Did not Jesus said to the believing thief “this day thou shall be with me in Paradise”? This indicates not all the dead lie unknowingly until the final Judgment.
Have the NIV study Bible (Zondervan) at hand.
When the Bible was first written there was no punctuation. It was added later.
Jesus said “ I tell you today, you shall be with me in Paradise”. It has a completely different meaning than “I tell you, today you shall be with me in Paradise”