Documents signed by famous FBI man found in NE Ohio

Associated Press

AKRON

Record-keepers examining long-forgotten documents in a Northeast Ohio courthouse have found some unremarkable depositions with a noteworthy signature: Melvin Purvis Jr., the FBI man famous for tracking down John Dillinger and other gangsters in the 1930s.

The Akron Beacon Journal reports the workers found the documents in the Summit County Courthouse attic. The depositions signed in 1927 involved in a lawsuit over potatoes between an Akron company and one in South Carolina, where Purvis practiced law before joining the FBI.

FBI historian John Fox says it’s an interesting discovery because the agency typically doesn’t have many records on agents from that era prior to their FBI work.

The county does not plan to sell the documents. Instead, the workers hope to frame and display them.

Purvis died in 1960.