A prison by the lake
Indiana State Prison stands in Michigan City, not far from the Lake Michigan shore. It is one of the oldest prisons in Indiana that still holds people today.
Indiana’s first state prison opened in 1822 in Jeffersonville, on the Ohio River. In the 1850s the state decided to build a second one in the north and chose Michigan City. It was finished in 1860 and called Indiana State Prison North, while the older prison became Prison South. Its walls first enclosed about 8.3 acres. They were later pushed out to about 24.
Today it is a level four, maximum-security prison for men, with room for roughly 2,400 people. For a while the state planned to close it. In August 2025 the Indiana Department of Correction said it would stay open past 2027, with no end date set.
How the 1933 break was planned
John Dillinger went to prison in 1924 after a failed holdup of a grocer in Mooresville, Indiana. His sentence was 10 to 20 years. He started at the state reformatory in Pendleton and was later moved to the prison in Michigan City. There he was held alongside older inmates, among them Harry Pierpont, who became a close friend.
Dillinger was paroled in May 1933. (Sources give different days that month.) Once out, he helped plan and pay for an escape for the men he had left behind. The most common account says pistols were hidden in a shipment bound for the prison’s shirt factory. Other accounts tell it differently, and no one can say for certain.
By the time the plan was carried out, Dillinger was locked up again himself. He was arrested in Dayton, Ohio, a few days before the break.
September 26, 1933
On September 26, 1933, ten inmates broke out of the prison with smuggled pistols. Indiana’s state archives still hold the records of the ten, among them Pierpont, Charles Makley, Russell Clark and John Hamilton. Newspapers at the time reported more violence during the getaway, but those details are not well enough documented for us to repeat here.
What followed
On October 12, 1933, three of the escaped men walked into the sheriff’s office in Lima, Ohio. They claimed to be Indiana officers and asked to see Dillinger. Allen County Sheriff Jess Sarber was shot, and he died that evening. Dillinger was freed.
The group lasted less than a year. Several of them, Dillinger included, were arrested in Tucson, Arizona, in January 1934. Pierpont and Makley were sentenced to death in Ohio for the sheriff’s killing, and Clark to life in prison. Makley was killed in a failed escape attempt in September 1934, and Pierpont was executed that October. In between, Dillinger was held in the Lake County jail in Crown Point and escaped from it in March 1934. Federal agents killed him in Chicago on July 22, 1934.
Movies and books have often turned this story into an adventure. It wasn’t one. A sheriff in Lima was shot in his own jail and died, leaving his family behind. Early in 1934 an East Chicago police officer, William O’Malley, was killed during a bank robbery that Dillinger was charged with. The real story is about the people who were hurt, and the officers and families who lived with what happened.
Where the sources disagree
More than 90 years of retelling have blurred some details. Even careful sources disagree on the day in May 1933 that Dillinger was paroled. PBS gives the date of the escape as September 22, while the state archives and newspapers of the time put it on September 26. The Dayton Daily News dates Dillinger’s arrest in Dayton to September 22, which may explain the mix-up. Accounts also differ on the type of pistols and on exactly how they got inside.
What the record does support is the outline: ten men, smuggled guns, a planned break, and a chain of events that ended with several lives lost. Where details are uncertain, this article leaves them out rather than guess.
Seeing it today
Indiana State Prison is an active, working prison. It is not a museum and it is not open to visitors. If you want to see the old walls, please view them from the public road, don’t stop where you’re not allowed, and respect the staff who work there and the people held inside.
According to the Indiana Capital Chronicle, Michigan City leaders have gathered ideas for how the waterfront site might one day be reused, but for now it remains a prison. To learn more, the Indiana Archives and Records Administration keeps a Dillinger collection, and you can find more local stories on our La Porte County history page and in La Porte After Dark.
Questions
When did the Indiana State Prison escape happen?
Ten inmates escaped on September 26, 1933.
Was John Dillinger one of the ten who escaped?
No. Dillinger had been paroled in May 1933 and helped plan the escape, but he had been arrested in Dayton, Ohio, a few days before it happened.
How old is Indiana State Prison?
It was finished in 1860 as Indiana State Prison North and is one of the oldest prisons in Indiana still in use.
Can I visit Indiana State Prison?
No. It is an active maximum-security prison, not a museum. Please view it only from the public road.
Sources: Indiana Archives and Records Administration: Dillinger collection · Indiana State Library: Indiana state prisons photograph collection · Indiana Department of Correction: Indiana State Prison · Indiana Capital Chronicle: Indiana DOC plans to keep Michigan City prison open beyond 2027 · PBS American Experience: John Dillinger · Encyclopaedia Britannica: John Dillinger · Allen County (Ohio) Sheriff's Office: Sheriff Jess Sarber tribute · Indiana Department of Correction: history book (Indiana State Prison North, 1860) · Indiana History Blog (Indiana Historical Bureau): John Dillinger posts · HISTORY: 10 things you may not know about John Dillinger · Dayton Daily News: How a Dayton landlady helped nab John Dillinger · The Mob Museum: Dillinger's Crown Point jail escape