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.