Well, I haven’t seen it mentioned at Snopes, but it’s also not mentioned in his biography at the Internet Movie Database (not that that proves anything). The story doesn’t seem that UL-ish, though. No bizarre coincidences, no tales of pious hardship endured by Mr. Dean, and no moralizing at the end of the story about how we should incorporate the story’s message into our own lives.
It might be true, it might not, but basically it looks like an unusual, but not amazing, story of someone who did something very bad when he was young, served his time in jail, and went on to lead a relatively honest and productive life after his release.
–sublight.
Killing a policeman in Chicago and only doing twelve years seems unrealistic, especially in the 1950’s.
Well, it seems from the linked article that Dean was a juvenile when the incident occurred, but OTOH, he did receive a life sentence. Maybe the concept of rehablitation actually worked for once?