INDIANAPOLIS – The body of a notorious gangster will be exhumed under a cloud of suspicion by the family. John Dillinger’s nephew has obtained a permit to open the Great Depression gangster’s grave in an Indiana cemetery on New Year’s Eve, according to a report.
The exhumation permit approved Thursday by the Indiana Department of Health was being sought by Dillinger nephew Michael Thompson. He believes the grave holds the remains of a person who is not his uncle.
A previous permit application had a wrong date requiring Thompson to refile, Fox 59 Indianapolis reported Friday.
The History Channel wanted to film the exhumation for a documentary but has ditched those plans, leaving Thompson to proceed on his own, the station reported.
Crown Hill Cemetery opposes opening the grave. Thompson has filed a lawsuit challenging that opposition.
NEW TODAY: @StateHealthIN approves new permit application for exhumation of notorious gangster John Dillinger. This is after old permit expired. Family is still in court battle though with Crown Hill Cemetery. pic.twitter.com/0bo3US6Iwq
— Kelly Reinke (@KellyReinkeTV) October 4, 2019
The FBI says Dillinger’s gang killed 10 people during bank robberies and other crimes in the 1930s—and at one point, according to FOX59, he was charged in the murder of an Indiana police officer, but never convicted.
The FBI says the notorious gangster was buried in Indiana after agents gunned him down in 1934 outside a Chicago movie theater showing Clark Gable’s “Manhattan Melodrama.”
Those who believe otherwise are pedaling “a conspiracy theory,” it says.
