Deputy Sheriff A.A. “Pete” Killian

From about 1936 to 1948, Alfred A. “Pete” Killian worked as a Deputy Sheriff for the Erie County Sheriff’s Department. Pete Killian is the man standing on the left in the picture above. Wanted posters can be seen on the walls of the office. When Pete worked for the Sheriff’s Department, it was located inside the Erie County Jail on West Adams Street, now a part of the Sandusky Library.

Deputy Killian took special training in fingerprinting and identification at the Institute of Applied Science and at the University of Oklahoma. In 1937 he was elected to be a trustee of the Ohio State Association of Identification. Throughout his law enforcement career, Deputy Killian spoke about the science of fingerprinting to several local civic organizations. When he spoke to the Exchange Club in 1946, he pointed out that in collecting millions of fingerprints over fifty years, no two were ever found to be identical.  An article which appeared in the February 24, 1938 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal reported that Deputy Killian had 2,500 fingerprints that had been collected over a ten year period.

A.A. “Pete” Killian died at Providence Hospital in Sandusky on December 7, 1962, at the age of 71. He was survived by his wife, nieces and nephews. We do not know the details of why Deputy Killian is pictured behind "bars" (as a joke by/for friends?), but this photograph is housed in the historical photograph collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.