Headstones

Pictures of weird, creepy and wonderful headstones found in cemeteries across the world. These grave markers are all real and they make sure that although these people are dead, they will never be forgotten.

1. Victim of the Beast 666

In the Salt Lake City cemetery, there is a small headstone that reads: “Lilly E. Gray (June 6, 1881 – November 14, 1958) Victim of the Beast 666.” This mysterious and ominous insciption led to many rumors and urban legends about the woman’s fate. Some said she was possessed by demons or died during some kind of satanic ritual. The turth is a bit less sensational. Her husband, Elmer Lewis Gray, was quite frankly nuts and believed in lots of conspiracy theories. He was the one who ordered this strange inscription to be placed on her tombstone.

Have you been a victim of the beast? If so, call 666 now. You may be entitled to compensation! :P

2. Baby Monster

The Baby Monster tombstone is located in Saar Pioneer Cemetery in King County, Washington. Some people assume there must be some kind of grotesque creature buried in this grave, but the real story is very simple. “Monster” is a surname and the baby’s father, John C Monster is buried in the same grave.

3. Specimens

In an old mental health hospital cemetery in Columbus, Ohio, there are two small gravestones marked “Specimens”. This graveyard was where the state of Ohio buried the residents of the mental hospital whose families either didn’t claim them or were too poor to afford to do it themselves. The gravestones marked “SPECIMENS” are believed to contain cadavers used for medical research.

4. Unidentified Baby Girl

In 1977, two men were looking for bait near the Delaware River when they stumbled across a bag containing the decomposing remains of a baby girl. She was only a few weeks old and was still alive when she was placed in the bag. The baby was never identified and her killer was never found. She was buried in Oskaloosa’s Pleasant View Cemetery, where it remained mostly forgotten until a grave marker for the unidentified baby girl was donated by Hutton Monuments of Topeka in 2004.

5. Dotterweich

This gravestone is in Preakness Reformed Church Cemetery in New Jersey. At first glance, it might look very ordinary, but if you look closer you will see that all 5 children died on the same day. On Dec 13, 1874, the Dotterweich children decided to go for a ride on their sled. They went out on a pond near their home that had recently frozen over. All of a sudden, the ice broke and all five children fell into the freezing water. Their mother and father waded into the water up to their necks in an attempt to save the children. They had a rope, but it was too short. The dead bodies of the children were pulled from the pond an hour later. Almost 1000 people attended their funeral.

6. Lester C Madden

This shark grave looks out of place in the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh. It is the grave of Lester C Madden who was a Vietnam war veteran. He was also a big fan of the movie Jaws.

7. Here Lies John Renie

Welsh house painter John Renie died in 1832. The unusual inscription on his grave takes the form of a word puzzle, 19 squares across and 15 squares high. Starting at the H in the very center and working outward, the sentence “Here Lies John Renie” can be read in 46000 different ways. Some say he was trying to keep his soul safe from the devil by confusing him. Others say he was just having a bit of fun.

8. Giles Corey

Giles Corey was accused of practicing witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. He was never convicted of witchcraft, but he was pressed to death because he refused to plead to the charge. Pressing him to death meant putting a door over him and adding stones to crush him. Corey’s only statement during this torture was to demand more weight be placed upon him.

9. Maze Grave

The headstone of Michael and Elisabeth Ayrton in St Botolph’s churchyard in Hadstock, Essex, UK. Michael was an English artist and writer. He wrote many books and created many sculptures associated with the Greek myths of the Minotaur and Daedalus, the legendary inventor and maze builder.

10. Joseph Pasty Orse

This grave marker claims that Joseph Pasty Orse died because of his wife.

11. Coy B. Shillinger

This grave in Green Hills Memorial Cemetery, Washington claims that Coy B. Shillinger was killed by 5 bratty kids.

12. Hugh Emmerson

The headstone of Hugh Emmerson in Sultan City Cemetery in Snohomish County, Washington tells a very short and sad story. He died as he had lived: Alone.

13. Henrietta and Susanna Bean

This puzzle gravestone can be found in the Rushes Cemetery in Ontario, Canada. Henrietta and Susanna were the first two wives of Samuel Bean, a man who really enjoyed puzzles. Both the wives died young and Samuel Bean himself was lost at sea off the coast Cuba in 1904. To solve the puzzle, start at the seventh column from the left and at the seventh letter from the top and read in a zig zag way. Here’s what it says: “In memoriam Henrietta, Ist wife of S. Bean, M.D. who died 27th Sep. 1865, aged 23 years, 2 months and 17 days and Susanna his 2nd wife who died 27th April, 1867, aged 26 years, 10 months and 15 days, 2 better wives 1 man never had, they were gifts from God but are now in Heaven. May God help me so to meet them there. Reader! meet us in heaven.”

14. Paul G. Lind

This headstone is in Lone Fir Cemetery in Portland, Oregon. Paul G. Lind was a big fan of scrabble, so when he died, his friends and family erected this headstone in the form of a scrabble board.

15. Herman Harband

The headstone is real, confirmed by records and the cemetery director, but it was removed in early 2014 and the plot was sold back to the cemetery at the request of his wife. According to the cemetery directory, the headstone is in storage at the cemetery.

16. Ouija Board Headstone

This is the headstone of Elijah Bond, the man who first trademarked the Ouija Board. Fans and enthusiasts tracked down his grave and erected this clever monument to him.

17. Lester Moore

In the late 1880s, Lester Moore worked as a Wells Fargo Station Agent in the Mexico-United States border town of Naco, Arizona. One day a man named Hank Dunstan arrived at the Wells Fargo station to pick up a package he was expecting. When Moore handed him a badly-battered and mangled package, Dunstan became enraged over its condition and an argument ensued. Both men reached for their guns. Moore was shot four times and before he died, he managed to fire off one shot of his own, hitting Dunstan in the chest and killing him. Lester Moore’s body was transported to the nearby town of Tombstone, where he was buried in the Boothill Graveyard. There he became forever known for the epitaph inscribed on his headstone which reads: “Here lies Lester Moore. Four slugs from a .44. No Les. No more…”

18. Gloria M. Russell

“I’m just resting my eyes.” This is located in Key West Cemetery in Florida.

19. Michael J. Murricane

In 1977, Michael J. Murricane was on his way to get married when he was tragically killed in a road accident. He was buried in the graveyard of the church in which he was supposed to be married. His fiancée, Sally Champion, never married and when she died in 2011, she was buried side by side with the man who should have been her husband. The most sad and romantic thing ever.

20. John Laird McCaffrey

This is a real tombstone in the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery in Montreal, Canada. The inscription reads:

FREE YOUR BODY AND SOUL
UNFOLD YOUR POWERFUL WINGS
CLIMB UP THE HIGHEST MOUNTAINS
KICK YOUR FEET UP IN THE AIR
YOU MAY NOW LIVE FOREVER
OR RETURN TO THIS EARTH
UNLESS YOU FEEL GOOD WHERE YOU ARE!

I’ll let you work out the hidden meaning for yourselves… :D