John Dillinger

Public Enemies, the new film about the federal pursuit of John Dillinger starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, is scheduled for release on July 1st.

Before he became the country's most infamous gangster, Dillinger allegedly kept a hideout in Daviess County; a place called High Rock on the White River south of Glendale. Dillinger's name and the outline of a gun are carved into the limestone there.

Dillinger had many sympathizers in the general population, as some people saw him as a Robin Hood-esque antihero delivering a deserved comeuppance to crooked bankers. Among other things, he was known to burn the bank's mortgage records during a heist.

In the museum we have the records from the Otterbein Methodist Church, including the longtime minister's personal log. Every entry over the span of 40-plus years concerns the Methodist church except for two. One noted his witnessing the launch of an Apollo moon mission in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The other marked the death of John Dillinger on July 22, 1934.