Episode 11 - A Stroll Through the Stones Artwork

Professional Weirdo Podcast

Where I research strange stories and tell them to you. Because, let’s face it, I’m gonna research this anyway and blurt it to someone, might as well be a willing audience. Some of these stories might get dark, morbid, murdery…. so listener discretion is advised.

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Professional Weirdo Podcast

Episode 11 - A Stroll Through the Stones

October 05, 2025 • Anonymous Narrator • Season 1 • Episode 11

Let's be tombstone tourists together, taking a look at some unusual graves around the world.

Songs I recommend with today’s episode.

6 Underground by Sneaker Pimps
Funeral Singers by Sylvan Esso
My Body’a a Zombie for You by Dead Man’s Bones
Graveyard Blues by John Lee Hooker

Sources:

Sound mixing performed by Brother Jay from The Rule of Scary podcast - check that out if you’re a horror movie fan! And hey! Thank you for listening to my stories. Keep it weird out there.

To find song recommendations for this podcast, check out the Spotify Professional Weird playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5jIkaamOZlCwtd2peUk9lF?si=0238d524a374492d

Email me at professionalweirdopodcast@gmail.com

Hello there. Where I live I’m seeing a little fog in the mornings, there’s been a shift in the colors of the leaves, and Halloween candy has been in the stores for about two months now, which, seriously - I love the candy, but come on. And of course- it’s October! So it feels like I need to jam through as many spooky-themed episodes as I can in the next month. And we’re gonna start this Halloween run in a place most associated with an end - we’re going to the cemetery.

This is episode 11 - A Stroll through the Stones

If you are a person who finds graveyards or cemeteries to be peaceful, or you have an interest in looking at the stones or reading the epitaphs, or making connections with the genealogy, you might be a tombstone tourist. And it’s not as unusual as it sounds. Since the 1800s cemeteries were designed to be used as public parks. The intent was to make them serene, set them apart from the noise of the living, a place with trees and plants, nice views, and benches to sit and take in the decorative sculptures. And in this episode we’ll be tombstone tourists together, taking a look at some unusual graves around the world.

Even the earliest graves showed the living paid respect to the dead. A Neanderthal grave was discovered in the Shanidar Cave in Iraq, where high amounts of pollen surrounded the remains. Meaning someone had surrounded the dead with flowers. Items placed in or around a grave are called “grave goods” and served a variety of purposes. It might indicate something precious to the person who has died, or marked their status or occupation in life. Grave goods can also be part of the cultural or religious tradition of the deceased or the living people mourning them. For today, we’ll pay our respects to each story by rating them on a 1-5 rating scale of grave goods.

Seath Mor was born in the 15th century in the Scottish Highlands. Called “the Great Shaw,” a few things made him noteworthy in life - he was the clan chief of the Clan Shaw and stood over 6 feet tall. And when he died in 1405, he became noteworthy for another reason - his grave. It’s topped with five large granite stones, meant to represent the 5 survivors of the Battle of the Clans, a combat in Perth that took place in 1396. The stones are said to protect the man buried there, the victor in the battle. People believe there’s a guardian spirit of the Shaws called the Bordach an Duin who will curse anyone who messes with the stones by making them seriously ill or dead. Like in 1800 when an English footman threw one of the stones in the River Spey. The stone was returned to the grave 4 days later, however the footman was found drowned. Then in the 1940s a journalist wanted to discredit the legends so he lifted one of the stones above his head. Later that day, he died in a car accident. In 1978 a man named Leslie Walter and a couple of his friends were renovating the churchyard and Leslie turned one of the stones to show his friends. That night he began to run a high fever, the start of an illness that would last 6 weeks and cause him to lose 3 stone, or 42 pounds. One of his friends rearranged all the stones and was discovered in the cemetery the next day, dead from a cerebral hemorrhage. The 3rd friend was called to the cemetery to identify him and later was stricken with stomach pain bad enough to be hospitalized, but he survived. In 1982 all the stones disappeared from the grave. It’s not certain who took the stones, and rumors indicated they had been thrown in the River Spey. Fortunately no deaths were reported. After 2 weeks the stones showed back up on the grave. It was suspected that they had been retrieved and returned to the grave not by the Bordach an Duin, but the living guardian, rather Gameskeeper, of the estate that had previously belonged to the Shaw clan. His name was Jimmy Gordon, and I think he was fed up with people messing with the stones, because in 1983 he installed an iron cage to cover the entire grave, stones included. The iron cage is similar to mortsafes - these were cages installed over graves in the 19th century to protect a deceased loved one from body snatching. In this case, stone snatching. Nice job, Jimmy! 4 out of 5 grave goods.

We’re traveling from the Scottish Highlands to the Mississippi River and the Natchez City Cemetery. In this place, the tomb of Rufus E. Case holds the man himself, and his favorite rocking chair. But we’re gonna spend a little time at another place in this cemetery. There’s a small grave with stone runners along the sides as if to hold a flower bed. But behind the head stone are two large metal doors on the ground. When opened, they reveal a set of stairs that lead 6 feet down into the earth. This is the grave of Florence Irene Ford who died of yellow fever in 1871 at 10 years old. Losing a child would be hard enough, but for Florence’s mother Ellen, leaving her daughter, who had been terrified of storms in life, alone outside without comfort was too much. She had requested the stairway and doors be added, so that during storms she could go down the stairs, close the metal doors for protection, and sit by the head of the casket to read or sing to her daughter. She also had a small window installed at the head of her daughter’s casket. Visitors can still open the hinged doors and go down the stairs today, but a concrete wall was added in the 1950s to block access to the window in the casket. It’s a sad and strange story, but the casket window, I’m stuck on that. A lot of questions I don’t want answers to. 3 out of 5 grave goods.

The next stop features what is referred to as the Girl in the Shadow Box, but no worries, the actual girl is a marble sculpture. And at her feet lies the grave of Herman Luyties, buried in the Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis. Herman had made his mark in St. Louis by being a pioneer in homeopathy, as well as owning the first proprietary drugstore. His good fortune allowed him to travel to Italy where he watched the famous sculptor Giulio Monteverde at work. But Herman’s focus wasn’t on watching the talented sculptor work, as much as it was on the young woman modeling for the sculpture. Despite already being married, Herman proposed to the model. And, she declined. In a really weird move, Herman paid Monteverde to sculpt him a 12-foot marble statue of her and had it shipped back to his home. Not sure how his wife felt about this, but it was installed in their home for awhile, but because of its weight (definitely not because of his wife) the statue was moved to Bellefontaine Cemetery. Later Herman noticed the weather was impacting the details so had the glass box built around it for protection. So… this mean Herman was apparently going to the cemetery to visit his marble girlfriend? Maybe just as off-putting was that when he died in 1921 at the age of 50, he was buried at the feet of the sculpture. I wondered if that was his decision, or maybe his wife’s? But given that 8 years after he died, she was also buried at the feet of the sculpture, I guess that’s just where the plot was. And strangely enough, this cemetery isn’t the only one where the bewitching Italian model can be found. The sculptor Monteverde modeled his “Monteverde Angel” after her as well, which is in the Monumental Cemetery in Milan. I think there’s enough going on at this grave - 2 out of 5 grave goods.

We’re on a theme here now - A guy who was really into a lady. But hey! This time they were married. The man is Fernand Louis Arbelot, who studied commercial studies and was in the military. He married his wife Henriette in August of 1919 and 23 years later he was a director of a bank. He died in Paris during the German Nazi occupation and was buried in 1942. But when his wife passed away 25 years later and was buried in the famous Pere-Lachaise cemetery, his remains were moved and buried with her on the same day. Now we get to the unusual part. His grave is covered by a life-size bronze statue of what looks like Fernand lying down on his own tomb, with his hands raised and holding a bronze face that’s said to be a likeness of his wife. The legends say he wanted to look upon her for all eternity. Which is very sweet, and, you know, he would have had no idea that the sculpture would resemble what many of us look like while lying in bed looking at our phones.

While we’re here in the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, it’s worth taking a bit of a tour. This is one of the most famous cemeteries in the world, rich with architectural history, famous artists, interesting sculptures, and cats. Yes, living cats, who are provided food and water and walk and rest among the monuments. The cemetery was established by Napoleon in 1804 and covers more than 100 acres, with more than a million, shall we call them, residents (I mean the people buried there - I’m not counting the cats.) The tomb of Oscar Wilde is there, featuring a sleeping winged sphinx. Jim Morrison was buried there in 1971, with the bust on his grave being a common attraction. People often leave behind items, but also chip away at the stone on the bust, or any stones nearby, to take a momento.

There’s another grave that has gotten a lot of questionable attention. The grave belongs to a man named Victor Noir. The bronze sculpture on his tomb was by Jules Dalou, who was pretty into realism. The likeness of Victor depicts him as if he’s just fallen, even a bronze hat lying by his side and a slack look on his face. But if you were to walk by his tomb today what would most catch your attention would not be his hat, or the posture of figure. It would be the location where the patina has been very obviously rubbed off. Which would be, how do a say this? It’s a part of the body where the sculptor decided to add a prominent bulge. Do you… have questions? I had a lot of questions about how this situation has come about. And it starts in the late 1800s. It’s pretty involved, so giving you the highlights. Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew was trying to establish and expand his power. Opposing newspapers took turns sharing views on him and his efforts. Let me read you an excerpt from one:

“In the Bonaparte family, there are some strange individuals whose wild ambitions cannot be satisfied and who, seeing themselves systematically relegated to the shadows, burn with spite at being nothing and having reached no power. They resemble those old girls who have never found a husband and who weep about the lovers they have not had either. Let us rank Prince Pierre-Napoleon Bonaparte in this category of lame unfortunates.” This newspaper attributed the writing to another author (which they did at times - you’ll soon see why) but Prince Pierre recognized the writer as Henri Rochefort. He fired back “I ask if your pen is backed up by your chest.” Then listed his address. Then he wrote, “I promise that if you present yourself, you will not be told that I am out.” Oh boy! Things are heating up! Rochefort replied simply “Let’s duel.” A thing to note is that for a duel, each shooter has seconds. Call them assistants, call them a posse, you get it. While Rochefort was getting his together to send them to formally submit an invitation to duel, the opposing newspaper guy decided to get involved. He sent to seconds to Pierre to also challenge him to another duel. It was suspected that the 2 newspaper men were working together. So the 2nd newspaper owner’s seconds arrived at Pierre’s home first. Again, not to fight. This is just the official notice that the 2nd newspaper guy also had beef with him. One of these men was Victor Noir. He wrote for the paper, but because of his burly stature and aggressive nature, it’s said that many of the hot take articles were written by others and run under his name because Victor wasn’t opposed to facing those with complaints at the door for a fight. So Victor and another guy are there to tell Pierre he has another duel on his hands. Pierre responded, saying he would fight their boss, but not quote “his hacks,” to which Victor punched him in the face. Pierre pulled a revolver and shot him in the chest. Victor was able to run, along with the other second, but he only got so far before collapsing. Meanwhile the other 2 seconds arrived and found Pierre AND HIS WIFE at the door, armed. No more shooting occurred, but the spectacle of this continued. Pierre went to trial, and meanwhile, Victor Noir was given a hero’s funeral. And backstory (they’re writers, remember?). Victor was called a “child of the people” and a truth-telling journalist. The funeral procession had a crowd of between 80,000 and 200,000 people and suddenly there was a crying fiancee to garner sympathy. It didn’t work. Pierre wasn’t charged, as it was believed he was acting in self-defense. Money was collected for a bronze statue for Victor and I guess you could say the embellishment of Victor’s virtues continued? Over the years, ironically, newspaper stories have come out with sloppy details about Victor, referencing the “handsome young journalist” and saying he had lived with the “unrivaled reputation as a Don Juan.” The depiction of his was written as “carved with regard for his amorous reputation, showing him in a state of some undress and leaving nothing rather to the imagination.” But it also says that if women could cure infertility by rubbing a certain part of the statue.” They tried for a while to fence it off, but after many protests, the fencing was removed. The deputy mayor of Paris warned, “You can touch, but not rub. You rub and you will be punished. We need to take care of it without falling into excessive, American-style prudery. I respect those who think it makes women fertile, but cemeteries also require respect for decorum.”

Painter Theodore Gericault’s tomb features a statue of himself lounging on top, with a paintbrush in one hand and a palette in the other. Below him, and on the side of his tomb, is a relief of his most famous painting The Raft of the Medusa. Despite the casual vibe his relaxed figure on top might encourage, his featured painting is of a famous shipwreck. He had studied cadavers to get the right look for it and the grim scene featured on the side of his tomb is, spooky. Let’s move on to George Rodenbach’s tomb, where his sculpture isn’t lounging on his tomb, but rather breaking out of it. He was a Belgian symbolist writer and wrote about themes of memory and decay. The large gray stone of his tomb appears to be busted, and what appears to be emerging from the crack, in stark contrast, is the patiniaed blue head and torso of the writer, head raised and one arm lifting up and holding a rose. There’s a lot here, so we’ll be leaving 5 out of 5 grave goods.

The sculpture of a large, melting candle sits atop a grave in Budapest. At the base of the large candle is the signature of the woman buried there - Katalin Karady, a Hungarian film star and singer who became famous for her femme fatale characters, but also became known for her efforts during WW2 to rescue Hungarian Jews. She was captured under the accusation that she was an allied as a spy. For 3 months she was held and tortured, eventually being rescued by a friend. It didn’t stop her, because after being released she bribed guards in order to rescue several families at the bank of the Danube who were about to be executed. She also took children into her home to care for them until the fighting stopped. After finding out that the friend who had rescued her had been killed, she suffered from a nervous breakdown. After the war, her films were banned in communist Hungary and she struggled to reclaim her acting career. She moved around a lot and eventually moved to New York to open a hat shop. Upon her 70th birthday the Hungarian government invited her to return. She sent them a hat. I bet it was a bad one. She died in 1990 and her body was transferred to Budapest, with the candle sculpture marking it. 4 out of 5 gave goods, maybe one of them being a really fetching hat.

And now we’ll do a quick list, as there’s a sad but sweet trend that has happened in various locations around the United States. This would be dollhouse graves. Often the dollhouse is a favorite toy, or the wish, of a small girl who sadly passes away and whose parents provide a sweet memorial by placing the dollhouse over the grave, including small furniture or toys. Here are a few examples:

Dorothy Marie Harvey who died from measles at 5 years old in 1931 when her family was traveling through Medina, Tennessee. The dollhouse was provided by the local community as a way to support the family, as they had to continue their travel North in search of work.

Vivian Mae Allison, who was also five when she died the day before Christmas. She was buried in Connersville, Indiana with her dollhouse marking her grave.

Lova Cline, who was born with an illness that limited her ability to move, but enjoyed playing with her large dollhouse. She succumbed to her illness when she was six and Her parents moved the dollhouse to her grave in Arlington, Indiana so she could still have a connection to her favorite toy.

Nadine Earles, who was 4 when she died in 1933 just before Christmas, with a dollhouse on her Christmas list. She was buried in Lanett, Alabama and her parents built a playhouse over her grave. All of these have had trouble with people vandalizing them, but the local communities have carried on the upkeep and repair. 5 out of 5 grave goods.

In 1784 the Dutch city of Roermond mandated that burials would have to take place on the outskirts of the city, which led to a scramble of the different religions in the area to designate their cemeteries. Religion and social standing dictated very clear divides. About 60 years later, Josephina van Aefferden fell in love with Jacobus van Gorkhum and they faced a couple of challenges. She was Catholic, and a noblewoman. He was a Protestant commoner belonging to the Dutch cavalry. Despite these classification barriers, it didn’t stop them from getting married. And staying married for 40 years. And despite the classification barriers, it didn’t stop them from being together for their interment. Kinda. When Jacobus died, Josephina’s family and church would not allow for him to be buried in her family’s Catholic plot. So she had him buried at the edge of the Protestant section that conveniently sat on the other side of the wall from her family plot. She topped his grave, and marked her future spot, with 2 matching stones that were taller than the wall that divided the cemeteries and topped each of those with a hand - one hand male, with a shirt cuff, and the other female, with a ruffled embellishment at the wrist. The hands reached from the top of their headstones to be clasped together over the wall. The hands have had to be replaced a few times, because the shifting of the earth threatens to break the hands, and the original hands were put on display. 4 out of 5 grave goods.

This next one features a kiss, but it’s not a romantic one. In Barcelona there is a cemetery that features an impressive sculpture that sits over the tomb of Josep Llaudet Soler. The sculpture features a young man, who seems to be collapsing and on his knees, head rolled to one side, held in the grasp of a large winged skeleton that is hunched over him and giving him a delicate little kiss to the forehead. It’s called el Peto de la Mort, or, you might have guessed it, the Kiss of Death. The tomb is inscribed with a line from a poem that reads “His young heart is thus extinguished. The blood in his veins grows cold. And all strength has gone. Faith has been extolled by his fall into the arms of death. Amen.” Okay, we get it. Sheesh. 2 out of 5 grave goods!

Let’s travel on to a very different mood. But yeah, we’re still talking about cemeteries. In London there is the Joseph Grimaldi Park. It had once been the graveyard for a church, which was torn down in the late 19th century. But back to Joseph - He was born into a performing family in 1778 and it’s said he was on the stage by 2 years old. As he grew up he became a popular actor, making his big mark when he took on the clown role at the Covent Garden Theater in 1806 during a performance of Harlequin and Mother Goose. Take a moment to visualize a clown right now. Are you thinking red on the nose, mouth and cheeks? Drawn on eyebrows and kind of sad eyes? Big baggy clothes? Yeah - this guy created that look. This right here is where the classic clown look came from. This guy, this play. He is known as the King of Clowns. Also buried there is his employer Charles Dibdin, who owned the Sadler’s Wells Theater. In 2010 the park wanted to do something to honor them both and artist Henry Krokatsis put in 2 coffin shaped, fake graves, composed of different pieces of bronze. Stepping on these bronze tiles chimes different notes. The installation is called “An Invitation to Dance On the Grave” and clowns are often seen in the park, paying their respects to the King of Clowns. 5 out of 5 grave goods.

And that does it for our tour. If all goes to plan, we’ll be back in the graveyard for some other stories later this month. But in the meantime, if you happen to be in any actual cemeteries taking a tour, maybe leave some flowers. And read a stone or two - just so someone is noting the name again. And finally - keep your hands to yourself, regardless of what that statue looks like!

Thank you again, and again, and again, for listening to my stories. For more spooky fun, follow me on Instagram, under professionalweirdopodcast where I’ll share photos related to this episode, or just fun weird stuff. If you are enjoying the podcast and would like to support it, please make sure you hit that follow button. And a recommendation to others is always appreciated. You can also email me at professionalweirdopodcast@gmail.com

Songs I recommend with today’s episode can be found on the Spotify playlist I made to accompany this podcast. For each episode I’ve done or will do, I’ve pulled together a few songs. The ones for this episode are:

6 Underground by Sneaker Pimps

Funeral Singers by Sylvan Esso

My Body’a a Zombie for You by Dead Man’s Bones, and

Graveyard Blues by John Lee Hooker

I’ll list these, along with the link to the playlist, in the show notes.