The next meeting of the Tazewell County Genealogical and Historical Society will be Tuesday, May 13th at 7pm.  Katelynn Bouslog and Megan Nguyen of the Peoria Riverfront Museum will share plans regarding “America 250.”  For America’s semi quincentennial celebration next year, the Peoria Riverfront Museum will offer visitors tremendous opportunities to learn about our shared history.  This will be a great program so don’t miss it.  Meetings are free and open to the public.

Annual Carolyn’s Closet Rummage Sale!
Start saving items to donate for our annual “Carolyn’s Closet” rummage sale—please no electronics, TVs, or clothing! Hardbound and paperback books are welcome. The sale is Friday, June, 6, 2025, 8am–5pm and Saturday, June 7, 2025, 8am–4pm.  Members and friends are asked to drop off donations during library hours beginning Wednesday, May 1 through Wednesday, June 4.

Prohibition Era Crime 
All history is local until it is woven together with other stories to become part of the National fabric and there is no aspect of National history that doesn’t touch Tazewell County.

Since May includes National Police Week beginning May 11th, it seemed appropriate to recognize a fallen officer and reveal a little more of the prohibition era hijinks that went on in Central Illinois during the 1930s in this month’s column.

The Floyd Dunbar Gang
Much has been written of the Shelton gang but very little about the Dunbar gang, all of whom ended up in prison.  Most of them for theft, but the last one, Gale McDaniels, for murder.

Floyd M. Dunbar, the leader, was born and raised on a farm in Knox county, Illinois.  He lived in that area even after marrying Verna McCullough in Iowa in 1916 but sometime after the 1920 census moved to Peoria where the trouble began.  The couple lived at 1629 Glendale until their arrest in 1930.  Other members of the gang were Leo Carpenter, Arlo Norton, James VanWinkle, William H Wilcox, Ed Jennington, and eventually, Gale McDaniel.

The Dunbar gang was best known for boxcar theft.  They were indicted in federal court for robbery and interstate theft in nine counties for breaking into box cars as they sat idle in railyards.  They also burglarized stores, gas stations, and even a sheriff’s office.  It all ended in December 1930 when Floyd Dunbar was sentenced to 32 years in prison and sent to Leavenworth.  His wife, Verna, got ten years.  Altogether, six men and one woman were sent to prison.  Only Gale McDaniels, who had escaped from a jail in Rushville, was still loose, but wouldn’t be for long.

The gang was described as “a criminal organization that made it a business to rob and steal and made it a practice to educate the young of Peoria to rob and steal.”  The stolen loot from numerous thefts was found in a secret room of the Dunbar home on Glendale in Peoria.  Everything from rifles stolen from a sheriff’s office to false teeth and optical equipment were found in the house.  The gang was also suspected of being responsible for the deaths of two railroad special agents.

Dunbar (1896-1950) was in Leavenworth until he was moved to Alcatraz in 1943.  

Murder of Officer Henry Pascal Kounse
East Peoria Officer Henry Pascal Kounse (1890-1931) was killed on the night of February 10th, 1931 while trying to apprehend Gale McDaniels, the last of the Dunbar Gang.

Henry was born 26 March 1890 in Union, West Virginia to George and Eoline Kounse.  By 1910, Henry was working as a cooper in Terre Haute, Indiana where he would marry Unitie Williams 16 September 1911.  The couple then moved to Chicago where Henry found work as a riveter in a factory.  Henry made his last move to East Peoria, where he began working as a policeman for East Peoria.  His death certificate reports the cause of death as a “gunshot wound of head, gun in hand of Orval Gale McDaniels while resisting arrest.”

Henry left a wife, his elderly mother, and nine siblings.

Swift Justice

Less Than 24 hours From Crime to Penitentiary
On 11 February 1931 Orville Gale McDaniels pled guilty to murder in the first degree and was sentenced to life in prison at Joliet State Penitentiary, less than 24 hours after the murder.  The sentence was a surprise as everyone expected him to get the electric chair.  “The murder case was presented to the grand jury this afternoon and handling of the case was one of the swiftest in Tazewell county criminal history.  The killing took place last night; the capture was made this morning; the confession was secured during the forenoon; the case was presented to the grand jury this afternoon and by 3:30 this afternoon McDaniels had been sentenced to Joliet for the rest of his life.” 

McDaniels (1897-1943) was a married father of three that had lived in Brown County before moving to Quincy and taking to a life of crime.

Orville Gale McDaniels had previously confessed to robbing several banks and individuals and had organized another gang that held up filling stations at Rushville and Mt. Sterling.  He had gotten into bootlegging and delivering liquor, all leading to his prior arrests in Quincy and Rushville.  After several arrests there for violating prohibition laws, he relocated to Peoria where he joined the Dunbar gang.

Police received a tip that he was hiding out in a home along Coal Hollow Road in rural East Peoria, Groveland township, when Officer Kounse engaged in a gun fight with McDaniels as he fought his way out of the trap he was in at that home.  After the shoot-out, police searched all night before finding McDaniels hiding in a coal shed near another home along the same road.  He was first taken to the East Peoria jail but after a mob gathered there, he was moved to the county jail in Pekin.

Mrs. Lena Parton was held for questioning as she was believed to have been harboring the fugitive in her home.  Kounse was killed when he spotted McDaniels running from the back of her house and gave chase.

This story was one of many in the 2022 Sheriff’s series in the TCGHS Monthly publication.  It was a fun series to research.  For more information on the era, stop by TCGHS and read all of the stories.

The Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society is an award-winning 501c3, all volunteer organization that has been in continuous service to our members and the public for 47 years.  TCGHS operates an archive, library and research facility at 719 N. 11th St., Pekin.  Visit our website at www.tcghs.org to learn more about us.   If you have any point of interest that you would like to know more about, stop in at TCGHS or drop us a line.