The dead, they say, tell no tales. Cincinnati’s gravediggers were another matter. Every couple of years, one of the local newspapers would send a reporter out to interview the boneyard excavators. Here is a selection of their yarns.
Guards! Guards!
In 1877, poor little Fannie Belle Talbott, four-year-old daughter of Sarah and Albert Talbott of Rising Sun, Indiana, died and was buried in the Cedar Hedge Cemetery. Fearful that body snatchers might attempt to dig up her body and sell it to some medical college, the family hired a couple of local men to stand guard over their daughter’s grave. Unbeknownst to the family, Mayor William Gillespie also expressed concerns over grave-robbing and deputized several local men to stand guard at Fannie’s grave as well. The mayor’s troop arrived first and, when the Talbott family’s guards showed up, they were mistaken for grave robbers. Gunfire erupted and two men, one on each side, were seriously wounded before everyone’s identity was established…