John Dillinger came to evoke the Gangster Era and dominated headlines in the 1930s. He and his gang terrorized the Midwest, killing 10 men, wounding 7 others, robbing banks and police arsenals, and staging three jail breaks — killing a sheriff and wounding two guards in the process. The FBI claims that on July 22, 1934, agents shot and killed Dillinger outside a Chicago theater, but historians and enthusiasts have long debated whether it was Dillinger or a doppelganger who was shot that day. They cite inconsistencies between Dillinger’s physical appearance and the body in the morgue. Given what’s recently been revealed about the FBI and their ability to tell the truth, their account of Dillinger’s death is once again being questioned. Relatives of Dillinger cite autopsy results that prove the person buried in Crown Point Cemetery didn’t match Dillinger in several key ways. He had different-colored eyes, mismatched fingerprints, and a disparate set of teeth. The autopsy report itself vanished for 50 years until it was discovered jammed inside a random paper bag at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office in 1984. Although Dillinger’s family requested an exhumation in 2019, the following year they abruptly called off their efforts. No reason has been given for the sudden about-face, but one can only imagine.
