In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Sage received some of the reward money — accounts vary on the exact amount, but partial payment in the range of $5,000 is consistent with what sources report — and was not prosecuted for her prior involvement with Dillinger. She was deported anyway.
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## The Morgue, the Crowds, and the Identification Challenge
The Cook County morgue, where Dillinger’s body was taken following the shooting, became the site of two distinct and somewhat contradictory processes: a public spectacle and a formal forensic exercise.
The spectacle came first. Word of the Biograph shooting spread through Chicago within hours, and by the morning of July 23, 1934, crowds were gathering outside the morgue. Some accounts describe souvenir hunters attempting to soak handkerchiefs in blood from the alley where Dillinger had fallen. The body was placed on public display at the morgue, and thousands of people passed through to view it. More than 5,000 people ultimately attended Dillinger’s burial on July 25 at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.
This mob scene around the corpse created complications for the forensic work that needed to happen alongside it. The identification of the body had to be established formally — not simply for public curiosity, but as a matter of legal and law enforcement record.
The body had to be Dillinger. The FBI had to demonstrate that the man they had shot was the man they had been pursuing, and the demonstration had to withstand scrutiny from courts, the press, and Dillinger’s family. And this is where the fingerprints became central.