UPDATE: 1:30 p.m.
INDIANAPOLIS — The body of an infamous Indiana gangster will not be exhumed from its grave at Crown Hill Cemetery.
That’s the ruling of a Marion County Judge, who made a motion Wednesday to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Dillinger’s nephew, Michael Thompson, against the cemetery.
The Dec. 31 exhumation, for which Thompson received a permit from the state, will not proceed. Thompson’s lawyer can choose to file another lawsuit under a different statute.
INDIANAPOLIS — A Marion County judge on Wednesday will hear arguments on whether the body of John Dillinger should be exhumed from its grave at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.
Michael Thompson, Dillinger’s nephew, obtained a permit to have the grave exhumed Dec. 31. He is seeking a court order to allow him to proceed with the exhumation.
Thompson said he has evidence that the man buried in Dillinger’s grave is not the infamous gangster. He said he believes that another man, not Dillinger, may have been shot and killed by FBI agents in 1934.
Crown Hill Cemetery is opposed to the exhumation and wants it stopped. It also wants the judge to dismiss a suit filed by Thompson in August.
The cemetery argues that state law specifies “a deceased person cannot be removed from a cemetery without the written consent of that cemetery, as well as a written order from the State Department authorizing the removal and the written consent of certain relatives of the deceased.”
Thompson previously received a permit for exhumation on Sept. 16. The permit lapsed after the cemetery objected.
(Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images.)
