Sheriff Holley Was Right.......
It seems that the Wooden Gun used by John Dillinger to escape from the Lake County Jail was auctioned off recently for $19,120.

Damn. Hope they enjoy it.




Here's a picture of what was auctioned off.

When I was a kid I worked at a Texaco station in Crown Point, Indiana. That's the county seat and the site of the Lake County Jail from which Dillinger made his famous escape.

Lillian Holley was the Sheriff at the time of the escape. Here she is in a picture with Dillinger.




Miss Holley, was still alive back when I was a kid pumping gas and she drove a Buick (if memory serves me correctly) and filled it up at the Texaco station where I worked.

I had no clue who she was. One of the older guys told me the story of how she had been the Sheriff when John Dillinger escaped & I thought that was pretty cool.
She was just a nice old lady as far as I knew and I did the usual, fill 'er up, wash the windows, check the oil and ask her if she "Saved Stamps like all the other old women who came in.

I'd been putting gas in her car for a couple of years and talked to her every time I'd filled her up, so I wasn't shy about asking her about the Dillinger story.

She told me that the whole "Wooden gun. Bar of Soap Gun, etc" was bullshit. (Not her words. She was very polite and proper to me.)

Her story was that someone smuggled in a pistol and assisted with the escape.

She also said that "Someday, somebody is gonna make a lot of money selling that wooden gun".

It's been about 40 years since she told me that, but damn if she didn't get it right.

H/T to Say Uncle for the story.

Years later, after they had built a new jail, the old jail downtown was sold to a guy who started development on the buildings and I worked on the crew. I found 2 of these signs tucked in a corner-

I gave the Boss 1 and stashed 1 for myself.

My Bestest Buddy Steve & I worked as laborers when they tore the boilers out of the place. There were 3 big boilers in the boiler house and there was one guy, Big Harry, who was cutting them up with a torch and Steve & I would haul the pieces out and toss 'em in the dumpster.
There's 2 or 3 layers of steel in those boilers and a blanket of asbestos between each one. Remember, this was a long time ago. Nobody wore a mask. There was so much asbestos floating around in the air it looked like we were working in a snow storm. We both coughed & sneezed up big hunks of fibrous shit for weeks. Never thought much about it back then.

Bestest buddy Steve & Big Harry have both died of lung cancer since then.

Coincidence? Damn if I know, but I try not to think about it too much.

Edit Note 12-15-09. This is not a GrumpyUnk original drawing. One of the comments was about the sacrilegious nature of this drawing. I agree.
This is the guy who did the artwork

Like they say on TV, I report. You decide.

Gratuitous Picture for Monday Night-
Yep, the Obama art is getting goofier.