Dodging bullets: Bluffton oral history 90+ years after Dillinger robbery

From BlufftonIcon.com

By Paula Pyzik Scott / Photos by Mark Yoder

"Wake the Dead" Harley riders visit for Dillinger reenactment 

By Paula Pyzik Scott / Photos by Mark Yoder

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Fortunately, the August 1933 robbery of Bluffton’s Citizens National Bank isn’t the most notorious chapter in gangster John Dillinger’s career. The four men involved in the heist warned local shopkeepers to stay out of sight. Bullets struck several downtown buildings, but no one was injured. Other details of that day, including the involvement of 14 witnesses, have become part of Bluffton history and legend.

When Joe Bayliff's Route 30 Harley-Davidson asked the Bluffton Ohio Historical Society if it could share the robbery story with riders on their 2026 Wake the Dead Motorcycle Ride, the society said yes. In just a few months, the society planned a lively October 10 event featuring a reenactment, Dillinger’s cell from the Allen County Jail, a motorcycle show and a chance to share oral history at the Bluffton Senior Center.

The robbery has inspired local historian and journalist Fred Steiner and his brother Rudi to compile accounts from local families for the book Four Guys Walk into a Bank: And the Rest is Bluffton Oral History (available for purchase at the Bluffton Senior Center). For the reenactment, Fred created a 30-minute script for narrator Kevin Gratz and a cast of volunteer actors.

In some cases, the actors portrayed their own relatives who were witnesses that day. Most dressed in period costumes and all wore a white sash to show their status among the onlookers. The story unfolded as theater-in-the-round in the middle of Bluffton’s Main St. at Church and Cherry.

In a nutshell, the robbery lasted just 5 minutes. Despite the robbers’ use of 20-30 bullets to turn away witnesses, no one was hurt. Only $2,100 was stolen because the bank had most of its cash in a special time-locked safe.  And for some seven weeks it wasn’t known that John Dillinger–who would become the FBI’s Public Enemy Number One in 1934–was responsible for the robbery.

The reenactment audience–estimated at 600, with some seated on bleachers and lawn chairs, and most standing in a huge circle–heard about eyewitness accounts, including that of Bluffton News editor Ted Biery, who was standing across Main St. at the Post Office (not the current Post Office, built in 1940).

Biery would write the article “Five bandits rob bank here; Escape with loot of $2,100.” The article notes that the bandits were well dressed. He details that machine gun fire sprayed the streets, but did it? Steiner’s script reveals that only .45 caliber shells were recovered, two of which Tom Benroth displayed at the reenactment.

As the Bluffton Ohio Historical Society prepares to open a museum at Main and Jefferson streets, a Dillinger exhibit will be a key feature. But how do you corroborate the facts of the robbery with so many stories handed down from generation to generation?

One such story was shared with the Icon by Bob Suter, who said his first wife’s father was Sam Bixel, who owned a dry goods store near the bank. When Bixel heard the bank’s burglar alarm, he rushed out to discover one of the robbers. He was told to get back in the store “if he knew what was good for him.” The Bixel family says that Sam's hair turned prematurely white after the robbery.

One of the most debated details of the robbery is: what was the color, make and model of the getaway car? There was no consensus. But as several car buffs noted at the event, there were few differences in color and design among cars of the 1930s.

Thelma Page, who was four years old at the time of the robbery, attended the October 10 event and joined in conversation at the Senior Center. She likely saw the Dillinger getaway car speeding down Old 224 in Gilboa. Page’s parents later heard about the same car from the Gilboa telephone operator and postmistress Ella Dorriot.

Some 25 people came to the Senior Center for conversation with Page, Kevin Gratz, Fred and Rudi Steiner, and Bluffton Ohio Historical Society board members Ron Epp (president) and Dan Groman (vice-president). The takeaway from this discussion was that the Bluffton bank robbery was part of a chain of events that led to Dillinger being named Public Enemy No. 1 by the FBI in 1934 and killed by special agents in July 1934 in Chicago.

During the event, the Icon asked several people, “When did the history bug bite you?”, including Fred Steiner. He responded that it was due to his mother, Margaret Steiner: “She knew stuff, she collected stuff. We’d walk by a building, and she’d say, 'You know what happened here? And over there?’” When asked if he’d make the presentation again, Steiner laughed and said no. And then he laughed and said, “Yeah, in 10 years.”

For updates on the creation of the Bluffton Ohio Historical Society Museum and its Dillinger exhibit, visit BlufftonForever.com, a website created by Fred Steiner and gifted to the historical society in 2024, and follow the organization on Facebook.

BOHS meetings are held at 7:00 p.m. on the second Wednesday of the month (including Oct. 14) at the 1899 Depot at Buckeye Lake (a.k.a. The Bluffton Sportsmen's Club).