Nephew of John Dillinger, Who Planned Documentary on The History Channel, Has Lawsuit against Cemetery Dismissed

A nephew of 1930s gangster John Dillinger needs a cemetery's permission to exhume the notorious criminal's Indianapolis gravesite to prove whether he's actually buried there

, a judge ruled Wednesday in dismissing the nephew's lawsuit against the cemetery.

Marion County Superior Court Judge Timothy Oakes granted Crown Hill Cemetery's motion to dismiss Michael Thompson's lawsuit, saying Indiana law requires the cemetery's consent.

“The limited question before the Court today is whether disinterment may occur under this section of the statute without cemetery approval. Court finds that the statutory requirements for this section of the statute are clear in that disinterment requires the cemetery owner to give consent before disinterment may occur," Oakes wrote. He added that Indiana law “does not require that the cemetery have a valid, rational, or meaningful reason" for withholding its consent.

Thompson sued the cemetery in August after it objected to his plans to exhume the grave as part of a television documentary. Thompson has said he has evidence Dillinger's body may not be buried there, and that he may not have been the man FBI agents fatally shot outside a Chicago theater on July 22, 1934. The History Channel dropped out of the planned documentary in September.

Attorneys for Crown Hill Cemetery call that “a decades-old conspiracy theory.” They opposed the exhumation, saying in court documents that Indiana’s Legislature has granted cemetery owners the right to “protect its gravesites from unwarranted disturbance.”

Alice McKenzie Morical, an attorney for Crown Hill Cemetery’s management company, said during Wednesday’s hearing that there was an autopsy after Dillinger’s fatal shooting and relatives identified him before his burial. “His close family believed it was him and they wanted him in the family plot,” she said.

The cemetery's management company said in a statement that it’s pleased with Wednesday's ruling and it “continues to object to the disinterment of John Dillinger.”

The FBI insists it's a "myth" that its agents didn't kill Dillinger and that "a wealth of information supports Dillinger's demise," including fingerprint matches.

Thompson obtained an Indiana State Department of Health permit in October that calls for the remains to be exhumed on Dec. 31.

Thompson’s attorney, Andrea Simmons, told the court that her client obtained a large number of FBI files that raise serious questions about whether it is Dillinger's body buried at the hilltop cemetery. “There is strong reason to believe that he’s not the person in the grave," she said.

Oakes said Wednesday that he questioned the cemetery’s contention that the exhumation would be disruptive. “I don’t buy into the cemetery’s reasons, but under the statute they don’t have to have a reason that is rational,” he said.

Oakes dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice. Under Indiana law, Thompson’s attorney have 10 days to file an amended complaint citing a different section of Indiana’s law governing exhumations or 30 days to appeal the decision to a higher court. “It may be several weeks before a final decision is made what to do next,” Simmons said in a statement.

A few days after his 1934 burial, Dillinger's father had his casket covered with a protective cap of concrete and scrap iron topped by four reinforced-concrete slabs to prevent vandals from trying to dig him up, according to Susan Sutton, a historian with the Indiana Historical Society.

Some surviving family members still object to Thompson's plan.

Dillinger's great-great niece, Stephanie Samuels, said after Wednesday's hearing that she and other relatives planned to file a formal complaint objecting to any exhumation. “This should never have gotten this far. I think it’s very disgraceful to the family, everything to do with it,” she said. “And there is very much family against this."

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FBI Files Show Links of Legendary Underworld Figure Meyer Lansky to Chicago

Meyer Lansky was a powerful New York underworld figure involved in the mob’s efforts to create a nationwide network of gangsters and control casino gambling in Las Vegas and, in the pre-Castro era, Cuba.

Sometimes called the “mob’s accountant,” he was associated with big-name hoods like Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and Charles “Lucky” Luciano. And Lansky was said to be the inspiration for the Hyman Roth character in The Godfather Part II who, through actor Lee Strasberg, famously said of the mob: “We’re bigger than U.S. Steel.”

FBI records — now part of “The FBI Files” database by the Chicago Sun-Times — also reveal he had a lot of connections to Chicago, even supposedly living here for a time.

“Over the past twenty-five years the subject has resided in the major cities of the United States for short periods of time, especially in Miami Beach, Florida, Las Vegas, Nevada, Los Angeles, California, New Orleans, Louisiana, Chicago, Illinois, and Omaha, Nebraska,” reads one old but undated FBI record.

His grandson and namesake, Meyer Lansky II, disputes that, saying in a recent interview that Lansky “never lived in Chicago,” though he did go “there a lot because he was very good friends with Paul Ricca, who he named my dad after, actually.”

Ricca ran the Chicago mob after Al Capone and Frank Nitti, all of whose FBI files are also in the Sun-Times’ portal.

Lansky and Luciano were with Ricca in Chicago when they were rounded up by police in 1932 — during Prohibition when booze was outlawed and alcohol-selling mobsters flourished — and photographed, according to a Lansky biography called “Meyer Lansky: The Thinking Man’s Gangster.”

They were “probably on a bootlegging business trip” to Chicago when surprised “by an enterprising detective” and “lined up in front of the camera in their best hats and overcoats,” according to the book.

“Charlie managed a slight smile, but Meyer did not look amused one bit.”

An FBI record from 1954 says Lansky was “one of the group of top hoodlums, who controls the rackets, specifically the Eastern District . . . He also continues to act in an advisory manner for racketeers throughout the country.”

The same record said “Lansky still travels extensively on business to Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas and Hot Springs.”

Meyer and Siegel “had their first big start in the early 1920s at which time they were hired by Dutch Goldberg, Charlie Kramer and Bill Heisman as convoy guards for alcohol trucks running from New York City to Chicago, Illinois,” according to another federal record, from 1957.

Lansky died in 1983 an underworld icon.

“When FBI agents raided the New Jersey operations room of the Lucchese crime family . . . in the mid-1980s, they found two black-and-white icons on the wall: a photograph of Al Capone and, alongside it, a photograph of Meyer Lansky — the twin patron saints,” according to the book, by Robert Lacey.

“Capone stood for all the traditional violence and toughness of U.S. urban crime” while Lansky “stood for the brains, the sophistication . . . the sheer cleverness of it all.”

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FBI Files: A New Database of @FBI Files Compiled by the Chicago @SunTimes #FBI

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Martin Scorsese's Massive Mafia Epic “The Irishman” Has Been Named Best Picture by the National Board of Review

Martin Scorsese's sprawling crime epic “The Irishman” has been named best picture by the National Board of Review.

The awards, announced Tuesday by the National Board of Review, handed Netflix its second major honor in Hollywood's quickening awards season. On Monday evening, Noah Baumbach's “Marriage Story” won best feature at the IFP Gotham Awards, which honor independent film. Both movies are widely expected to eventually reap numerous nominations at the Oscars, with either potentially landing Netflix its first best-picture win.

“The Irishman” also took best adapted screenplay, for Steven Zaillian's script, and an icon award for Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.

The picks by the National Board of Review, a long-running organization comprised of academics and film professionals, have in recent years seldom lined up with eventual Academy Awards winners. But its best-feature choice last year, “Green Book," went on to triumph at the Oscars.

The awards will be handed out in a ceremony in New York on January 8, hosted by Willie Geist.

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Formal Warning from FBI on Hacked Smart TVs

Smart TVs are called that because they connect to the Internet. They allow you to use popular streaming services and apps. Many also have microphones for those of us who are too lazy to actually to pick up the remote. Just shout at your set that you want to change the channel or turn up the volume and you are good to go.

A number of the newer TV’s also have built-in cameras. In some cases, the cameras are used for facial recognition so the TV knows who is watching and can suggest programming appropriately. There are also devices coming to market that allow you to video chat with grandma in 42” glory.

Beyond the risk that your TV manufacturer and app developers may be listening and watching you, that television can also be a gateway for hackers to come into your home. A bad cyber actor may not be able to access your locked-down computer directly, but it is possible that your unsecured TV can give him or her an easy way in the backdoor through your router.

Hackers can also take control of your unsecured TV. At the low end of the risk spectrum, they can change channels, play with the volume, and show your kids inappropriate videos. In a worst-case scenario, they can turn on your bedroom TV's camera and microphone and silently cyberstalk you.

TVs and technology are a big part of our lives, and they aren’t going away. So how can you protect your family?

• Know exactly what features your TV has and how to control those features. Do a basic Internet search with your model number and the words “microphone,” “camera,” and “privacy.”
• Don’t depend on the default security settings. Change passwords if you can – and know how to turn off the microphones, cameras, and collection of personal information if possible. If you can’t turn them off, consider whether you are willing to take the risk of buying that model or using that service.
• If you can’t turn off a camera but want to, a simple piece of black tape over the camera eye is a back-to-basics option.
• Check the manufacturer’s ability to update your device with security patches. Can they do this? Have they done it in the past?
• Check the privacy policy for the TV manufacturer and the streaming services you use. Confirm what data they collect, how they store that data, and what they do with it.

As always, if you have been victimized by a cyber fraud, be sure to report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.IC3.gov or call your local FBI office.

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