Family Says Wrong Body Is In Dillinger’s Grave

dillinger

INDIANAPOLIS — Two relatives of infamous gangster John Dillinger say they have evidence that the man buried in Indianapolis’ Crown Hill Cemetery isn’t him.

Mike Thompson and Carol Thompson Griffith, Dillinger’s niece and nephew, got permission from the state to have the gangster exhumed from his grave for DNA testing and forensic analysis.

Thompson said he has evidence that “demonstrates the individual who was shot and killed at the Biograph Theater in Chicago on July 22, 1934, may not, in fact, have been John H. Dillinger.”

“This evidence includes the non-match of his eye color, the ear shape, and protrusion from the head, the fingerprints not matching, the existence of a heart condition, and the apparent non-match of the anterior teeth,” Thompson wrote.

Thompson said he wants to learn what happened to Dillinger if he isn’t the man buried in Crown Hill Cemetery.

“If he was not killed on that date, I am interested in discovering what happened to him, where he lived, whether he had children and whether any such children or grandchildren are living today,” he said.

Thompson believes the FBI killed the wrong man outside the Biograph Theater. He said it is important to identify the person buried in Dillinger’s grave.

Dillinger’s remains will be exhumed and reinterred Sept. 16.

A spokesman for A&E Network, Dan Silberman, has also confirmed that the planned exhumation will be part of a documentary on Dillinger for The History Channel.