Tourism officials want to know just how much the collection of John Dillinger artifacts from its former museum are worth and if they can find a new home for the items.
Board members Doug Spencer and Tom Dabertin have been tasked with looking into ways to evaluate the collection, determine its value and either sell it outright or find a museum where it can again be placed on display, Andy Qunell, board president, said.
The items have been sitting in climate-controlled storage for the past five years since the museum in the lower level of the Historic Lake County Court House closed.
“This stuff is just sitting around. Is there some value to it or is there the right home,” Qunell said.
The SSCVA has a trove of items including the wooden gun Dillinger used to escape the Lake County Jail on March 3, 1934, and the bloodstained clothing he was wearing at the time of his shooting by police outside of the Biograph Theater in Chicago on July 22, 1934.
Spencer said he has been talking with people who run the Old Sheriff’s House and Museum in Crown Point to gauge any interest they may have. Interest also has been expressed by a museum in Las Vegas.
“We are not even at that point of discussing yet,” Spencer said.
Dabertin said agreed it is still early in the process. The tourism bureau is looking to tap an appraiser from the American Appraisers Association to conduct the appraisal prior to divesting the collection.
“We recognize we no longer have any interest in having a display or exhibit,” Dabertin said. It costs the SSCVA about $18,000 a year in licensing fees for the items and another approximately $3,000 a year in storage fees.
“The Convention and Visitors Authority never had any business being in the museum business. I, for one, thought the exhibit was not in good taste,” Dabertin said.
He said the museum should be located at a historically significant facility or a museum and not at a visitors center. Dabertin did not visit the museum after it was moved from the Indiana Welcome Center in Hammond to Crown Point.
A museum to a noted criminal sends the wrong message about Northwest Indiana, he said.
“There are thousands of good reasons to come to Northwest Indiana. Trying to lure people to Northwest Indiana because we have an exhibit on a criminal wouldn’t be on the top of my list of priorities,” Dabertin said.
He said there has been a lot of interest in the collection from both museums and private collectors, both locally and out of state. Some board members would like the collection to stay local, he added. It is still too early to consider where the items will go until the board has a better grasp on the value of the collection. Selling the collection may help the tourism authority recoup some of the costs it incurred because of the collection, he said.
“We prefer it to go to somebody that can display it and present it in the proper manner,” Dabertin said.
Carrie Napoleon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
