They won't let John Dillinger rest . . .

[MajorHoy]

Here's an interesting bit of news:

Slain gangster John Dillinger's body to be exhumed from Crown Hill Cemetery in Indiana
Holly V. Hays and Dawn Mitchell - - USA TODAY • July 30, 2019

INDIANAPOLIS - The body of John Dillinger, the notorious 1930s bank robber, will be exhumed from his Crown Hill Cemetery burial site in Indianapolis.
This month, the Indiana State Department of Health approved a request from Dillinger's nephew, Michael C. Thompson, to disinter the body and return it to its place at Crown Hill by Sept. 16.
There was no reason given for the request for exhumation.
Aaron Seaman, general manager of Crown Hill, said they have not been contacted by the funeral home regarding the exhumation and a date has not been set. When reached by IndyStar Tuesday afternoon, Dillinger's great-nephew Travis Thompson said the family was declining to comment.
Born in Indianapolis on June 22, 1903, John Herbert Dillinger Jr.'s family moved to Mooresville, where Dillinger committed his first recorded crime — a car theft.
Dillinger went from small-time crook to America's Most Wanted after a string of bank robberies and an ill-fated bank robbery left a police officer dead. His status as Public Enemy No. 1 made him a legend.
On July 22, 1934, 15 FBI agents and members of the East Chicago Police Dept. killed John Dillinger as he left the Biograph Theatre in Chicago.

You can read the rest here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...newstopstories

The story does go on to mention that there have been theories that it wasn't Dillinger but a double for him that was gunned down by law enforcement agents in Chicago back in 1934.

[Kirby101]

Here's an interesting bit of news:You can read the rest here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...newstopstories

The story does go on to mention that there have been theories that it wasn't Dillinger but a double for him that was gunned down by law enforcement agents in Chicago back in 1934.

I will try to be delicate about this, but there is a king size way to know if it is Dillinger.

[MajorHoy]

I will try to be delicate about this, but there is a king size way to know if it is Dillinger.

Though I thought I remember hearing when I was a kid that after he was dead he was . . . separated . . . from the family jewels and such.

Don't know if that was true, though.

[Kirby101]

Though I thought I remember hearing when I was a kid that after he was dead he was . . . separated . . . from the family jewels and such.

Don't know if that was true, though.

Could be an urban legend. But that could be Indiana Jones' next quest.

[Surf]

Though I thought I remember hearing when I was a kid that after he was dead he was . . . separated . . . from the family jewels and such.

Don't know if that was true, though.

Definitely true. The story has been running here locally in Indianapolis past couple days. The nephew of Dillinger applied for the exhumation in accordance with some documentary. He's buried here in the biggest cemetery in the state. One of the newscasts a day after it got out that the county coroner at the time mutilated the remains of Dillinger... Fancha didn't mention that here in this link but I heard that the other morning.

[Iron Maiden]

I've been on a tour of the Crown Point, Indiana jail of Dillinger's famous prison break allegedly using a fake gun (some stories say a gun was smuggled into the jail). I live a short distance away and to raise money for restoration, they've been having haunted tours of the place and stage a Halloween haunted jail tour every year. It is pretty creepy inside. When they came to film on location I actually got to see Johnny Depp up close. There was a guy on the film crew on location in Crown Point that kept saying everyone who was behind the security barriers should go home. (He's the guy in the white jacket in the photo I took). He won't be coming outside for any scenes. But at the end of the evening he did come out and greeted as many people as he could personally. I was near a mother and her child and he even did his Jack Sparrow voice for them. Can't say what's going on with him now but he didn't have to do that. He could have just got into the one of the small fleet of black Cadillac SUVs and left.






I did see a creepy vintage photo of Dillinger and they had him on display at the Cook County Morgue where about 15,000 people viewed the body. (scroll towards the bottom of the article) People were gathered around like it was a party. I guess professionalism wasn't a thing in the coronor's office .

[MajorHoy]

. . . I did see a creepy vintage photo of Dillinger and they had him on display at the Cook County Morgue where about 15,000 people viewed the body. (scroll towards the bottom of the article) People were gathered around like it was a party. I guess professionalism wasn't a thing in the coronor's office.

Well, it was a different time back then. Remember, that was before television, and not everybody had their own telephones, radios, or cars. Back in the 1930s many parts of states like Indiana were really a bit isolated from the rest of the country, and the only way they might know about what was happening elsewhere was through newspapers.
As for Dillinger himself, he was truly infamous, even considered a bit of a folk hero to some people deep in the Depression. (Robbing banks might not have seemed so terrible to people had who lost their life savings through foreclosures and bank failures.) Dillinger's exploits and his death became a bit of a media circus.

[Iron Maiden]

It is definitely true that in this era the "gangsters" were romanticized. A lot of them would evade the police in the bigger cities by hiding out in rural areas of Indiana, Wisconsin or southwestern Michigan. People tell stories about someone from the mob in Chicago coming to the steel mills in Gary, Indiana at night and bribing someone to put a body in the blast furnaces. Even more recently, the Spilotro brother were killed and buried in a shallow grave on a farm near Morocco Indiana, again in the NW corner of Indiana near the Illinois border.

An associate of Capone's named Michael Carrozzo owned a property in an small town called Ainsworth, Indiana that is now a golf course. I always heard stories that Capone had visited there and the owner had a garage modifield so that the floor could be lowered to that the car was below ground level. I guess it would be to conceal a car from any visiting mobster. Local explorers have found what they think might have been an escape tunnel built for Capone but was never used.

I know there is a golf course or two in the area and my father once claimed his oldest brother once caddied for Capone on one of those courses. But sometimes wonder about that one. I'd have to ask one of my older siblings who might remember what exactly my father claimed. I was a child at the time I heard that. I suppose Capone could have come around just for a bit of recreation in a place that would be far away enough away from Chicago for him to get back and forth in the same day.

[GindyPosts]

I've been on a tour of the Crown Point, Indiana jail of Dillinger's famous prison break allegedly using a fake gun (some stories say a gun was smuggled into the jail). I live a short distance away and to raise money for restoration, they've been having haunted tours of the place and stage a Halloween haunted jail tour every year. It is pretty creepy inside. When they came to film on location I actually got to see Johnny Depp up close. There was a guy on the film crew on location in Crown Point that kept saying everyone who was behind the security barriers should go home. (He's the guy in the white jacket in the photo I took). He won't be coming outside for any scenes. But at the end of the evening he did come out and greeted as many people as he could personally. I was near a mother and her child and he even did his Jack Sparrow voice for them. Can't say what's going on with him now but he didn't have to do that. He could have just got into the one of the small fleet of black Cadillac SUVs and left.






I did see a creepy vintage photo of Dillinger and they had him on display at the Cook County Morgue where about 15,000 people viewed the body. (scroll towards the bottom of the article) People were gathered around like it was a party. I guess professionalism wasn't a thing in the coronor's office .

When a famous person is exhumed, people will swarm around for a chance to see anything. Certainly the same will be said for the re-burial of Dillinger.

I wasn't paying attention to this story, mind you. I've focused more on a trip to Cincinnati instead.

[Iron Maiden]

I just think it's for publicity. I read the History channel is involved. I'm sure there will be a special on this.

[MajorHoy]

I just think is for publicity. I read the History channel is involved. I'm sure there will be a special on this.

Hopefully it won't be another Geraldo Rivera and the opening of Al Capone's vault.

[GindyPosts]

Hopefully it won't be another Geraldo Rivera and the opening of Al Capone's vault.

[Iron Maiden]

Hopefully it won't be another Geraldo Rivera and the opening of Al Capone's vault.

Looks like the surviving relatives want a DNA test. They have doubts about the identity of the person buried there. They are probably getting the expenses paid if it ends up as a special some night on cable.