History Channel pulls out of Dillinger exhumation documentary

More than a month after plans to open the grave of 1930s bank robber John Dillinger caused national headlines, a History Channel spokesman says the network is “no longer involved” in the documentary that would have covered it.

The result is further uncertainty about the proposed exhumation from an Indianapolis cemetery that could have occurred as early as next week. A lawsuit between a Dillinger descendant and the cemetery is also problematic.

History Channel spokesman Dan Silberman on Wednesday told the Chicago Sun-Times the network would bow out of the project. He said shooting had not begun, and he declined to say why the project wouldn’t move forward.

The news doesn’t necessarily prohibit Dillinger’s descendants from moving forward with the exhumation, though. And another network could still take over.

Still, a man who has identified himself as Dillinger’s nephew is now also caught up in a lawsuit with Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis — the site of Dillinger’s grave.

Michael Thompson alleged last month that Crown Hill had “attempted to stall and then block” Dillinger’s exhumation in recent weeks with “shifting and disingenuous justifications.”

Among those justifications is the “widespread media attention” and fear that it may be “disruptive or unsettling to cemetery visitors.” The cemetery has also allegedly pointed out that other members of Dillinger’s family oppose his exhumation.

A lawyer for Dillinger’s family could not immediately be reached Wednesday. A lawyer for the cemetery did not comment.

A state permit said Dillinger’s exhumation would take place Monday, and a spokeswoman for the Indiana State Department of Health said, “Sept. 16 was the only date allowed for exhumation and reinterment.” She said a new permit would need to be pulled to perform the exhumation on another day, and no such permit has been sought.

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Meanwhile, a hearing in the lawsuit has been set for Oct. 1 — more than two weeks after the exhumation date on the permit.

Thompson’s lawsuit claims Indiana health department rules “do not include specific restrictions or deadlines during which the proposed disinterment must occur.” Thompson is seeking an order that would allow the exhumation “on or before September 16, 2019, or within a reasonable time thereafter, before the (ground) becomes frozen in late 2019.”

Thompson and another relative, Carol Thompson, caused an uproar this summer after they filed a pair of affidavits claiming they have “evidence that demonstrates that the individual who was shot and killed at the Biograph Theater in Chicago on July 22, 1934, may not in fact have been” Dillinger.

“This evidence includes the non-match of his eye color, the ear shape and protrusion from the head, the fingerprints not matching, the existence of a heart condition, and the apparent non-match of the anterior teeth,” they wrote.

Dillinger had been on the run at the time, and he purportedly had plastic surgery to alter his appearance.

However, the Thompsons said it was critical to learn whether Dillinger lived beyond July 1934. They said their plans involved possibly removing a bone for DNA testing.

Their claims prompted a rare public comment from the FBI’s Chicago field office, which addressed on Twitter the idea that a “stand-in” was killed at the Biograph instead of Dillinger.

“If it sounds like a conspiracy theory, that’s because it is,” the office said. “A wealth of information supports Dillinger’s demise including 3 sets of fingerprints, all positively matched.”