The gang era, tested · the famous gangs robbed around Fort Wayne, not in it

1924–1934

The question: northeastern Indiana sat inside the working territory of the two most documented bank-robbing gangs of the era, and local retelling has long placed their work in Fort Wayne itself. The robbery lists — the hardest part of the record, compiled from the indictments, the Bureau's histories and the standard modern accounts — say otherwise, and this entry prints the test and its result.

The Pierpont gang: Harry Pierpont's gang of 1924–25, in which the young John Dillinger briefly served, robbed the South Marion State Bank at Marion (Nov. 26, 1924), the Citizens State Bank at Noblesville (Dec. 16, 1924), the Upland State Bank (Dec. 23, 1924), the New Harmony Bank and Trust (March 10, 1925), and the South Side Bank at Kokomo (March 27, 1925). No Fort Wayne bank is on the list. The gang's Fort Wayne footprints are of another kind: Thaddeus "Ted" Skeer, one of its members, was a Fort Wayne man, of 1329 Main Street; the blue Moon touring car used at Kokomo had been stolen in Fort Wayne the night before, and it was Fort Wayne police, under Captain William Pappert, who had been watching Skeer and who worked the theory of his involvement once the Kokomo robbery was reported; Fort Wayne police also investigated the gang for the robbery of an A&P store in the city on March 21, 1925 — a store, not a bank.

The Dillinger gang: the banks documented to Dillinger's own gang, from June 1933 to June 1934, are at New Carlisle and Fostoria, Ohio; Daleville, Montpelier, Indianapolis, Greencastle, East Chicago and South Bend, Indiana; Racine, Wisconsin; Chicago; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Mason City, Iowa. No Fort Wayne bank appears. Fort Wayne's genuine Dillinger connections are two, and both are owned by the Crime section and pointed to here only: Homer Van Meter, the Fort Wayne man who became Dillinger's associate and is buried at Lindenwood, and the Huntertown State Bank, robbed in the 1930s by men the local record identifies as Dillinger gang members. Claims that Dillinger himself robbed banks in Fort Wayne, still repeated on the modern web, are not supported by any documented robbery list reached for this section.

The one that did happen: the era's single Fort Wayne bank robbery belongs to the Crime section's record: the Broadway State Bank at Broadway and Taylor streets, robbed of $5,912 on August 20, 1930, by a Chicago gang whose George Kelly was not "Machine Gun" Kelly — the correction, and the case, are told there in full.

Sources:

1. Documented Dillinger-gang robbery lists as compiled from the Bureau's record in Bryan Burrough, Public Enemies (2004), and the FBI-derived compilations at Alcatraz East and in contemporary-newspaper retrospectives — Daleville, Montpelier, Bluffton (Ohio), Indianapolis, Greencastle, Racine, Chicago, East Chicago, Sioux Falls, Mason City, Fostoria, South Bend; no Fort Wayne bank listed.
2. "Earl Northern" and "Ted Skeer," biographical compilations from the newspaper record — the Pierpont-Bridgewater-Northern gang's bank list (Marion, Noblesville, Upland, New Harmony, Kokomo); Skeer's Fort Wayne residence; the Kokomo getaway car stolen in Fort Wayne; Captain Pappert's role; the A&P store investigation of March 21, 1925.
3. Crime History — the Broadway State Bank robbery (Aug. 20, 1930), Homer Van Meter, and the Huntertown State Bank, owned there and cross-referenced here.