The 2019 family effort to have Dillinger’s remains exhumed and tested for DNA reflects this post-1984 world. DNA testing could answer the identity question definitively — not because fingerprinting failed in 1934 but because modern families and modern investigators have access to a tool that is even more definitive. The concrete and steel barriers around the Crown Hill Cemetery grave, installed to prevent souvenir desecration, have as a practical side effect complicated the application of this more powerful modern tool.
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## The Dillinger Effect on FBI Culture and Practice
The Dillinger case had effects on FBI institutional culture that extended beyond the specific forensic precedents. It shaped how the Bureau understood its own mission, how it communicated with the public, and how it trained the next generation of agents.
One direct effect was on the training curriculum for new agents. The case provided teaching examples for multiple subjects: fingerprint identification and its limits, the use of informants in fugitive cases, the importance of operational security when planning an arrest operation, and the management of press relations around major cases.
The Little Bohemia disaster was as instructive as the Biograph success. The failure at Little Bohemia demonstrated what happened when tactical planning assumed civilians would not be in the line of fire when agents moved on an intelligence tip. The subsequent review of the operation at the Bureau level produced changes in how tactical operations were planned and executed.
The Biograph operation was more carefully staged. The stakeout covered both theaters that Sage had identified as possibilities. The agents were positioned to observe and control exits. The signal — Purvis’s cigar — was established in advance. When Dillinger emerged and was confirmed by multiple observers, the operation proceeded according to plan.