jayrobertnashv.cbs,inc.,etal.docVIP

Jay Robert NASH v. CBS, INC., et al. 899 F.2d 1537, 1990 (7th Cir. 1990) Easterbrook, Circuit Judge. John Dillinger, Public Enemy No. 1, died on July 22, 1934, at the Biograph Theater in Chicago. He emerged from the air conditioned movie palace into a swetering evening accompanied by two women, one wearing a bright red dress. The “lady in red”, Anna Sage, had agreed to betray his presence for $10,000. Agents of the FBI were waiting. Alerted by Polly Hamilton, the other woman, Dilliger wheeled to fire, but it was too late. A hail of bullets cut him down, his .45 automatic unused. William C. Sullivan, The Bureau 30-33 (1979). Now a national historic site, the Biograph bears a plaque commemorating the event. It still shows movies, and the air conditioning is no better now than in 1934. Jay Robert Nash believes that Dillinger did not die at the Biograph. In Dillinger: Dead or Alive? (1970), and The Dillinger Dossier (1983), Nash maintains that Dillinger learned about the trap and dispatched Jimmy Lawrence, a small-time hoodlum who looked like him, in his stead. The FBI, mortified that its set-up had no sting, kept the switch quiet. Nash points to discrepancies between Dillingers physical characteristics and those of the corpse: Dillinger had a scar on his upper lip and the corpse did not; Dillinger lacked a tooth that the corpse possessed; Dillinger had blue eyes, the corpse brown eyes; Dillingers eyebrows were thicker than those of the corpse. Although Dillingers sister identified the dead man, Nash finds the circumstances suspicious, and he is struck by the decision of Dillingers father to encase the corpse in concrete before burial. As part of the cover-up, according to Nash, the FBI planted Dillingers fingerprints in the morgue. After interviewing many persons connected with Dillingers gang and the FBIs pursuit of it, Nash tracked Dillinger to the west coast, where Dillinger married and lay low. Nash believes that he survived at least until 1979. The Dilling