Deputy Sheriff
Harry Ellsworth Spice
LaGrange County Sheriff's Department
Friday, December 3, 1937

Age: 45
Served: 3 years
Badge #: 44-2
Panel 54W, Line 7
Panel L9, Line 8

Incident Details

Cause of Death:
Gunfire
Date/Time of Incident:
Friday, December 3, 1937
10:00 am
Incident to Death Duration:
Same day
Incident Location:
North County Road 200 East, near LaGrange
Incident County:
LaGrange
Incident Township:
Bloomfield
Weapon Used:
.32-caliber handgun
Suspect Disposition:
Executed in 1938
Burial Place:
South Milford Cemetery, South Milford

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   Deputy Sheriff Harry Spice was shot and killed attempting to arrest an armed robbery suspect.

   The day before, the subject fled after he had robbed the clerk of an A&P grocery store in Kendallville of $60 at gunpoint where an employee was shot and wounded.

   Deputy Spice, the Noble County sheriff and two Indiana state troopers went to a farm where they were informed the man worked. As Deputy Spice opened the house's rear door, he was shot and killed, and the Noble County sheriff was wounded in the arm.

   The 28-year-old suspect fled from the farmhouse until being captured the next day one half-mile north of Ontario by two Michigan state troopers. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. On June 28, 1938, he was executed by electrocution at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.

   Deputy Sheriff Spice, from LaGrange, was survived by his wife, son, two daughters and father.


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Deputy Sheriff Harry Ellsworth Spice - LaGrange County Sheriff's Department - INLEM.org