Sheriff William Van Camp

William Van Camp

Sheriff William Van Camp was shot and killed while investigating a report of two suspicious men sitting in a stolen car in a wooded area approximately one mile north of Mt. Carmel.

Both men were discovered in the Ohio Penitentiary six months later where they were both serving a 25-year sentence for robbing the Farmers Bank in Greenville. They were released on August 18th, 1939, without notification to authorities in Indiana. Six weeks later Sheriff Van Camp's killer was apprehended in Wheeling, West Virginia, after he resisted arrest and was shot by a police officer. He was returned to Indiana and died from his gunshot wound on October 28th, 1939, in the Franklin County Jail.

The other suspect was apprehended in Ohio four weeks after being released. He was returned to Franklin County where he was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Sheriff Van Camp was a U.S. Army veteran of WWI and had served with the Franklin County Sheriff's Department for three years.