INDIANAPOLIS—A relative of infamous 1930's gangster John Dillinger is renewing efforts to have Dillinger's remains dug up from their burial site at Crown Hill Cemetery.
For the second time since July, Michael Thompson, a Morgan County man, has filed an application for disinterment with the Indiana Department of Health. The first application expired before Dillinger's remains could be dug up.
According to a health department spokesperson, if the exhumation is approved, it would take place December 17.
But no matter what happens, the History Channel will not be involved. Last week, a spokesman said the History Channel had decided against moving forward with a Dillinger documentary.
As part of the show, Dillinger's remains were supposed to be exhumed this month. That did not happen.
There has long been speculation in some circles that the man FBI agents shot in front of a Chicago movie theater in 1934 was not Dillinger and that remains at Crown Hill are not Dillinger's. The FBI, however, maintains there is clear evidence that the man agents shot in front of the Biograph Theater was Dillinger.
Dillinger, who was listed as "Public Enemy Number One," prior to his death, was born in 1903 in Indianapolis and grew up in Morgan County, where relatives still live. The Dillinger gang was suspected in more than 20 bank robberies and four police station robberies.
