Man charged with Parke County bridge fires responsible for car bomb threat in Vigo County

Monday, December 29, 2025 at 6:09 AM

By Paul Gable

The man at the center of a recent bomb threat scare at the Vigo County Courthouse has ties to Parke County.

According to local law enforcement officials, 55-year-old Jessie Ison was arrested earlier this month on charges of intimidation and obstruction of justice. Police say he parked his vehicle on Third Street in Terre Haute and made threats. As a result, nearby businesses, the Vigo County Courthouse and Terre Haute City Hall were all evacuated before officials found no explosives in his vehicle.

However, this was not the first time Ison has been on the radar of police.

Ison, who was previously known as Jesse Payne, had been convicted in 2002 of burning the Jeffries Ford Bridge, in 2005 of burning the Bridgeton Bridge and in 2005 of the attempted arson of the Mansfield Bridge. He was sentenced to a total of 90 years behind bars, however, he was later found to be mentally ill on all counts.

According to documents, the Indiana State Supreme Court previously ruled 3-2 in favor of saying Ison was legally insane, overturning a jury's conviction.

Two decades ago, Ison was charged with two counts of arson after burning down two historic Parke County covered bridges and an attempted arson of a third. He was also charged as a habitual offender before a trial court found him incompetent to stand trial in 2016. At his trial, Ison said he was insane and three mental health experts testified that he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and delusional disorder.