Captain Matthew Leach
Matt Leach of the Indiana State Police was the Dillinger Gang's arch enemy during their four month rampage. When Dillinger had been arrested in Dayton, Ohio and shipped off to the Lima jail to await trial for bank robbery, Leach knew he was more then a punk...or did he? Papers were found in Dillinger's possession and the Dayton authorities thought they were about a possible Indiana prison escape. This information was offered to Captain Leach, but he supposedly even refuse to look at them, deeming them unimportant and told the Dayton police that Dillinger wasn't that “big.“ But researching Leach reveals a different type of man that most likely would have taken the information found on Dillinger seriously. He claimed Ohio refused him copies of the papers.
When Pierpont and the nine others broke out of Michigan City, Dillinger was behind bars in Lima where he was transferred to. The Sheriff, Jess Sarber called John a punk and considered him as harmless. Dayton and Indiana both warned Sheriff Sarber that Pierpont may attempt to break Dillinger out. Sarber didn't change his view on the Indiana outlaw and paid little heed to the warnings. On Oct. 12, 1933, Harry Pierpont, Charles Makley, Russell Clark, John Hamilton and Ed Shouse liberated Dillinger from the Lima jail, Harry shot Sarber when he tried to stop them. Captain Leach knew the gang leader was actually Harry Pierpont, but felt by naming John Dillinger as the leader it would create jealously among the two men and possible cause the end of the Terror Gang. But this never happened, Pierpont was too grateful to Dillinger for helping him escape prison. Pierpont never cared for publicity and he knew the truth.
Leach followed every possible lead, but never caught the gang with his newly formed state police force. He would leak stories to the press and which helped to build up the image of the Dillinger gang. Pierpont once quoted during his murder trial that if you had never heard of Matt Leach, 'you would never have heard of him.'
The Dillinger Gang story should not be told without the name of Leach appearing., but sadly it is ignored today in all movies based on Dillinger’s life. After his Dillinger days, Leach continued to work on the State Police force. By 1937, he had leaked to the press information on the Brady gang, who were creating terror through the state at the time. He and the FBI gradually grew to where neither one could work with the other. This was to be his undoing. J. Edgar Hoover demanded his resignation and eventually got it. Leach would later say the FBI hounded the state into firing him, refused to share information with the state police and later wrote a tell-all book about the FBI and Dillinger case. Oddly, this was never published. He had been a veteran of World War I and also served in World War II.
On June 14, 1955, he was returning home with his wife Mary from New York, where he had been promoting his manuscript. Another car lost control and hit them head on, throwing them both from the car. Leach died soon afterward, while his wife passed away several hours later. Also killed were two women in the other car. The manuscript disappeared. Matt Leach is buried at the Calumet Park Cemetery in Merrillville, Indiana along side his wife.
Matt's Grave Worn From Time
Another View Of Grave
Indiana State Police Force 1933
Leach In Front Of Pierpont On Right
