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Alan Spearman / AP
Al Williams, left, and Calvin Jackson remove tombstones that came from the Memphis National Cemetery from the Midtown back yard of Jason Blackburn in Memphis on Tuesday, May 22, 2012.
An official looking into the case of tombstones found by a man gardening in his midtown Memphis backyard says seven more markers have been uncovered.
Jason Blackburn first found 13 headstones while clearing a path to his dog’s pen over the weekend.
Raymond Miller, director of the Memphis National Cemetery and the national cemeteries in Little Rock and Corinth, Miss, said the headstones were removed between July 5, 1970, and Dec. 28, 1970, when the U.S. Army operated the historic memorial park. They were replaced by newer grave markers that include the names of more recently deceased relatives.
Tennessee man digging in garden finds 13 tombstones linked to military cemetery
While digging up the headstones Tuesday for their return to the military cemetery, seven additional markers were discovered, pushing the number found to 20, Miller told msnbc.com.
The cemetery is now run by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
It remains unclear how the old headstones made their way some six miles to the central Memphis neighborhood.
A former Memphis city councilman who once owned the house told the Commercial Appeal he was told by a real estate broker the headstones came from a cemetery worker who once lived there.
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"I was told he would bring home the ones they messed up when they were engraving them,” Jack Sammons told the newspaper. “It's a granite marker, not like an Etch A Sketch, I guess. You couldn't just wipe 'em clean."
Miller told msnbc.com that the found headstones will be destroyed after it is verified that all of the headstones have been replaced by subsequent markers.
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Leave a Comment:
That has to be creepy if your the guy ripping all these old tomb stones from your backyard.
I was starting to wonder if I was the only one thinking that. But I would have been creeped out to be living there when they were first used. No one said they were stolen or missing so it really doesn't sound like the previous owner broke any laws, and I understand the recycling/reuse angle, but at least cut or sand off the names, dates, etc. I would have had to cut off the tops to avoid the whole gravestone shape.
you only moved the headstones, but you left the bodies, YOU ONLY MOVED THE HEADSTONES!! WHY!!!
If you read the article, these are most likely headstones that had errors with the engraving. there are no bodies. I would like to know why the headstones weren't destroyed if they were wrong.
You missed the joke. That's a line from the Poltergeist movie.
Guessing you never watched the movie Poltergeist
Oops. Sorry. No, I'm not much of a movie person.
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! nice one.
hahaha, i make headstones, and i have many old stones here at my home that have mistakes on them, i resurface them and sell them at a extreamly affordable rate to people who like a good honest deal, i do tell all that i have resurfaced the stones so they will know the facts of the stone. people seem to think these are some magical stones, but there just rocks, grind 'em down and re-engrave them. i don't see the need to destroy them, or waste them when there are people out there that would love to have a stone for their loved ones.
I don't understand why they would just destroy them. I think they should give the families an option to keep them. Some of the families may find that morbid but they should have the option.
No, the markers were removed in the '70's AFTER new grave markers were put in place. Didn't you guys READ the article? Sounds like the original home owner simply recycled them... probably using them for landfill. Or perhaps upside down as a walkway in the yard, which subsequently sank out of sight (as they all do after enough years pass). If (I say again, 'if') this turns out to be the case, then there was no harm, nor foul committed. Of course, as a new and unsuspecting owner of the property... it'd certainly raise my eyebrows. At the very least, I would NOT DIG ANY DEEPER (!!!) until it was all sorted out, LOL's.
I don't understand why you nitwits are ruining such a good comment by posting crap.
Heck, why destroy these stones. If they were produced incorrectly, there is absolutely no significance to them. They would probably make good stepping stones for the owner's path to his dog area. Stones are just stones. They do not take on some spiritual dimension because they might have been intended to mark someones grave. We need to fully move into the 21st century. What is with this spiritual significance of a random piece of granite, anyway?
An interesting story that points out how superstitious we still my be.
Pity the moron who took those tombstones illegally. His life just became a nightmare.
"They were replaced by newer grave markers (in 1970!) that include the names of more recently deceased relatives."
Did you read the article? They appear to have been correctly removed. Perhaps a spouses name added to the newer, larger head stone?
I thought the markers were placed by a former tenant of the house when the story first surfaced, mystery solved.
The mystery was solved. The people who didn't get that point failed reading comprehension in school.
they were their because whoever worked at the cemetary saw they were duplicates or messed up and so they brought them home to use them as pavers ...case solved, sheesh.....
a lot of people saved or reused everything while i was growing up.
makes more sense than our throw away society.
Well, now the old man can plant his potatoes!
You could always flip them over and use them as stepping stones in your yard.
I think that's what they were being used for.
The article states that the grave stones they went missing in the 70 s. The crazy person that owned the home in the 70 s was the theif. I am sure the govermnment did not ok him removing them from the grave yard they came from.
There are a lot of jumping to conclusion statements being sprayed around in this forum. The headstones did not have to have been stolen or moved for any other than practical reasons. Anyone with a backyard that wished to build a path would have and should have done the same. If there is anything sacrilegious or irreverent about the present, that would be the destruction of a useful and beautiful path.
Since they are government property, they should not have been removed from the cemetery, but destroyed on the spot if there were mistakes. Because they are military markers the public just can't take them home even if there are mistakes.
Actually, it says it is NOW controlled by Veteran Affairs (VA). It says nothing about the cemetary being controlled by the government before VA took it over, thus the stones may not be government property.
Either way though, glad he came forward and reported it. At least now they can make sure all of those headstones were replaced and can properly dispose them.
How do you know the cemetery didn't give whoever took them permission to do so?
Too bad they are going to destroy them once they are verified as replaced. They can be sliced and the stone rest of the stone used, hate to see good materials go to waste.
I wonder, I think I would still have them sound the property to make sure there weren't any remains buried beneath. After all it says the one that left them there worked at a cemetery and there is no telling what else he brought home. Think he might have buried people as a side job that the cemetery refused because they lacked the cash for a burial plot?
The article says they were REMOVED not that they went MISSING. Never once does it even insinuate that they were taken illegally or without someones knowledge.
Thank You Sara!
Sara
In Georgia a funeral home was telling people their loved ones were taken care of but they were dumping remains in a pile and digging up graves in order to make room and resell them to new clients. They never went missing and the only reason they were caught is that someone noticed the remains at the back of the property. The director was arrested. How does that work for your theory?
Ed Gein wanna be either way it went down, if for stepping stones grind off names if a crazy person find out where he lives now...
Just goes to show you how unimportant we really are......contrary to how important we think we are.
garden in your backyard and get "stoned."
stepping stones proably right sad but crazy person works too either way grind off info R-E-S-P-E-C-T ...just saying....
It's rock. They were replaced. Did you even bother to read the article?
They are granite, why do they have to be destroyed, continue to use them for something else. how wasteful.
The dead do not give a damn.
The one thig that really stands out, at least to me, is they were gravestones from people who might have been or were in Vietnam, like myself (I'm not dead). They could have been 'removed' not because they were messed up but because the person who did such a horrible deed did it out of hate for those who were killed in 'Nam.
What that really is is desecration of a grave, illegal in all 50 states, and since it was at a military-run cemetary, that makes it a federal crime. If the person who owned the house at that time is still alive, he should be tried by the U.S. to the fullest extent of the law.
As I said I'm a Vietnam vet and feel sorry for those who had their graves desecrated. I hope the marker is replaced as is since I doubt very much there's anything wrong with them, other than a person's hate.
'Nuff said.
Thank you for your service. With all due respect to you, Jackieboy, the article says the markers were likely replaced and surplus to needs. Some of them have errors. They would never have been erected over a grave in a military cemetery. If they never were erected, there's no grave desecration involved.
The worker probably brought them home because otherwise they'd have been wasted. Probably he used them for stepping stones or as pavers. Was this meant to be disrespect to the dead, or Vietnam? No. It was meant so the stones didn't go to waste. It's doubtful this cemetery worker is still alive if he was working in the place in the 1970s. His house belongs to someone else. It's been more than 40 years. More than likely he's dead now.
Learn how to read and comprehend jackieboy.
They better make sure the bodies are there.
The cemetery director said "They were replaced by newer grave markers that include the names of more recently deceased relatives."
What??? Why would they put someone elses name on the grave marker at a military cemetary? It's not like a private cemetery where husbands and wives sometimes share a head stone.
Your right, its not like a private cemetary but they still have the ability to update grave stones by adding a spouse to the same grave stone, thus making the current grave stone nothing more then crushed stone since its not needed.
Whom ever threw them out was probably too lazy to go through the proper channels to dispose of them and instead just found it too easy to just throw them somewhere where he thought they wouldnt be missed or found again.
You beat me to it!
When a husband and wife were both in the military, whichever one dies first gets buried on the bottom. The next to die is buried on top. Then both share a tombstone with 2 names. This requires either 2 separate tombstones or a stone with 2 separate carvings. That's 2 chances for mistakes to happen. I learned this when my friend's mother died first 17 years ago of bone cancer. Then last year her father died. They're both buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honours. Her mother's on the bottom and her father's buried on top. That's how it works there if you have earned them and want the military funeral to which you are entitled (in Arlington).
It's may be different in other military cemeteries around the country. That's how it is in Arlington. Side-by-side burial is probably possible elsewhere. Or not, considering the response of the director.
Actually they do. If you go to Arlington National Cemetery you will see the names of spouses listed on the "back" of the grave marker.
I've been to the Memphis National Cemetery about a dozen times.. (researching for book and performing "Wreath laying Cereomys"). The cemetery was opened during the civil war because the locals didn't want "filthy Yankees" littering up the local graveyards. so it was placed along the railroad tracks far outside of town.. that was 150 years ago. It's well inside the city now and been full since the 1980s and virtually all military funerals are performed at the more modern West Tennessee Veteran's Cemetery about 15 miles away. The ole place seems forgotten.. but is extremely well cared for by the staff they have for it's meger budget. As to the added names.. when a wife is buried (on top of her spouse who's already in the cemetery) her name is chiseled on the other side of the headstone. That's the way they have to do it.. because they do not have the room. I'm willing to believe that these are stones the names or dates were wrong and replacement ones had to be ordered.. (you wouldn't want your name mispelled on your tombstone would you). Others may be ones replaced because of chips, vandalism, or weathering. Apparently one of the groundskeepers had a use for them.. but it's probably something he shouldn't have done.
I believe that the tombstones are likely damaged or misspelled. To destroy them is stupid! recycle and I don't mean as in new tombstones but like in a patio deck or interesting garden wall patterns....No names displayed. Putting too much importance into a piece of stone. The ones they were meant for don't care they are asleep in death! They are not conscience at all...When they do raise up they still won't care because the stones are that....just stones.
"An official looking into the..." Does these stupid ignorant writers really know what they really type????? An Official looking, come on. Here is what it should read..... Officials are looking into the .... That is why I don't believe what is written......
The taxpayer dollars at work again. Wasted headstones. $5000 each. Removal and disposal from back yard. $10,000 each. We wonder why this country is failing.