INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -
Relatives of notorious 1930s gangster John Dillinger who plan to have his
remains exhumed say they have "evidence" the body buried in an Indianapolis
cemetery beneath a gravestone bearing his name may not be him and FBI agents
possibly killed someone else in 1934.
The Indiana State
Department of Health released affidavits signed by Mike Thompson and Carol
Thompson Griffith, who say Dillinger was their uncle. In the documents, they
say they’re seeking to have “a body purported to be John H. Dillinger”
exhumed from Crown Hill Cemetery for a forensic analysis and possible DNA
testing.
Both say in the
affidavits supporting an exhumation and reburial permit the state agency
approved in July that they have received “evidence that demonstrates that
the individual who was shot and killed at the Biograph Theater in Chicago on
July 22, 1934 may not in fact have been my uncle, John H. Dillinger.”
In their
affidavits, both say that “evidence” includes that the eye color of the man
killed outside that theater didn’t match Dillinger’s eye color, that his
ears were shaped differently, that the fingerprints weren’t a match and that
he had a heart condition. They say they want the body exhumed and subjected
to a forensic analysis and possibly DNA testing “in order to make a positive
identification.”
“It is my belief
and opinion that it is critical to learn whether Dillinger lived beyond his
reported date of death of July 22, 1934. 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,” both say in the documents.
The Chicago
Sun-Times and WLS-TV in Chicago first reported on the affidavits supporting
the exhumation permit.
Dan Silberman of
A&E Networks said Tuesday that the planned exhumation will be covered as
part of a documentary on Dillinger for The History Channel.
The
Indianapolis-born Dillinger was one of America’s most notorious criminals.
The FBI says Dillinger’s gang killed 10 people as they pulled off a bloody
string of bank robberies across the Midwest in the 1930s. Dillinger was
never convicted of murder.