17. SCANDAL: They Moved the Headstones, but Not the Bodies

Los Angeles, CA | Imagine walking through downtown Los Angeles, oblivious to the forgotten graves beneath your feet. We’re unearthing the eerie history of Los Angeles cemeteries and graveyards where the headstones were moved, but the bodies… not so much. Did anyone learn anything from Poltergeist??  For decades, construction crews have periodically dug up surprise skeletons and more around LA.  We’ll share some of the finds in Boyle Heights through Chinatown, and give you a preview of a deeper dive we are planning to do in October on The Hollywood Forever cemetery.

Quick warning: Leah watched Midsommer this week and couldn’t not talk about it.  If you haven’t seen it and would like to be as surprised as you will be traumatized by the ending, just skip ahead of that discussion to avoid the plot spoiler around minutes 14 -15. 

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🐇 Go ahead, down the rabbit hole you go… Here’s the complete list of sources for this episode:
-Becerra, H. (2005, November 22). Bones unearthed during Gold Line construction. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-nov-22-me-bones22-story.html
-Berman, J., & Carreño, S. (2009, May 1). The former downtown dead zone. LA Downtown News. https://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/the-former-downtown-dead-zone/article_4b0bb876-8ab5-5fa0-98fd-c42f0ed1c0d3.html
-Chinese Historical Society of Southern California. (n.d.). Tombstones project. https://chssc.org/tombstones/
-Discover Los Angeles. (2024, May 21). Hollywood Forever: The story of an LA icon. Discover Los Angeles.  https://www.discoverlosangeles.com/visit/hollywood-forever-the-story-of-an-la-icon
-Ehrenreich, B. (2014, March 3). Railroaded: Unearthing the history of the Chinese laborers who laid the tracks for L.A.’s rapid growth. Los Angeles Magazine. https://lamag.com/news/railroaded
-Garcia, R. (2012, May 11). Rest in peace: Ancestors finally return to El Pueblo. PBS SoCal. https://www.pbssocal.org/history-society/rest-in-peace-ancestors-finally-return-to-el-pueblo
-Greenfield, R. (2011, March 16). Our first public parks: The forgotten history of cemeteries. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/03/our-first-public-parks-the-forgotten-history-of-cemeteries/71818/
-Kakutani, M. (2022, October 4). Over my dead body by Greg Melville [Book review]. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/04/books/review/over-my-dead-body-greg-melville.html
-Meares, H. (2013, August 30). Evergreen Cemetery: Snapshots of a forever-changing Boyle Heights. PBS SoCal. https://www.pbssocal.org/history-society/evergreen-cemetery-snapshots-of-a-forever-changing-boyle-heights
-Melville, G. (2022). Over my dead body: Unearthing the hidden history of America’s cemeteries. Abrams Press.
-Olito, F. (2018, October). Map: U.S. graveyards and cemeteries. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/map-us-graveyards-cemeteries-2018-10
-Pierson, D. (2007, April 22). Century-old graves unearthed in Los Angeles MTA project. SFGate. 
-Stevens, J. (2018, October). Graveyards of the contiguous USA. https://www.joshuastevens.net/blog/graveyards-of-the-contiguous-usa/
-The Source (Metro). (2010, March 8). Dedication of memorial wall held at Evergreen Cemetery. 

👏 Special thanks to our talented partners:
Paolo Sbrighi for Musical Composition (instagram.com/paulosbrighi/)
Mario Cintra for Logo Design (instagram.com/alacarala/)

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:05

Hello Dark City fans. This is Leah.

Speaker 2 0:08

And this is April.

Speaker 1 0:10

Today we're unearthing the eerie tales of Los Angeles cemeteries, where the headstones were moved but the bodies not so much. Depending on where you are walking in downtown Los Angeles, you're going to learn that there's a chance that a long forgotten grave just might be underneath your feet. This is Dark City season one, los Angeles.

Speaker 2 0:35

So the funniest thing happened the other day and I just want to tell you because it really made me laugh. So my husband, sometimes, when he comes home from work, we'll put on a scary movie. I don't always want to watch horror movies. I know I'm one of those people that I'd rather watch Dateline than some horror movie. So sometimes he'll put it on. The kids are usually upstairs. They're like doing their own thing, you know, hanging out, watching their own stuff or playing video games, whatever.

Speaker 2 1:14

Um, and so the last week he was downstairs he had a movie on. He was like cleaning up in the kitchen, straightening things up and whatever. And he turns around and, um, you've been in my house before. The silverware drawer was open and he was like what the crap? And so he goes and he closes the drawer and he's like doing a little bit more. And he turns around and it's open again and he's like what is happening? He's creeped out from the movie. He's, I don't know, like let me guess I already did, I closed this once. Can I guess so, or should I not? Well, hang on, okay, so then a third time it happens. And now he's like getting angry because he's like still creeped out, but he's like he's able to like fix things, install things, whatever. He's like I'm going to fix this drawer, like what the heck is going on. So he closes the drawer and he opens the cabinet underneath and as soon as he opens the cabinet he hears rah it's my daughter, I knew it.

Speaker 1 2:28

I totally knew it Because I've seen her. Oh, I didn't think about that. Like that she could actually move the drawer from inside the cabinet but. I've seen her open it up and I can't remember if she went in, but she was joking about how she could crawl in.

Speaker 2 2:45

So yes, because whenever the kids will play hide and seek, or if we have friends over and their kids are over, they'll play hide and seek and that's one of their hiding spots. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he was so mad because it startled him. He wasn't expecting to see her down there. He didn't even hear her come in. So anyways, it was a cute story, I thought yeah, she's fly that one. Yep.

Speaker 1 3:12

We are back. It's been three weeks. I know we said two. We've had a lot of stuff going on.

Speaker 1 3:20

I was sick. Then we had vacation that never ended. When I went to Colorado it was supposed to be for a week, it ended up being two. I got some really good stories. So at some point we'll do like a dark town series on all the things. Because while I was sitting in an eight hour traffic jam, literally on the I-15, because we decided to drive all the way over to Montrose, Colorado, where we have family, I was like I'm just going to start researching places and so I did.

Speaker 2 3:51

I mean yeah why, not.

Speaker 1 3:54

What else would you do? The traffic jam happened at the I-15 and it's the freeway you take between Los Angeles to go to Las Vegas, but it's on the way to Colorado. There was a truck that had flipped over completely and it had lithium ion batteries in it, so it caught fire.

Speaker 2 4:14

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 4:15

I don't think there were any fatalities, not that I saw.

Speaker 2 4:18

That's good yeah.

Speaker 1 4:20

But it's extremely toxic, it's hard to put out. Plus, it's in the middle of the Mojave Desert, so there's not a lot going on. One of the alternative routes had a crash, so that closed down completely, so there's nothing like being two and a half hours in to your trip, like what should be hour two and a half.

Speaker 1 4:39

Oh gosh, yeah, hour by hour ticking up your arrival time. But then I looked over to the right and I was like, is that a lava field? And it was so fun fact, there was volcanic activity thousands of years ago in the Mojave Desert, so I just dropped some knowledge on you. And what's this? Oh, pisgah, the Pisgah crater. They're extinct now so you don't have to worry about it erupting again. But it's called the Lovick Lake Volcanic Field and apparently the Pisgah crater. It has hundreds of lava tubes and you can actually go caving in them.

Speaker 1 5:15

I was like we should just pull our car over to the side of the road and go caving in a pitch black lava tube in 110 degrees in the the hobby desert. That sounds freaking brilliant. We did not do that.

Speaker 2 5:26

Northern Arizona has lava tubes also outside of Flagstaff yeah Cool.

Speaker 1 5:33

Maybe I'll go caving in those in the winter. It ended up being two weeks, because our flight out of Montrose ended up getting canceled and the next one wasn't until Thursday, because it's small, and then it's like everything else had a layover in Denver and it was like a thousand dollars more, and so we ended up just driving back with my husband and son. But here we are, we're back, ready to go, ready to talk more about graveyards. Before we jump in to our episode today, we just wanted to pause to say thank you so much for listening and to help us out to be more discoverable on all the different platforms that we're streaming. If you could click the subscribe and the rate and review, that would be amazing. It really helps a lot for others to find us. And also, too, if you are on social media reminder, we are under dark city pod at Instagram, facebook and threads.

Speaker 1 6:32

We were on TikTok. We'll probably go back up on TikTok at some point, but it's like all of the other platforms really likes faces and we did not realize when we started this that the video podcast is the new audio podcast, so we'll get there. I know you all want to know who your creators are, which is completely understandable, but until then it's just like TikTok is just not really a good platform for us All. Right, in our last two special edition episodes on Denver my gosh, that feels like that was forever ago.

Speaker 2 7:07

I know it does Because it was.

Speaker 1 7:10

We went to Denver for those of you who didn't listen to those yet, we were in Denver for the True Crime and Paranormal Podcast Festival, which was a lot of fun, but it was obligatory while we were there to it felt like do episodes on the history. So one of the stories that we told was about Cheesman Park, which is in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Denver, and it's a former graveyard where the headstones were moved, but not necessarily all of the bodies. It turns out this happens all of the time, far and wide, I bet probably almost every city. So since we are diving back into our regular season on Los Angeles, we are going to talk about a few of the times it has happened here, at least that we know about.

Speaker 1 7:54

There's probably many more times that we don't know about and we're not going to talk about every single time it's happened that, at least, has been documented, but just a few select ones that I found digging. No pun intended, oh gosh, my gosh. All right, I'll see myself out. I don't even know what I was saying. Probably a good thing.

Speaker 1 8:24

One that you found while you were digging. Yeah, that weren't particularly interesting, but before we go there, I'm gonna drop some knowledge on you about cemeteries, because I read this really interesting book called over my dead body, which is by the author greg melville, and he had profiled several different cemeteries and just talked about the history in general and it was really interesting. One of the things that was cited in there was there was a data visualization expert named Joshua Stephen, who was inspired by none other than Stephen King's Pet Cemetery, decided to map all 145,000 graveyards and cemeteries, at least, that are known in the US on a map, and I will that sounds like a lot of work.

Speaker 1 9:13

I'm sure it's all automated and you code and it pops up but, um, I'll ask his permission to see if we could post it on our social media. I don't know him, but sometimes people are really good about that, sure, but there are. For all the places where there was a graveyard or cemetery at least according to the data and the maps that he pulled it's dotted in red, so, like when you look at the south, it's like bright red, which makes sense because that area was settled earlier than the rest of the US. It's also where the Civil War was, Right earlier than the rest of the US. It's also where the Civil War was. When you think about it, there's probably lots of Native graveyards and others that just could have been bulldozed over or even moved through time, so when I?

Speaker 1 9:53

think about not just where things are, but where they used to be. It's probably just so much more, but to put the 145,000 figure into perspective.

Speaker 1 10:03

That's 10 times the number of Starbucks in this country and eight times the number of McDonald's restaurants, To which I say there's more Starbucks than McDonald's. I guess that makes sense. That's a lot. The expression six feet under Turns out actually graves are typically four to five feet under. Six feet under Turns out actually graves are typically four to five feet under. Because it would take five to six hours, I'm assuming, for like an average healthy person, to dig a six foot plot. So, April, I'm not going to help you bury the body. You can do that on your own.

Speaker 2 10:37

Oh, it all sounds like a lot of work, I know.

Speaker 1 10:39

I don't think I could Seriously. But you know, even before we get to Seriously.

Speaker 2 10:44

But you know who did, even before we get to that point.

Speaker 1 10:46

But you knew who could and did. Two famous people who spent time as grave diggers Tom Petty and Abraham Lincoln.

Speaker 2 10:55

They were both grave diggers at one point.

Speaker 1 10:59

Wow, yeah, and that always makes me think of the Tom Petty song Last Dance with Mary Jane, which is a super, super creepy video.

Speaker 2 11:09

I was going to say do you remember the video with Kim Basinger when he dances?

Speaker 1 11:13

with a corpse. I'm like oh, a little too appropriate. Yeah, a little too appropriate. Many of the cemeteries that were built early in the United States history were built before public parks were available, so, in the absence of park space for recreation, it was actually really common for people to have picnics at graveyards.

Speaker 2 11:35

Oh yes, I don't know what was I recently reading or watching, and it was like very common for people to go and visit their loved ones and have a picnic in the graveyard.

Speaker 1 11:46

That's so crazy to me, I know, and I think just even coincidentally I might have shared it on our stories, but someone had posted a historical photo of like a family having a picnic on a grave site, which is just so, so odd to me, but I guess.

Speaker 2 12:04

I mean, if culturally that's what you do, then you know it's no big deal, yeah, and there are beautiful peaceful places.

Speaker 1 12:10

So I guess, yeah, all kinds of things like hunting, carriage racing, all that stuff, graveyards were the happening place to be. But did you ever think you won't be buried or cremated if you've ever given?

Speaker 2 12:26

thought to that. Oh, my husband and I have talked about this. He wants to be cremated and I'd rather be buried.

Speaker 1 12:32

Yeah, I would rather be buried. But then after reading this book I was like maybe the more environmentally responsible thing to do is to get cremated.

Speaker 2 12:41

I just don't want to be burned. Not that I'm going to know the difference at that point.

Speaker 1 12:46

Yeah.

Speaker 2 12:46

I don't know what it is, I just I don't like that idea, yeah, just being reduced down to a pile of ashes.

Speaker 1 12:53

I know Well an environmental concern I would have never thought about before reading this book, but totally makes sense. Apparently, 4 million gallons of embalming fluid are placed underground each year when we bury our dead, which is like yeah, I mean totally Like we are literally just putting these chemicals that eventually make their way into groundwater. And that's not even to mention that, like a lot of coffins have preservatives mercury in your dental fillings. So there are now green burial alternatives where, like you, could be wrapped in biodegradable cloth and the casket also same. It's eco-friendly. You can have your grave marked by, like a piece of wood or stone so that over time you will just all naturally break down into nature without causing any problems.

Speaker 2 13:46

So this is all really depressing. It is really depressing.

Speaker 1 13:51

It's been a really depressing day it started out with me like watching that movie Midsommar, with that completely screwed up ritual at the end and now we're talking about death. Yeah, they got cremated in the end. Oh, oops, I didn't say that. That's a plot spoiler Spoiler.

Speaker 2 14:11

I'm serious, not all of them.

Speaker 1 14:14

I need to talk about this movie for a second. That was such a messed up. That was so messed up, that was so not okay. Oh yeah, I was like why are they staying?

Speaker 2 14:25

What are they doing? Get out of there.

Speaker 1 14:28

Where would they go, though? They're like four hours away from civilization.

Speaker 2 14:31

I really didn't know. Maybe I wouldn't be good in a cult. I don't know. I don't think I'd be very compliant. I don't think I'd be very compliant. I don't think I would either. I'd be like Sidney Bristow You're never going to break me down.

Speaker 1 14:49

You're going to think you brainwashed me, but you really didn't that was so amazing.

Speaker 2 14:54

Oh gosh, Season three is the best season.

Speaker 1 14:56

What was her name? Was it Veronica?

Speaker 2 15:03

something. You became Veronica. Oh, I don't remember Julia Thorne. Season three is the best season. What was her name, was it?

Speaker 1 15:06

veronica, something you became, veronica.

Speaker 2 15:07

Oh, julia thorn julia, julia thorn you became julia thorn.

Speaker 1 15:09

Yeah, heck, yeah. Who knows their trivia? I don't know if that's something to be proud of but Of course it is. Before I move into the actual grave sites that have moved, not entirely in Los Angeles, though. One thing that was funny I was looking up like headstones because I'm like I bet you some creative people have like done some cool stuff and there are like just like funny ones that are fun, that it's like I'm a ghost, I know something you don't know.

Speaker 1 15:43

And there is an Instagram account and I believe she's on other platforms too, but her name is Rosie Grant, but she has it's called the Ghostly Archive and she posts headstones where people have left their favorite recipes, which is kind of cool.

Speaker 2 15:58

Yeah.

Speaker 1 15:59

That's interesting. I'm totally going to leave my burn list, but that's really nice as an alternative.

Speaker 2 16:10

I know at least one person that's going to be on there from high school wait for me or for you? Oh, for you, oh yeah, we're not gonna name names, but what's?

Speaker 1 16:28

the taylor says line yeah, it's gonna be in red, it's gonna be underlined and it's to be checked twice. Yatch, I don't know if I'm going to keep any of that, but, baby, you know what we should do that as like a Patreon bonus.

Speaker 2 16:51

Who's on Leah's?

Speaker 1 16:52

list. That's right, guys. We're going to start a Patreon eventually and if you want to know if you're on my list, you should just join the Patreon. So, getting back to Los Angeles, there are multiple times over decades in Los Angeles when freeways were going to be built, or like a mass transit line, or like a building was going to get expanded, then all of a sudden, oops, we just dug up some skeletons and a coffin. This has happened multiple times.

Speaker 1 17:19

According to the PBS article Lost Cemeteries of Early LA exact quote the first Catholic, jewish and Protestant cemeteries in Los Angeles were abandoned by 1910. The displaced dead were scattered to other cemeteries. Not all were found and reburied. There are permanent Angelenos, their names unknown, under parking lots, playing fields and city streets, and those are the ones we're going to dive into, some of them anyway. So first one is a. It's one of the earliest burial places in Los Angeles and it's called Campo Santo, which is Spanish for sacred ground.

Speaker 1 18:00

I think I'm pretty sure. Okay, I'll edit it out if I'm wrong. Okay, okay, but that was built in 1823, and it was located right next to a Catholic church known as La Placida. It was in what we now know as downtown Los Angeles today, what we now know as downtown Los Angeles today. Between the years of 1823 and 1844, it's estimated by the historian Stephen W Hackle that around 700 people were buried there, and many of the people who were buried there, by the way, are like the who's who of Los Angeles. Let me see if you remember these names Hervacio, alipaz.

Speaker 1 18:38

Maria del Rosario Villa and Domingo Villas.

Speaker 2 18:43

Oh wow, Interesting.

Speaker 1 18:44

Okay, from our Griffith Park episode. Yep, oh, there's another reference to that episode in here coming up in just a little bit, a really good one too. Yeah, so we talked about legends and lore in the history of Griffith Park, and if you missed that one, I think you should go back because there's so much interesting stuff in there. But these guys were not all friends.

Speaker 1 19:07

In fact, maria and Domingo were married at one point, and Hervacio was her lover, and then Hervacio or Maria, or both, killed Domingo like brutally, brutally killed, and then Hervaso and Maria had a horrific and tragic end.

Speaker 2 19:26

You'll have to go back Because they didn't hide the body well enough.

Speaker 1 19:30

Yes, yeah, they messed up a lot.

Speaker 2 19:31

They did not dig any feet down, they just used leaves.

Speaker 1 19:35

Yeah, exactly, nobody's going to find them. Nobody's had anything.

Speaker 2 19:39

Spoiler alert. I know Spoiler alert. You need to do a better job, yeah.

Speaker 1 19:44

Yes, but their ending was just horrific. But it's just crazy that all three of them you know it's not a big graveyard at this point they're all buried in the same place. But they're not the only people who have been buried next to each other who probably would prefer to never have been buried next to each other.

Speaker 1 19:59

There's like an example of. There were three men that were found guilty and executed because they robbed and brutally killed a German shoemaker and shopkeeper named Nicholas Fink, and many people buried her were from the indigenous groups, such as the Tongva, that lived here well before Spanish missionaries had come over hundreds of years ago and essentially took over their land, and in many, if not most all, cases they basically forced them into what looked a lot like slavery and to convert to the.

Speaker 1 20:32

Catholic faith. When the cemetery began filling up and outrunning its space, you also start to get complaints too, because, like you know, you put in a cemetery and then things grow up around it and nobody wants to be by a cemetery. So in 1844, another cemetery called Calvary is opened up about a mile away. It's in what is now Chinatown today, which is not very far from the Dodger Stadium. In fact, I think it's less than a mile in Elysian Park. So it's literally on the other. If you're familiar with the area which I know you aren't but it's on the other side of the freeway, the 110 from the park, so that's the location we're talking about.

Speaker 1 21:16

Bodies were moved there. So, it was said, a plaque was put up at Campo Santo indicating all of the people who had been buried there were moved over to Calvary, and so everyone was like sure I believe you, because why would you not do that? Right, yeah. But then, 150 years later, when the site is excavated to accommodate the new outdoor plaza for it was a new center celebrating Mexican-American culture and heritage the construction workers find the remains of what was approximately it ended up being a count of 100 people and then the remains were stored offsite, and this is awful in bags and buckets, and it wasn't like there was nothing expedient about trying to identify or bury them. So that, of course, led to protests from Native American communities who knew certainly many of them were their ancestors. The right protocols were not followed.

Speaker 1 22:15

The right parties weren't consulted. In fact, I read that the National Park Service even got involved and withheld money from the county at one point, or threatened to, so it was bad. But eventually they were all reburied in the spot of where Campo Santo is. For what I understand, it's like a very like, it's not a very descript spot. I wanted to visit it, I just ran out of time. It's now.

Speaker 1 22:36

It looks like a little garden and it's by a fence. So at least they got the space, but without a lot of ceremony. Now we're still not done with the story though. Okay, so the Campo Santo people, so they've been located and people figured out. Okay, now all the bodies were moved, but then the place they were supposed to go to Cavalry this site begins to fill up, of course.

Speaker 1 23:01

By 1896, a new Caval was opened up farther away in east. It was east of downtown, on Whittier Boulevard, just east of what, if you're familiar with the neighborhoods, what's called Boyle Heights, the old cavalry cemetery, though at this point, by the time the new one had opened, people were not really being buried there, like it had almost come to a complete halt. And I think 1896, when the new one opened up, was officially like the last year anyone knew had been buried in the old cemetery. But when you think of an old cemetery at this point in time, the old cavalry cemetery it probably looks like that traditional Halloween cemetery that you would never visit, never go on a dare. It's overgrown, they didn't have maintenance keeping it up, so it's overgrown with weeds. It's full of cobwebs and dust.

Speaker 1 23:55

The graves and tombstones that were left are sinking into the ground, the inscriptions on them are fading, and because people were moving their loved ones out of the cemetery gradually over time, you have all of these giant holes all over the place. Actually, though, you'd probably be more afraid of the living in the cemetery than the ghosts that might haunt it, because one of the key reasons people are moving their loved ones out is because there was all kinds of vandalism just really horrible stories of grave robbing. Some people would even steal marble tiles, like anything that could be sold. You also have this becomes a popular site for people who are homeless to sleep there because they won't be disturbed. This is a horrible story. There was one little boy that came across the skeleton of the first lady of Mexican California. Her name was Maria Ignacio Pico, and I can't imagine like I never would be the same. She had been pulled from the vault where she had been interred, but she wasn't entirely decomposed Like she still had her hair.

Speaker 1 25:01

She, like she still had her hair she, her, her clothes were still like they hadn't decomposed so how horrifying that must be.

Speaker 2 25:09

Oh my gosh, that would be terrifying.

Speaker 1 25:11

As a kid I know I know there are stories here and there of ghosts that roam the property. It's so long ago so a lot of it is just like lore. But there was one the los Los Angeles Times had reported at one point a lot of people were saying no, seriously, we've seen a ghost like so many that it was too coincidental. But then it was determined it was actually just somebody who was homeless but was ultimately arrested for using an abandoned vault as a place to sleep.

Speaker 2 25:43

Oh my gosh, I know so this is not no wonder they thought it was a ghost.

Speaker 1 25:48

I know I oh gosh, I know. Finally, in 1925, this old cavalry cemetery, it's taken over by the city who claim again those that had been remained had remained, had all been moved, and it's impossible to know exactly who was buried there and confirm if they actually had been moved, because all the internment records from the old cavalry cemetery had been lost. Right now that site, the site of Cathedral High School, so it's a high school now and a church called St Peter's Church. I think they have done I heard, I had heard somewhere but then I couldn't find the article and source but like they have done construction and they have found bodies there, indicating that in fact not everybody who could have or should have been moved over was. It's likely. There probably are still bodies buried under the school's football field and parking lot. The school was like we're going to just lean into that and they are known as the phantoms. That's their mascot.

Speaker 2 26:52

Good for them. Way to spin it for the positive.

Speaker 1 26:57

I'm like I kind of want to go to a haunted high school, but I kind of don't.

Speaker 2 27:02

Yeah, I don't know if I'm ready for ghost hunting. Are there stories from that high school that it's haunted at all?

Speaker 1 27:10

I took a ghost tour of that area. It was when the podcast was just like a inkling of a thought in my mind and I believe that we stopped. We stopped by and there were stories, but I don't remember and I was looking for my notes on it and I didn't see them.

Speaker 2 27:25

so I know there are I just don't.

Speaker 1 27:28

And then, crawling around the web, I don't really trust you know right, there can be.

Speaker 2 27:33

Yeah, anybody can write anything, exactly, exactly exactly, but they do.

Speaker 1 27:38

They do have some of the stones from the old cemetery have been preserved. I saw pictures that they've kept like they're on display in different locations. All right, so now we're going to move over to Boyle Heights, which is a historic neighborhood in East Los Angeles. Construction workers were breaking ground for the Metro Gold Lines East Side Extension back in 2005 near the Evergreen Cemetery, and they found human remains while digging up the Los Angeles County Crematory driveway. What would ultimately happen is that the excavation would reveal 174 burial sites, along with an array of personal artifacts, like everything from buttons, jewelry, coins, even opium pipes.

Speaker 1 28:27

Some dated all the way back to the 1880s. Some of these grave sites they were located on what was ultimately they were able to figure out it was a potter's field for paupers. So it's estimated that between 1877 and 1924, approximately 13,000 people were buried there. So it was like people who were poor could not be identified. And this is horrible. Many of the bodies recovered were Chinese immigrants who were denied burial at the Evergreen Cemetery. Oh, that's sad. So Chinese laborers that played crucial roles in that time period, building a lot of like.

Speaker 1 29:09

America's railroads, basic infrastructure, including the very transit lines that now crisscross Los Angeles. It just shows that segregation exists even in death, and it's hard to identify, unfortunately, exactly who's been assumed, because it's from so long ago and a lot of immigrants they used fake names and I didn't know that they had no children because federal policies did not allow Chinese women to immigrate to the US.

Speaker 1 29:37

What they didn't want them to have kids. It's like you're good enough to come work here but not have a family. Dang, I know that is messed up, I know so. I know the history with with people who have come over from China is so messed up. I had no idea it was. It was like that that bad?

Speaker 2 29:53

I didn't know that piece of it, I know.

Speaker 1 29:55

I know, wow, and the Chinese were the only ethnic group denied burial at Evergreen. Oh my, gosh I know. And then, to add insult to injury, they would get charged if they were buried in the potter's field. But everyone else that was buried in Evergreen got it for free. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 30:13

I know they already don't have money. Like, what are you doing?

Speaker 1 30:17

I know it's like the good old days, guys. The good old days were not good, no, no. So that's just really tragic. There's a historical society too that got really involved and they've preserved stuff and they have I can't remember if there's like a memorial or it's a plaque at least we're able to do some. I mean, it never could be enough justice.

Speaker 1 30:38

but for those who were, who were buried there and found. So that leaves us to our last but not least location, which is like kind of on topic but kind of not. I felt like I'm like I can't not talk about this because it's so Los Angeles. It's the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, which I feel like I just have to mention. Are you familiar with the Hollywood Forever Cemetery?

Speaker 2 31:04

No.

Speaker 1 31:05

Okay, so it was built in 1899, and it's the final resting place of many famous celebrities, like all types too, not just movie stars like Judy Garland, but also Griffith Jay Griffith. Oh yeah, the gigantic or good friend, yes, and by friend we mean complete asshole who shot his wife in the face and still got a parking after him. He's buried there.

Speaker 1 31:29

So is bugsy siegel who he was a gangster, and one of the early developers of las vegas and it almost went bankrupt in the late 90s, but then it was saved from bankruptcy and rebranded, and, and the rebranding is like bringing back the entertainment and parks piece. So there's all kinds of community events like music, summer movies, of all places to visit in LA. I've lived here for a decade. You'd think I would have visited that a long time ago. I actually have not. I've not been there yet, but I'm going to try to go by at least to take some pictures.

Speaker 2 32:07

That'd be an interesting one.

Speaker 1 32:09

I know I.

Speaker 2 32:10

I.

Speaker 1 32:11

I've been asked I think my husband has asked a couple of times about movies in the park, which would be cool, especially depending on what it is. But every year they do have the last Saturday before November 2nd, they have a huge celebration of Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. It sounds really really, really cool. So maybe this year that's cool, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 32:36

Now it's also located right next to Parent Mount Pictures and that's why I was like I think I can kind of squeeze it into this episode. It's on theme Back in 1920, the cemetery sold large tracts to Paramount and RKO Pictures, which no longer exists.

Speaker 2 32:54

It makes me think of who Framed Roger Rabbit. Oh, my gosh, I told you, because RKO's in who Framed Roger Rabbit? Go ahead, sorry.

Speaker 1 33:02

Totally forgot about that movie. I did not see evidence per se that Paramount Pictures studio was built directly on spots where bodies were buried but not moved. So there are lots of really cool stories and by cool scary, but some of them are cool. Some of them are just really scary of hauntings at Paramount and at Hollywood forever. I'm not going to tell you those here, though, because I think for the month of October I'm going to compile shorts on all of these different scary stories I've been coming across, but they just don't fit into an episode or they're too long, yeah. So more on that later. That's my little bit, at least, on Hollywood Forever. For now, With that April, do you want to give us a preview of our episode in two weeks and we really mean two weeks this time, not three. I shouldn't say that and I'll jinx myself.

Speaker 2 34:00

Don't do that, so we're going to be talking about the Queen Mary. It resides in Long Beach, there's a lot of history behind it, which is really cool, and then a lot of ghost stories.

Speaker 1 34:14

So we're excited, yay, okay. So we're going to stay on the theme You're not going to. There's no way you're not going to make it to LA in the next two weeks to visit the Queen Mary.

Speaker 2 34:26

No, I really want to. Now, after I've researched it, I really want to.

Speaker 1 34:31

I know I have questions. I'm not going to ask them, I'll just save them. I remember hearing about this as a kid and being so enchanted by it, but I don't remember any of the details, so I'm sure you probably found like all that and more. So join us in two weeks. Thanks everyone for listening, and if you've stuck through to the end, that probably means you liked what you heard. So go ahead, click that. Smash that rate.

Speaker 1 34:55

Subscribe button wherever you're listening, come follow us on Instagram Facebook threads under dark city pod If you want to see pictures from this week's episode. I have a few I'm going to post soon, and I'll also share some information over those mediums about the Disneyland of graveyards that I did not talk about today. Until then, stay away from the dark side, because if you don't, you might be buried next to your ex lover and ex husband, who you might have killed or your lover might have killed.

Speaker 2 35:30

Bye, bye, thank you.