(CROWN HILL) – 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, who 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.
The FBI says Dillinger 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 peddling “a conspiracy theory,” it says.
