John Dillinger’s Body Will Be Exhumed for History Channel Doc

Dillinger's body has rested comfortably in an Indiana cemetery since 1934

John Dillinger's body to be exhumed
John Herbert Dillinger was Public Enemy No. 1. (Getty)
Bettmann Archive

Dillinger’s body, which has rested comfortably in a concrete-fortified grave in an Indiana cemetery since 1934 after he was gunned down by the Feds outside a Chicago movie theater, is going to be exhumed next month.

The reason the elusive bank robber’s final resting place is being disturbed? A documentary on The History Channel.

Dillinger’s nephew, Michael Thompson, was granted a permit from the Indiana State Department of Health, which allows him to disinter the body. Per the permit, Dillinger’s remains will be removed from his grave in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis on September 16 and reinterred in the same cemetery on the same day.

A History Channel spokesperson confirmed to the IndyStar that the exhumation is part of an upcoming project on the network, but what they plan on doing with his body remains unclear.

What’s clear is that when the body is removed, the exhumers are going to have to work especially hard as Dillinger’s grave is covered with a thick layer of concrete which is meant to deter graverobbers.

“A showman in Wisconsin offered Dillinger’s father $10,000 to ‘borrow’ the body for a while, and eventually the Dillinger family had to pour three feet of concrete into the grave to prevent the body from being stolen,” according to a report in The New York Times in 1964.

Dillinger was shot and killed when he was 31.

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