By Fred Steiner
Bluffton favorite son Charles Triplehorn died Aug. 25, 2022.
Aside from his achievements in science, he was witness to two remarkable events during his lifetime.
He is possibly the only person with such an usual claim to fame. He witnessed Bluffton’s John Dillinger bank robbery in August of 1933. And, he attended the famous 150 Snow Bowl football game in Columbus, played by Ohio State and Michigan.
Several years ago, during a visit to Bluffton, Fred Steiner invited Charles to write down his version of both accounts.
As he modesty states, “All of this left a lasting impression on me, and over the years has been a great conversation piece.”
Seriously understated, Charles was no doubt the life of every party he ever attend.
Both accounts are in the book “Bluffton Anthology – A Creek Runs Through It.”
https://www.blufftonforever.com/bluffton-books
His Dillinger account follows:
Our chat with Charles about his John Dillinger experience took place in the doorway of what is today Do It Best Family Hardware, 109 N. Main St., and the Edward Jones office at 111 N. Main St.
At the time of our conversation, in 2007, he was the last-living eyewitness to Bluffton’s Citizens National Bank robbery pulled off by Dillinger and his gang.
He was in Bluffton attending a Bluffton High School class of 1945 reunion. We stood between the two businesses because that’s where Charles stood at noon on Aug. 17, 1933.
We should point out that Bluffton News editor, Ted Biery, on the other side of the street, also witnessed the event. He wrote an excellent account of what happened. His opening paragraph sets the scene as only a journalism graduate (he was a 1913 Ohio State journalism graduate) could craft. His writing has accuracy, brevity and clarity:
“Staging a bold daylight robbery, five well-dressed bandits held up the Citizens National Bank at South Main and Church streets at noon Monday and escaped in an auto with loot of $2,100. The loss is covered by insurance.”
Here’s what Charles remembers:
I was, indeed, a witness to the John Dillinger robbery. Bear in mind that I was only 6 years old.
Being almost three-fourth of a century ago, so much of what I recall is somewhat hazy and probably modified and embellished by retelling. On that fateful day, my mother sent me to stay with Fred and Zoe Zehrbach, probably to get me out of her hair for a while.
Zehrbachs lived in an upstairs apartment above what was then Barnes’ Grocery, in the next block from the bank. I ambled along Main Street, passed the bank – obviously Dillinger was inside as I walked by – crossed Church Street and was in front of Greding’s Hardware when the shooting began.
Greding’s had a display of cane fishing poles in front of the store right next to the entrance to the Zehrbach apartment. Fred was awaiting my arrival so he was right there, grabbed me and pulled me into the entrance of his place.
From there, we were able to watch what was going on by peeking around the cane poles. The entire episode lasted only a few minutes.
I distinctly remember one of the Dillinger men standing in the intersection brandishing a machine gun as though he were directing traffic. He sprayed a few rounds at random to make certain that there were no interruptions of the activity inside the bank.
All at once two men dashed out of the bank firing pistols, jumped in a car, picked up their lookout, and roared away out of town toward Findlay. All of this left a lasting impression on me, and over the years has been a great conversation piece.
There are several amusing anecdotes associated with the Dillinger robbery. One involved my grandmother’s brother, M.M. (Dode) Murray, who was postmaster on duty at the post office, directly across Main Street from the bank.
Someone yelled, “Dode, they’re robbing the bank.” Dode grabbed a gun, darted out and positioned himself behind a brick pillar in front of the post office. He poked his head around the pillar to assess the situation, and was an easy target with his snow white hair.
The mobster in the street fired a warning shot and Dode remained stolidly behind the pillar until well after the getaway. Another comedy of errors involved the Bluffton volunteer fire department.
An alarm was somehow sounded and the firemen assuming it was a fire, assembled at the town hall in which the fire truck was garaged. The truck pulled out of the garage, started the siren, and turned the corner onto Main Street.
Someone spotted the lookout – who may have fired a warning shot – whereupon they quickly backed the truck back to the garage.
Another interesting sidelight was that Dr. Jesse Steiner had his office directly above the bank. Dr. Steiner was a big game hunter, and had a number of weapons in his office, along with a collection of stuffed animals. He could have easily picked off the robbers from his window.
There you have my recollections for what they are worth. Evan Herr, a classmate, had a bullet from one of the guns used in the robbery. His father, Nelson Herr, worked in the bank and picked up the bullet after things returned to normal.
(Note: Over 40 shots were fired in both directions of Main Street by the gang, using revolvers and a sub-machine gun that sprayed bullets.)
OSU-Michigan Snow Bowl
The Bluffton Triplehorn brothers, Charles, John and Don, experienced two never-will-happen-again Ohio events that few brothers anywhere can match.
Charles witnessed the John Dillinger bank robbery in Bluffton. And, all three attended the 1950 Ohio State-Michigan snow bowl. Charles said that his brother, John, was being recruited to play football for the Buckeyes and watched the game from the bench.
When John went to Columbus he brought Don, who was in graduate school at OSU at the time, some frozen rabbits.
John sat with the rabbits throughout the game. It was so bitterly cold that the rabbits never thawed out.
Here’s a conversation we had with Charles about the snow bowl.
This entire column is found at www.blufftonforever.com/post/charles-triplehorn-one-of-bluffton-s-specia...
