Dillinger Investigation (The Old Biograph Theater and Crown Hill National Cemetery)
This blog post was written by Whitney Dankemeyer.
A few months ago, Swan, Nicole, and I dove into the John Dillinger story while also researching further into his death the following weeks. If you read our Little Bohemia investigation published back in January, then you know the three of us do not believe they killed the right man outside of the old Biograph Theater. In fact, we believe this man to be James Lawrence, a clerk who was persuaded into implying he was Public Enemy No. 1 for several thousands of dollars. He later met his fate, and the real John Dillinger escaped to a reservation in Oregon to live out the rest of his life. And that was what we were going to prove!
The Old Biograph Theater resides in Chicago, Illinois and is now called the Victory Gardens Theater. Charles and Lena Erickson agreed by contract in 1914 to build the Biograph, and it was made to be two-stories high. It seated a total of 666 people, though initially planned to seat 999.
On July 22, 1934, James Lawrence was with Anna Sage and Polly Hamilton seeing “Manhattan Melodrama” the night he was gunned down in an alley by the FBI outside the Biograph. When he was shot, passersby swarmed the body and were dipping their handkerchiefs in his blood. This monumental moment did not, however, affect the theater’s sales at all, and the Biograph remained open until 2001. In 2004, it was purchased by Victory Gardens Theater Company and was entirely renovated. Websites say they are not currently running shows, but we saw that it was operating when we made our visit with show dates on the doors.
Before we drove down to Chicago, we wanted to look into paranormal activity and whether any residual energy or spirits haunt the old Biograph Theater. I came across some articles stating Dillinger himself haunts the Victory Gardens Theater, but how can he haunt it when he wasn’t the one killed outside?
When we arrived on April 27, 2023, it was decently early in the afternoon, but it was the only time we could fit it into our 10-hour drive down to Tennessee. We parked a few blocks down so we could get photos and videos of the theater as we approached it. There were loading trucks out front and one of the employees (possibly even the owner) was occasionally seen talking business with the drivers. She didn’t necessarily give us the impression that she had time for small talk, so we proceeded with scoping out the rest of the block. We didn’t realize there was an entire mural dedicated to Dillinger in the alley where “he” was shot, so we of course had to make time for photos with that.
When it came to evidence at this location, it was too loud for us to perform an Estes Method session. We weren’t aware the alley allowed cars to drive through it, so we were constantly interrupted by having to move and make way for vehicles. There was just too much going on around us for an Estes session to be successful. We did run the iOvilus, but the only word we received was “Engine,” and that’s when Nicole reminded us of the Lincoln Train Station that was nearby. I did run an EVP session, but again, traffic was too loud, and I couldn’t pick up on any additional noises or phenomena. We decided to move on to our next location, which was the Dillinger plot at Crown Hill National Cemetery.
When the FBI shot down who they thought was Dillinger in front of the Biograph, they knew right away from physical appearance they got the wrong guy as they approached him. It was later reported by two top pathologists that the body weighed more, was shorter, had missing scars and wounds, and even had a terminally ill heart condition. These were all characteristics Dillinger did not have. The FBI still covered this information up though, buried the wrong man, and then encased his casket in concrete so it could never be removed. They left an innocent man to rest under a false identity and never actually captured Public Enemy No. 1. It’s tragic, really.
The Dillinger family plot resides at Crown Hill National Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana, and this is because Dillinger was born and raised in Mooresville, Indiana. It is said when they were burying the fake body that Dillinger stuck around to ensure they followed through with the burial before fleeing. It is also rumored they put a “Jr.” on the headstone as an inside joke. John Dillinger was not actually born a junior, and they say it was marked that way because the body buried was a junior of his own. Again, the casket was encased in concrete, and it remains that way present day, despite recent attempts to have the body exhumed.
We arrived at Crown Hill National Cemetery a few hours after we drove out of Illinois. This Indianapolis cemetery was founded in 1866, and if you remember our investigation from September 2022, then you know we’ve been to this location before too. The last time we were in this cemetery was when we were conducting a session with our former 23rd President Benjamin Harrison. Little did we know that we would be coming back to solve the mysterious death of John Herbert Dillinger seven months later.
If you haven’t been to Crown Hill National Cemetery before, then we need to put it in perspective for you just how big this place actually is. Crown Hill was established by the Federal Government on 1.4 acres of land when they purchased it for $5,000. Today, Crown Hill Cemetery covers more than 550 acres, and it is one of the largest private cemeteries in this country. A football field is about 1.32 acres, so this cemetery is as big as putting 416 football fields together.
That being said, when we pulled into the lot for Crown Hill, we had the cemetery map generated so we could find the Dillinger plot without getting lost. It only took us a matter of minutes to locate it with the map, so if you’re ever in the area and trying to visit, I highly recommend pulling that up on your phone first. When we found the Dillinger plot, we did a sweep of the location before we set up our Estes Method session. We definitely weren’t prepared for the answers we were about to receive when the first set of words came out.
When we started the Estes Method, we did our standard routine where Swan wore the headphones and Nicole and I asked the questions. We hadn’t even finished explaining to our EVP recording what session we were performing when Swan shouted, “Call me… a man.”
I asked if spirit could clarify who that man is, and Swan responded, “Can. Want to.” I asked for spirit to clarify who that man is by name, and Swan answered, “Lawrence.”
This was phenomenal. It wasn’t even a solid minute into our session, and we already received the main answer we were looking for: that the man buried is James Lawrence and not John Dillinger. Amidst me trying to ask another question, he answered, “Yes, wanted.” The question I was attempting to ask was if he lied to imply he was the real Dillinger. We made sure to apologize to him for what had happened immediately after. He may have been greedy for the money, but he was still set up to be murdered in his situation. Not only that, but he was buried under a false identity and will be remembered by most as Dillinger instead of who he really is. That’s traumatizing, even for a spirit.
There was a female spirit Swan said was trying to intervene at this point, but James was saying, “Good for me” and “It’s her.” I did try asking if he was referring to Anna (stupidly), but he was speaking of another spirit residing in the cemetery. It seems that even though he suffered a terrible fate, he was able to find peace with some of the spirits here.
We tried moving the session further along by asking if he knew if Dillinger escaped to a reservation in Oregon. He answered, “Let me tell you!” He never did clarify where exactly or what John was doing, but we didn’t want to pry considering James forcibly took the blame for every act of crime Dillinger committed.
I moved forward in the session again by asking James Lawrence if Anna manipulated him into his situation. His answer was "Concrete." We are still unsure if this is relating to him being shot outside of the alley or his casket being encased in concrete. Either way, he was set up and he knows it. Nicole responded to James, “Sounds about right.”
We wanted to make it apparent to James that we weren’t present only to solve Dillinger's death. The purpose of our visit was to also hear his side of the story and remind him that his life mattered too. We said we wanted to utilize this time to hang out with him and get to know him for who he really was. It was then that Swan said, “Roll the cameras.”
We were flabbergasted at this point! James not only came forward and told the truth to us, but he was willing to do it on camera too! We told him the camera was rolling and he asked where. When we pointed to Nicole’s camera, you can actually hear footsteps walking up to it. We were unaware of this though until going through the evidence at a later date.
When James asked where the phone was at the time of the session, we asked him if he was by it. When we got a response from Swan, she said “I’m- by the tree- 41.” It was almost as if he wanted us to follow him somewhere or he was telling us where he hung out. We realized there were numbered markers in the cemetery, so we asked him if he hung around the tree at 41. His answer was “Yeah.” It was right after that when Swan even said, “The people.” This led us to believe he hangs around other spirits by the tree, and we did later find that tree by 41.
To move on in the session, we proceeded with asking more questions to James. We told him he got to finally share his story with someone and asked how that made him feel. He responded, “It feels right.” We told him we were happy to have given him closure, and that was when we picked up on a whistle on my phone. The EVP recording was being recorded on my phone laying in the grass when we heard the whistle. It was not only captured on all our devices, but we heard it with our own ears. There were no birds or people present at this point in the session for it to have been anyone else, but a spirit.
There were a few different things we discussed before ending the session and finding marker “41,” but none of the rest of it pertained to the Dillinger story. We ended up thanking James Lawrence greatly for his time and went to visit him at the tree immediately after. We were never able to get a name of the female or friends he hangs out with at Crown Hill, but we were able to bring him closure. It also brought joy in our hearts to know that he was buried on a precious piece of land and still found peace despite his circumstances. It appears James even made some friends along the way. And now he has us.
People for years in the past and years to come will come across this story and believe that John Herbert Dillinger is buried beneath the grass at Crown Hill National Cemetery. But Dillinger wasn’t Public Enemy No. 1 for just any reason, and he still outsmarted the FBI even in his “death.” And while an innocent man had to suffer the consequences of Dillinger’s sins, his name is James Lawrence, and you can find him at the Dillinger Plot under John.
Supporting Links:
Kommentare