The Hoover-commissioned 1934 committee that examined the question of permanent fingerprint obliteration had concluded that the only procedure capable of permanently eliminating fingerprint patterns was deep skin grafting — taking skin from another part of the body and grafting it over the entire fingertip surface. This procedure, as the committee noted, was substantially more invasive than what criminal operators were providing, carried significant surgical risk, and produced its own distinctive forensic signature.
The 1941 Robert Phillips case demonstrated the limits even of the more radical grafting approach. Phillips, who had undergone chest skin grafts on his fingertips, was identified from ridge detail around the edges of the grafted areas — areas where the original skin met the grafted skin — and from the creases and ridges on other joints of his fingers. Even the more aggressive surgical approach did not produce the unidentifiable fingertips it had promised.
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## The Biograph Theater as Physical Evidence
The Biograph Theater building itself — the Lincoln Avenue movie house where the events of July 22, 1934 unfolded — has had an unusual history as a physical artifact of the case.
The theater continued operating for decades after the shooting, eventually transitioning through various uses including a period as a legitimate theater presenting live performance. The marquee and the alley on the theater’s south side, where Dillinger fell, became informal pilgrimage sites for people interested in Depression-era crime history.
The building was designated a Chicago landmark and later listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The historical recognition was based not on the architecture of the building itself — it was a standard commercial theater of its period — but on its association with the events of July 22, 1934, and with the broader history of the Public Enemy Era.