INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A nephew of 1930s gangster John Dillinger needs a cemetery’s permission to exhume the notorious criminal’s Indianapolis gravesite to prove whether he’s actually buried there, a judge ruled Wednesday in dismissing the nephew’s lawsuit against the cemetery.

Marion County Superior Court Judge Timothy Oakes granted Crown Hill Cemetery’s motion to dismiss Michael Thompson’s lawsuit, saying Indiana law requires the cemetery’s consent.

He said the Indiana law “does not require that the cemetery have a valid, rational, or meaningful reason” for withholding its consent.

Thompson sued the cemetery in August after it objected to his plans to exhume the grave as part of a television documentary.