With the new movie “Public Enemies” there is renewed interest in John Dillinger lore. Dillinger who grew up in and around Indianapolis is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery on the near northwest side of Indy. A local news story told of the increase traffic to Dillinger’s gravesite.

I was driving past Crown Hill today and thought I’d stop by. In the cemetery office I got a map of many of the famous people buried in Indianapolis’ most scenic and historic cemetery. Dillinger’s plot is said by the staff to be the most requested, even more than President Benjamin Harrison and “Little Orphan Annie” poet James Whitcomb Riley.

I wondered if one of Indianapolis’ best known motorcyclists was buried there. I asked the staff if they had a gravesite for an Erwin Baker, better known to motorcyclist as Cannonball Baker. Sure enough Cannonball is laid to rest at Crown Hill; in fact he’s just a stone’s throw away from Dillinger.

Cannonball won the very first race ever held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1909. He was relatively unknown at the time, but that win helped thrust him into the national limelight. Baker used that victory as a springboard to get factory sponsorship, which eventually led to his famous cross-country record runs. Cannonball, or Cannon Ball as it says on his tombstone, is now in the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.

Baker also won the only motorcycle race ever attended by a sitting president, a special exhibition held at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Mile, or Indy Mile, for President Taft in 1911. The Indy Mile lives on today. Baker passed away in 1960. He is one of the many famous buried in Indianapolis’ most popular resting place.

You can read his bio at: http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/hofbiopage.asp?id=15