Category Archives: Gravecations – Stories From The Road

Blog posts about Gravecations I’ve went on, around the country. This is totally separate from the “Gravecast Recaps”

The Morbid One's Big Adventure

04 Friday Mar 2011

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As I’m sitting on this fancy leather couch in the confines, of the elegantly decorated cigar lounge, puffing on a cigar, staring down the deer head on the wall in front of me. I thought I’d bring you all up to speed on some things. Well for starters its been a known fact for some time now about an utmost desire of mine to visit Los Angeles, California. Well due to a recent surge in my financial state as I’d like to say. I’ve been fortunate enough to fund a trip to LA.

I’ll be visiting Los Angeles the last week in May up into the first weekend in June. On the agenda for that week of grave hunting I plan on doing. I doubt I’ll be able to check out all the bone yard hot spots while I’m in town. I’m gonna try to pack in as much grave hunting as I can handle during the week and a half I’ll be there. I’ve already reserved a rental car w/navigation system, and I already procured round trip airfare. I’ll be staying with some relatives who live in Anaheim.

This trip will be an adventure because I’ve never been to LA. So I’ll be taking the days in stride, grave hunting, until there are painful blisters on my feet. So that’s whats up for now. As with earlier “gravecations” I’ve been on most notably Chicago, and beyond. I’ll no doubt be giving you my loyal viewers all 20 of you LOL daily updates on the days finds, plus my thoughts and what not on the bone yards I visit.

Chicago Trip Day 6 & 7.

28 Monday Jun 2010

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Day 6 started out with my uncle coming along with me for the days hunt. We were going to check out the Chicago Historical Society museum on the northside of the city. But along the way we  decided to hit up Bohemia and Rosehill cemetery instead.

First on the agenda was Rosehill cemetery. Let me just say this about Rosehill before I give the rundown on who we found. Rosehill has some of the most unfriendly and unhelpful people I’ve ever had the privilege of dealing with when it comes to dealing with employee’s at the cemeteries I visit. I can fully respect and understand the privacy of the deceased in the various cemeteries. And it probably didn’t help that the first thing I inquired about at Rosehill was one of the victims of the St. Valentines Day Massacre. But if you’re not going to give me the info at least don’t be a total ASSHOLE about it. Fortunately in the case of the gentleman who “helped” me I didn’t get his name otherwise I would mention it here for the world and my readers to see.

So with all that said and done. Lets get started on who I found at Rosehill. I had about five names to track down. Four of which I had locations for. Two of those four I found. The other two, one was in dispute because I couldn’t find the section on the cemetery map, the other one I didn’t feel like going into the mausoleum building, and the fifth I didn’t have a location for at all and due to the gentleman at the office being a complete a-hole it would be literally impossible for me to get the area in the cemetery. So with the two I found the first was of silent film actor Milton Sills. You can find out more about the multitude of films he was in and a complete listing of his filmography by going to the Internet Movie Database website. Finishing up at Rosehill we found the gravesite of Burr Tillstrom. He was a puppeteer and the creator of the Kukla, Fran & Ollie puppets.

At Bohemia cemetery we found the gravesites of assassinated Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. Cermak was not on the list I had of gravesites to find. But we snapped a photo of the Cermak family mausoleum anyway. I also took some video footage of it. During the visit at Bohemia cemetery we also found the gravesites of Eddie Tancl. Tancl was a popular saloon owner who was assassinated because he resisted the move of Torrio/Capone into the suburbs. Also at Bohemia cemetery we found the gravesite of Frank Koncil he was a member of the Saltis-McErlane gang who was assassinated along with Charles Hubacek.

Now that I have the play-by-play of day 6 done and over. Lets get started with day 7. Being that this was officially my last day of grave hunting glory Chicago Style before heading home on the following Friday.  I decided to hit up four cemeteries on two separate sides of town.

On the suburban northside I checked out Calvary cemetery in Evanston, IL, and Memorial Park cemetery in the charming city of Skokie.  On the southside I hit up St. Casimir cemetery, and Mt. Olivet.

Starting with the cemeteries on the northside at Calvary cemetery I found the gravesite of William “Gunner” McPadden he was murdered in December of 1928 and was a member of the Danny Stanton gang. The amusing thing worth noting about the McPadden gravesite. About a month or two before going to Chicago I was calling area cemeteries in and around Chicago to get locations of people I planned to look for. Well when I called Calvary I had to endure a series of questions about who William McPadden was. To make a long story short I told the fella on the other end of the phone that I got the info from The Complete Public Enemy Almanac. The fellas reply was so he was a gangster, to which I replied  “you could say that”, at which point the guy laughed. Surprisingly he still gave me the info I was looking for. Next at Calvary I found the gravesite of William Schofield. He was the business partner and co-owner of northside gang leader Dean O’Banion’s flower shop.

The next suburban northside cemetery I checked out was Memorial Park Cemetery. As much as I wanted to spend a lot of time in this cemetery I didn’t. Only because I knew I wanted to get to Mt. Olivet and St. Casimir cemeteries on the southside and the driving time would take at least an hour. So I had to narrow down the list a bit to compensate for the time I’d spend driving, and just tracked down the two important notables I really wanted to find who happened to be actors.

The first gravesite I found was of Karyn “Cookie” Kupcinet she was an actress who was strangled to death in her Hollywood apartment. She is also the daughter of well-known columnist Irv Kupcinet who’s interred next to his daughter. You can find Karyns filmography by checking out the Internet Movie Database website.

The last gravesite I found at Memorial Park Cemetery was of Robert Reed. He had an esteemed acting career and had a plethora of guest appearances on TV  shows over the years. He was best known for his portrayal as Mike Brady on “The Brady Bunch” TV show. You can find out more about his film and TV show credits by checking out the IMDB site. The unfortunate thing about Robert Reed is that he died from intestinal cancer which was brought on by the HIV/AIDS virus.

On a lighter note a grave hunting buddy of mine informed me that Robert Reed is in the process of being moved to an unknown site. The friendly cemetery employee at the office also confirmed this for me. I was fortunate enough to document the finding of Robert’s soon to be old gravesite before he was moved.

After paying my respects to Karyn, and Robert, I jumped back in the temporarily nicknamed “Grave Hunting Mobile”. Before leaving the cemetery I called my dad back in Detroit to ask him to look up the address of St. Casimir cemetery. After obtaining the address I punched it in on the Garmin GPS device which got me around town multiple times in a seamless carefree way. I then made my way to the southside of Chicago. The ride took a good hour and fifteen minutes of driving through construction, and congested areas. As much as I love Chicago I’ve never seen so much f-ing traffic. It’s beyond insane and would more than likely drive anyone unfamiliar with the area over the edge.

After arriving at St. Casimir I strolled into the office to put the kiosk thing to good use. Since the office at St. Casimir also serves as the cemetery office for Mt. Olivet I managed to find who I was looking for via the kiosk in a very timely manner. I then inquired at the desk about the address for Mt. Olivet.  At St. Casimir I found the gravesite of Leo Klimas who was killed  in 1924.

After photographing and video recording the Klimas gravesite I then left St. Casimir and made my way going east on 111th street to the tranquil confines known as Mt. Olivet. Out of the five gravesites I planned to find I just found three. The reason I didn’t look for the other two was because I was getting extremely tired working in the sun so I decided to look for the other two the next time I go to town.

Anyway at Mt. Olivet I found the gravesite of Walter O’Donnell he was the brother of Edward “Spike” O’Donnell. I then found the gravesite of George Meegan. Meegan was a Southside O’Donnell gang member. Closing out the hunt I found the gravesite of Charles Kelly who died in 1925. Kelly had the misfortune of being the first “tommy-gun” fatality.

All in all I had a great week in Chicago. I didn’t get to every cemetery I wanted to but I got to the important ones. I’m planning on going back to Chicago this Fall coming up for a long weekend to finish up what I didn’t get done during this trip.

Chicago Trip Day 5.

22 Tuesday Jun 2010

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Today I went to Mt. Carmel cemetery. Every time I visit this cemetery I surprise my self with who I find. The contingent gangsters from Chicago’s prohibition era who repose in this cemetery would amaze anyone interested in organized crime or grave hunting in general. Its like the midwest’s answer to what the cemeteries in and around New York City have to offer in the form of the gangland luminaries buried there. That’s what makes Mt. Carmel one of my all time favorite cemeteries to go browsing in. So let’s get started shall we.

accompanying me on this visit to Mt. Carmel was my uncle. The first gravesite we found was of Joseph “Diamond Joe” Esposito. If memory serves me right he was a politician back in the day with mob ties. He also dabbled a bit in gangland thuggery. Next on the list was Rocco Belcastro. I need to research him a little further to figure out what he did in Chicago’s gangland. He’s mentioned in the book “The Complete Public Enemy Almanac” written by Rick Mattix & Bill Helmer. This is a must have book if your interested in prohibition era crime. Moving along we found the grave site of Charles “Cherry Nose” Gioe he was a mafia figure here in Chicago during I believe the 1940s on up.  And finally we found Carmen Ferro he was a wire wholesaler and reputed to be a bootlegger.

Closing out todays post. When I get back to my hometown (Detroit) I’ll be posting gravesite photos to accompany these people I’m talking about. Since I only have two days left for grave hunting before I head back to Detroit on Friday I’m going to make a point to get to Bohemia cemetery, Rosehill cemetery, and possibly Memorial Park Cemetery in Skokie. So we shall see. I’m also planning on coming back to Chicago this upcoming fall.

Chicago Trip Day 3 & 4

21 Monday Jun 2010

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As mentioned the other day I’m doing updates this week during my visit to Chicago. Yesterday being the third day I was in town. I didn’t do any graving since it was Fathers Day and I have a tendency to avoid the cemeteries for grave hunting related purposes when holidays come around. So starting with Day 4. Today I trekked over to four cemeteries. The cemeteries I trekked to included Acacia Park Cemetery, Irving Park Cemetery, St. Joseph Cemetery, and finally Westlawn Cemetery.

Beginning with Acacia Park I found the gravesites of Johannes Anderson who was a WWI Medal of Honor recipient. Next I found the resting place of singer Ral Stewart Donner he sang and probably wrote the song “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got”, and closing at Acacia Park I found the gravesite of actress Audre Joan Knecht. Audre acted on stage and film during the 1940s and 50s. She was in the film “The Luck of Ginger Coffey” and also the film “Niagara”.

Moving along the next cemetery I checked out was Westlawn Cemetery. This is the cemetery where Oswald assassin Jack Ruby reposes. The thing I found bitterly amusing about finding this gravesite. The cemetery office for some reason or another wouldn’t disclose the location. But unbeknownst to them I had detailed instructions on how to find the gravesite from the book “Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die?” by Tod Benoit. Next at Westlawn I found the gravesite of Virginia Lee Corbin. Known as the  “The Dresden Doll of the Movies” she was one of the most popular child stars of the 1930s. She starred in many silent films, and films known as “talkies” which were films that implemented the use of sound in the early film eras. Her film credits include but are not limited to “Jack and the Beanstalk,” (1917) , “The Forbidden Room,” (1919), “The City That Never Sleeps” (1924), “Forgotten Women” (1931), among others.

The third cemetery I visited was Irving Park Cemetery. This is the cemetery where three of the seven Chicago gangland St. Valentines Day Massacre victims repose. The three Northside gangsters include brothers Pete & Frank Gusenberg, and Albert Kallachek. All three died on February 14th of 1929. It’s also rumored that notorious Chicago gangland asssassin Fred Goetz reposes somewhere in the cemetery.

And finally rounding off the day I trekked to St. Joseph Cemetery. In this cemetery I found the gravesite of Lester Joseph Gillis better known as gangster “Babyface” Nelson. All in all I had a very productive day. Stay tuned for further updates this week.

Chicago Trip Day 1 & 2

19 Saturday Jun 2010

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I arrived in Chicago last night via Amtrak. Let me summarize the ride by saying this, it was boring, long, and interesting combined into one. I might consider taking the train to Chicago another time but who knows. Day two started with me getting up around 6am. I started the day doing the typical morning cigar ritual. I headed off into the great wonders of cemeteries Chicago has to offer starting with the infamous Mt. Carmel in Hillside, Illinois.

During todays hunt I managed to find five gravesites out of the 17 I have locations for. Before starting the days hunt. I went to the cemetery office and put the self-help kiosk thing to good use. I guess a few years ago the Catholic cemeteries which  is managed by the Archdiocese of Chicago implemented the kiosks so people such as yours truly could be better served. So after printing out the locations I needed with section maps printed on the piece of paper in most cases. I drove across the street to Mt. Carmel.

So getting started with the five gravesites I found. The first one I found was of Patrick “Paddy The Bear” Ryan he died on June 17th of 1920.  He was one of the founding members of the Irish Valley Gang which had a territory on Chicago’s Westside. Next on the list was Vito Bascone. He died on Feb 24th of 1926. He was a member of the Genna gang who was assassinated. Next was Angelo Spano he was the bodyguard to gangster Joe Aiello he died on September 14th 1930. The last two mafioso members I found were Pasquale Tardi who was the “42” gang leader and John Rito who was a Northside bootlegger.

Finally I plan to do much more grave hunting. It’s supposed to rain over the next few days. So the people I find during this trip might be limited. But I’ve been known to amaze my self sometimes. Please stay tuned to future updates this week.