Indiana - Part III

This marker is in Goshen, Indiana, in Elkhart County.

The Goshen Police Booth was built in the late 1930's to protect the city's two banks, which were located diagonally opposite of one another. At that time city officials had good reason to fear that auto bandits traveling the Lincoln Highway might strike Goshen. In 1933 members of the John Dillinger gang had raided police facilities in Auburn, Indiana, and Peru, Indiana, stealing several machine guns and other weapons, ammunition, and bulletproof vests. The gang later robbed a police station in nearby Warsaw, Indiana, of guns and bulletproof vests. In 1934 Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd robbed a bank in South Bend, Indiana, killing a law enforcement officer in the process. With Auburn located to the east of Goshen, Peru to the west, Warsaw to the south and South Bend to the north, it seemed likely that the Dillinger gang, and other gangsters of the day, were passing through Goshen while en route to commit their crimes.

Source: Goshen's Lincoln Highway