Of all the historical crime topics, I find the so-called “Public Enemies” era of the 1930s the most fascinating. One of the key figures of that time was Harry Pierpont. Known to associates as “Pete” or “Handsome Harry,” Pierpont was a mentor and partner of famed bank robber John Dillinger. At least he was until lawmen nabbed the Dillinger gang while they vacationed in Arizona.
Harry Pierpont
Harry Pierpont was born in Muncie, Indiana, on October 13, 1902. A few years later, the family lived in Indianapolis. Harry was an intelligent child and did well in school. Census records in 1920 show him living with his family in Indianapolis. The census listed his occupation as a bench worker in an automobile plant (Indianapolis was home to many automobile-related industries in the early 1900s).
In the summer of 1921, Pierpont got caught in a belt-driven machine at the factory, which crushed his left arm. The arm never fully recovered. He also suffered a head injury in the same accident. His behavior changed after the head injury. He complained of headaches, dizziness, and vision problems and was prone to periods of sleepiness.
Harry Pierpont Gets in Trouble with the Law
On January 2, 1922, Pierpont stole a car and drove it to Greencastle, Indiana. There, he robbed the Cook Hardware Store. Included in his haul were nine guns.
Five days later, Pierpont tried to steal a car in Indianapolis. When the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Devine, accosted him, he fired a shot, slightly wounding Mr. Devine. Mrs. Devine was holding a roast and hit Pierpont over the head with it. Reports do not indicate whether or not the roast was frozen.
As a result of these two crimes, Pierpont arrived at the Indiana State Reformatory on March 12, 1922, for a two- to fourteen-year sentence. On November 17 of the following year, the state transferred him to the newly constructed reformatory at Pendleton, Indiana.
Hary Pierpont Continues Crime after Parole
After lobbying from his mother, Lena, the state parole board granted Pierpont parole on March 6, 1924. He lived in Brazil, Indiana, where his family had moved. However, he continued to associate with known felons.
In April 1925, police identified Harry Pierpont as the leader of a gang that had robbed several banks in Indiana. The gang consisted of seven members who identified Pierpont as their leader. The banks hit by the gang included the South Marion State Bank in Marion, the Citizens State Bank in Noblesville, and the Upland State Bank in Upland,
Police in Detroit arrested Pierpont and an accomplice, Thaddeus “Ted” Skeer, at their apartment hideout on April 2, 1925. While Pierpont and Skeer awaited trial in the Howard County jail in Kokomo, a Pinkerton detective discovered a cache of saw blades in their cells.
At his trial, Pierpont surprisingly admitted his guilt and was convicted. He received a sentence of ten to twenty-one years. He ended up back in the Pendleton Reformatory on May 6, 1925.
Harry Pierpont in Pendleton and Michigan City
It was in the Pendleton Reformatory that Pierpont met Homer Van Meter and a young John Dillinger. Dillinger had been sentenced to ten to twenty years for an ill-conceived attempt to rob a grocer in his hometown of Mooresville, Indiana.
Pierpont was anything but a model prisoner. His defiant behavior and multiple escape attempts prompted Warden A.F. Miles to transfer him to the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City on July 30, 1925. At Michigan City, Pierpont became the leader of a clique consisting of Charles Makley, Russell “Boobie” Clark, and John “Red” Hamilton. Dillinger and Van Meter joined the group after their transfers from the reformatory to the prison.
Harry Pierpont Engineers a Prison Break
During the summer of 1932, Pierpont began planning a massive prison break. He included Makley, Hamilton, and Clark in his plans. Pierpont also invited Dillinger to help from the outside (he expected to be paroled soon). His reward would be inclusion in the convicts’ bank-robbing gang.
In the meantime, Walter Dietrich joined Pierpont’s coffee klatch and began instructing the members on the techniques of the remarkable bank robber, Herman “Baron” Lamm.
By the spring of 1933, they were ready. As expected, Dillinger received his parole on May 10, 1933. He made nominal motions of “going straight” but soon began robbing grocery stores and banks to raise cash for the breakout. He acquired three .45 caliber handguns and managed to smuggle them into the prison.
Shortly after 2:00 on the afternoon of September 26, 1933, Pierpont and his co-conspirators put their plan into action. Using the guns Dillinger provided, they, along with several other prisoners, took guards hostage and proceeded to move toward the prison’s exit. Using threats, they got through the three steel doors and found themselves in the prison’s administration building, where they took Warden Louis E. Kunkel hostage as well. Some escapees traveled to a hideout in Hamilton, Ohio, while others laid low at a farm Pierpont’s parents owned near Leipsic, Ohio.
Harry Pierpont Rescues Dillinger
Meanwhile, Dillinger had been arrested for a bank robbery in Bluffton, Ohio, and was being held in the Allen County Jail in Lima. Pierpont decided to rescue him.
On October 12, 1933, Pierpont, Makley, and Clark entered the jail at about 6:25 p.m. They told Sheriff Jess Sarber that they were officials from Indiana there to return Dillinger to that state. When Sarber asked for their credentials, Pierpont shot twice, hitting the sheriff once in the abdomen.
When Sarber refused to turn over the keys to Dillinger’s cell, Makley and Clark beat him. Sarber’s wife dug the keys out of a drawer to stop the assault. With Dillinger now free, the gang locked Mrs. Sarber and a deputy in a cell and made their escape.
Sheriff Jess Sarber died about ninety minutes later.
Harry Pierpont and the Dillinger “Terror Gang”
The gang now embarked on an audacious robbery spree. They started by raiding police stations in Auburn and Peru, Indiana, scoring many guns and bulletproof vests.
Next on the agenda were banks. The gang quickly raided the Central National Bank in Greencastle, Indiana, on October 23. On November 20, they hit the American Bank & Trust Company in Racine, Wisconsin.
After two successful scores, the gang decided on a Florida vacation. Renting a beach house in Daytona, the trip’s highlight was a New Year’s Eve barbecue, with Dillinger emptying his machine gun at the moon at midnight.
After Daytona, the gang hit the First National Bank in East Chicago, Indiana, on January 15, 1934. While Dillinger and Hamilton were inside the bank, East Chicago police took up positions outside. As Dillinger exited the bank, Officer William P. O’Malley took a shot at him. Dillinger, wearing a bulletproof vest, was uninjured but returned fire, killing O’Malley. The other officers opened fire, wounding Hamilton.
Pierpont’s Flight and Capture
The gang decided to take a trip out west to escape the heat in Indiana. Pierpont, Dillinger, Makley, and Clark ended up in Tucson, Arizona. The gangsters stood out in what was still an Old West town with hitching posts on the streets. Locals soon recognized them, and law officers arrested them one by one on January 25.
Dillinger was extradited to Indiana to face trial for Officer O’Malley’s murder. Ohio took Pierpont, Makley, and Clark for the murder of Sheriff Sarber.
In March 1934, Pierpong, Makley, and Clark were convicted of Sarber’s murder. Testimony from Ed Shouse, a former gang member, helped seal their fate. Pierpont and Makley were sentenced to death, while Clark received a life sentence.
Epilogue
With time running out, Pierpont and Makley made a desperate attempt to escape the Ohio Penittentary’s death house on September 22, 1934. Brandishing fake pistols carved from soap and covered with shoe polish, they got out of their cells but met guards armed with rifles at the death house door. The guards opened fire, killing Makley and severely wounding Pierpont.
Pierpont went to his death on October 17, 1934. Still suffering from the wounds he suffered a month earlier, guards carried him to the electric chair.
You can read more about Pierpont, Dillinger, and the rest of the gang in Bryan Borough’s excellent history of the 1930s gangsters, Public Enemies. Other books are John Toland’s The Dillinger Days and Dillinger: The Untold Story by Russell Girardin.
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