Episode 323 - Haunted Tombstones, Epitaphs & Graveyard Lore

Summary

Two Girls One Ghost Podcast Summary
Episode 323: "Haunted Tombstones, Epitaphs & Graveyard Lore"
Release Date: May 25, 2025

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Introduction to Tombstones and Epitaphs

In Episode 323, hosts Corinne Vien and Sabrina Deana-Roga delve into the fascinating and eerie world of tombstones, epitaphs, and the lore surrounding graveyards. They explore how tombstones serve not just as markers of death but as storytellers that reflect the lives, personalities, and sometimes the supernatural tales of the departed.

Corinne opens the discussion with a poetic reflection:

"A lone tombstone stands crooked in moonlight, its edges softened by moss and time. In the silence of the graveyard, you stand before the tombstones surrounded by the echoes of grief and love that remain here."
(06:04)

She emphasizes the dual role of tombstones as both monuments of mourning and as expressions of individual personality and passion.

---

Unique and Notable Tombstones

1. Katherine K. Andrews' Fudge Recipe Tombstone (Logan City Cemetery, Utah)

One of the most charming and unique tombstones discussed is that of Katherine K. Andrews, who chose to immortalize her famous chocolate fudge recipe on her grave.

Sabrina marvels at the creativity:

"Like, make a little slab beneath your tomb. Yeah, cool."
(08:47)

Corinne describes the tombstone detailing the fudge recipe, complete with measurements and instructions, making it both a personal memento and a public legacy.

2. Paul G. Lind's Scrabble Board Tombstone (Oregon)

Another standout tombstone belongs to Paul G. Lind. His grave is fashioned into a Scrabble board, reflecting his love for the game. The tiles on the stone spell out heartfelt words such as "son," "brother," and "lovable," creating a personal and interactive tribute.

Corinne explains:

"The tiles all captured the roles that Paul cherished in his life."
(09:56)

Sabrina appreciates the ingenuity:

"This is such a smart idea."
(10:10)

3. "Killed by the Beast of 666" Tombstone

A more enigmatic and darker example is the tombstone of a woman whose grave bears the inscription "killed by the beast of 666." This has fueled various conspiracy theories, including connections to anti-government sentiments and werewolves.

Corinne reflects on the ambiguity:

"It could also just be commentary on the fact that humans are animals."
(12:43)

This tombstone exemplifies how epitaphs can become focal points for local legends and supernatural beliefs.

---

The Legend of Victor Noir's Grave (Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris)

One of the most infamous stories covered in the episode is that of Victor Noir, a 19th-century French journalist whose grave has become a fertility shrine.

Corinne narrates the tale:

"Legend now says that if a woman is seeking enhanced fertility, a husband or blissful love, she should pay a visit to Victor's resting place."
(16:31)

The statue atop his grave notably features a prominent bulge, which has been patinaed over time due to repeated touching by visitors seeking blessings for fertility and love. Despite attempts to install barriers around the tomb in 2004, public outcry led to their removal, illustrating the powerful folklore surrounding Victor Noir.

Sabrina expresses discomfort:

"He very clearly looks dead. Like he's laying the way he fell when he was shot to death."
(19:34)

The episode critiques the objectification and disrespect implied by the shrine practices while acknowledging the tragic origins of Victor Noir’s death.

---

The Black Angel of Oakland Cemetery (Iowa City, Iowa)

The Black Angel statue in Oakland Cemetery is another centerpiece of this episode, shrouded in multiple layers of legend and fear. Originally commissioned by Teresa Delenzel Feldivert in 1913 to honor her son and second husband, the statue was intended to be a symbol of mourning. However, over time, it developed a dark reputation as it oxidized to a deep black patina.

Corinne provides historical context:

"By the time Teresa died, the angel likely was already darkening from normal oxidation."
(28:17)

Local folklore attributes the darkening of the angel to various supernatural causes, including divine judgment, witchcraft, and curses stemming from Teresa’s grief. These stories have transformed the statue into a haunted object, with numerous tales of curses resulting in mysterious deaths of those who disrespect the grave.

Sabrina highlights the fear associated with the statue:

"It's a very scary curse because there are deaths involved."
(45:25)

The Black Angel has become a rite of passage for local youth, with legends stating that touching or kissing the statue leads to untimely deaths, further solidifying its ominous presence in the community.

---

Carl Pruitt's Cursed Grave (Pulaski County, Kentucky)

Another chilling story is that of Carl Pruitt, whose grave is said to carry a deadly curse. Allegedly, after committing a gruesome murder-suicide in 1938, the soil around his gravestone began to wither in patterns resembling chains, symbolizing his violent past.

Corinne details the curse:

"This was a very disturbing thing. But this is bronze journalist turned fertility icon in the heart of Paris."
(19:34)

Subsequent legends narrate a series of bizarre deaths linked to the grave, including mysterious accidents and strangulations that seemingly occur to those who disrespect or interfere with Carl's tombstone. Despite the lack of verifiable evidence, the story persists as a local myth, reflecting how grave legends can evolve into multi-generational folklore.

Sabrina reflects on the tragic nature:

"It is, yeah. What is. Is this grief and mourning or is there something strange that we can't quite understand going on?"
(52:39)

The episode underscores the blurred lines between documented events and embellished tales that contribute to the haunted reputations of certain graves.

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Listener Story: Ghost Photo at a Cemetery

Towards the end of the episode, the hosts share a listener-submitted story from Christina, who encountered a mysterious figure in a photograph taken in a cemetery. While her friend captured what appears to be a ghostly apparition of a child, the explanation remains elusive.

Christina recounts:

"There was a shape of a man who looked like he was standing in front of a grave. I got immediate chills when I saw this picture..."
(61:47)

Corinne and Sabrina discuss possible explanations, ranging from supernatural phenomena to optical illusions. The story exemplifies the enduring allure and mystery of cemetery lore, prompting listeners to ponder the thin veil between the living and the dead.

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Conclusion

Throughout Episode 323, Corinne and Sabrina weave together historical facts, local legends, and listener stories to paint a vivid picture of how tombstones can embody both personal legacies and supernatural mysteries. From creative epitaphs to cursed graves, the episode explores the myriad ways in which the deceased continue to influence the living, blurring the boundaries between memory, myth, and the unknown.

Corinne concludes:

"These graves prove that death doesn't always mean silence. Sometimes it means secrets, superstitions, and a whole lot of haunted happenings."
(58:59)

The episode invites listeners to reflect on the stories inscribed in stone and the lingering presence of those who have passed, making "Two Girls One Ghost" a compelling exploration of the eerie and the extraordinary within the solemn grounds of cemeteries.

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Engage with Two Girls One Ghost

The hosts encourage listeners to contribute their own stories and experiences related to haunted tombstones and graveyard lore. Share your unique grave ideas, ghost photos, or personal encounters by emailing podcastmail.com. Join the community on Patreon for ad-free episodes, early access, and exclusive content.

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Notable Quotes:

• "Tombstones are more than stone and dates. They're emotional milestones." – Corinne (06:19)
• "This is like, you have the power and capacity to do whatever the hell you want." – Corinne (11:33)
• "It's like a good spooky tale, right? The drama, the drama." – Corinne (28:17)
• "It's just not worth it." – Sabrina (55:48)

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Stay tuned for more spine-tingling stories and supernatural explorations in future episodes of Two Girls One Ghost.

Transcript

[Sabrina]

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[Corinne]

Hi.

[Sabrina]

Hi.

[Corinne]

This is two girls, one ghost.

[Sabrina]

Two girls. And we are your ghostesses. That is Corinne.

[Corinne]

Hello.

[Sabrina]

I am Sabrina and I need to give a shout out to one of our listeners and also admit fault. So remember when not so long ago I did a two parter on Bennington Triangle and I was like, how have we never talked about this before?

[Corinne]

And then I was like, I think we have, but only because I remembered something about the little boy.

[Sabrina]

Yeah, so you covered it in entirety basically.

[Corinne]

Okay. But it wasn't a two parter. So you expanded upon it.

[Sabrina]

No, but it was a two hour episode. I took screenshots.

[Corinne]

Okay.

[Sabrina]

Episode 148, which came out February 28, 2021.

[Corinne]

Hey, I didn't remember either. I thought I covered a segment of it as part of a different story.

[Sabrina]

And I will say I definitely did dive deeper. But you covered it and the topic was Ghost Towns. So you specifically focused on Glastonbury, Vermont. And I think this is, this is the error of our ways.

[Corinne]

So the main focus of your episode was also the main focus of mine.

[Sabrina]

Yeah, I copied you. So shout out.

[Corinne]

Wow.

[Sabrina]

Shout out to Willow B. 53, who on YouTube was like, yeah, you guys talked about it in episode 148. I just started it today.

[Corinne]

Well, now you get it again and probably in greater detail with more information because things are always expanding. The Internet's expanding, our abilities are expanding and now you got it in a.

[Sabrina]

Different voice and our brains are shrinking.

[Corinne]

Yeah, but also I bet that episode was so much better because now we have video. Have video and better microphones, better mics. I don't know, this is our like full time job now.

[Sabrina]

So I just thought that was so funny. And I was looking at the transcript like I didn't re listen to the whole episode, but like, yeah, you covered all the missing people and but you, you say Bennington triangle once, so like.

[Corinne]

Oh, well then that's my fault.

[Sabrina]

It's not your fault. And it's also an error because I.

[Corinne]

Was talking about Glastonbury. Glastonbury.

[Sabrina]

And I think the issue is that you and I's record keeping and the way that we wrote the descriptions of episodes in the past, extremely poor, vague.

[Corinne]

Like we, we rely on you guys often. If you follow us on social media, you will often see posts being like, did we cover this? We can't find it. And then someone would be like, yeah, that was episode 81.

[Sabrina]

So.

[Corinne]

But if you go to the description and the title, you will have no clue that that title topic was covered in that episode.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

If anyone here is like, oh my gosh, I want to restart from the beginning and I'm just going to be kind and write all of the topics in an email to Karen and Sabrina for the past eight years of their podcasting multiple times a week.

[Sabrina]

We would much appreciate. So took seven and a half years, almost eight years for us to repeat ourselves.

[Corinne]

That's actually very impressive.

[Sabrina]

It is.

[Corinne]

Well. And also in your defense, all of that information felt new to me.

[Sabrina]

Great. Hope it felt new. I was like, what to all of you too, Unless you're listening to episode 148 congenitally.

[Corinne]

Oh my God, that is so funny. Now I want to go back and listen to both of them and just see like how synced they were.

[Sabrina]

Oh, but it's also just so funny that our episodes used to be like, that was a two hour long episode.

[Corinne]

Yeah, but I didn't do it solo. Right. You had covered.

[Sabrina]

Right, that's what I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But still.

[Corinne]

So again, like it was probably half the information you provided, but a two.

[Sabrina]

Hour long episode is. That's long.

[Corinne]

And also we want to say to the people who comment and say, can you make your episodes longer? No, no, we could make him shorter.

[Sabrina]

What we do is we do as much research as we possibly can and share it with you. So with the Bennington triangle, like it was a two parter, it could have been A one parter and been two hours long, but I feel like it's more digestible when it's two parts. Anyway, do you have another topic that I can steal someday later down the road for us to do?

[Corinne]

Yeah, and actually you wanna know what is? You sent me, trying to be kind to me and help me with my research. You sent me a bunch of information on a particular place for this research, but we'd already covered it.

[Sabrina]

I knew that we covered that cemetery, but I thought that one.

[Corinne]

I think we went into some of the tombstones, which is our topic for today. The coolest, weirdest, wackiest tombstone. Wackiest, wacky, zany tombstones. Now I feel like a YouTuber. Like, I feel like that's what.

[Sabrina]

And then it should be like a zoom in and like, you twist. Yeah.

[Corinne]

Bring in the dancing lobsters. Yeah, okay. But I wrote some things, so I'm going to read them because it's better than my brain just trying to regurgitate what I wrote last night. A lone tombstone stands crooked in moonlight, its edges softened by moss and time. In the silence of the graveyard, you stand before the tombstones surrounded by the echoes of grief and love that remain here. Tombstones are more than stone and dates. They're emotional milestones. They're anchors for our morning souls and storytellers of the departed.

[Sabrina]

Shit, that's really beautiful.

[Corinne]

I mean, that's true, right?

[Sabrina]

I know, but I really like that. I just haven't heard it that way.

[Corinne]

Thank you for. Yeah, you're welcome.

[Sabrina]

Painting a very poetic picture.

[Corinne]

Well, I don't think I wrote it that well, but the point that I was trying to make is. Yeah, yeah, is what I said. That's the point I'm trying to make.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

But since ancient times, we as humans have done something to honor the dead, to remember the people that we've lost. And burying our dead and marking it in some sort of grave is something that has happened for centuries and centuries, millennia.

[Sabrina]

Since the beginning of time, since the.

[Corinne]

Beginning of human existence, basically. And other animals in the animal kingdom do something similar.

[Sabrina]

Crows have funeral services.

[Corinne]

I think elephants do too.

[Sabrina]

There's a story, it actually might have been in telepathy tapes, where an elephant revisited this one site a year later to pay respect. Respect to the deceased.

[Corinne]

Oh my gosh, it is.

[Sabrina]

So, yeah, like migrated, which is exactly.

[Corinne]

What we as humans do, right? Like you go to your loved one's grave on the anniversary of their death or on their birthday or something like that. So, yeah, this is. This is something that it's just like a part of us. And it's so natural for us to want to create some sort of remembrance for the people that we lose. And in part of that remembrance, oftentimes we have tombstones. And on those tombstones, they are engraved with certain sayings and information. It has an epitaph. And the word epitaph comes from Greek, meaning upon a tomb. And for centuries, people have used epitaphs, though they're not all the same. Sometimes you can find poems of love, sometimes a final joke left for eternity.

[Sabrina]

Oh, are we gonna get some funny?

[Corinne]

We're gonna get a couple weird, interesting ones. And then we're gonna go into kind of more of the spookier stuff.

[Sabrina]

Okay, great.

[Corinne]

Okay. So one of the most famous unique tombstones is that of Katherine K. Andrews, who left her famous fudge recipe on her tomb. Stop.

[Sabrina]

Wait, are there photos?

[Corinne]

Yes.

[Sabrina]

Okay. Can I be viewing along? Yes.

[Corinne]

Yes, you can. There's two squares of chocolate, two tablespoons of butter. You melt on low heat. You stir in 1 cup of milk. Bring to a boil 3 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla. A pinch of salt. Cook to softball stage, which I don't know what that means. Softball pour on marble slab. Is her tomb marble. That was a missed opportunity. Have people feed you fudge.

[Sabrina]

Like, make a little slab beneath your tomb. Yeah, cool.

[Corinne]

And beat and eat. And then it says, wherever she goes, there is laughter.

[Sabrina]

I love that.

[Corinne]

Right? It's so nice. So she lived until she was 97 years old.

[Sabrina]

Cause she ate fudge brownies all the time.

[Corinne]

She ate fudge brownies? Yeah. She fed her soul.

[Sabrina]

Oh, I just. It's like, so in your face.

[Corinne]

Oh, it's huge. It's a huge tombstone. If you're watching on YouTube, you're gonna be able to see it.

[Sabrina]

That's amazing.

[Corinne]

Right? So this is in Logan City Cemetery, Utah. And you'll find her headstone engraved with her signature chocolate fudge recipe, instructing the living on how to create Kay's famous fudge.

[Sabrina]

So cool.

[Corinne]

Another very unique grave is that of Paul G. Lind. It's out in Oregon, and it is a Scrabble board tombstone. So Paul loved the game of Scrabble, and so he didn't actually ask for this, but his family thought that this was a great way to commemorate him and just, like, honor him and his love of Scrabble. So they commissioned a headstone to be in the form of Scrabble. And the letters etched in the granite are basically, like, depicting it mid game. So it's like his soul isn't done. Like he's not.

[Sabrina]

Wait, but this is beautiful.

[Corinne]

Are you looking at the words that are included?

[Sabrina]

Yes. This is such a smart idea.

[Corinne]

Right? Okay. So they spelled out heartfelt descriptors like son, brother, fiance, young. And the tiles all captured the roles that Paul cherished in his life.

[Sabrina]

Poker. Hard. Tired.

[Corinne]

Tired.

[Sabrina]

Computer.

[Corinne]

Lovable.

[Sabrina]

Football.

[Corinne]

And at the base, there's the. On the rack, it says the. The tiles say, we miss you. Ah, I've chills.

[Sabrina]

Isn't that beautiful? I had no idea what to expect going into this. And it was not this.

[Corinne]

Well, because there's so many tombstones that are like, I told you I was dead. You know, like those funny ones.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

But I was like, what are the really unique ones? Like ones that people. Yeah, this is amazing. Also, there's another tombstone that I'm just going to say right now that I did not write down, but I found in my research where it was this woman and it said, killed by the beast of 666 or something like that. And everyone there was all these conspiracies around it being like, what the fuck is this? Some sort of like satanic cult shit? Basically her husband was like this anti government guy and he called like big government the beast. And so he basically was trying to say, like, the government killed his wife. He thought the government killed his wife.

[Sabrina]

Well, now this.

[Corinne]

For a moment I was like, oh my God, did a, did a cryptid kill this lady?

[Sabrina]

And then she, from beyond the grave, chose. Killed by the beast of 666.

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

Well, okay, now this is giving me so much inspiration because I feel like my pea brain was limited to the options of a normal, just right gravestone.

[Corinne]

Because you don't realize that like you actually have the power and capacity to do whatever the hell you want.

[Sabrina]

Because I. In recent times, I've been leaning towards a backyard burial.

[Corinne]

In your own backyard?

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

And in the mound that's already prepared for you.

[Sabrina]

Exactly.

[Corinne]

In your backyard.

[Sabrina]

Exactly. I want like an at home cemetery. I want to bring that back. But now I'm like, well, I can spread messages at cemeteries. Maybe I do want a cemetery burial so I can have something I don't even know. I can't even think of what it is yet. But you're opening up my mind.

[Corinne]

I know. I was thinking at the end of this, of my research, I was like, what do I want? What would I put? And I. I have no idea.

[Sabrina]

We can come up with some ideas.

[Corinne]

I have no idea. But you are reminding me right now that the people who lived here before me, they buried their dog out by, like a split oak tree in the backyard.

[Sabrina]

Oh.

[Corinne]

And I keep being like, oh, I need to message them and ask what their dog's name was and, like, when he lived and died. Cause I want to get, like, a little plaque that I can put into the tree because then that can be our pet cemetery, too. Yeah. Like, we can just have a little pet cemetery. Have a little pet cemetery. Okay. There's another grave. The grave of Catherine Cross of Oklahoma, who died October 1917, whose grave has. This is kind of similar to, like the beast of 666A. It says murdered by human wolves chiseled into it. So here's the thing. We don't know what it means, but it has spurred a lot of theories about werewolves.

[Sabrina]

It could also just be commentary on the fact that humans are animals.

[Corinne]

That's originally what I thought.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

I immediately thought about, like, being attacked by, like, a group of bad men.

[Sabrina]

Right. And then also this brings up similar to the last one, like the beast of 666 that you were talking about. Like, we have to remember, unless predetermined and pre picked out by the deceased, most of these epitaphs or graves are chosen by loved ones.

[Corinne]

Yeah. Okay. But it is clear that tombstones serve a dual role. They are monuments of mourning and storytelling. They capture grief, but also personality and passion, sometimes a fair bit of whimsy. And also you get to see, like you were saying, the memories and opinions that the loved ones left behind have of these people. So you kind of get this glimpse of them as a whole, like the perceptions others have of them and kind of who they themselves were and what they wanted in their own life. So it is really, really special. So tonight or this morning on your drive to work, let me be your guide through the cemeteries of the haunted, bizarre and notable tombstones. This is going to be a long walk amongst the dead.

[Sabrina]

Get your walking shoes on.

[Corinne]

Get your hokas. Our very first stop is going to be to the sexiest tomb in France.

[Sabrina]

Sexiest.

[Corinne]

I have mixed feelings about it.

[Sabrina]

Okay.

[Corinne]

So this is the grave of Victor Noir. He was a 19th century French journalist and he is buried in the famed Perret Lachaise cemetery. Victor's life was cut short in 1870. He died tragically, shot dead in a duel. At the time, he was, I think, engaged. So he had a fiance and left behind a future. The duel was actually an argument over arranging a duel.

[Sabrina]

Ironically, the existence of duels generally just.

[Corinne]

It's a complete Russian roulette Like, it just feels like you're asking to die.

[Sabrina]

Yes.

[Corinne]

Bring back a fist fight. 30 seconds. How many slaps can you get in? That's what it should be.

[Sabrina]

You should just. Instead of duels, let's go back in time and introduce the tortilla challenge, where you have water in your mouth. That's how they should have fought.

[Corinne]

That's how they should have fought.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

Or like the provolone cheese where you just like throw provolone. See if you can get it smacked on their face. Better ideas for them based on other people's ideas of present time.

[Sabrina]

What's better than embarrassing someone in front of everyone?

[Corinne]

Right. Yes. Let's bring back shame. So at 22 years old, Victor became a martyr for press freedom. And his death sparked public outrage because the duel and the argument was originally supposed to be arranged by the Prince of Bonaparte's. So I didn't go into the history here, but there was some, like, political weirdness going on. Yeah, public outrage. Everyone was so pro Victor, and he was buried with great honors for the work and I guess, like, what he stood for when he died. But it wasn't the politics of his death that made his tombstone famous worldwide. It was the way the statue was sculpted. About 20 years after his death, a life sized bronze statue of Victoria was laid atop his grave. The artist depicted him as he fell, laying flat on his back, his top hat knocked to the side and his coat unbuttoned.

[Sabrina]

This is morbid.

[Corinne]

However, there's also something else. A bulge, a visible bulge in his pants. The artist gave Victor a big old dick.

[Sabrina]

Why does it look bloody?

[Corinne]

Okay, well, this is why I said I have really mixed feelings about this. So for reasons lost to history, this single artist made an artistic choice to give Victor a rather large endowment. And over the years, local lore transformed Victor Noir from tragic figure into this sort of fertility symbol. Because here's this, like, statue of a young handsome man with a noticeable penis.

[Sabrina]

Yep.

[Corinne]

So legend now says that if a woman is seeking enhanced fertility, a husband or blissful love, she should pay a visit to Victor's resting place. Not just pay a visit, but, like, essentially grope his grave. This is why I was like, I have mixed feelings about this because this, like, imagine if this was like a woman's grave, like people would be. This is absolutely not. Okay. So the ritual is to kiss Victor's bronze lips, to rub the bulge on his trousers, and to leave a flower in his upturned hat beside him. And so if you're looking on YouTube, at the pictures, you can see that there is, like, most of the sculpture has been patinaed over time, but his nose and lips and chin and then his bulge area, his, like, groin area is quite bronze from basically being polished nonstop.

[Sabrina]

Disturbed.

[Corinne]

Yeah, no, it's extremely disturbing. And all the articles, like, no one's pointing out that this is fucked up.

[Sabrina]

He very clearly looks dead. Like he's laying the way he fell when he was shot to death.

[Corinne]

So everyone goes, let's molest him.

[Sabrina]

I'm, like, angry by this.

[Corinne]

Right. It made me think a lot of Marilyn Monroe when I was researching this, you know? Cause her body went missing for, like a period of time after her death.

[Sabrina]

Oh, yeah. Oh, I had it. Yeah, Yeah. I don't support that. I don't love this.

[Corinne]

No, no, no, no. I know. And it is messed up because, like, I was saying that all the articles, like, everyone's like, oh, my gosh, do you want to get pregnant? Like, rub the bulge? The concept of it just.

[Sabrina]

Yeah, just get a penis crystal instead.

[Corinne]

Right, okay. But they say if you want to get pregnant, you can touch his right foot to find a great lover, you touch his lips. To have twins, you rub the left foot. And there's just like a bunch of iterations of this, but it's all back to, like, touching him. And according to the myth, a woman who does all of this will soon conceive, and a single woman who performs it will soon find herself engaged within the year. And people take this very seriously. You can see evidence of how seriously people take it because you can see the patinaed versus non patinaed parts.

[Sabrina]

I've never heard that term before.

[Corinne]

Patina.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

Oh, it's like when a metal, like a bronze or something gets weathered over time. Or like copper.

[Sabrina]

I like that word. Just never heard of it.

[Corinne]

You're going to hear a lot about it now.

[Sabrina]

Patinaed.

[Corinne]

Patinaed. Hundreds, if not thousands of people visit the grave every year. And for decades, women struggling with infertility or looking for love have quietly visited Victor, making him perhaps the most groped tomb in Paris, maybe in the world. The phenomenon grew so notable that in 2004, the cemetery briefly erected a fence around Victor to discourage this activity, to stop people from touching him. But the outcry was immediate, and people were like, no, you can't keep us from our love. And so the barrier had to be removed because people What? Right?

[Sabrina]

Human killed by wolves. That makes sense. Humans are monsters and animals.

[Corinne]

Yeah. They should change his epitaph to that.

[Sabrina]

Jeez.

[Corinne]

Yeah. So this was a very disturbing thing. But this is bronze journalist turned fertility icon in the heart of Paris.

[Sabrina]

You know what's disturbing about it is like the part that is not patinaed makes it look even more like a bloody murder because it almost looks like blood has when like spewed from his nose and his mouth in the death.

[Corinne]

Yeah, you're right.

[Sabrina]

And that he peed his pants while he did it. While he died.

[Corinne]

Also when they say like, oh, there's a bulge in his pants, like, not really. It's the wrinkle of his trousers.

[Sabrina]

Right.

[Corinne]

So people were making it out to be what they wanted it to be and like blaming the artist for it.

[Sabrina]

But also, a bulge doesn't necessarily mean a well endowed wean.

[Corinne]

No, it's just human anatomy.

[Sabrina]

Right. They have testes.

[Corinne]

Yeah. So it is quite sad, the parts. It's his like face, his groin region and then the tips of his boots. Yeah. Huh. Okay.

[Sabrina]

I know one thing I will definitely not do when I die is get.

[Corinne]

A sculpture of yourself. But on top. Well, he didn't choose that. This is 20 years after his death.

[Sabrina]

No, I know. Well, anyone listening, please help make sure that that doesn't happen for my grave.

[Corinne]

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[Sabrina]

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[Corinne]

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[Sabrina]

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[Corinne]

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[Sabrina]

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[Corinne]

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[Sabrina]

And we've been using One Skin for some years now, and I have definitely noticed a brightness to my skin. I feel like my hyperpigmentation that I've had problems with for years is less red.

[Corinne]

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[Sabrina]

I almost feel like we've talked about this.

[Corinne]

I kind of thought so too, but I couldn't. When I was reading it, I was like, I don't really remember this completely.

[Sabrina]

Whoa. It seeped in, like, darkness.

[Corinne]

Well, because it's been patinaed.

[Sabrina]

Is it puh or B? Patina. Okay. Like pastina, but patinaed.

[Corinne]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it's just like when the metal oxidizes over time, it turns different colors. Like when you go to, like, a Capitol building. You know how the dome on it. They're originally, like, bronze and bright gold, and now they're kind of, like, brownish dark.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

Green or whatever.

[Sabrina]

Yeah. Okay.

[Corinne]

And, like, you can do that. Like, if you buy, like, a bronze light fixture, you can get special oils to rub on it to like, make it look that way. And then you can also reverse patina where you can, like, clean it. Yeah. Anyway, facts about patina. Few statues in America are as ominous looking or steeped in creepy lore as the Black angel of Oakland Cemetery. This towering bronze monument looms about eight and a half feet tall, wings spread wide, and her head is bowed as if she's in mourning. Originally gleaming and golden, this angel has long since oxidized to a more haunting black green patina, hence the moniker Black Angel.

[Sabrina]

I still think she's very pretty.

[Corinne]

I think she's beautiful, too, especially when the sunlight hits her just so. But it's not just her appearance that sends shivers down the spines. It's the myriad of legends that have attached themselves to her over the last century. So first, a little bit of backstory about who the Black angel is. So the Black angel was commissioned by an immigrant named Teresa Delenzel Feldivert. Yikes. I need to utilize AI like a speech to text and just insert that while I go. Honestly, we can.

[Sabrina]

Dubbed over me. Just move your mouth.

[Corinne]

Yeah, I think I said this weird, but the Black angel was commissioned on behalf of the woman who died, which was the immigrant named Teresa Delenzel Feldivert. I think I did way better that time. Teresa moved from Bohemia to Iowa City in the late 1800s with her young son Eddie. And tragically, Eddie died of meningitis at 18 years old and 18. And Teresa was extremely grief stricken. Right. Like, she lost her child. So she erected a simple tree stump headstone for him, which was. I don't know if this was something that, like, people were just noting the symbolism of it later when writing articles on this or if this was something that she intended. But basically they were saying, like, the tree stump headstone was symbolic of a life cut short. Oh, yeah. So I don't know if there was intention.

[Sabrina]

Poetic again.

[Corinne]

Yeah, but very poetic. So she later left Iowa. She then remarried, and then was widowed again in Oregon. And then she returned to Iowa. Iowa City, around 1912. And wanting a proper memorial for her family, Teresa hired the renowned Czech American sculptor Mario Corbell to create this majestic angel statue to stand watch over the remains of her son and her second husband.

[Sabrina]

Wow. Just like hiring a sculptor.

[Corinne]

Right. Is such a loss of money.

[Sabrina]

Right. Well, that and also, I just feel like that's not as accessible these days.

[Corinne]

Yeah. So Mario Corbell created this angel to watch over the second husband and the late son of Teresa. And by 1913, the angel was installed atop a pedestal that holds the ashes of Teresa's husband and would later hold Teresa's own ashes when she died in 1924. At the time of its erection, the angel was this really bright, beautiful bronze. And it still does have, like, a hint of bronze when the sun hits it. Just so. Which we did include a picture in the YouTube video of kind of like the. I don't know if it was, like, Twilight or dusk, but, like, when the sun is low in the sky, it does hit it. And it.

[Sabrina]

Well, it's interesting because bronze is already a darker metal color. Like, it's not marble or a white stone. So.

[Corinne]

So fast forward a few decades, and the angel's appearance started to change because obviously, it's outside. It's in a cemetery. There are elements that it's exposed to, and it starts to patina and starts to turn more of, like, a deeper black. So that is when the legend took over and this became sort of like the black angel. According to the local lore, the black angel turned dark not just because of chemistry, but because of sin. So who was sin? Because Theresa seemed pretty cool.

[Sabrina]

I love the beginning of an urban legend.

[Corinne]

Right?

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

So there are a few versions of, like, who sin it is why this happened. One popular. Popular version claims that when Teresa Feldivert died, her ashes were placed beneath the angel in 1924. And then a thunderstorm rolled through that very night, striking the angel and turning it black as a sign of God's judgment. Another version suggests that Teresa was an evil woman or a witch. Witch, and that her wickedness caused the statue to mysteriously darken over time.

[Sabrina]

Another example of how it's so clear why women were accused of being witches. Like, it's just like. Let's just point fingers.

[Corinne]

This is like Bathsheba, the conjuring Bathsheba.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

Horrible.

[Corinne]

Don't create your own story about someone being evil when they're not right. What the hell? Okay. And then another tale tells that Teresa's son was actually murdered or that Teresa herself had cursed the angel due to heartbreak, causing it to blacken. There's just, like, people are just throwing anything out there to explain away the natural process of oxidation of a metal. So none of these stories have evidence in reality by the time Teresa died, the angel likely was already darkening from normal oxidation. But logic rarely stops. A good spooky tale, right? The drama, the drama. Whatever the reason, by the mid century, the Black Angel's sinister reputation was well established, and it became the centerpiece of every Iowa City teenager's campfire lore. So there's a few legends that go with this.

[Sabrina]

I just picturing, like, so many teenagers going to the cemetery late at night with a ouija board.

[Corinne]

Oh, 100%, by the way. And, like, dare people to come up and touch a statue or whatever.

[Sabrina]

For sure, yeah.

[Corinne]

Okay. So here's what happens if you do touch the statue. And like certain things, it is said that if you kiss the black angel, you will die. Some say immediately. Others say you are granted just a few days. Touch the angel at midnight, you'll die within seven years. Touch it on Halloween at midnight, and that timeline speeds up. One version insists that you'll drop dead on the spot. Another mercifully extends it to one year. So there's like, all these different, like, touch it at this time, touch it on this day, blah, blah, blah, blah. You're gonna die.

[Sabrina]

But then it's like this brings up a conversation. Then when there's so many people pouring their energy into this, is it now becoming this more haunted object, even though it never was?

[Corinne]

Well, I think we'd also hear if Iowa City had a sudden teenage death.

[Sabrina]

Search and they're all dropping dead beneath this dark angel.

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

So I think that we might be in the clear. It said that if a virgin kisses the angel, it will return to its original bronze color, yet it's still darkly patinaed.

[Sabrina]

I guess no virgins have ever kissed it.

[Corinne]

I guess not. Also, I won't go into details, but if you're pregnant, don't walk under it. Also, it's said that each Halloween, the angel turns a darker shade.

[Sabrina]

Just new shade of black adorns a costume just for the evening. Or like, each year that passes, it gets darker and darker.

[Corinne]

Yeah, but it said, like, the darkness, just like suddenly. It's not like a natural progression. It's like a.

[Sabrina]

It's like the next morning you wake.

[Corinne]

Up, color is a new shade. She's darker. She's the whole shade of black darker. Okay. So, in short, the black angel became a rite of passage for the local youth and also for some of the college students at the University of Iowa, which is nearby. People would sneak into the cemetery at night, daring each other to touch or kiss the statue. And the bravest might even climb up to sit on the angel and try to chip a piece off, which has been an issue with some, like, vandalism that's been happening. And the angel actually lost some fingertips to time over the damage of people, like, touching and climbing and getting onto the statue.

[Sabrina]

That's so disturbing. And that's a thing that happens with famous or infamous people's graves. Like, even I think it was Ed Gein or Kemper, one of. I always get those two confused. And this might even happen with, like, Gacy. But, like, I think people were stealing pieces of their tombs as, like, a prized possession, which is just disturbing in its own right. And I feel like there's, like, this weird gross market, and Zach Bagans contributes to it of buying objects that belong.

[Corinne]

To killers in poor taste.

[Sabrina]

Yes.

[Corinne]

So some people think that the black angel is haunted. One common claim is that you'll see small orbs of light or this, like, glowing aura around the angel at night, which some people are like, okay, well, is that real? Is that not? I don't know. It's also a cemetery. There could totally be orbs, Whether it's attributed to the black angel or just someone else buried in the cemetery.

[Sabrina]

Totally.

[Corinne]

Some visitors, especially those who go in kind of skeptical, with a reverent attitude. They report feeling overwhelming sadness as they're near the angel, as if sensing Theresa's grief embodied in the bronze. Others who come in with some high energy, the rowdy crew. They report sudden nausea or panic, which is attributed to the angel's curse trying to ward them off. Because the rowdy people are probably the ones that are trying to climb the.

[Sabrina]

Statue, which also could just be Theresa's spirit being like, leave me alone.

[Corinne]

Right.

[Sabrina]

I would feel anxious if I were a spirit and all these teenagers are coming to my grave and being hooligans.

[Corinne]

Totally like, please, leave me be. And this was supposed to be, like, this beautiful sentiment, like, this wonderful piece that she constructed and, like, existed for a long time when she was al to honor her son and her late second husband. So the black angel's legend is now inseparable from the reality of it. And on Halloween night, you will still find plenty of kids, teens, college students hanging around the cemetery, hanging around this grave. So while the black angel looms ominously over a century of whispered curses and legends and rumors, the next grave tells a quieter story. One with no statue, no superstition, Just a man found dead in a field and two cryptic pages in his pocket that have baffled the FBI for two decades.

[Sabrina]

Wait, so this isn't even Like a tombstone. It's like a man found.

[Corinne]

Yeah. This is the mystery of Ricky McCormick's code. So it's 1999. 41 year old Ricky McCormick is found dead in a cornfield in Missouri. Now, Ricky's grave itself is just a simple marker in St. Louis, but it was what was found in his pocket, which were two pages of handwritten coded notes. An indecipherable string of letters, numbers and dashes that to this day have FBI's top crypto analysts scratching their heads.

[Sabrina]

Wait, what?

[Corinne]

And there's photos of these two pages in the YouTube video. So the presence of this undeciphered code has effectively turned Ricky's death into a modern tombstone mystery. People visit his burial site with fascination, wondering if this is the key to the bizarre end and if there's like other hints at his tombstone and in his burial site to crack the code.

[Sabrina]

I feel like it wouldn't be at his burial site. It'd be like wherever he lives.

[Corinne]

Right. I don't know. But like this is the big mystery.

[Sabrina]

Interesting.

[Corinne]

So he lived a very difficult life when he was alive. He struggled with chronic heart and lung issues. He was functionally illiterate, according to family, which makes coded notes even stranger. And in June 1999, his decomposed body was discovered in a rural field 30 miles from his home. No obvious cause of death could be determined. No foul play was suspected. I mean, obviously he had lung and heart issues. But only two clues emerged. Those two pages of cipher found on him. And these notes were just like a sequence of letters strung together that made no sense. It was like F R S E P R S E o n d e 71 n. Like it just goes on and on and on.

[Sabrina]

It's interesting on the second one, there's like one in kind of in the second circled area, there's one block of dashed words and T R, S E is repeated twice. And it's like, because I'm no code breaker, but I feel like when you look at things like this, you try to find what would be the. What would be A and try to find. But there's no. You can't even totally tell where there's spaces between what could be words I know well.

[Corinne]

And it's also, it's in his handwriting. So the family confirmed that they believe that that's his handwriting. And also it was believed that he had been in the field for a little bit of time because his body had been decomposing. And I don't know how they figured this out, but supposedly they think that this code was written up to three days before his death. So he, like, kept these papers on him.

[Sabrina]

Interesting.

[Corinne]

Investigators were left with no real explanation. And. And also, if Ricky was functionally illiterate, if he struggled to read and write, then, like, what are these? Is this, like, a secret shorthand that he would use to try understand things and try to, like, keep his own notes for these directions? Was this record of, like, a meeting, a transaction, a plea for help? Some people were like, this is part of the occult. Some people were like, this is a spell. This is a curse. And for 12 years, the FBI had worked quietly on the case. And actually, like, I pulled these images from the FBI's website. Like, they have it. Like, can you crack this code on the FBI's website? Which is also, like, why were they so involved in this?

[Sabrina]

I mean, just out of intrigue, I guess. You'd be like, I want passion project.

[Corinne]

So then in 2011, they went public and they released the images of the notes, hoping crowdsourcing might help solve them. Code breakers of all types and regions and seasoned cryptographers and armchair puzzlers, like, everyone went to try to unlock. I'm getting really into ciphers recently now. Well.

[Sabrina]

Cause they are fascinating, especially something like this where it's uncrackable, unsolvable. Just intrigue alone.

[Corinne]

You're like, although some could argue that I started ciphering before I even covered them on the podcast. Remember I sent you.

[Sabrina]

Oh, yeah. When you sent me a freaking postcard with what was the font type?

[Corinne]

Webdings.

[Sabrina]

And I was like, I'm sorry, how am I supposed to even translate? I had to, like, type out every letter in webdings in order to figure out what was what letter.

[Corinne]

And I think it said, like, hello.

[Sabrina]

Yeah, that's it.

[Corinne]

I'd do it again any day. So basically, what I'm trying to say is all types of people who have any level of experience of code breaking attempted to figure out what the cipher was, crack the case, but no one has succeeded to date. And the notes remain one of the FBI's top unsolved cipher cases. And this has led to a ton of intrigue around Ricky's death to a lot of people going and visiting this, like, simple marker of his grave for any clues. And naturally, some theories came about. One was that. And this is, like, such a rumor mill, right? Like, this is the same thing with the, like, black angel, where people are.

[Sabrina]

Trying to figure out it could be absolutely nothing.

[Corinne]

It could be nothing.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

It could be like he was having a medical Emergency and didn't have his wits about him and was just scribbling things nonsensically.

[Sabrina]

Right.

[Corinne]

Which is probably what happened.

[Sabrina]

Right.

[Corinne]

So one of the theories was that he was meeting a mystery woman and that it's a love cipher. Another is that he got tangled in something dangerous and left a coded message, anticipating foul play. So, like, trying to tell what he thinks would happen to him before his death. And then another theory is that. And this reminds me of the Voynich manuscript, is that he was writing down something he heard aliens say, and this was somehow, like, channeled ET Code.

[Sabrina]

Well, I mean, I'm not going to lie, not to perpetuate and add to this conspiracy, but being found in a cornfield does send alien alarm bells in my head because, like, crop circles and stuff.

[Corinne]

And 30 miles from his home.

[Sabrina]

Right. And then it's like, did he try to write down what he was seeing? And I don't believe it, but this is just, like, my conspiracy. Hat real quick. Was he abducted and on a spacecraft and trying to write down things that he saw?

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

And then.

[Corinne]

Or even on, like, the outside, you know, like he was in the field observing something. Because so many people have. Who've gotten close to these spaceships have talked about, like, different codes in the or. Or just, like, symbols on the outside of spaceships.

[Sabrina]

Yeah, yeah.

[Corinne]

So it does make me curious. And obviously, if he was, like, super scared, it's almost like, you know, when a suspicious car comes up and you try to write down the license plate, maybe that was the thing.

[Sabrina]

But then I just. Given the context of him being functionally illiterate, and it sounds like they didn't find anything else at his home. So it makes me think that we're reading into something that isn't something.

[Corinne]

Oh, I'm sure. Yeah, probably.

[Sabrina]

And if he did have all these medical conditions, like, let's say he was walking for 30 because he was found 30 miles from his house. Like, let's say he was walking that length of exertion or that amount of exertion that would probably be required. Lungs and heart.

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

He could have had some type of issue and died in the cornfield.

[Corinne]

Right. Which is really sad, but it's one of those things where it's, like, in the middle of the cornfield, too. Like, the chances of there being a witness, too, is, like, tough. You were searching for answers, and clearly.

[Sabrina]

There might not be any.

[Corinne]

There might not be any.

[Sabrina]

Yeah, yeah.

[Corinne]

Another theory was that perhaps this was the result of some disordered thinking. Some people mentioned schizophrenia. I was just thinking, you know, like some sort of medical emergency. It could have been like a stroke or something, you know?

[Sabrina]

Right.

[Corinne]

There's just a lot of possibilities. But in a way, the grave has become a pilgrimage site for code breakers and people who are just immensely curious.

[Sabrina]

Mm.

[Corinne]

There was even a community of online sleuths who occasionally visit and leave tokens, like pencil a note with their best guess at the solution, like the code break. And one urban legend says that one man left a mirror on the grave, believing that maybe the cipher could be read in the reflection, but that yielded nothing. Except perhaps maybe an interesting metaphor. Sometimes the answer we seek reflects more about us than the departed.

[Sabrina]

Yeah, like humans, we want to believe in things and we want to find answers. And sometimes it's okay that there are none. My brother's dog, Jackson, is the pickiest dog when it comes to food. Which is why my brother was so excited when he found out we were sponsored by Ollie. Because if his dog could talk, he would be telling my brother Ollie, all I want is Ollie.

[Corinne]

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[Sabrina]

They have five fresh protein first recipes like beef with sweet potatoes and Turkey with blueberries. Your pup will not have to wonder what is in their food and ever again. And for any first timers, Ollie will send out your pup's first box with two weeks worth of meals, a free storage container for mess free serving, and a guide of how to gradually switch them over to their new diet.

[Corinne]

And dogs deserve the best, and that means fresh, healthy food. So head to ollie.com TGOG tell them all about your dog, and use code TGOG to get 60% off your welcome kit when you subscribe today. Plus, they offer a happiness guarantee on the first box, so if you're not completely satisfied, you'll get your money back. That's O l l I e.com TGOG and under code TGOG to get 60% off your first box.

[Sabrina]

I am so excited to talk about this sponsor via because I have been taking their nighttime sleepy CBD gummies and having the most peaceful sleep.

[Corinne]

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[Sabrina]

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[Corinne]

Via legally ships across the USA. No medical card required. If you're 21 and up, head to viahemp.com and use code TGOG to receive 15% off free shipping on orders over $100. And if you're new to Via, get a free gift of your choice. That's v I I a H-E-M-P.com and use code TGOG at checkout. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them and please support our show and tell them that we sent you enhancer every day with Via. We have one last grave. And this is a grave that holds no riddle, but it is a mystery waiting to be cracked. This is Carl Pruitt's grave and it is about a curse that is already in motion.

[Sabrina]

Like, actively.

[Corinne]

I guess so. And it's a very scary curse because there are deaths involved.

[Sabrina]

Shit.

[Corinne]

Okay, so Carl Pruitt in life was a very jealous man. In death, he became something far worse. A name that locals feared to speak and a tombstone that is said to kill. So the story of Carl Prewett's grave is an Appalachian ghost tale passed along over campfire stories and front porches. The tale of a man that was so vengeful in life that even in death he continued to do harm. And he will strangle victims from beyond the grave.

[Sabrina]

Carl.

[Corinne]

Carl, you murderous mother trucker.

[Sabrina]

Keep your hands to yourself.

[Corinne]

Yes. So true or not, the legend of Carl Pruitt is one of the most chilling cursed tombstone accounts that I've ever heard. And it begins in June 1938. And this is Carl being alive. He hasn't died yet, but he's certainly on a murderous path. Here it is Rural Pulaski County, Kentucky. Carl Pruitt was an ordinary man, and apparently he had an extraordinary temper. One evening, Carl came home to find his wife in bed with another man. And he was so enraged that he grabbed a chain, this, like, heavy logging chain, so super big. And, you know, like, just whacking someone with this chain would probably do some intense harm. But he wrapped it around his wife and strangled her to death with it.

[Sabrina]

Oh, my God.

[Corinne]

And realizing after, like, the rage settled in his body, realizing what he'd done, Carl then took his own life, shooting himself almost immediately.

[Sabrina]

Geez.

[Corinne]

So it was this very gruesome murder suicide.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

Understandably, Carl was not given a kind burial. His wife's family refused to have him interred near her. So he was buried in a separate, maybe somewhat neglected cemetery very far from town. One would think that that was the end of Carl's awful story, but according to the lore, it was just the beginning of his postmortem wrath. Not long after Karl Pruitt was laid to rest, visitors who went to the cemetery would notice something really unsettling. The grass around his gravestone wasn't growing normally like the rest of the cemetery. It would begin to wither in this, like, really weird, peculiar pattern. And when they started looking at the pattern more closely, it resembled the chain. The chain he used to strangle his wife.

[Sabrina]

That's wild. And it also just makes me think that beyond bitterness and anger tainting the soul and your ability to reincarnate or whatever it might be post mortem, that it physically alters the chemicals of your body, which does make sense if you think of, like, gut bacteria and good and bad bacteria and how it can contribute to brain issues and mental health and whatnot. But, like, yeah. Does burying a body of someone who was so angry and hateful and spiteful create a toxic soil?

[Corinne]

Yeah, but also, like, the pattern of it being. I know that in chain form, like, the looped chains. But also this is making me think of, like, fungi and just how memory works. And it's like. Is memory absorbed into the soil and fungus. Fungi. And just, like, the different bacteria in the soil absorbs that and, like, reflects it on top.

[Sabrina]

I don't know.

[Corinne]

Am I talking out my butt? Probably. Maybe not, though.

[Sabrina]

Are there any soil experts Tell us.

[Corinne]

Dirt. Dirt.

[Sabrina]

Dirt people.

[Corinne]

Dirt people.

[Sabrina]

Fun guys.

[Corinne]

The fun guys. We need them to tell us. Okay, so people are saying, like, this is clearly an omen, that Carl's spirit is not at rest. Right. And so soon, a string of bizarre deaths began. Each of them supposedly Connected to Carl's grave. And this sort of like, chain motif that keeps following Carl and his story.

[Sabrina]

Interesting.

[Corinne]

So first there was a group of boys riding bicycles past the cemetery. And one of the kids, James Collins, bragged that he wasn't afraid of this haunted grave.

[Sabrina]

James, you should be.

[Corinne]

He should have been. Cause James is no longer with us.

[Sabrina]

No.

[Corinne]

So to prove it, he chucked some stones at Carl Pruitt's tombstone and even chipped it. So nothing happened. Immediately all the boys were like, la la. Laughing it off, Biked away. Very normal. I feel like hooligan shit for little kids, right?

[Sabrina]

Biker's gang.

[Corinne]

The biker. The biker gang of the neighborhood. But mere minutes later, Jake's bike chain inexplicably snapped mid ride. The chain flew off. Somehow it wrapped around James's neck and he crashed the chain, strangled him to death on the spot. And. And I was like this.

[Sabrina]

How does that happen?

[Corinne]

Like, such bullshit. Like, right, like this article. Like this. It's got to be made up. Then I researched it and they're like, are many that really happened? Apparently.

[Sabrina]

That feels so Final Destination, right? Like, I can't even fathom how that accidentally happens.

[Corinne]

Yeah. I don't know. I mean, maybe. Maybe I just kept looking at the same story regurgitated online, but I was like, this doesn't feel real.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

And.

[Sabrina]

Yeah, and yet it is.

[Corinne]

Here. Here's some stuff suggesting that it is.

[Sabrina]

Wow. See this? I totally understand why it would turn into this whole believed to be curse, because that is so tied together, so sweet. Whereas with the Black angel, people are reaching. People aren't dropping dead at that grave.

[Corinne]

You know, that's just like high school rumors. Yeah, but this one seems real. So his terrified friends swore the broken chain tightened like a noose on its own around their friend's neck.

[Sabrina]

That reminds me of the San Pedro poltergeist when Jeff is up in the attic and being strangled.

[Corinne]

Oh my God. Yeah.

[Sabrina]

Geez.

[Corinne]

Ay yai yai. Okay, so when people went to investigate Carl's grave after this happened, the chip that James had caused when he was throwing rocks at it was gone. The tombstone appeared whole again. It was like perfectly intact. Like nothing had ever hit it. So people were like, is this kind of like him getting payback? And like, his tombstone is like, don't you dare touch his shit or he will murder you.

[Sabrina]

Interesting.

[Corinne]

So not long after, James's grieving mother understandably believed her son's friend's story that Carl Pruitt's spirit was behind the accident. And in Fury. She took an axe to Carl's gravestone, smashing it in vengeance. She left the site presumably feeling like she had got her, like, sadness and anger out a little bit and set some things right. But on her walk home, something horrible happened.

[Sabrina]

No.

[Corinne]

She somehow either tripped or she was startled and she became entangled in the clothesline on her property. The cord wrapped around her neck and strangled her. And she was found dangling in her yard, lifeless. The ax that she used on Carl's grave was laying on the back porch. And when they went to Carl's grave, witnesses say that the stone showed absolutely no signs of being attacked. There were no marks indicating that an axe had been taken to the stone at somehow it had repaired itself yet again.

[Sabrina]

Okay, is that like. Cause even. Because rationally I'm like, I just can't fathom how that happened.

[Corinne]

It's confusing. It's like, what's Laura? What's not in this story?

[Sabrina]

Is this story dramatized to, you know, portray more of the curse? Or was this a grief stricken mother who did take her own life?

[Corinne]

Right, that's what I was thinking when it said the clothesline. Yeah, yeah.

[Sabrina]

Either way, it's tragic and horrible.

[Corinne]

It is, yeah. What is. Is this grief and mourning or is there something strange that we can't quite understand going on? Okay, so now folks are terrified when passing the cemetery. But one farmer, perhaps emboldened by some little drinky drinks or some skepticism, he scoffed at the curse. He didn't believe it. He was like, what the hell? This is, you know, kind of like what we were saying. Like, this feels, you know.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

Too strange to be true. So while driving his horse drawn wagon by the graveyard with his family, he boasted that he has no fear of ghosts. And to prove it, he fired his pistol at Pruitt's tombstone from the road, and the shot chipped the stone of Carl Pruitt's grave. The noise spooked the horses, and they bolted. The wagon careened off, and the farmer was thrown from his seat. And if we can guess where this is going, the reins of the wagon and of the horse whipped around, wrapped themselves around the farmer's neck, and the panicked horses kept running, dragging the poor man behind them, the reins strangling him to death before the family could get the horses under control. When the family later approached the grave, lo and behold, the bullet chip was gone.

[Sabrina]

Tragic. And I feel so much sympathy and sorrow for this family and what they endured. But like, let's also acknowledge some just disrespect here. Yeah, like, even if you don't believe in ghosts, even if you don't believe in a curse, why disrespect? Why go out of your way to disrespect someone's burial site?

[Corinne]

Right. Like, no, you don't deserve to die. But also, like, why, like, what. What are you getting out of that?

[Sabrina]

Right. It's just not worth it.

[Corinne]

No. Okay. So by this point, Carl Pruitt's grave is definitely infamous, and everyone's terrified of it. And local authorities were finally pressured to act. So two policemen were dispatched to check on the site and perhaps put the rumors to rest. And these officers joked about Pruitt's ghost as nonsense. And then they concluded their uneventful inspection and they drove away. Something appeared in the rear view mirror as they drove. A bright ball of light or an orb that seemed to be chasing their car. So the story goes. The tale.

[Sabrina]

Mm.

[Corinne]

Which, again, this is hard because it's like this story of Carl Pruitt. It does. Like, there are news articles, but it's mixed, embedded so much with, like, local lore and what people are just writing about it. So it is hard to tell, like, exactly what happened and what is just legend. So the police officers are hitting the gas, and the orb continues to follow them.

[Sabrina]

Wow.

[Corinne]

The police then veer off of the road and smash into a fence. And apparently one of the officers is thrown free. He's injured, but he's alive. But the driver that was left in the wreck, part of the car's chain linked steering wheel broke off and wrapped around his neck, nearly decapitating him.

[Sabrina]

Oh, my gosh.

[Corinne]

I have no idea if that's actually true.

[Sabrina]

Like, you couldn't find other articles about this?

[Corinne]

No.

[Sabrina]

Okay. I hope it's not. They should for sure put some type of protection around this, right?

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

Like, it should avoid anyone who wants to test it from doing anything.

[Corinne]

They should do something like that.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

So finally, the townsfolk, they had enough. They essentially abandoned the cemetery containing Carl Prutt's grave. Some even relocated their relatives remains to other cemeteries out of fear of just, like, going to the cemetery and encountering Carl, or, like, doing something wrong and accidentally losing their lives because of it. But then there was one night where one person was like, you know what? Why are we all living in fear? I'm gonna end this fricking curse on behalf of everyone. And so this man was named Arthur Lewis. He believed that the only way to stop the killings was to destroy the headstone entirely, which, I mean, one woman already tried.

[Sabrina]

Have you not learned? Yeah.

[Corinne]

So he snuck in after dark with a hammer and a chisel and started pounding away. Neighbors heard the clang of metal on stone echoing, and then they heard a scream. So they rush over with their lanterns, and they find Arthur dead by the cemetery gate. The chain that secured the gate wrapped around his neck. The tombstone of Carl unharmed after Arthur's death in the 1940s, which, again, like, these stories are, like, basically 100 years old. So it's like, really hard to tell what's going on here. And it seems like way too many strangulations to not be lore and legend.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

However, after that, people were like, okay, yeah, no, we, like, actually are not going near Carl's grave. The cemetery fell to ruin, and eventually it said that in 1958, the area was strip mined and the cursed gravestone of Karl Pruitt was finally destroyed once and for all. I don't know how it was destroyed, who destroyed it, and how they got their lives saved, but the curse seemed to die with the rubble of Carl's gravestone being removed.

[Sabrina]

So were, like, all of the graves in that cemetery removed?

[Corinne]

You know what? I don't know. But there have been a lot of researchers who've tried to verify the story in newspapers and records, and for the most part, like, it is pretty empty. They've come up empty handed. Just kind of like what I was like, there's a lot that's just like, regurgitated. And like, is this Photoshop? Is this real? Is this an actual newspaper article? Or is this just the same thing, like, being regurgitated over and over again? There's also no death certificate for Carl Pruitt by suicide in the 1938 Pulaski county, nor the supposed victims. So it's very likely just like a tall tale. However, like the. The biking one, it was confusing to me because I was seeing, like, newspaper article clippings. But again, like, was that just someone on Photoshop making something that was just copied and pasted into different articles? Interesting.

[Sabrina]

Or did that kid die in that tragic, horrible way?

[Corinne]

And then.

[Sabrina]

Yeah. Ugh.

[Corinne]

So there you have it. Four graves. Three kind of wacky ones that I told you about in the beginning. Four wildly different legacies, each whispering something unforgettable from beyond the veil. A bronze journalist whose tomb turned into a fertility shrine. A winged angel blackened by grief and rumor. A man who may have died with a code that still defies the FBI, and a tombstone that may have strangled more than just the truth, whether etched in metal, carved in stone, or scrawled in Indecipherable ciphers. These graves prove that death doesn't always mean silence. Sometimes it means secrets, superstitions, and a whole lot of haunted happenings.

[Sabrina]

Damn. Well, now I want your help, everyone who's listening coming up with inspiration of cool ways that we can have unique graves.

[Corinne]

I know, because there were so many. And, like, I literally had like a list of like 25 that I wanted to research. And they were like pet cemeteries. There was like an elephant named Ruthie. That was. That was a hard one. I couldn't find, like, any photos and there wasn't much. Like, there were like two articles on Ruthie. So I was like, is this real? Which is.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

There were just so many things.

[Sabrina]

But are there any digital gravestones yet?

[Corinne]

Like, oh, that's interesting.

[Sabrina]

Like, if you can go to my grave and play the podcast.

[Corinne]

I have no idea. But this is reminding me of the one viral video that came out a few years ago where that one, like, Irish guy had his burial and he had a recording of himself that he had pre recorded play as they were like, burying his casket, where he was like, knocking and he was like, hey.

[Sabrina]

Oh, yes, I've. Oh, my God.

[Corinne]

Wait a second. I'm in here.

[Sabrina]

I'm in here. Yeah, that's hilarious.

[Corinne]

There are a few that I saved for a future episode.

[Sabrina]

I love it.

[Corinne]

Oh, my God, there are just so many. There's so many pet cemetery ones. I know. That we did. There were a few that I was like, oh, this is so beautiful. And then I remembered we actually did cover a few of the, like, heroic dog ones already. So that exists deep within our podcast. We won't repeat that one.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

Although I might have repeated the Black Angel.

[Sabrina]

I don't remember that whole story. I don't. And you know, sometimes we repeat ourselves and hopefully.

[Corinne]

And that's okay. Hopefully you enjoy it.

[Sabrina]

Still.

[Corinne]

Still fresh and fun for some of us, including me, who did the original research and forgotten.

[Sabrina]

And no one else commented on the fact that we had already done it. So, like, clearly people who had listened didn't remember it.

[Corinne]

Yeah, granted. And four years ago, it wasn't saying Bennington. Like, to your point, it wasn't supposed to be like the Bennington triangle. It was just the disappearances of just like one mountain, you know? Now you get it twice.

[Sabrina]

Yeah. I have a story with a ghost photo attached.

[Corinne]

Okay.

[Sabrina]

And it takes place in a cemetery. It's from our listener Christina. And Christina says, hey, ladies, I hope you're both doing well. I've already sent an email about an encounter I had on my college campus. But I was listening to episode 27 about graveyards and wanted to send another email. I did attach a picture with a ghost. So during the summer of my senior year of high school, a few of my friends and I would go to local cemeteries pretty often to go read the names on tombstones to try to find the oldest grapes. This random Friday night, me and about four or five of my friends went to a local cemetery and did just that. One of my friends decided she would walk around away from the rest of the group and take pictures on her phone with the flash on, trying to find a ghost. We all rolled our eyes, none of us actually believing she would find a ghost on her iPhone camera. So the rest of us kept walking around looking at the names while she did her thing. After about five minutes, she came running back to us, visibly shaken up.

[Corinne]

Oh my God. It only took her five minutes.

[Sabrina]

She was pointing towards a specific area of the cemetery, asking if any of us saw someone standing there. There was no one else in the cemetery, so obviously we did not see anyone in the area she was pointing. So then she hands me her phone to show me a picture she had taken. In the picture was a shape of a man who looked like he was standing in front of a grave. I got immediate chills when I saw this picture and kept looking around to see if there was anyone else around us. Who could this have been? Who was there when she took the picture? There was no one. And it was definitely not any of us in the picture. Throughout the years since this happened, I've shown this picture to so many people and none of them have been able to come up with another explanation other than it's a ghost. Even when I showed it to my dad, who is the biggest skeptic of them all, he just stood there silently. Couldn't give me an explanation. Some have tried to say that it's just a tree or another tombstone, but if you zoom in, you can very clearly see the shape of a head, a torso with a little stomach that sticks out and legs. I attached the photo to this email. The only one I have is with the yellow circle around the figure I'm talking about. When I first looked at this, I thought it was just a tombstone.

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

But when you zoom in, it is so clearly, it almost looks like a child.

[Corinne]

It does look like a child. You could see like. Cause, you know, like the little belly.

[Sabrina]

Yeah. And like up top you could see the hair. Yeah. It looks like it's just looking off into the distance.

[Corinne]

Yeah. This looks like it's like a seven year old boy.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

Because it's also so much thicker than the other tombstones. Like, they are extremely thin, skinny stones that you'd find in like one of those really old cemeteries.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

Oh, my God.

[Sabrina]

Christina says I don't get any bad vibes from the picture. And I don't think that this ghost followed any of us home or had bad intentions. After looking at the picture many times, it seems like he just wanted to visit a friend who might have been buried at that cemetery. I like to imagine that it was his wife who was buried there and he was visiting her.

[Corinne]

Or his mommy.

[Sabrina]

Or his mommy. Or his friend. You never know. I would love to see all the explanations people have. If you don't think it was a ghost caught on camera, what else is it? Thanks for listening to my story. Happy spooky season. I will see you on the other side. Best, Christina.

[Corinne]

I mean that. Yeah, I agree. I didn't get any weird vibes from looking at the photo, but it does look like a kid. It just looks like. It looks like a child.

[Sabrina]

Like a child.

[Corinne]

Also, five minutes in a graveyard and you already got a photo of a spirit. Right.

[Sabrina]

The way that the spirit is standing and looking, it doesn't seem like it was consciously appearing to them. Like the camera just picked up a moment.

[Corinne]

Right. Because yeah, he didn't seem aware of them.

[Sabrina]

Yeah. He's not interacting or looking at them. Unless. Actually, I'm curious where Christina and the rest of her friends were in the cemetery. Like, is the little boy looking at them?

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

And the threatened is taking a picture like this way. And then like if it were you and you're looking that way at the group.

[Corinne]

Oh, interesting.

[Sabrina]

I don't know. Oh, that's so fun.

[Corinne]

Help us pick out what we're gonna be buried, how we're gonna be buried.

[Sabrina]

Or tell us how you would like your grave to look.

[Corinne]

And send us your ghost photos and evidence of spooky cemetery happenings.

[Sabrina]

Send us everything to two girls one ghost. Podcastmail.com. and if you want episodes ad free and one week early, plus bonus episodes every month and campfire stories and book club and so much more. Please join us on Patreon.

[Corinne]

You can follow us on social media. We're everywhere.

[Sabrina]

We're everywhere.

[Corinne]

We are everywhere and nowhere. In your homes, haunting your dreams.

[Sabrina]

I love earlier in the episode you said yeah, like I was trying to say. Yeah, yeah.

[Corinne]

Just yeah, yeah. I need this part written out too because my brain isn't functioning and I had three hours of sleep last night. So dependent on my research, but not dependent on my research for this part. Thank you, Jamie Ryan, for editing and producing our podcast. We are eternally grateful for you, and.

[Sabrina]

That'S what should be on our grave. Thank you to Jamie Ryan.

[Corinne]

Thank you to Jamie Ryan, for making our lives immensely easier. Geez Louise. And thank you to all of you. We love you so much, and we will see you on the other side.

[Sabrina]

Very spooky.