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Tuesday, December 08, 2009

The first chalk body outline was drawn around John Dillinger's corpse.


See also:
- FBI case history

keywords: history, famous people, crime, murder, fbi, crime scene, trivia, fun fact, fact of the day

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7 Comments

  • I hope they had a lot of chalk.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at July 26, 2006 12:38 AM  

  • Why don't you guys ever back up your findings? This site is useless without back-up.

    By Anonymous Hannah, at January 25, 2009 7:00 PM  

  • I hate to be negative, but it says a new fact everyday and it is sunday now and that is still thursday's fact.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at January 25, 2009 10:20 PM  

  • Because chalk can contaminate the body and fingerprints, police don't actually use chalk outlines.

    By Anonymous Edgar J. Hoover, at May 18, 2009 8:38 AM  

  • Hannah, if you click on the link that is provided under each fact you'll see an explanation or "back-up" to the findings on here.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at December 10, 2009 8:22 AM  

  • Anonymous, that's not true. The links provided by Factropolis very rarely contain any sort of corroboration for their "facts". This link, for example, describes the events surrounding Dillinger's death but says nothing about a chalk outline. It's pretty much the same story for every link they provide. The link gives some sort of information about the subject of the "fact", but doesn't support it in any way.

    By Anonymous Easy Money, at December 11, 2009 12:02 AM  

  • Chalk outlines were never a common part of police procedure. Also, the whole reason for drawing a chalk outline (supposedly) was so the detectives investigating a homicide could have a reference when they revisted the crims scene. That doesn't work in Dilligern's case. For one, why make a chalk outline that is subject to weathering and tampering when you can just use a camera. Secondly, Dillinger's death wasn't a mystery. He was shot dead by the FBI agents who were pursuing him. Case closed, and no need to preserve the exact location of his body.

    By Anonymous CSI, at December 11, 2009 12:18 AM  

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