jailbreak. History buffs say the gun could fetch as much as $1 million at auction, but Lake County officials said they can't sell the gun.

Lake County sheriff's spokesman Loy Roberson said there is no documentation for the gun ownership and that selling it would violate the federal firearms act.

"You cannot get it titled. It doesn't have paperwork," Roberson said. "You can't sell something if you don't have paper on it. It belongs to the Lake County Sheriff's Department, but we don't have title paper on it."

The other gun stolen with the Lake County weapon is on display at the Porter County sheriff's office. The only catch: It's in the department's training room, which is not open to the public.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-gun27.html


I found this on another site while looking for something else, I cannot find out if this in fact was carried out.
This Sheriff is a stupid asshole IMO. :2c:
 
This guy is a clown. I don't understand the ability of someone to so callously destroy history.
 
Sell it and put the money to good use, like funding Boys and Girls Clubs or something that would help the community.
 
Sell it and put the money to good use, like funding Boys and Girls Clubs or something that would help the community.

We just had an auction of over 200+ firearms that had been in the county Sheriffs safe. Money was raised and donated to a local charitable cause. 70+ firearms where from a murder victim that had been confiscated during the investigation. The family of the deceased simply did not want the firearms and wanted to help with cause so they simply allowed them to be auctioned off along with the others.

I agree, this Sheriff is an ass clown.
 
I dont live far from a place were he robbed a police station. he is a real legend around these parts. Indinana has alot of major criminal history from the 20's like that.
 
Yeah. Apparently along the lines of being the County's first Official Stupid 'n' Gay LEO.

He is definitely that, plus. Lake County is one of the most corrupt, if not the most corrupt county in America. Elected officials up here are regulary indicted and found guilty in the federal court for corruption.
 
I'm surprised the Dillinger Museum doesn't want it.

From Wiki - "Many legends surround John Dillinger. One of the rumors that followed his death was that he had a very large penis (which Hoover later kept in a jar),[11] while another urban legend held that Dillinger's penis had somehow found its way into the Smithsonian Institution. These legends are the result of the photograph of his corpse; the bulge caused by his arm, stiff from rigor mortis, covered with a sheet; some who saw grainy newsprint copies of the photo mistakenly believed it to be his unnaturally large erect penis.[12]"

They could put it in the same display case....:D
 
A gun is a tool and that is all it can be depended on to be, If this ass hat sheriff is to dumb to see this then a piece of history will be lost forever.:doh:
 
From Wiki - "Many legends surround John Dillinger. One of the rumors that followed his death was that he had a very large penis (which Hoover later kept in a jar),[11] while another urban legend held that Dillinger's penis had somehow found its way into the Smithsonian Institution. These legends are the result of the photograph of his corpse; the bulge caused by his arm, stiff from rigor mortis, covered with a sheet; some who saw grainy newsprint copies of the photo mistakenly believed it to be his unnaturally large erect penis.[12]"

They could put it in the same display case....:D

That splains it. Penis envy.
 
Nazi's burned books, Taliban blew up historic Buddhas, and now American Liberals want to destroy metallic historic pieces, all for basically the same philosophical intollerance.
 
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