gun, ammunition and a bullet-proof vest in Lake Michigan, said researcher Gordon Herigstad.
   Herigstad, of North Hollywood, Calif., whose hobby centers on Thompson submachine guns made in the early 1920s, was doing research and traced the gun's path through record$ in the FBI library in Washington, D.C., to the owner, the Porter County Sheriff's Department.
   A letter from Porter County Sheriff David Reynolds to the FBI resulted In good news: The gun, with its rightful owner found, could come home again.
   Thursday, the gun, with a reported value of $1 million, was formally presented in a ceremony at the Memorial Opera House.
   "It may be a dark side of history, but it is a part of history," said 70-year-old Norine Sandino of Michigan City, who brought along yellowed newspaper clippings from the 1930s from LaPorte County, telling about Dillinger, his jail break and death out- side the Biograph Theater in Chicago after Anna Sage, "the lady in red," set him up for FBI capture.
   Porter County police Chief Deputy David Lain, a police history buff, said the gun, despite its journey with the infamous Dillinger, may never have killed anyone.
   The mobster is reported to have carried the gun during a crime spree spanning the five: months between his jailbreak and his death.

   The Porter County Sheriffs Department has its Tommy gun back,
   Now it's Lake County's turn to try.
   Firearms researcher Gordon Herigstad said a similar gun belonging to Lake County is on display at FBI headquarters in Washington.
   That's news to Lake County, said Sheriffs Department spokesman Loy Roberson.
   Sheriffs Police Chief Miguel Arredondo said his debarment also will write FBI Director Louis Freeh, hoping for the same success Porter County enjoyed.
   Meanwhile, Bill Wellman, president of the Lake County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said he knows a great spot to display Porter County's new-found treasure.  The Dillinger Museum in Hammond.
  "it would be a real asset."

- Post-Tribune Staff Report

   "Dillinger would fire a burst into the ceiling or floor during a bank robbery to scare the victims," he said. After a brief presentation, Lain carried the Thompson to the target range in the Porter County Jail basement where Herigstad cleaned the barrel, loaded 50 cartridges into the magazine and fired them off in about three seconds.
   "We will keep the gun in a safe place and it will be displayed in our new county jail when it opens on Indiana 49," Lain said.
   Reporter Frank Wiget can be reached at 477-6012 or by e-mail at fwiget@post.trib.com.