Two life-size John Dillinger death masks made from originals in the late 1980s. The first was made from the mold kept by Marjorie Eker McDougall, a student at the Worsham School of Embalming who participated in Professor D. E. Ashworth’s making of a death mask on July 23, 1934. The mold later made its way into the possession of Joe Wilimovsky of Chicago’s Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory, from which this second-generation mask was produced. The second was made from the copy of the mask made by Jerome Nachtman of the Reliance Dental Supply Company which was acquired by the Las Vegas Police Department in 1935. The president of Reliance originally sent a copy of the mask to J. Edgar Hoover, and the FBI provided copies of the death mask to police departments that requested one. Both plaster masks are affixed to plaques. In overall very good to fine condition. Includes an original newspaper page from July 24, 1934, showing Professor Ashworth making Dillinger’s death mask, a modern signed photo of Marjorie Eker McDougall, second-printing originals of Dillinger I.O. wanted cards distributed by the FBI, and several pages worth of research material. From the collection of well-respected Chicago crime historian Bill Helmer. Both Jerome Nachtman and Marge Eker McDougall were interviewed at length by Helmer, then an editor at Playboy, who learned many new details that are not included in Hoover's FBI reports. Copies of the FBI's reports are included, as is a bound report in which Helmer describes in greater detail the skullduggery involved in the making of both masks.
The day after Dillinger was killed, over a thousand people lined up at the Chicago city morgue to view the mortal remains of the notorious desperado. While his body was on display, it is believed that four death masks were made of the famous face with varying degrees of cooperation from the authorities—the Worsham and Reliance masks are the two still known to exist. These highly detailed masks perfectly capture the outlaw as he lay on that final day of viewing.
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