Host Kristin traces the history of Virginia City itself, from the 1859 discovery of the Comstock Lode through the population explosion that transformed a bare Nevada mountainside into a city of twenty-five thousand souls. She examines how the social hierarchies of the living followed residents into death, and explores one of the cemetery's most striking omissions — a story of exclusion that reflects the harder truths of what the Comstock was built on. 

Featured Stories 

The episode moves through the cemetery's distinct sections, uncovering the stories of those who built Virginia City and paid for it with their lives. Among the miners, two men who crossed an ocean together and died in the same mine six months apart. Among the civilian dead, a family plot that holds parents and infant sons, separated in life by twenty years of grief and reunited in Silver Terrace by a collision in San Francisco Bay. A woman buried in the Oddfellows section whose story is recorded only in the coldest terms a cemetery record allows. 

The firemen's section carries its own weight, including a grave restored a century after burial when a distant city answered the call to take care of one of its own, and the story of a woman the firemen fought to bury in their ground and were refused. Her grave has since been lost. 

Among the veterans, soldiers who carried their wars west and lived out their days among sagebrush and silver dust. And a Virginia City native, barely nineteen years old, remembered by the local paper as one of the most beloved young men in the city. 

The episode closes with a woman who spent nine years trying to reach the dead from the other side of the veil. She is buried at Silver Terrace now. Perhaps she found what she was looking for. 

Silver Terrace Cemeteries are open year round from sunrise to sunset, free of charge. The Comstock Cemetery Foundation manages the grounds and offers a self-guided audio tour with twenty-nine stops. Each fall, Funtime Theater performs Voices of the Past, a living history walking tour through the cemetery. Cemetery Gin, the official spirit of Virginia City, donates one dollar from every bottle sold to preservation efforts at Silver Terrace. 

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

The cemetery is overwhelmingly a family burial ground, spanning generations of the same name in these hills. Among the stones are graves marked only by a single word or a single name. Ibby. Son. No dates, no explanation, nothing but the inscription and the silence around it. One of the most often-told spirits here has no stone at all.

The men buried in this clearing lived through the Civil War fighting for the Union while surrounded by a Confederate state, and two of them may have ridden in the same regiment without the trail plaques ever mentioning it. Whether the wandering figure people report seeing at dusk is a grieving father, a returning soldier, or simply a trick of the light, Norton Cemetery has never stopped collecting stories. Some places hold onto their dead long after the markers are gone.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

This episode opens the gate to Beaufort National Cemetery, a forty-four-acre Civil War cemetery in Beaufort, South Carolina, established by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, where more than 29,500 souls rest beneath moss-draped live oaks. Before walking those grounds, we follow the story backward to a Charleston racetrack in May of 1865, where nearly 10,000 people gathered for what may have been the earliest large-scale Memorial Day ceremony in American history. Most were formerly enslaved Black citizens. The story was nearly erased and wasn't rediscovered until historian David Blight found a handwritten account at Harvard in 1996.

Inside Beaufort, we meet the men whose lives give this cemetery its weight. Donald Conroy, decorated Marine pilot and the real-life inspiration for Pat Conroy's novel The Great Santini, rests beneath the same oaks where his character's fictional funeral was filmed. Joseph Simmons was born in 1899 on nearby St. Helena Island, fought at Belleau Wood, served with the Buffalo Soldiers in World War II, and spent thirty-four years in uniform, only to receive meaningful recognition from France weeks before his hundredth birthday. Ralph Henry Johnson was twenty years old when he threw himself onto a grenade in Vietnam on March 5, 1968, saving the men beside him and earning the Medal of Honor he would never hold.

Beaufort holds more than the dead. It holds the memories a nation tried to forget.

Descending once more into the hauntings of history on The Grim.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Featured Stories

The Origins of Lone Fir: From a frontier farm burial to Portland's central necropolis, the story of a city that outgrew its dead and consolidated them in a single place.

Block 14: The erasure of more than three thousand Chinese immigrant graves, the parking lot built over their remains, and the 2026 apology issued nearly a century after the desecration.

The Macleay Mausoleum: A $13,500 Gothic Revival monument in red sandstone, built by Scottish merchant Donald Macleay to honor his wife Martha, who died on New Year's Day 1876, the day after giving birth.

The Founders: Beneath the Trees Asa Lovejoy, who lost the coin toss that named Portland; Oregon's first Poet Laureate Samuel L. Simpson; painter Eliza Barchus; and Julius Caesar, the formerly enslaved man whose headstone reads "Play ball."

Emma Merlotin: A French courtesan brutally murdered on December 22, 1885, whose killer was never found, and whose shadow many believe still moves between the trees.

The Old Man in the Dark: A first-person account of an encounter at Lone Fir that left two visitors running and one unsettling question unanswered.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

The cemetery's history spans centuries of conflict, neglect, and remarkable restoration. Bombed during World War II and left in ruin for decades, it was rescued in 1988 when volunteers painstakingly reassembled more than twenty thousand fragments of shattered stone. Today, ancient cypress trees, wildflowers, and migratory birds share the grounds with Neo-Classical monuments carved with urns, angels, broken columns, and Masonic symbols — all suspended above the still blue waters of the harbor.

Among the graves rests John Hookham Frere, British diplomat, poet, and friend of Lord Byron, who spent his final years on the island. Scattered throughout are the forgotten dead of British Malta: officers felled by disease rather than battle, merchants who never returned home, and families who built lives beneath foreign skies. Two Catholic burials and one Russian Orthodox burial quietly break the cemetery's Protestant boundaries — small fractures in the rigid lines of empire and faith.

The cemetery carries its own folklore. Visitors report wailing voices drifting from the bastions after dark. Night tours led by the warden each summer recount stories of duels, suicides, and mysterious deaths. A child buried on Christmas Day in 1871 — the last known burial — and a shadowy figure reportedly seen near the wall decades later. And somewhere within the restored paths lies Mikiel Anton Vassalli, the father of the Maltese language, denied Catholic burial by the Church he defied, resting anonymously among strangers in the very cemetery his rediscovery helped save.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Pine Hill was established in 1769 on land donated by Benjamin Parker Jr., and nearly three hundred souls rest beneath its weathered stones. The cemetery's infamous nickname traces not to murder or massacre, but to a single grave: Abel Blood, a Christian philanthropist whose surname proved too unsettling for local imagination to ignore. For decades, visitors have reported a phantom child along the roadside, malfunctioning cameras and electronics within the gates, sudden temperature drops, and a pointing hand carved in stone that some claim shifts direction after dark.

Then there is Gilson Road, less than an acre, easy to overlook, and according to paranormal researcher Fiona Broome, the most active cemetery in the state. Here, the graves of infant children draw quiet offerings from strangers, a headstone bears an unexplained hole drilled cleanly through its center, and a legend tied to a Colonial-era woman named Betsey Gilson has haunted the roadside for generations. A banished medicine man. A glowing headstone. A dark rider, some call the Watcher. At Gilson Road, no single story dominates, only an accumulation of dread that visitors carry home long after the gate is behind them.

Featured Stories

Pine Hill Cemetery (Blood Cemetery), Hollis, NH — The origin of the "Blood Cemetery" nickname, the legend of Abel Blood's shifting grave marker, reports of a phantom child along the roadside, and decades of paranormal encounters documented by researcher Fiona Broome.

Gilson Road Cemetery, Nashua, NH — The mysterious drilled headstone of five-year-old Walter Gilson, the legend of Betsey Gilson and the ritual visitors still attempt after dark, and why investigators call this the most haunted cemetery in New Hampshire.

Descending once more into the hauntings of history, on The Grim.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Featured Stories

Built in 1723 as Christ Church, Old North was Boston's second Anglican congregation — an outsider faith taking root in Puritan soil. Its Georgian architecture echoed Christopher Wren's London cathedrals, its bells are the oldest change-ringing set in North America, and its steeple carried the signal that set Paul Revere riding. But the building's deeper history lives underground.

The crypt beneath the church holds thirty-seven tombs, coffins stacked upon coffins in chambers carved from necessity. Among the interred: Timothy Cutler, the church's founding rector who abandoned Congregationalism for Anglicanism and guided his congregation through the colonial era's most uncertain decades. Major John Pitcairn, the British Marine officer present at Lexington and Concord, reportedly brought here after falling at Bunker Hill — though whose remains truly rest in this tomb remains unresolved. And Samuel Nicholson, first captain of the USS Constitution, who helped forge a new nation's naval identity before returning, in death, to lie among those he had outlived.

Then there is the brick. In the spring of 2025, an anonymous package arrived at Old North — a single crypt brick returned by a stranger whose husband had taken it, followed, the note said, by a string of bad luck. The brick now rests on a pillar in the crypt, sealed beneath glass alongside its two-sentence confession. Two weeks after it was reinstalled, the lights went out. No explanation was found.

Old North's staff insist this is a sacred space, not a haunted house. The brick is lighthearted, they say. It's what you make of it.

Over a thousand people rest beneath a city that has spent three centuries walking over them. Maybe the lights just flickered. Maybe the brick is just a brick. Or maybe the crypt has feelings about what belongs to it.

Descending once more into the hauntings of history — on The Grim.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Featured Stories:

The Mass Graves of the Reign of Terror

For six terrifying weeks in the summer of 1794, the guillotine stood at the edge of Paris — and the bodies were quietly carted to a convent garden just five minutes away. Over 1,300 men and women were buried here without ceremony: nobles beside laborers, nuns beside soldiers, strangers in life bound together in death.

The Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne

Sixteen Carmelite nuns, ranging in age from twenty-nine to seventy-eight, are counted among the dead. It is said they sang hymns as they were led to the scaffold — an act of quiet defiance that would later be immortalized in Francis Poulenc's opera, Dialogues of the Carmelites.

The Search for the Lost Dead

After the Terror ended, surviving families returned to a city that had buried its dead quickly — and quietly. It was not a noble who guided them to the burial site. It was a young commoner who had followed the cart carrying her father and brother, and remembered where it went. Because of her, Picpus was found again.

The Marquis de Lafayette

Born into French nobility and orphaned by fifteen, Lafayette sailed to America at nineteen to fight in a revolution that was not his own — funding troops from his personal fortune, enduring Valley Forge, and helping deliver the decisive victory at Yorktown. He returned to France to champion liberty, survived imprisonment during the Terror, and was laid to rest at Picpus beside his wife — with soil from Bunker Hill buried with him. An American flag still flies over his grave today, renewed each Fourth of July.

Picpus During the Nazi Occupation

Through the German occupation of Paris, an American flag continued to fly over Lafayette's tomb — and remarkably, the cemetery was never entered by German forces. Nearby, staff at the Rothschild Hospital risked everything to save Jewish patients: falsifying records, creating false death certificates, and quietly sheltering those in danger within the convent grounds of Picpus itself.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

For decades before the war, anti-Asian legislation had been quietly narrowing the world of Japanese Americans — stripping land rights, denying citizenship, and building a climate of suspicion that needed only a single spark. Pearl Harbor provided it. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, setting into motion the forced removal of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans, nearly 70,000 of them U.S. citizens, from their homes on the West Coast into internment camps surrounded by barbed wire and guarded towers — with no charges, no trials, and no crimes beyond ancestry.

Hidden within Manzanar's boundaries was a place most history books overlook — the Children's Village, a wartime orphanage where even children with living parents were sometimes separated from their families by policy. Some arrived not fully understanding where they were going. Others, like seven-year-old Francis Honda, would later describe it simply: it was lonely, it was sad, it felt like the end of the world. And yet, older residents like John Sohei Hohri gathered the children at night to tell stories — keeping imagination alive behind the wire.

The cemetery itself was never part of the original plan. It emerged out of necessity, carved from what had once been a peach orchard just beyond the barbed wire fence, shaped by death in a place that had not prepared for it. Today only six graves remain — but at the center stands the Soul Consoling Tower, a white obelisk built in 1943 by the incarcerees themselves, funded through fifteen-cent contributions from each family. On its face: Soul Consoling Tower. On its reverse: Erected by the Manzanar Japanese, August 1943.

In 1988, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 brought a formal government apology and reparations of $20,000 to surviving incarcerees. It was an acknowledgment — but for many descendants and survivors of Japanese American incarceration, Manzanar National Historic Site endures not only as a place of grief but as a space of continuing reflection on what justice truly means and what remains unresolved.

Descending once more into the hauntings of history — on The Grim.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

In this episode of The Grim, we trace Staglieno's origins from Napoleon's 1804 Edict of Saint-Cloud through architect Giovanni Battista Resasco's grand vision, brought to life when the cemetery first opened its gates in January 1851. We explore the towering statue of Faith, the domed Pantheon modeled on Rome's, and the sweeping galleries that house both neoclassical masterpieces and Art Nouveau monuments.

Featured Stories

The Sculptors of Staglieno — Meet the masters who gave grief a form: Leonardo Bistolfi, Giulio Monteverde, Augusto Rivalta, and others whose weeping angels and contemplative prophets have earned the cemetery's figures the haunting nickname the talking statues.

Joy Division's Closer — Discover how photographer Bernard Pierre Wolff's 1978 visit to Staglieno carried its melancholy far beyond Genoa's walls, and how the Appiani family tomb became one of rock music's most iconic images.

The Revolutionaries — Walk among the tombs of Nino Bixio, who helped forge modern Italy at Garibaldi's side, and Giuseppe Mazzini, the exiled nationalist who dreamed of a republic and drew 100,000 mourners to Genoa's streets in death — the city that had once condemned him.

Constance Lloyd, Fabrizio De André, and Fernanda Pivano — A quiet corner of the grounds holds the wife of Oscar Wilde, the beloved Genoese singer-songwriter who gave voice to the forgotten, and the translator who brought Hemingway, Ginsberg, and Kerouac to Italian readers.

The British Cemetery — On the hillside's outskirts, 352 Commonwealth servicemen from both World Wars rest in orderly rows — a reminder that Genoa was, and always has been, a crossroads of the world.

Edoardo Sanguineti's Last Word — The poet, provocateur, and founder of Gruppo 63 who dismantled language and rebuilt it — and who once said of poetry: it is not dead, but it lives a secret life.

Descending once more into the hauntings of history — on The Grim.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Aokigahara is a place of extraordinary beauty — and extraordinary grief.

If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available. In the US, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7 at 988lifeline.org. If you're outside the US, please reach out to a local crisis line or a trusted person in your life. You don't have to carry this alone.

Featured Stories

The Forest That Absorbs Sound — Inside Aokigahara, the wind disappears. Wildlife falls silent. Sunlight breaks into fragments through a canopy so thick it dims the world below. Visitors describe a stillness unlike anything else — a quiet that feels less like peace and more like the forest itself is listening.

A History Rooted in Loss — The forest's association with death stretches back centuries. Linked in folklore to the ancient practice of ubasute and the restless yūrei of Japanese legend, Aokigahara became cemented as a place of final decisions through Seichō Matsumoto's 1960 novel Kuroi Jukai and later, Wataru Tsurumi's 1993 work. By 2003, authorities stopped releasing annual death figures to discourage further tragedies.

The Weight of Silence — We explore the cultural and social forces that have drawn people to this forest — from Japan's historically complex relationship with suicide to the economic pressures that drive many there at the close of the fiscal year. Researchers, psychiatrists, and survivors speak to the isolation, the financial collapse, and the strange pull of wanting to disappear without being found.

The Yūrei Among the Trees — In Japanese folklore, spirits of the dead who pass without resolution do not leave. Dressed in white burial kimonos, with long black hair and hands that hang limp, they linger in places like Aokigahara — anchored by grief and unfinished lives. The Hour of the Ox, between 1:00 and 3:00 AM, is said to thin the veil between worlds.

What the Forest Is Teaching Us — From thermal-imaging drones to volunteer patrols and crisis signage, Japan continues to fight for lives at the edge of this forest. We sit with what it means to speak honestly about a place like this — not to mythologize it, but to understand the very human weight it carries.

Descending once more into the hauntings of history — on The Grim.

If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available. In the US, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7 at 988lifeline.org. If you're outside the US, please reach out to a local crisis line or a trusted person in your life. You don't have to carry this alone.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Centralia was once a thriving coal-mining community in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. Today, fewer than five residents remain — the rest displaced by a government-mandated evacuation driven by an underground mine fire that has burned for over sixty years, reaching temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The town's eerie fate inspired the 2006 horror film Silent Hill, and its abandoned streets and smoke-venting earth continue to draw visitors from across the country.

Yet through it all, the cemeteries remain. Tended. Loved. Active.

Featured Stories:

• The Independent Order of Odd Fellows — Founded in Baltimore in 1819 by Thomas Wildey, the Odd Fellows carried a quietly progressive legacy in a rigidly classed era, becoming the first national fraternal order to formally admit both men and women in 1851. Their lodges spread across Pennsylvania's coal region, and their promise — that no member would ever be abandoned — echoes still in Centralia.
• Odd Fellows Cemetery — First burial recorded in 1858 (Sarah Buchanan), with the most recent in 2013. The grounds feel irregular, almost unplanned, as if order was never the intention. Now maintained by the First United Methodist Church in Mount Carmel, PA.
• The Centralia Mine Fire — Burning since at least May 27, 1962, its true origin remains disputed: a trash burn gone wrong near Odd Fellows Cemetery, old ash reigniting a coal seam, or perhaps a forgotten 1932 fire that never fully died. Once it reached the underground coal veins, nothing could stop it.
• Todd Domboski — On Valentine's Day, 1981, twelve-year-old Todd fell into a steaming, smoke-filled sinkhole caused by mine-fire subsidence. He survived only by grasping an exposed tree root until his cousin pulled him free — the moment that made Centralia's danger impossible to ignore.
• The Curse of Centralia — Local legend ties the fire to the Molly Maguires, a 19th-century Irish secret society active in Pennsylvania's coal region. After twenty suspected members were convicted and hanged in the 1870s, a priest allegedly cursed the town: that it would one day burn — except for the church itself. One church still stands in Centralia today.

If you’re drawn to haunted history, Pennsylvania coal region lore, environmental disasters, or the ethics of leaving and staying, this story sticks. Subscribe for more, share this with a friend who loves eerie true history, and leave a review with your take: would you visit Centralia or avoid it?

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Saint Patrick: Born in Roman Britain and enslaved in Ireland at sixteen, Patrick spent six years as a shepherd before escaping and returning as a bishop — transforming a land of druidic tradition into the most fervently Christian island in Europe. After his death in the late fifth century, rival kingdoms erupted into open conflict over possession of his remains, a clash so significant it was recorded in Irish annals as the Battle for the Body of Patrick. Tradition holds his body was brought to this hill in Downpatrick, where a granite marker — placed in 1900 — draws pilgrims to this day.

Saint Brigid of Kildare: Born around 451 to a chieftain and an enslaved Christian woman, Brigid founded the Abbey of Kildare around 480 — a double monastery for men and women, governed jointly, that became one of Ireland's most important centers of learning and faith. She tended an eternal flame that burned at Kildare for centuries, extinguished during the Reformation and relit in 1993. Historians have long noted the striking parallels between this Christian saint and the Celtic goddess of the same name — both associated with fire, fertility, and the forge — leading some to believe Brigid represents not a break from Ireland's pagan past, but its transformation.

Saint Columba (Colmcille): Born in 521 into one of Ireland's most powerful Gaelic dynasties, Columba abandoned a path of political power for the monastery — founding communities at Derry, Durrow, and Kells. When a secret copy he made of a mentor's psalter sparked a legal dispute that spiraled into the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne in 561 — killing thousands — Columba left Ireland, vowing never to look upon her shores again. He sailed to the remote island of Iona off the coast of Scotland, where he founded a monastery that became one of the most significant spiritual centers of the early medieval world. Along the way, he had a documented encounter with a violent creature in the River Ness that would take on a very different reputation in the centuries to come.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Home to the earliest settlers of rural Wisconsin, the cemetery is perhaps best known today as the final resting place of Ed Gein—a body snatcher who robbed the very graves he now lies among, buried unmarked between his mother and brother in the family plot.

Visitors and true crime enthusiasts continue to make pilgrimages to the site, drawn by morbid curiosity and renewed interest following Netflix's dramatized portrayal of Gein's life. Locals, however, have long struggled with the unwanted notoriety—vandalism, desecration, and a steady stream of strangers searching for a killer's grave in a cemetery that was never meant to be famous.

Featured Stories:

Ed Gein: Confessed to robbing nine graves and making up to forty nocturnal cemetery visits between 1947 and 1952. The 1957 discovery at his farmhouse revealed murders, grave robbing, and the construction of grotesque objects from human remains—a crime scene that shocked the nation and defined a genre.

Bernice Worden: The 58-year-old hardware store owner whose disappearance on November 16, 1957 led investigators to Gein's farm and unraveled the full horror of his crimes.

Augusta Gein: Ed's domineering, deeply religious mother—the defining psychological force behind his life, preserved in shrine-like rooms after her 1945 death.

The Plainfield Pioneers: The earliest settlers buried here since 1837, their quiet legacy now forever overshadowed by the man interred among them.

Descending once more into the hauntings of history—on The Grim.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Home to victims of the RMS Lusitania, a celebrated Irish boxer, a surgeon who stood beside Napoleon's deathbed, and an Antarctic explorer who carried the cold home in his hands—Old Church is one of Ireland's most cosmopolitan and quietly haunted cemeteries.

Visitors report auditory hauntings near the Lusitania mass graves: murmuring voices, footsteps on empty gravel paths, and the sensation of a funeral procession that never ends. The "White Witch of Cobh" claimed to witness the dead still arriving long after the rescue boats fell silent.

Featured Stories: The Lusitania – May 7, 1915: 1,199 of 1,960 people perished when a German torpedo sank the ship in eighteen minutes off the Irish coast. Between 169 and 200 victims are buried at Old Church—many unidentified, many in mass graves.

Jack Doyle – The Gorgeous Gael: Cobh's own boxing prodigy won 28 bouts before drink, Hollywood, and violence unravelled everything. A piper led him home. His grave is still visited.

James Roche Verling: The army surgeon assigned to watch Napoleon in exile on Saint Helena—and sign his death certificate.

Robert Forde: Scott's Antarctic sledge-master, sent home with frostbite before the fatal polar push. A mountain in Victoria Land still bears his name.

Descending once more into the hauntings of history—on The Grim.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Featured Historical Figures & Families: Charlie & Betty Thomas – Enslaved people freed after the Civil War, buried in Black Hope in the 1930s, Sam & Judith Haney – Discovered remains beneath their backyard, sued Purcell Corporation, and were ordered to pay court costs after the verdict was overturned, Ben & Jean Williams – Neighbors who uncovered coffin-shaped sinkholes, Tina — The Williams' daughter who died at thirty after digging for evidence, Jasper Norton – Longtime Crosby resident who identified the Thomases, and the unnamed members of the freedom colony whose settlement, church, school, and burial ground were erased from the historical record.

Perfect for: True haunting enthusiasts, Black history scholars, Civil War and Reconstruction researchers, fans of Poltergeist and its real-world parallels, and anyone drawn to the stories America paved over — and the ground that refuses to forget.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Oliver Lewis – First Kentucky Derby winner (1875), USCT soldier Dennis Simpson – Buried unmarked with his family, Nathan Caulder – Buffalo Soldier who died in France, Robert Charles O'Hara Benjamin – Journalist assassinated for defending voting rights, James "Soup" Perkins – Youngest Derby-winning jockey, Abraham Perry – Pioneering Black trainer, 180+ horse industry workers, 112+ Civil War veterans, and the Harlem Hellfighters.

Perfect for: Kentucky Derby enthusiasts, Civil War history buffs, African American history scholars, and anyone drawn to the stories America buried—and the ground that refuses to forget.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Before national cemeteries existed, soldiers were buried where they fell. The Civil War changed everything. At the Battle of Gettysburg — the deadliest battle in American military history — over 50,000 casualties fell in just three days as outdated battlefield tactics collided with modern repeating rifles. On July 3, 1863, nearly 12,000 Confederate soldiers marched across open ground during Pickett's Charge, met by devastating Union fire, marking the high-water mark of the Confederacy and the turning point of the war.

In the aftermath, Elizabeth Thorn — six months pregnant and left alone with her elderly father — buried nearly 100 soldiers in the summer heat before a national cemetery even existed. Landscape architect William Saunders designed the Soldiers' National Cemetery with quiet dignity, where officers and enlisted men were buried side by side. Four months after the battle, Abraham Lincoln stood before 15,000 people and delivered the Gettysburg Address — 271 words that consecrated the ground and redefined the meaning of the war.

Today, more than 3,500 Union soldiers rest here, among them 979 unknowns. Confederate dead were largely exhumed and reburied in Southern cemeteries, though some are believed to remain in rocky, inaccessible corners of the battlefield.

But Gettysburg's dead may not all be resting. The surrounding battlefield and cemetery are considered among the most haunted locations in America. Visitors report phantom cannon fire, the scent of gunpowder in the dark, and shadowed figures moving between headstones. A spectral Union soldier is said to linger among the rocks at Devil's Den, while the ghosts of hanged soldiers reportedly haunt Sachs Covered Bridge. And Jennie Wade — the only civilian killed during the battle — is said to remain forever bound to the home where her life ended.

At Gettysburg, the past does not vanish. It waits.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Records are heartbreakingly scarce. By 1860, nearly four million people were enslaved in America, yet their burial grounds remain largely undocumented, destroyed, or entirely lost. In a system that valued labor over human life, death was treated as an inconvenience. Burials were rushed, unrecorded, and hidden in remote corners of vast plantations — marked only by seashells, fieldstones, or personal objects that eroded over time. Even in death, dignity was denied.

The end of slavery did not end the erasure. Jim Crow laws enforced segregation into cemeteries, and as towns expanded, undocumented Black burial grounds were paved over, declared abandoned, and legally cleared for redevelopment. This pattern was not confined to the South. In Lower Manhattan, the New York African Burial Ground — holding an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 enslaved and free African Americans — was uncovered by accident during federal construction in 1991, its dead disturbed by bulldozers before community outrage forced the project to a halt. At Arlington National Cemetery, Black refugees and United States Colored Troops soldiers were among the earliest buried, with many choosing freedom names — Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson — carved into headstones as declarations of identity long denied in life.

In the years following the Civil War, African American benevolent societies built their own burial grounds — quiet acts of resistance funded not by the state, but by the community itself. From African Cemetery No. 2 in Lexington, Kentucky to Mount Pleasant Plains Cemetery in Washington D.C., these sacred spaces preserved names, identities, and legacies that official records refused to keep. Yet many remain neglected, underfunded, and under threat from gentrification and urban development to this day.

The African-American Burial Grounds Preservation Act, despite its promise, carries no dedicated funding — leaving families to fight yet again for the right to protect their dead. Meanwhile, grassroots efforts like the Anson Street African Burial Ground project in Charleston offer a different model — one built on descendant collaboration, Gullah Geechee spiritual traditions, and a naming ceremony that returned humanity to ancestors stolen by silence.

These grounds are still here. Beneath parking lots, behind churches, under cities that move too fast to notice who was left behind. The dead are not lost. They were buried — and then buried again by silence.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Featured Historical Figures:

John C. Calhoun – The Vice President who resigned his office to defend an ideology so divisive, his grave was hidden during the Civil War for fear of what Union soldiers might do to his remains.

Edward Rutledge – The youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence, captured during war, elevated to governor—yet whose legacy reveals the contradictions at the heart of America's founding.

Rawlins Lowndes – A revolutionary leader who fought tyranny abroad while perpetuating it at home, then opposed the Constitution itself to protect what he believed South Carolina could not survive without.

DuBose Heyward – Descendant of a Declaration signer whose novel became one of America's most celebrated—and controversial—operas, a work of beauty inseparable from the questions it raises.

Also Featured:

Constitutional framers, Supreme Court Justices, Revolutionary War generals, and the West Cemetery—ground once reserved for strangers and outsiders, now holding some of the nation's most powerful architects of early America.

The Hauntings:

One of America's most famous ghost photographs, captured here in 1987. A grieving mother who died six days after losing her child. An enslaved man who saved the church from fire and earned his freedom, now said to watch over the grounds. And a young girl whose nighttime dare ended in tragedy, her cane still trapped where she fell.

Perfect for: Colonial and Revolutionary War history enthusiasts, Southern Gothic lovers, Charleston ghost hunters, cemetery tourists, and anyone fascinated by the uncomfortable spaces where founding ideals and human contradiction collide—and where the dead refuse to let the past stay quiet.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Host Kristin descends into this haunted quarry-turned-cemetery to uncover the stories of those buried within: Sarah Biffin, the armless artist who painted for royalty with her teeth; Arthur Richardson, a forgotten Victoria Cross hero who saved a man's life under gunfire; William Huskisson, the politician killed by the world's first railway; and Lucy Walker, who became the first woman to summit the Matterhorn in a white dress.

But the dead of St. James may not rest quietly. From Huskisson's limping ghost to the mysterious Christmas Vampire, paranormal reports have haunted these grounds for decades. When a cemetery strips away the names of the poor while preserving monuments for the wealthy, do the forgotten ever truly find peace?

A story of progress, exploitation, erasure, and the souls left behind.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Over 250,000 souls rest here, including nearly a thousand recorded in the Dictionary of National Biography. Among them: Charles Babbage, whose unfinished calculating engines predicted the computer age; Isambard Kingdom Brunel, whose bridges and railways transformed Britain; writers William Makepeace Thackeray and Wilkie Collins, who dissected Victorian hypocrisy with unflinching precision; and royal rebels Prince Augustus Frederick and Princess Sophia, siblings who defied and endured the monarchy in equal measure.

From overgrown corners to Gothic mausoleums, Kensal Green wears its age openly. Stones lean. Time presses heavily. Stories like The Living Dead Girl refuse to stay buried, and visitors sometimes sense something lingering in the shadows—reminding them this place holds more than bodies. It holds unfinished brilliance, scandalous secrets, and the question: do Victorian cemeteries still have a place in our modern world?

Featured Stories:

Charles Babbage – Mathematician whose designs predicted modern computing. A retailer named Babbage's eventually became GameStop.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel – Engineer who built railways, bridges, and iron ships that transformed Britain.

William Makepeace Thackeray – Author of Vanity Fair who dissected Victorian society's vanities.

Wilkie Collins – Master of Victorian suspense, author of The Woman in White and The Moonstone.

Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex – Royal rebel who championed abolition and married in secret twice.

Princess Sophia – George III's daughter, rumored illegitimate child, life of gilded constraint.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

But Fairview is more than Titanic. Just five years later, Halifax endured the Halifax Explosion, the largest man-made blast of its time. Amid the devastation, acts of heroism—like Patrick Vincent Coleman warning a train away from the blast—stand out against unimaginable loss, leaving lasting lessons in courage and resilience.

The cemetery also honors those who served in uniform, with the Veterans' Columbarium providing dignified resting places and permanent recognition for Canadian and Allied servicemembers. Visitors sometimes report fleeting, unsettling sensations—cold spots, whispers, or a feeling of being watched—particularly near the Unknown Child's grave, reinforcing the cemetery's quietly haunting presence.

From unexplained orbs and shadowy figures at the Titanic wreck site to the silent stones of Fairview, this episode explores how history, tragedy, and memory leave echoes that refuse to fade. Kristin reflects on the human stories beneath the stones, the courage amid disaster, and the hauntings of history that linger, waiting to be remembered.

Featured Stories:

The Titanic Tragedy – April 15, 1912: RMS Titanic sank claiming approximately 1,514 lives. Of 2,224 passengers and crew, only 710 survived. The ship carried 16 standard lifeboats and 4 collapsible ones—legally compliant by 1912 standards yet insufficient to save everyone aboard.

The Recovery Operation – Halifax ships carried embalming fluid and undertakers, not rescue equipment. When the CS Mackay-Bennett ran out of supplies, Captain Frederick Larnder prioritized first-class passengers for preservation while many third-class passengers and crew were buried at sea. Of 338 bodies recovered, 150 came to Halifax—121 buried at Fairview in individual graves rather than mass burial.

The Unknown Child – Mackay-Bennett sailors pooled money for his headstone when no family claimed him. DNA testing eventually revealed Sidney Leslie Goodwin, a 19-month-old British child whose entire family perished. His preserved shoes at the Maritime Museum helped confirm his identity nearly a century later.

Joseph Dawson (J. Dawson) – An Irish coal trimmer mistaken for James Cameron's fictional Jack Dawson. After the 1997 film, visitors flooded Fairview leaving trinkets at his grave where fiction and history blur.

William Denton Cox – A steward who guided third-class passengers toward lifeboats. His grave remained unidentified until 1991—79 years after his death—when the Titanic International Society helped restore his name.

John Henry Barnstead – Halifax's Registrar created an unprecedented identification system: numbered sealed bags, catalogued belongings, photographs when no ID existed. His son Arthur Stanley Barnstead later applied these methods during the Halifax Explosion.

The Halifax Explosion – December 6, 1917: SS Mont-Blanc, laden with explosives, collided with SS Imo and detonated at 9:04 a.m., killing at least 1,782 people. Railway dispatcher Patrick Vincent Coleman stayed at his telegraph warning an incoming train, saving hundreds but losing his life.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

This isn't a typical episode. No single cemetery. No one ghost. Just an honest look back at the places that fascinated her most, the stories that lingered long after research ended, and the listeners who made survival possible in a landscape littered with abandoned feeds and forgotten voices.

The year opened at Little Bighorn — a place that sits heavier now, asking visitors to think not just about what happened there, but about who was allowed to tell the story. It moved through Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria, a Victorian masterpiece that felt familiar and foreign and deeply haunted. Into Peru, where Presbítero Matías Maestro Cemetery embraces its haunted side with night tours that honor both the dead and the curious. Through Paris, where Montmartre hides a mass grave from the French Revolution that most textbooks never mention. Into the bone chapels of Portugal and Italy, where the why behind the beauty makes the history come alive.

Two episodes explored asylum cemeteries — places where patients were buried without names, some not mentally ill at all, just inconvenient enough to disappear. One episode wrestled with Friedhof Ohlsdorf in Germany, where Nazi-era figures rest alongside war victims, and where the question of who deserves to be remembered refused an easy answer. Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin brought one of the year's favorite stories — a historian who spent his life educating visitors and planned, knowing he would one day rest on those same grounds, accordingly. And Bennington Centre Cemetery in Vermont delivered one of the year's best names: the Redcoat Skeleton, a British soldier whose bones spent years in an attic before finally returning to the earth.

True crime touched the grounds twice. The asylum episodes asked whose stories get erased. St. Paul's Cathedral crypt offered a latte beside Britain's legends. And the Tophet of Carthage raised questions about the past that even now, we don't fully understand.

A year of graveyards that didn't stay quiet. A year of stories that deserved to be told. And a little niche podcast that, somehow, kept going.

Here's to 2026.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

In this episode of The Grim, host Kristin descends into the crypts below St. Patrick's high altar, where more than twenty archbishops and cardinals rest in brick-lined tombs. Men who presided over Christmas Masses while influenza swept through tenements, while telegrams arrived with news of sons lost overseas, while a city swollen with immigrants tested the limits of faith and power.

The cathedral itself was born in defiance. Archbishop John Joseph Hughes — "Dagger John" — drove its construction through financial ruin, a stonecutters' strike, Civil War interruption, and open anti-Catholic hostility. He died in January 1864 with the walls still unfinished, buried beneath a promise made in faith rather than stone. It fell to John McCloskey — a boy who once rowed across the frozen East River just to attend Mass — to see it through. He became the first American cardinal, quietly transforming decades of struggle into completion.

The crypt holds the full weight of that legacy. Francis Spellman, the GI's Cardinal, was confidant to presidents and one of the most powerful Catholic figures in twentieth-century America — faith and political authority so entwined they were nearly indistinguishable. Terence Cooke, his opposite in temperament, governed with compassion and humility, his cause for sainthood now formally open. John O'Connor confronted clergy abuse publicly before the full crisis broke. Edward Egan's tenure was defined by the reckoning that followed.

And then there is Fulton Sheen — the golden-voiced broadcaster whose Christmas programs reached millions of living rooms and won Emmy Awards, yet who clashed so bitterly with Cardinal Spellman that he was removed from television and reassigned. Originally interred here, his remains were later transferred to Peoria after a years-long legal dispute. A man who spoke to a nation during silent nights, and knew the solitude of conscience.

But the most extraordinary presence in the crypt holds no title at all.

Pierre Toussaint is the only layperson ever buried beneath St. Patrick's high altar. Born into slavery in Haiti in 1766, he arrived in New York as an enslaved man and became the city's most sought-after hairdresser. He sheltered orphans, fed yellow fever victims when others fled, and purchased his sister's freedom with his earnings. He helped fund Catholic institutions that would not admit children of his own race — and gave anyway, because the need was real. When he died in 1853, the poor and the powerful stood together at his funeral. More than a century later, his body was reinterred beneath the altar — the only layperson ever granted that honor. In 1997 he was declared Venerable, one step from sainthood.

In a crypt filled with men who wielded authority, Pierre Toussaint represents something rarer: holiness without office, faith without recognition, charity practiced inside an unjust world without pretending it was fair.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

In this episode of The Grim, host Kristin explores Chicago's first and grandest private cemetery — a Gothic fortress of ambition, tragedy, and restless spirits receiving the city's dead since 1859. Its castellated limestone entrance gate mirrors the iconic Water Tower on Michigan Avenue, both designed by the same architect. Inside, Chicago's largest mausoleum holds Tiffany-crafted windows, including a chapel commissioned to bathe its occupant's crypt in underwater blue light at sunset — chairs adorned with seahorses included.

That occupant is John G. Shedd. Nearby rest Richard Warren Sears and Aaron Montgomery Ward — mail-order rivals for eternity. Legend says Sears never accepted the arrangement. Witnesses report a tall figure in a top hat pacing the marble corridors and vanishing into the chill.

Rosehill holds sixteen Union generals, three victims of the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre whose grave locations are withheld from public record, victims of the 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire and the 1915 SS Eastland disaster, and Bobby Franks — the fourteen-year-old victim of Leopold and Loeb's crime of the century — beneath a small stone carrying an unbearable weight.

Among its other residents: a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Vice President, the inventor who helped wire the modern world, the man who gave Chicago its planetarium, and the composer of The Little Drummer Boy.

And among its haunted: a glass-encased statue where ghostly mist rises on the anniversary of a young mother's death, a sixteen-year-old girl whose memorial receives coins and flowers through a glass case — and where visitors report hearing cries on quiet evenings.

In December, when snow covers the winding paths and wreaths hang on wrought-iron gates, Rosehill keeps its own quiet vigil.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

In this episode of The Grim, host Kristin walks the frozen paths of one of America's most beloved rural cemeteries — a landscape designed not to imitate the rigid churchyards of old, but to fold death gently into nature. When Ralph Waldo Emerson dedicated these grounds in 1855, he called it "a garden of the living." In winter, beneath bare pines and frost-covered stone, you understand exactly what he meant.

At the heart of the episode is Author's Ridge — where four names carved into granite continue to shape the way America thinks, grieves, and tells its stories.

Henry David Thoreau spent two brutal New England winters in a one-room cabin at Walden Pond, writing about frozen ponds as breathing things and ice harvesters carving blocks that would melt months later in Calcutta. He aided freedom seekers through the Underground Railroad on winter nights when frozen rivers offered silent passage. He reverse-engineered the American pencil. He accidentally burned 300 acres of Walden Woods and returned a year later seeking peace from the same scorched trees. In 1860, a late-night rainstorm to count tree rings triggered the bronchitis that would kill him. His final words — "Now comes good sailing" followed by the murmured "moose… Indian" — remain as cryptic as the man himself. Today visitors climb the ridge in snow to leave pencils on his grave.

Louisa May Alcott was born on her father's birthday, a winter child in a household more familiar with drafts than comfort. The Christmas breakfast scene in Little Women — four sisters giving away their meal to a starving family — was something she had lived before she ever wrote it. At thirty, she volunteered as a Civil War nurse and was treated with calomel, a mercury compound that poisoned her and caused hallucinations of fire and witches she never fully shook. She wrote Little Women in two and a half months from her sickbed, wrapped in blankets, her breath visible in the cold — and it sold out just in time for Christmas. Behind her warm moral stories she harbored a secret love for lurid thrillers, became the first woman to register to vote in Concord, and raised her dead sister's infant daughter as her own. She died on March 6th, 1888 — two days after her father, having been born on his birthday and buried at his feet, fulfilling her wish to "support them in death and life."

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born into guilt. His ancestor Judge John Hathorne was one of the unrepentant interrogators of the Salem witch trials, and the young Nathaniel quietly inserted a "w" into his surname — a small attempted exorcism he never legalized. He spent twelve years in near-total seclusion writing by candlelight before The Scarlet Letter emerged from his bitterness at losing a customs house job. He died in his sleep in a New Hampshire inn in 1864, his once-prolific imagination already flickering out, his body carried back to the ridge where he now rests as the quietest and most somber of the four.

Ralph Waldo Emerson — who shaped the very cemetery where he sleeps — believed winter stripped the world to its essential voice. He wrote of entering snow-covered forests and feeling himself become "a transparent eyeball," a soul through which the cold universe passed. In his final years, memory loss dimmed the man who had once commanded words like constellations. He died of pneumonia in 1882, his grave marked not by a carved monument but by a massive unpolished boulder of rose quartz — raw, elemental, as though the earth pushed it up just for him.

But Author's Ridge holds more than four fa

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

In this episode of The Grim, host Kristin walks the grounds of Trinity Churchyard, tracing the lives buried in its shadow — from Revolutionary heroes and forgotten innovators to a woman who outlived her famous husband by fifty years, and a man whose grave still confounds amateur codebreakers centuries later.

Alexander Hamilton rests here beneath a towering white obelisk, his story now known to millions through Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway phenomenon. But Trinity holds far more than Hamilton's ghost. Eliza Schuyler Hamilton — who survived betrayal, the death of her son, financial ruin, and the duel that destroyed her family — lies beside him, her grave still receiving flowers from visitors who understand that her story is as extraordinary as his. Angelica Schuyler Church, Eliza's brilliant sister and Hamilton's most intellectually intimate correspondent, rests nearby — her relationship with Hamilton the subject of historical debate and enduring fascination.

Robert Fulton, whose steamboat reshaped American commerce and earned him accusations of witchcraft from startled riverbank witnesses, sleeps a few steps away. Albert Gallatin — the longest-serving Secretary of the Treasury in American history, an immigrant who quietly held the young nation's economy together while politicians raged around him — lies here largely overlooked. John Peter Zenger, the printer who was thrown in prison for daring to publish the truth and whose trial ignited the fire of American press freedom, has a grave so unassuming you might walk past it without a second glance.

And then there is James Leeson. Born 1756, dead at thirty-eight, his life almost entirely lost to history — yet his headstone, carved with Masonic symbols, a winged hourglass, a flaming urn, and what appears to be a deliberate cryptogram, has drawn amateur codebreakers and conspiracy theorists for generations. He left behind no great deeds, no recorded legacy — only a stone that refuses to stop asking questions.

The hauntings here are quieter than some, but no less unsettling. Near Hamilton's grave, visitors have reported a solitary figure in colonial dress standing silent among the stones. Footsteps along empty gravel paths, sudden bone-deep chills on warm nights, and sighs carried on the Manhattan wind. In the early 1800s, overcrowding forced hasty reburials — coffins barely a foot and a half beneath the soil, older remains disturbed and shifted to make room — leaving an uneasy energy that some say still lingers between stone and sky.

The oldest legible grave belongs to a five-year-old boy, Richard Churcher, who died in 1681 — a reminder that these grounds were absorbing the city's grief long before Trinity Church itself was even chartered.

From Founding Fathers to press freedom pioneers, from a woman who rebuilt her life across fifty years of widowhood to a cryptic Mason whose secrets may never be decoded — Trinity Churchyard is where the earliest story of America settled into the earth and never quite let go.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

In this episode of The Grim, host Kristin traces nearly four centuries of history buried in less than half an acre. We begin with Isaac Johnson, whose 1630 death seeded this plot of earth as Boston's first field of the dead, and follow the ground through its most disruptive chapters: a Royal Governor who seized sacred soil by force to build an Anglican church, and Victorian-era "improvements" that rearranged headstones into tidy rows — while leaving the bodies exactly where they were. Today, almost no headstone at King's Chapel marks the grave beneath it. Over a thousand souls rest here. Only 505 stones remain.

Among them are some of colonial America's most consequential figures. John Winthrop, founder of Boston and first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, lies in a family tomb near Tremont Street. Mary Chilton Winslow — believed to be the first woman to step off the Mayflower onto Plymouth Rock — rests in the Winslow Tomb. William Dawes Jr., the overlooked midnight rider who warned Patriots via the land route while Paul Revere took to the water, has a marker here, though his remains were quietly moved by descendants in 1882. And Elizabeth Pain, buried here in 1704, may have inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne to write Hester Prynne — her grave a possible seed for The Scarlet Letter.

Then there are the darker threads. Wait Still Winthrop, grandson of the governor, served as one of nine magistrates on the Salem Witch Trials' Court of Oyer and Terminer. Thomas Brattle, buried nearby, wrote one of the most courageous dissenting letters of the era, openly condemning the use of spectral evidence at the height of the hysteria. And Widow Margaret Thatcher — accused of witchcraft but never arrested, mother-in-law to Salem magistrate Jonathan Corwin — rests here too, her gravestone long since swallowed by centuries of shifting soil.

But it is the hauntings that have made King's Chapel legendary. The Headless Madam, an African-American woman whose body was desecrated at burial, is said to drift among the graves still — an angry, mournful presence that refuses to be forgotten. The man buried alive, or so his relative insisted, is said to have left a pocket of claustrophobic dread in one corner of the yard that visitors still describe today. Captain Kidd's spirit is rumored to linger despite history's insistence that he's buried elsewhere — and local lore holds that tapping a headstone three times in the dark and whispering his name may draw an answer. The displaced dead, unmoored from their own headstones by Victorian rearrangement, are said to wander the grounds at night searching for markers that no longer belong to them. And a Little Girl in White follows visitors silently through the graves, reaching out with cold hands.

One of the most striking objects in the entire cemetery requires no ghost story at all: the headstone of Joseph Tapping, carved with Death reaching to snuff a candle while Father Time desperately tries to keep the flame alive. It is widely considered the most beautiful gravestone in Boston — and one of the most haunting memento mori in New England.

A journey through colonial Boston, Salem witch trial connections, Revolutionary history, and some of the most enduring ghost legends in New England — where the pumpkin patch became a city's oldest sorrow.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

In this episode of The Grim, host Kristin traces the full haunted history of Old Gray: how a fear of epidemic drove Knoxville to build a garden cemetery beyond its city limits, how the cholera outbreak of 1854 filled its earliest rows before the grass had even settled, and how the catastrophic 1904 New Market train disaster — one of the worst rail collisions in Tennessee history — brought dozens of victims through its gates in a single morning.

We walk the grounds of Knoxville's most infamous feuds: the Mabry–O'Connor gunfight that left three men dead on Gay Street in 1882 — so notorious Mark Twain wrote about it — and the post-war confrontation between Union Major Eldad Camp and Confederate Colonel Henry Ashby, enemies in life and reluctant neighbors in death. Nearby lie Civil War rivals Parson Brownlow and John Hervey Crozier, separated in death by nothing but a narrow cemetery road and a century of unresolved bitterness.

But Old Gray holds more than violence. The father of Tennessee Williams rests here. So does the mother of Secret Garden author Frances Hodgson Burnett. Diplomat Horace Maynard, suffragist Lizzie Crozier French, and WWI General Lawrence Tyson — whose son gave his name to Knoxville's airport — are among those whose lives shaped a city and a state.

Then there are the legends. The Lady in White drifts among the stones at twilight. Black Aggie moves through the shadows between headstones. A hollow monument reportedly served as a Prohibition-era liquor drop. And the Lillian Gaines statue — a small marble girl with no confirmed identity — draws visitors who still leave flowers in her lap.

A journey through Southern Gothic history, Victorian mourning art, and Appalachian ghost lore — where the haunted and the historical walk hand in hand.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

The Battle of Solferino and San Martino (1859) was a brutal clash that forged modern Italy and inspired the creation of the Red Cross. Here, in sacred charnel houses, skulls and bones are arranged in silent testimony to war's cost and Italy's fight for unity.

Discover how Jean-Henri Dunant's compassion amid the carnage gave rise to humanitarian law, and how the Tower of San Martino now watches over fields once soaked in blood.

No ghost stories echo here—only bones that remember the Risorgimento's price.

📍 Ossuaries of San Martino della Battaglia & Solferino, Lombardy, Italy
 ⚰️ Battle: June 24, 1859
 🕊️ Silent testimony to war and unity

Perfect for: Italian history enthusiasts, ossuary visitors, Red Cross history buffs, bone chapel tourists

🎧 Descend with The Grim into Italy's most solemn monuments.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

In this episode of The Grim, host Kristin walks the grounds of Tolomato Cemetery in St. Augustine, Florida — one of the oldest planned cemeteries in the United States, and one of its most restless. Long before the first headstone arrived, this soil cradled a Franciscan mission for the Guale Indians, displaced from their Georgia homeland and guided south in search of sanctuary. When British forces destroyed the mission, the ground became something else entirely — a refuge not for the living, but for the dead.

What followed was centuries of layered grief. Menorcan refugees, brought to Florida as indentured laborers and driven north by cruelty, buried their dead here in 1777 after their priest petitioned the British governor for permission. Spanish settlers, yellow fever victims, Confederate militia members, convicts, and mothers all followed. By 1892, when the gates finally closed, roughly a thousand souls had been folded into its soil — many of them without peace.

Among the most dramatic is Bishop Augustin Verot, the Rebel Bishop — a man who defended the Church while defending slavery, whose funeral became one of St. Augustine's most notorious disasters. Sealed in an airtight iron coffin against the Florida heat, the Bishop did not go quietly. The coffin exploded during the procession, scattering mourners and remains alike. What could be gathered was carried to a small white chapel on the grounds — where Father Félix Varela already rested.

Varela was a Cuban priest, philosopher, and freedom fighter who spent his life advocating against slavery and for human dignity before dying in exile in St. Augustine in 1853. His remains were later returned to Cuba, but visitors still report a watchful presence near the chapel — a figure in clerical garb that appears and vanishes among the graves. Whether it is Varela or the Rebel Bishop, no one can say for certain.

Then there is the Lady in White — a woman saved from premature burial when a branch struck her forehead during her own funeral procession and drew blood, revealing she still lived. She survived six more years, but her story didn't end with her. On foggy nights, a pale figure drifts silently among the graves, her face hidden beneath shadow and moss. And in the branches of the ancient live oak near the cemetery gates, some visitors still glimpse a small pale child — James Morgan, five years old, who fell from those same branches in 1877 and was buried in the very spot where he landed. His mother swore she saw him in the tree afterward. Others have too.

A cemetery open three hours a month. Haunted every hour of every day.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Originally built as part of the Hospital of Belén, a charitable sanctuary established by royal decree in 1751, the grounds were transformed into a burial site in 1848 when cholera swept through Guadalajara and the dead outnumbered the living. Architect Manuel Gómez Ibarra — the same visionary behind Guadalajara's cathedral — designed the cemetery in two realms: one for the wealthy, one for the common soul. Among its notable residents is José Cuervo, founder of the world-famous tequila brand, whose family holds a plot within its walls. But the cemetery's most enduring legacy belongs not to the famous, but to the forgotten — young women buried without surnames, their names erased to protect the reputations of the men who wronged them.

The legends of Panteón de Belén are as layered as its history. A vampire stalked 19th-century Guadalajara, draining animals and stealing newborns until locals hunted it down and buried it beneath a concrete slab — from which a tree now grows, its bark said to bleed dark sap when cut. Victoriana Hurtado, a woman with catalepsy, was buried alive by her own sons before they could inherit her fortune, her hand breaking through the earth and turning to stone. A young boy named Nachito, terrified of the dark in life, had his coffin rise from the ground ten nights in a row until his parents built him a tomb above ground — where visitors still leave toys and candy today. Star-crossed lovers José and Andrea, forbidden from marrying in life, were buried beneath interwoven stone crosses, their union finally sealed in death. A pirate's hidden treasure, a dare gone mad, a night watchman who never existed, and a phantom carriage that stops at the cemetery gates but is never seen — the stories here never end.

During Día de los Muertos, Panteón de Belén transforms entirely. Candlelight dances across gravestones, a monumental altar built by local students holds nearly 1,500 candles, and guided tours bring its restless spirits to life. It is a place where history, legend, and memory are inseparable — where the living and the dead share the same flickering light.

Open only by guided tour, with night photography forbidden, Panteón de Belén remains one of Mexico's most significant heritage sites and most haunted locations. Some say the photography ban protects its restless souls. Others whisper it keeps the vampire from rising once more.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Established in 1790 on a modest hill above the Naugatuck River, Gunntown Cemetery holds the remains of the men and women who carved a community from New England wilderness. Among them rests, David Wooster, a Revolutionary War veteran who fought for the very independence that allowed this settlement to thrive, buried beside his wife Anna in a testament to love and loss. Enos Gunn, the founding family patriarch whose name the cemetery bears, surveyed and settled this land alongside his wife Abigail, their legacy etched not in marble but in the stone walls and fields that still surround the grounds. Spanning nearly a century of American history, Leverett Osborn lived from the aftermath of the Revolution through the Civil War — a man who witnessed Naugatuck transform from an isolated farming settlement into an industrial borough, and whose long sleep anchors the old world to the new.

But in Gunntown, the dead do not rest quietly. The cemetery's reputation for paranormal activity is among the strongest in New England, certified haunted by famed investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. Visitors report phantom music — a mournful fiddle or solemn hymn drifting from no visible source — and a phantom child in 19th-century clothing who darts between headstones before vanishing entirely. A tall, featureless Shadow Man paces the tree-lined perimeter, his presence causing cell phones, cameras, and lights to flicker and fail. Dogs refuse to enter from the road. Temperature drops strike without warning, even on summer nights. EVP recordings, unexplained orbs, and the unmistakable sensation of unseen fingers along a shoulder have made Gunntown one of the most investigated paranormal sites in Connecticut.

This is what locals call a thin place — where the veil between the living and the dead is frayed, where Revolutionary drumbeats echo alongside a child's laughter, and where the pioneers buried beneath moss-covered slate never quite let go.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Charter Street Cemetery, also known as the Old Burying Point, is Salem's must-see — one of the most haunted burial grounds in America, where judges Bartholomew Gedney and John Hathorne, who condemned the accused in 1692, rest just steps from the Witch Trials Memorial dedicated to their victims. The memorial, dedicated by Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel in 1992, bears the names of twenty souls executed for witchcraft, their true graves still unknown — denied consecrated ground in life, lost to history in death. Visitors report shadow figures, ghost lights near Puritan-era stones, whispers rising from the earth, and the constant, unshakeable sensation of being watched.

A short walk away, Howard Street Cemetery carries the weight of Giles Corey — the only man pressed to death during the witch trials — who now rests in an unmarked grave on grounds established nearly a century after his execution. Visitors report sudden chills, faint whispers, and the unsettling feeling of an unseen presence walking beside them. Broad Street Cemetery, Salem's second oldest, holds the Corwin family plot — Judge Jonathan Corwin and Sheriff George Corwin, the same family behind the Witch House that still stands today — where shadows shift between leaning stones and figures vanish at the edge of sight.

Beyond Salem's center, Greenlawn Cemetery offers rolling autumn grounds and family mausoleums, while Harmony Grove invites quiet reflection through its garden cemetery design. The Friends Burying Ground, Salem's third oldest and smallest, holds the Quaker community's quiet legacy — a painful irony in a town founded by those fleeing religious persecution. And just outside Salem in Marblehead, Old Burial Hill — one of New England's oldest cemeteries, established in 1638 and famously seen in Hocus Pocus — holds a memorial for Wilmot Redd, executed for witchcraft in 1692, alongside reports of disembodied voices, shadowy apparitions, and the restless spirits of the Pierce family tomb.

Throughout Salem's graveyards, the stones themselves tell a story — winged skulls, cherubs, urns, and weeping willows carved by hands long gone, each symbol a quiet dialogue between the living and the dead that has endured for centuries.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Join host Kristin as The Grim unlatches the gate to Old Wethersfield Village Cemetery — one of Connecticut's oldest and most haunted burial grounds, where colonial history, witchcraft trials, and restless spirits converge on a hill older than the nation itself.

Long before English settlers arrived, this land was Pyquaug, home to the Wongunks people. By 1638, Puritan settlers had chosen Hungry Hill as their burial ground — a rise by the Connecticut River whose name is wrapped in rumor and older spirits. The cemetery tells the full arc of American belief through its stones alone: at the base, stark Puritan skulls and hourglasses preach mortality; higher up, urns and weeping willows soften grief into sentiment; at the crest, Victorian cherubs and verse turn mourning into poetry.

Among its most significant residents, Leonard Chester — one of Wethersfield's original ten founders — rests beneath a plain Puritan slab, his stone a deliberate act of remembrance for a colony clinging to survival. Reverend Gershom Bulkeley, military chaplain and author of the witch trial manuscript Will and Doom, lies nearby, his grave radiating the severity of Puritan judgment. Colonel John Chester led troops at Bunker Hill and marched with Washington through Valley Forge, his grave tying this quiet hill to the roar of the Revolution. And a cenotaph for Silas Deane — the diplomat who secretly secured French support and helped win American independence — marks a man betrayed by his own country, stripped of honor, and found dead aboard a ship under deeply suspicious circumstances, his body buried in foreign soil far from home.

But Wethersfield's darkest legacy predates Salem by nearly thirty years. Mary Johnson was hanged for witchcraft here in 1648, the first woman executed for witchcraft in New England. Katherine Harrison, a wealthy widow accused in 1669 for the crime of living independently after her husband's death, was convicted and exiled — her property seized, her name destroyed. Though she is not buried on Hungry Hill, her absence haunts it. It is a haunting without a tomb, a silence that hums with injustice.

That injustice appears to linger. Visitors to Old Wethersfield Cemetery report phantom voices rising from the oldest stones, sudden cold spots sharp enough to raise the skin, shadowed figures that dissolve when approached, and the sound of heavy footsteps on paths no one else walks. Orbs appear in photographs above certain graves, and the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum's Witches and Tombstones tours draw visitors into the colonial dark where guides speak of apparitions drifting through the ancient burying ground long after dusk.

Wethersfield won't offer Halloween trinkets or staged scares — what it offers is something quieter, older, and far richer. The past here doesn't simply wait. It walks.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Built in 1878 on Hathorne Hill — land tied to the family of Judge John Hathorne, whose name is stained by the Salem witch trials — Danvers State Hospital rose as a sprawling Kirkbride complex designed to heal 500 patients. At its peak, over 2,000 were crammed inside. What began as a vision of moral treatment became a monument to suffering: overcrowded wards, institutionalized abuse, and the darkest chapter of American psychiatric history. Danvers is widely recognized as the birthplace of the lobotomy, where alongside insulin shock therapy, electroconvulsive treatment, and physical restraints, patients — many of whom were not mentally ill at all, but simply inconvenient, misunderstood, or labeled hysterical — endured treatments that carved torment into the walls. Families signed loved ones over and rarely came back. When the hospital finally closed in 1992, most of the buildings were demolished. In 2006, a fire visible from Boston seventeen miles away consumed what remained. Luxury apartments now stand on the scars of the vanished asylum.

But the cemetery remains — sunken, silent, and largely untouched. For years its graves bore only numbers. The Danvers State Memorial Committee has worked painstakingly through brittle ledgers to match names to markers, restoring fragments of identity to the lost. Still, rows of numbered stones endure, mute witnesses to abandonment in both life and death.

And the dead do not appear to rest quietly. Urban explorers and paranormal investigators who entered the abandoned buildings before demolition described slamming doors, phantom sobbing, and the steady sound of footsteps in empty stairwells. Shadow figures loomed in doorways and vanished when approached. EVP recordings captured whispered words — sometimes a single plea for help, sometimes full phrases too clear to dismiss — emerging most strongly from the tunnels and the cemetery itself. The Administration Block's clock tower drew reports of faces in windows and the faint sound of typing long after the wards were gutted. The tunnels, narrow corridors running beneath the complex, were so oppressive that some investigators refused to enter at all.

The cultural shadow of Danvers stretches far beyond its grounds. H.P. Lovecraft drew on the hospital when creating Arkham Sanitarium, which gave rise to Arkham Asylum in the Batman mythos. The 2001 film Session 9 was shot within its abandoned walls, using the building itself as the antagonist. The podcast Lore devoted an entire episode to its haunted history. Danvers became the archetype of the American horror asylum — not because of fiction, but because of the suffering it truly contained.

What lingers here may not be ghosts in the traditional sense. It may be something deeper: the memory of pain so profound it etched itself into the earth. To walk the cemetery at Danvers is to feel the weight of lives hidden away, forgotten, and only now beginning to be remembered.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Founded in 1739, All Saints Parish holds a central place in the history of Georgetown County. The church that stands today was rebuilt in 1917 using bricks salvaged from the Waverly Plantation rice mill, its grounds consecrated in the 1820s and now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Beneath its moss-canopied oaks rest some of the Lowcountry's most storied names. Thomas George Pawley, the island's namesake, gifted the very land on which the church was built. Benjamin Huger, who as a child of eight watched Lafayette step onto American soil, grew into a congressman and host of presidents. Plowden C.J. Weston, one of the wealthiest men in the antebellum South, opposed secession yet followed Carolina into war and died before completing his term as Lieutenant Governor. Poet and novelist James Dickey, whose novel Deliverance burned his name into American memory, rests here alongside Governor Carroll Campbell Jr., who guided South Carolina through Hurricane Hugo's devastation in 1989.

But the dead at All Saints do not rest quietly. A hand-painted sign at the cemetery entrance reads "The Holy Ghost is the only Ghost we welcome here" — a warning that feels less like comfort and more like confirmation. The most famous spirit is Alice, a seventeen-year-old girl whose brother tore a simple gold ring from her neck and hurled it into the marsh when he discovered her secret love for a young lumberman he considered beneath the family name. Alice died of yellow fever soon after, her last words a plea for the ring she had lost. Visitors today report feeling a tug on their own wedding bands as they circle her grave, and her pale figure is said to drift through her brother's nearby home, the Hermitage, searching still for what was taken.

Beyond the cemetery gates, the barrier island itself carries its own spectral legend. The Gray Man, a cloaked figure of unknown identity, has walked the beach before every major hurricane to strike the South Carolina coast. Those who see him and heed his warning are said to return after the storm to find their homes standing untouched amid the surrounding ruin — a ghost who haunts not to frighten, but to protect.

All Saints' Cemetery is a place The Grim considers among the most beautiful it has opened its gates to — a stage of Southern gothic grace where history, tragedy, and the supernatural gather beneath the same canopy of moss.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Unearthed by smugglers in 1921 just beyond the modern streets of Tunis, the Tophet of Carthage is the oldest and largest of its kind ever discovered — established within two generations of Carthage's founding in the late ninth century BCE and active for over six centuries until Rome razed the city in 146 BCE. Spreading across more than 6,000 square meters, the site held an estimated 20,000 urns lowered into the earth between 400 and 200 BCE, each guarded by carved stone steles bearing dedications to the Phoenician deities Baal Hammon and Tanit. Inside those urns, archaeologists found the cremated remains of infants and young children — and beside them, the bones of lambs, burned on the same pyres, sealed together in clay.

What happened here is a question that has divided scholars for a century. Ancient writers painted a picture of ritual child sacrifice: Diodorus Siculus described a bronze statue with outstretched hands sloping into a fiery pit, while Plutarch wrote of children placed before the gods as drums drowned out their cries. Christian authors later claimed the practice continued in secret. Yet these writers were enemies of Carthage, writing centuries after the fact, and their accounts contradict both one another and the archaeological evidence itself. No Carthaginian texts survive to confirm or deny what took place. Some scholars argue the Tophet was simply a specialized cemetery for infants who died naturally, their graves marked with prayers for renewal and protection. Others, including Oxford's Dr. Josephine Quinn, argue the literary, documentary, and archaeological evidence for child sacrifice is now too strong to dismiss.

The debate is unresolved and perhaps unresolvable. Nearly 40% of the individuals studied showed signs of dying before or at birth, but critics note that cremation distorts bone evidence beyond certainty. Tophets nearly identical to Carthage's have been found across Phoenician settlements in Malta, Sardinia, and Sicily, suggesting this was not an isolated practice but a widespread feature of an entire civilization — one that later shifted under Roman rule toward animal offerings of lambs, goats, and birds. Italian scholar Paolo Xella offers perhaps the most measured view: that child sacrifice at the Tophet was rare, summoned only in times of war, plague, or catastrophe, with animals substituting in calmer times.

What remains is ash, stone, and silence — a sanctuary that refuses to surrender its truth. Whether burial ground, altar, or both tangled together in ancient fire, the Tophet of Carthage endures as one of antiquity's most haunting enigmas.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Established in 1804 under Napoleon's order on land once belonging to the confessor of King Louis XIV, Père Lachaise began as a practical solution to a city overrun by its own dead. Architect Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart designed its tree-lined avenues in the style of classical gardens, while urban planner Nicolas Frochot filled its early emptiness with a clever strategy — reinterring the remains of Molière and La Fontaine with great ceremony to draw the living. It worked. The wealthy followed with their marble dreams, and Père Lachaise became the final performance of Parisian ambition.

Among its most visited residents is Jim Morrison, frontman of The Doors, whose grave has become a shrine for the strange since his death in Paris in 1971 at age 27. His gravestone bears the Greek epitaph meaning "True to his own spirit" — or perhaps more chillingly, "According to his own demon." Medieval lovers Peter Abélard and Héloïse, separated in life by castration, convent walls, and centuries of exile, now lie side by side beneath a neo-Gothic canopy, their bones having wandered nearly as much as their souls before finally arriving here in 1817. Édith Piaf, the Little Sparrow whose voice became the sound of Paris breathing through heartbreak, rests beneath a simple black marble slab — her grave still crowded with roses and whispered lyrics decades after her death in 1963. Frédéric Chopin's body lies here, but not his heart — smuggled back to Warsaw by his sister after his death at 39, preserved in cognac, now sealed within a church pillar in his beloved homeland. Oscar Wilde's winged sphinx monument, once covered in lipstick kisses from pilgrims, marks the grave of a man imprisoned for daring to love freely. Marcel Proust, Honoré de Balzac, Eugène Delacroix, Molière, Gertrude Stein, and Victor Noir — whose bronze statue's well-worn anatomy has inspired a fertility legend — all rest within these walls.

But Père Lachaise is not entirely peaceful ground. In 1871, 147 Communard revolutionaries were cornered among its tombstones, shot against its eastern wall, and thrown into a mass grave. Memorials to Holocaust victims and three monuments to the fallen of World War One remind visitors that this is not merely a collection of personal sorrows, but a landscape of collective human tragedy. Ghost hunters and wanderers alike report hearing Chopin's Funeral March drifting from his tomb, seeing a smoke-like figure near Morrison's grave, and feeling an overwhelming wave of forgotten memories near Proust's stone. The Communards' Wall radiates a cold despair that no amount of Parisian sunlight seems to reach.

An active cemetery with a waiting list for its coveted plots, Père Lachaise is also home to over 5,000 trees, foxes, lizards, and birds — one of Paris's most vital green spaces, where the living and the dead share the same quiet ground.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

In this episode of The Grim, host Kristin walks the stone streets of Recoleta Cemetery — one of the most famous burial grounds in the world and one of Argentina's most haunted.

Most visitors come for one name. Eva Perón — Evita — rests here in the Duarte family tomb, buried five meters underground beneath steel and concrete, as though even now the living fear she might rise. She died at thirty-three, emaciated and sewn into her dress for her final public appearance. After her death, her embalmed body was stolen by the military, hidden for sixteen years under a false name in Milan, and only returned to Argentina after decades of exile. Her tomb bears no grand statue. The flowers never stop anyway.

But Recoleta holds far more than Evita. Rufina Cambaceres was nineteen years old when doctors declared her dead of a sudden heart attack in 1902 and sealed her in the family vault. Days later, a cemetery worker heard strange noises. When the tomb was opened, the coffin lid was cracked, her fingers were bloodied, and deep gouges ran along the inside. She had been buried alive. Her mother commissioned a life-size Art Nouveau statue of Rufina reaching for a door she never opened. Visitors still report hearing soft weeping near her grave during storms.

David Alleno spent decades as a humble cemetery caretaker, saving every peso toward a single goal — to be buried among the elite he served. He commissioned an Italian sculptor to carve his own likeness holding the tools of his trade. Then, legend says, once everything was arranged, he went home and took his own life. Visitors still report hearing the faint jangle of keys echoing down the stone paths.

Liliana Crociati de Szaszak died in an avalanche on her honeymoon at twenty-six. At the exact moment she died, her beloved dog Sabú began to howl — and then died too. Her parents built her a Neo-Gothic vault where a bronze statue of Liliana stands forever in her wedding gown, her hand resting on Sabú's head, before a door she can never enter.

Then there is the Lady in White — seen at dusk, gliding alone through the corridors in mourning lace, always vanishing before anyone can approach. Tour guides swear by her. Groundskeepers lower their voices near the northwest corner after sunset. And in the sealed vaults, cemetery workers still whisper about the lights — candles flickering behind stained glass in tombs that have no doors, no keys, and no living occupants.

A city built for the dead and still owned by them.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Granary Burying Ground is one of the most visited cemeteries in America — a Freedom Trail landmark, where over 5,000 souls rest beneath crooked elms in the heart of Boston, though barely half that number have a name above ground. Founded in 1660, it holds the architects of the American Revolution and the shadows they left behind.

In this episode of The Grim, host Kristin walks the worn slate paths of Granary, tracing the lives of the men and women who built a nation — and the ones history nearly forgot in the process.

John Hancock is here — the man who signed his name so boldly on the Declaration of Independence that King George could read it without his spectacles, a signature so large it became a target on his back. Paul Revere rests beneath a modest stone, the silversmith whose midnight ride became legend, though history quietly notes he never finished the journey. Samuel Adams, the man behind the Sons of Liberty, the Boston Tea Party, and the pamphlets that turned frustration into revolution, lies nearby — a radical who later condemned his own kind when farmers rose up in Shays' Rebellion. And Peter Faneuil, whose slave trade profits built the hall that became the Cradle of Liberty, rests here too — a profound and unsettling irony carved into Boston's cobblestones.

Then there are the names most textbooks skip. Crispus Attucks — of African and Wampanoag descent, likely once enslaved, later a free sailor — was the first to fall in the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, shot twice in the chest, his blood staining the snow red before a war had even begun. James Otis Jr. thundered "taxation without representation is tyranny" in a five-hour courtroom oration that John Adams later called the birth of American independence — then died exactly as he had wished, struck by lightning in 1783. And Samuel Sewall, one of nine judges who condemned nineteen people to hang during the Salem Witch Trials, did something none of the others ever did: he stood before his congregation and publicly repented. He spent the rest of his life atoning — publishing the first anti-slavery tract printed in North America, a document his society largely ignored.

The hauntings here are quiet but persistent. Orbs drift between stones at dusk. James Otis Jr. is said to pace his grave at dawn, his mind still loud with revolution. Paranormal investigators have recorded whispers and electromagnetic spikes near his marker. And beneath it all, the weight of more than 5,000 souls — stacked in layers beneath a city that has built itself over and around them, their stories pressing upward through the soil.

A cemetery that doesn't cry out. It waits. And if you linger long enough, it may remember your name.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Are you ready to step beyond the veil… and into the history of hauntings once again?

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

We uncover the story of Admiral Lord Nelson, whose body lies in a black marble tomb originally carved for Cardinal Wolsey, the disgraced advisor to Henry VIII. Wolsey dreamed of sainthood, but died in exile. His tomb lay unused for centuries—until Nelson’s shattered body was brought home from Trafalgar and laid to rest where ambition had failed.

We revisit Winston Churchill’s state funeral, where Queen Elizabeth II broke royal tradition to attend and bowed her head—just once—as his coffin passed beneath the dome. And we walk the stone corridors where visitors report phantom footsteps, sudden chills, and an overwhelming sense of being watched.

And then… just a few steps from these centuries-old tombs… a café. Reopened in 2025, the Crypt Café serves lattes and pastries atop the bones of an empire.

This episode blends dark British history, true ghost stories, St. Paul’s Cathedral trivia, and haunted London travel all in one unforgettable journey below the city.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Join The Grim as we explore this unforgettable cemetery’s layered past: from the Commonwealth War Graves and mass burial trench from the Hamburg Firestorm, to the graves of Nazi victims, executed resistance fighters, and soldiers lost to history. Discover chilling monuments like the sculpture of Charon crossing the Styx, and visit the Ohlsdorf Cemetery Museum, where Germany’s funeral traditions and wartime grief are preserved in stone and silence.

Along the way, meet some of Ohlsdorf’s most compelling residents: Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, anti-Nazi writer Wolfgang Borchert, and Albert Ballin, the shipping tycoon who revolutionized ocean travel but could not escape the tide of war.

With ghostly stories, war memorials, and forgotten voices echoing beneath the soil, this episode of The Grim invites you to walk the blurred line between beauty and loss. Whether you're drawn by cemetery history, World War remembrance, or stories of the haunted and heroic, Ohlsdorf will stay with you—long after the gates close behind you.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

The cemetery feels deceptively small until you understand its weight. Nearly 500 gravestones remain, some adorned with winged skulls and soul effigies—Puritan reminders of mortality's constant presence. The oldest visible marker belongs to Joseph Merrim who died in 1677, but countless others lie beneath unmarked earth, their names surrendered to time and weather. What makes this ground hallowed isn't just its age but who rests here: fifteen veterans of the American Revolution who transformed this quiet corner of Massachusetts into the cradle of independence.

Most significant among them is Major John Buttrick, whose command to "Fire, fellow soldiers, for God's sake, fire!" sent the first colonial bullets into British ranks at North Bridge on April 19, 1775. That moment—immortalized as "the shot heard round the world"—changed everything. The soil of this burial ground cradles others who stood firm that pivotal morning: Colonel James Barrett, whose farm was the British target; Captain David Brown, who led Concord's minute company; and Reverend William Emerson, who stoked the fires of resistance from his pulpit. From these gates, you can almost see North Bridge, where blood once mingled with river water and revolution took its first breath.

Some visitors describe a strange hush when walking among these stones—a feeling that the past doesn't rest here but continues to breathe alongside us. Perhaps they're right. When you trace your fingers across these weather-worn epitaphs, you're touching more than slate and memory; you're connecting with the very foundation of American liberty. Subscribe today to join us next time when we open the gate on another hidden historical treasure where the past refuses to remain silent.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Founded in 1850, Oakland holds more than the remains of the dead—it preserves the social orders, injustices, and triumphs of a changing city. In the Original Six Acres, you’ll find the cemetery’s oldest graves, including that of Dr. James Nissen. The Jewish sections reflect a quiet tension between German and Russian traditions. The Confederate Burial Grounds stretch wide, with nearly 7,000 soldiers lying in ordered rows beneath a towering granite obelisk.

Yet some of Oakland’s most powerful stories are of those who resisted erasure: the displaced African-American graves, moved and scattered; Carrie Steele Logan, once enslaved, who rose to create the nation’s oldest Black orphanage; and Maynard Jackson, Atlanta’s first Black mayor, whose grave reminds us how far the city has come and how far it has yet to go.

Among the marble angels and shaded crypts lie icons like Gone With the Wind author Margaret Mitchell, golf legend Bobby Jones, and Dr. Joseph Jacobs, the man behind the pharmacy where Coca-Cola was first served.

Join The Grim as we walk the silent corridors of Atlanta’s most haunted history. Because here, in Oakland Cemetery, this isn’t just a cemetery—it’s a mirror held up to the South’s haunted soul. 

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Nestled in Vermont’s picturesque capital, Green Mount Cemetery is more than just a final resting place; it’s a 19th-century rural garden cemetery featuring breathtaking Vermont marble, Gothic-style architecture, and legendary memorials that capture the imagination. From the chilling Black Agnes statue, rumored to bring misfortune, to the controversial legacy of John Hubbard, whose grand monument stands as a haunting testament to scandal and redemption, this cemetery holds secrets waiting to be uncovered.

Listeners will hear about unique gravestones, including the mysterious stone staircase to nowhere, and the poignant tale of Little Margaret Pitkin, whose lifelike statue was the center of an unexpected artistic dispute. We also uncover the stories of Civil War heroes, abolitionists, and even a beloved dog memorialized in stone.

Whether you’re a taphophile, history buff, or true crime enthusiast, this episode is packed with eerie insights into Vermont’s most famous cemetery. Grab your coffee, get cozy, and take a deep dive into the haunted history of Green Mount Cemetery.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

The Grim is taking listeners on a journey through the cemetery's complex history, founded in 1849 as a Catholic burial ground. Despite its humble beginnings, El Campo Santo became the final resting place for notable figures, such as José Antonio Aguirre, María Victoria Domínguez Estudillo, and Cave Johnson Couts. However, with the growth of San Diego, the cemetery was nearly forgotten as roads and modern infrastructure were built over it, disturbing the graves of hundreds. Today, only a small section of the original cemetery remains, surrounded by unmarked graves and brass markers embedded in the pavement to remind us of what’s buried beneath.

Through gripping storytelling, The Grim highlights some of the cemetery’s most infamous residents, including the notorious 'Yankee' Jim Robinson, whose ghostly presence still haunts the nearby Whaley House. She also covers the tragic tale of William Marshall and Juan Verdugo, two men executed during the Garra Revolt, whose lives ended in injustice and are now forever tied to the cemetery’s dark history.

This episode explores themes of historical erasure, respect for the dead, and the paranormal energy that lingers at El Campo Santo. With its ghostly tales, buried secrets, and tragic past, El Campo Santo Cemetery stands as a haunting reminder of San Diego's complex history.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

In this chilling episode, uncover the legends of Death’s Door, the mysterious stone columns said to bring misfortune to those who pass between them. Discover the restless spirits of Abigail Norton, the tragic bride who roams the fog-laden paths, and Captain Elias Cobb, a lost mariner whose ghostly presence still echoes through the night. Explore the artistry of Nathaniel Holmes, a master stone carver whose grave bears an unsettling presence, and hear firsthand accounts of unexplained whispers, shadowy figures, and eerie EVP recordings captured within the cemetery’s ancient grounds.

Whether you're drawn to paranormal encounters, historical hauntings, or simply the macabre beauty of Cape Cod’s eerie past, this episode will leave you questioning what truly lingers beyond the veil. So grab a warm drink, get cozy, and prepare for a haunting journey into Cobb’s Hill Cemetery—the most haunted graveyard on Cape Cod.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Once part of the thriving Agua Mansa settlement, this land was home to New Mexican colonists who carved out a life along the banks of the Santa Ana River—until disaster struck. The Great Flood of 1862 wiped Agua Mansa off the map, leaving behind nothing but ruins, graves, and ghostly whispers. Today, the cemetery stands as the last remnant of a town swallowed by time, its headstones fading, its stories slipping into the shadows.

Among the forgotten pioneers buried here are Louis Rubidoux, the fur trapper turned landowner whose name still lingers on mountains and cities; Cornelius Jensen, the Danish sea captain who built an empire from the ashes of disaster; and Isaac Slover, the legendary mountain man whose fatal bear hunt left him buried in the land he once roamed. And yet, history is only part of the story—because something lingers among these graves.

Locals have long whispered of ghostly apparitions, eerie whispers, and unsettling encounters at the cemetery. Some claim to have seen a headless man walking a dog, others speak of unseen hands gripping their shoulders. But perhaps the most terrifying presence of all is La Llorona—the Weeping Woman.

A spirit doomed to wander rivers and graveyards, mourning the children she drowned in a fit of madness, La Llorona has been seen, heard, and feared for centuries. At Agua Mansa, visitors swear they have heard her chilling cries on moonless nights, her shadowy figure drifting along the riverbank. Some who stray too close to the water’s edge never return.

Agua Mansa is more than a cemetery—it is a portal to the past, where history and legend blur, where the dead may not be as silent as they seem.

Dare to listen? Subscribe to The Grim now for more haunted history, eerie folklore, and ghost stories that will leave you questioning what lurks in the darkness.

Listen now and step into history’s darkest corners.
 Visit the-grim.com for more.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Behind the grand facades of Portugal’s most beautiful cities lie macabre sanctuaries built from human remains. We begin in Évora, where 5,000 skeletons were woven into the walls of the Capela dos Ossos, their empty sockets staring in eternal silence. From there, we descend into Faro’s Chapel of Bones, where 1,200 monks rest in a chamber designed as a stark reminder of life’s brevity.

But not all who dwell in these chapels rest peacefully. In Campo Maior, legend claims the bones belong to victims of a 1732 explosion that wiped out most of the town—yet the bodies show no sign of violent death. So where did they come from?

In Monforte, Portugal’s smallest bone chapel, over 600 remains are crammed into a space no larger than a closet, forcing visitors into unsettling proximity with the dead. Meanwhile, in Lagos, a city steeped in the shadows of the Atlantic slave trade, another bone chapel stands. Official records state its bones belong to monks—but whispers suggest a much darker truth.

Throughout this episode, we confront the unsettling history, eerie folklore, and lingering hauntings surrounding these chapels. Visitors report hearing disembodied whispers, feeling unseen hands brush their skin, and sensing a presence that follows them long after they leave.

Are these chapels simply relics of the past—or do the dead still linger, waiting to be remembered?

Subscribe now to The Grim and uncover the secrets hidden within Portugal’s Chapel of Bones.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

This episode explores the history of Montmartre Cemetery, once an abandoned quarry and later a mass grave during the French Revolution. Unlike the grandeur of Père Lachaise, Montmartre harbors a quieter, more intimate collection of the lost, the forgotten, and the legendary.

From the ethereal ballerinas of Edgar Degas to the tragic love story of Alexandre Dumas fils and his doomed muse Marie Duplessis, this episode uncovers the restless spirits of Paris’s artistic elite. The Grim delves into the rise and fall of La Goulue, the Moulin Rouge’s can-can queen, whose final years were spent in obscurity, as well as the heartbreaking life of Dalida, the songstress whose fame could not save her from despair.

But Montmartre Cemetery is more than a final resting place—it is a stage where history and mystery entwine. With spectral sightings, eerie whispers, and an undeniable presence of something other, the cemetery remains an enigma, its dead refusing to be forgotten.

So grab your favorite mug, settle in, and prepare to take a dig into history as The Grim opens the gate to Montmartre Cemetery. And don’t forget to subscribe—because death is only the beginning.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Explore the largest collection of 19th-century European marble sculptures in Latin America, crafted by renowned artisans like Santo Varni and Antonin Mercié, and discover the labyrinth of stacked niches, ossuaries, and 766 grand mausoleums. Learn about the Crypt of Heroes, a breathtaking mausoleum honoring Peru’s military legends like Admiral Miguel Grau and Colonel Francisco Bolognesi, whose valor during the War of the Pacific shaped the nation’s legacy.

But the cemetery's secrets extend far beyond its historical figures. Uncover eerie tales of Gregoria Camacho, a rumored witch whose cursed grave defied traditional markers, and Ricardito, a child whose miraculous statue mysteriously vanished and reappeared halfway across the world. Meet Emilia Montanez Torres, whose tragic dalliance with the occult left her spirit and a lingering malevolent force haunting her grave.

Legends of shadowy apparitions, cryptic whispers, and ghostly encounters bring life to the cemetery's spectral lore. Learn about the Suicide Pavilion, where fleeting silhouettes and disembodied cries keep the brave at bay, and the cursed grounds of criminals, where sacrifices to dark forces still persist.

As a UNESCO-recognized cultural treasure and historical monument since 1972, Presbítero Matías Maestro Cemetery continues to captivate visitors with its legends, artistry, and haunting charm. Join us as we journey through its ghostly tales, storied past, and enduring mysteries. From love-themed tours in February to the macabre allure of death tours in October, this cemetery remains a timeless portal to Peru’s history.

🔗 Visit the-grim.com for more chilling explorations into history’s darkest corners. Don’t forget to subscribe and join us each week on The Grim!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Discover the remarkable life of Isabella Mainville Ross, the first independent female landowner in British Columbia, and how her land became the cemetery that bears her name. Unearth the legacies of notable figures such as Sir James Douglas, the "Father of British Columbia," Emily Carr, one of Canada’s most celebrated artists, and Billy Barker, the legendary prospector of the Cariboo Gold Rush.

But Ross Bay Cemetery is not only a repository of history—it is also a hotspot for paranormal activity. From the tragic murder of David Fee on Christmas Eve to the chilling whispers near disturbed graves, the cemetery is filled with ghostly tales. Witnesses report sightings of a veiled woman wandering the grounds, a shadowy miner forever searching for lost fortune, and an elderly couple seen strolling hand in hand before vanishing into the mist.

Explore the darker side of its history, including the Songhees People's displacement, the Satanic Panic fueled by the discredited book Michelle Remembers, and the cemetery’s role as a reflection of colonial expansion and social change. With intricate grave markers, towering obelisks, and over a century of secrets buried beneath its soil, Ross Bay Cemetery is a hauntingly beautiful journey into the past.

Tune in to learn about the cemetery’s storied figures, chilling hauntings, and why this sacred ground continues to captivate historians and paranormal enthusiasts alike.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Explore the layers of betrayal, displacement, and the relentless tide of U.S. expansion that culminated in this catastrophic clash. Discover eerie tales of spectral soldiers, vivid battle echoes, and chilling paranormal encounters that linger at the battlefield, where the past and present seem to blur. Also unearthing the enduring legacy of the Sioux Nation’s fight to reclaim their sacred Black Hills, which remains a powerful symbol of justice and resistance.

Grab your favorite mug, cozy up, and join us as we open the gate on one of America's most haunted historical sites. For more eerie explorations and honorary grave grinds, visit The Grim online and subscribe for your next journey into the macabre.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

The episode highlights fan-favorite cemeteries like the lush Victorian Highgate Cemetery, which transformed skeptics into cemetery enthusiasts, and the haunting Capuchin Catacombs of Sicily, which elicited mixed emotions due to its raw display of mortality. Kristin also dives into memorable ghost stories, including Bonaventure Cemetery’s spectral tales of laughter and smashed crystal, and the fascinating connection between Rhode Island’s Mercy Lena and the inspiration for Dracula.

The episode touches on the unintended consequences of cemetery hauntings, such as vandalism, and explores the cultural significance of preserving graveyards as historical landmarks. From the Revolutionary War history of Green-Wood Cemetery to the eerie vampire tales of Chestnut Hill, The Grim celebrates the stories hidden in burial grounds worldwide.

Kristin also shares personal reflections on the challenges of podcasting, the thrill of being featured on Apple’s New and Noteworthy and Death in the Basement, and her gratitude for listeners’ feedback. With a look ahead to 2025, Kristin invites fans to continue exploring the extraordinary history and haunting beauty of cemeteries in future episodes.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Learn about the pivotal role the cemetery's grounds played in the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Brooklyn and its transformation into a 478-acre sanctuary of history and remembrance. Discover the lives of notable residents like Horace Greeley, Susan McKinney-Stewart, and Leonard Bernstein, who each left indelible marks on American culture and progress.

Dive into tales of scandal and infamy, including the chilling legacies of Albert Anastasia of Murder, Inc., and Bill the Butcher. Hear about the poignant tragedy of Charlotte Canda and the enduring bravery of Margaret Corbin, the first woman to fight for the United States in battle.

Green-Wood is more than a final resting place; it’s a time capsule of architectural marvels, historic monuments, and even ghostly legends. From the eerie allure of the Brooklyn Theater Fire Monument to the mysterious Tomb of Secrets, the cemetery offers a blend of the macabre and the majestic.

Whether you’re drawn to its storied past, its iconic design, or its paranormal whispers, Green-Wood Cemetery continues to captivate visitors with its tales of life, death, and everything in between.

Subscribe to The Grim and join us next time as we dig deeper into history’s most fascinating tales!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

The episode delves into the iconic Poets' Corner, a tribute to literary giants like Chaucer, Dickens, and Kipling, discussing how these figures helped shape culture and Christmas traditions. Charles Dickens, in particular, is celebrated for A Christmas Carol, which transformed the holiday spirit, blending the eerie with themes of generosity and goodwill.

The Grim also uncovers the tale of the Unknown Warrior, whose grave honors soldiers with no known resting place. The solemn tribute includes spectral sightings of a ghostly soldier bowing in prayer. Similarly, Father Benedictus, a monk believed to have been murdered in the 16th century, is said to guide lost visitors before vanishing into the Abbey's walls.

Finally, the show explores the darker side of Westminster's history, recounting the controversial figures buried and exhumed, such as John Bradshaw and Oliver Cromwell. These tales of grandeur, grief, and the paranormal make Westminster Abbey a timeless and hauntingly beautiful symbol of Britain's past. Subscribe for more dives into history and hauntings on The Grim.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Among the notable graves are those of Albert E. Haskell, a Civil War veteran whose headstone was restored thanks to volunteer efforts, and Callista Ingersoll, a midwife and caregiver who served the community. Another poignant story is that of Gussie Bach, who tragically died during childbirth and was buried alongside her newborn. The cemetery also holds somber memories of the 1885 diphtheria outbreak, which claimed the lives of Mary Dunfrey and the children she cared for, whose spirits are said to linger among the gravestones. No story of Montana is complete without a Yellowstone-like drama surrounding a historic ranch, and The Grim uncovers one of Helena's very own nearby with ties to the cemetery.

Benton Avenue Cemetery is a place where history and legend intertwine. Visitors have reported paranormal activity, including sightings of a teenage girl in a yellow dress, believed to be Fern Mary Wilson, who died in 1911. From intricate grave markers and Masonic plots to cast-iron memorials and towering obelisks, the cemetery reflects the evolving burial traditions of the 19th and early 20th centuries. With 1,473 graves, including those of veterans, pioneers, and forgotten souls, Benton Avenue Cemetery stands as a powerful testament to Helena’s storied past. Whether drawn to its history or ghostly folklore, this episode uncovers why this sacred ground continues to captivate visitors and paranormal enthusiasts alike.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Discover how the Wild West’s promise of fortune led to tragedy and triumph, from boomtowns rising and falling to the eerie tales of those who never left. We uncover the lives of Tonopah’s colorful residents: Bina Verrault, the fugitive “Love Syndicate” widow; George “Devil” Davis, a beloved saloon owner and restless spirit; and brave miners like Big Bill who gave their lives in the Belmont Mine Fire.

Explore legends of accidental deaths, mysterious hauntings, and tragic suicides, including the heartbreaking story of Peter Copeland, whose dynamite explosion shocked the town. Learn how Tonopah’s haunted Clown Motel, perched beside the cemetery, amplifies the town’s spooky allure, drawing ghost hunters and thrill-seekers from around the globe.

Through meticulous research and dedication, local historians like Allen Metscher have preserved Tonopah’s rich history, ensuring that its tales of love, loss, and resilience remain alive. Join us on this episode of The Grim as we unlock more gates to uncover the forgotten stories of the past.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

The episode delves into St. Kevin’s life, from his noble beginnings to his retreat into the wilderness to live a life of solitude and devotion. Highlights include St. Kevin's Bed, a tiny cave overlooking the upper lake, and the round tower, an iconic structure symbolizing the ingenuity of early Irish monks. The cemetery, with over 2,000 graves, is a testament to centuries of faith and artistry, featuring gravestones from the medieval period to the 18th century, including works by famed stone carver Dennis Cullen.

Listeners will uncover fascinating tales, like the story of Isolde Stuart, whose life intertwined with Irish nationalism, mysticism, and art, and the mysterious legends of restless spirits, including a spectral woman in red linked to St. Kevin’s tragic lore. The episode also explores the unique Celtic crosses, monastic architecture, and the site’s enduring spiritual significance, drawing pilgrims and visitors alike.

The Grim masterfully blends historical insights with ghostly tales, making this episode a must-listen for history buffs, travelers, and paranormal enthusiasts. Explore Glendalough Cemetery's haunting charm, spiritual legacy, and cultural resonance in this riveting exploration.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

This Thanksgiving-themed episode also examines the darker aspects of colonial expansion, from stolen lands to grave robbing. As Burial Hill connects America's origins to modern-day celebrations, The Grim invites us to reflect on the complex legacy of the Pilgrims and the indigenous people whose lives they forever altered.

Listen now for a fascinating blend of history, hauntings, and holiday introspection. Don't miss this unforgettable journey through time and lore.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Rookwood Cemetery is divided into sections for different religious and cultural groups, including Catholics, Jews, and even a memorial for Holocaust victims. One of the most poignant features of Rookwood is the Circle of Love, a heartfelt shrine dedicated to stillborn and infant children.

But Rookwood is more than just a cemetery – it’s a nationally significant heritage site. Efforts are underway to preserve the site’s rich history, ensuring it remains a living part of Australia’s heritage for generations to come.

Join us this week on The Grim to explore the history, mystery, and beauty of Rookwood Cemetery—a place where history and heritage converge.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

The catacombs feature over 8,000 bodies, including the famous "Sleeping Beauty," Rosalia Lombardo, whose mummified remains are still remarkably intact. Visitors can walk through sections divided by profession, gender, and age, offering a chilling glimpse into past burial practices.

Today, the catacombs are a unique historical site, studied by scientists to uncover the lives and health of the mummies. Despite minimal reports of paranormal activity, the atmosphere remains unsettling, making the Capuchin Catacombs a must-see for those fascinated by history and the macabre.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Discover the origins of this beautiful tradition, which intertwines Indigenous customs with Catholic influences from the Spanish conquistadors. Kristen discusses how the holiday evolved, featuring elements like ofrendas (altars), marigolds, and the significance of unique offerings to guide souls back to the living.

Learn about the Panteón General cemetery, established in 1829, where thousands of souls rest, and experience the enchanting transformation of this sacred space during the festivities. The episode also touches on modern interpretations of Día de Los Muertos, including parades, calaveras, and the whimsical art of Alebrijes.

Perfect for history buffs and cultural enthusiasts alike, this episode invites listeners to reflect on the balance between life and death. Tune in for a heartwarming exploration of a holiday that celebrates love, memory, and the cycle of life.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Discover the tales of Captain James Mugford, a Revolutionary War hero, and Wilmot Redd, a victim of the Salem witch trials. Learn about General John Glover, a key figure in the U.S. Navy's formation, and the quirky life of Timothy Dexter.

As we delve into the graveyard's haunting legends, including sightings of Mama Red, this episode blends history and mystery beautifully. Tune in to uncover the secrets of Old Burial Hill and why it’s a must-visit for fall enthusiasts!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

With a dark past linked to the Chicago mob, rumors of bodies disposed of in a nearby pond contribute to the cemetery's haunted reputation. The site has also suffered from vandalism, resulting in damaged headstones, which adds to its lore.

Paranormal enthusiasts are drawn to the reports of strange lights, shadowy figures, and unsettling sounds, making Bachelor's Grove a must-visit location for those interested in the supernatural.

For those fascinated by ghost stories and historical mysteries, this episode is a perfect blend of lore and intrigue, ideal for anyone interested in haunted places, paranormal investigations, and the eerie history of Illinois.

Join us for more spine-chilling tales and historical insights in future episodes of The Grim

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

The episode examines the dark past of psychiatric care and the unsettling practices of the early 20th century, revealing the cemetery's overgrown grounds, dilapidated structures, and the stories of the 4,200 souls interred there. Notably, the episode highlights the mysterious grave of Maria Tuma Reiter, the only well-preserved site in the cemetery, and the theories surrounding her life and death.

Listeners will learn about the gruesome unsolved murder of Otýlie Vranská and the chilling speculation surrounding Gavrilo Princip, the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand d'Esta. With tales of paranormal encounters and historical intrigue, this episode paints a vivid picture of Bohnice Cemetery, a place filled with haunting stories and a deep sense of unease.

Join us for a captivating journey into one of Europe’s creepiest cemeteries, perfect for thrill-seekers and history buffs alike. Grab your favorite mug, cozy up, and prepare for an exploration that blends history, horror, and mystery.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Listeners will uncover spine-tingling ghost stories, such as the sightings of the "white lady" and the tragic tale of Harriet R. Seeley, who is believed to haunt the grounds in search of her lost child. The Warrens' investigations not only brought attention to Union Cemetery but also inspired their book, "Graveyard: True Hauntings from an Old New England Cemetery."

Join The Grim as we explore various hauntings, local legends, and eerie incidents associated with this historic site. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, this episode offers a blend of storytelling and supernatural intrigue that will captivate your imagination, especially during the Halloween season.

For those intrigued by the paranormal, Union Cemetery is a must-visit destination. Don't miss out on this haunting exploration—subscribe now and join us next time as we open the gate on The Grim!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

While you stroll through the serene landscape, keep your head on straight—tales of Sleepy Hollow come alive with every rustle of leaves and cool night breeze. Who knows what spirits might be watching, waiting to share their eternal stories with you?

Join us on this spine-tingling journey through Sleepy Hollow Cemetery on The Grim! Perfect for fans of ghost stories, haunted locations, and American folklore. Don’t miss out on the chilling experiences and legends that make this cemetery a must-visit destination! Subscribe now to stay updated on our latest episodes!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

In this first fall episode, we explore stories of unrequited love, notorious serial killers, and the inspiration behind the father of gothic fiction. Join us as we uncover the dark secrets buried in Charleston's soil—rich with death and history.

Listeners, prepare for a haunting journey on The Grim!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

With a rich history spanning from the Revolutionary War to World War II, the diverse array of residents makes Maple Hill Cemetery a unique location filled with captivating stories. But beware—if you hear the playful requests of children haunting the playground, it might be time to tread carefully.

Join us as we explore Alabama's first cemetery and uncover its chilling secrets. Don’t miss this spine-tingling episode of The Grim!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

As we seek out the mysterious mausoleum, be prepared for haunting cries and shrieks from the souls of the past reaching out to the present. This episode marks The Grim’s first West Coast journey into hallowed ground, filled with eerie tales and ghostly happenings. Don’t miss this captivating exploration of Greenwood Memorial Terrace and its chilling history!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

As we explore the green mists beneath the ancient oaks, we’ll uncover the secrets hidden behind Colonial Park’s gates. Savannah never disappoints when it comes to rich history and spine-tingling hauntings. Don’t miss this captivating episode of The Grim as we explore the eerie tales that make this cemetery a must-visit for history and ghost enthusiasts alike!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

We'll explore the tragic history of the Covenant Prison and the significant events that forever altered Scotland, all of which took place within these hallowed grounds. But not everything is dark and macabre! Greyfriars Kirkyard also inspired J.K. Rowling's Godric's Hollow, and many names of her beloved characters from Harry Potter are permanent residents in this historic cemetery.

This week’s episode of The Grim is hauntingly good and a must-listen for history buffs and ghost enthusiasts alike. Join us as we uncover the secrets and stories that make Greyfriars Kirkyard an unforgettable destination!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

In this episode, we’ll share our personal journeys and how our fascination with the rituals of death, historic cemeteries, and the stories they hold came to be. Discover what drives our love for the macabre and why we feel compelled to celebrate these often-overlooked spaces.

Tune in to learn more about taphophilia and the meaning behind our eerie explorations on The Grim! This episode is perfect for anyone curious about the beauty and history found in cemeteries. Don't miss it!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

As we take in the stunning historic grounds, we’ll uncover the dark secrets hidden within this beautiful cemetery, revealing the complexities of London’s past. From its rich history to the eerie legends that surround it, this episode promises to be a captivating journey through one of the city’s most iconic burial sites.

Don’t miss this haunting exploration of Highgate Cemetery on The Grim! Perfect for history enthusiasts and ghost story lovers alike, tune in to discover why this cemetery is as intriguing as it is beautiful!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

As we stroll quietly through the haunting grounds, be cautious—rumor has it that the ghostly caretaker may come for you if you’re not careful! And listen closely; the screams of a hidden skull may drive you to madness.

Don’t miss this captivating exploration of Westminster Burying Ground on The Grim! Perfect for history buffs and ghost story enthusiasts alike, tune in to uncover the chilling tales and secrets of this iconic cemetery!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Discover the mysteries surrounding the old stone church and delve into the chilling rumors that suggest this may be the final resting place of the son of Satan himself.

Don’t miss this thrilling exploration of Stull Cemetery on The Grim! Perfect for fans of urban legends and supernatural tales, tune in to uncover the dark secrets that make this cemetery a must-visit for the brave!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Is Boothill a genuine graveyard or merely a Hollywood set turned tourist trap, made famous by the legendary O.K. Corral gunfight? We’ll explore these questions and more as we stroll through the hallowed grounds and share the intriguing stories behind the names etched on the tombstones.

Don’t miss this captivating exploration of Boothill Graveyard on The Grim! Perfect for history enthusiasts and Wild West fans, tune in to discover the secrets and legends that make this cemetery a unique part of American folklore!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Discover why public access is no longer permitted in this revered “City of the Dead” and whether the legendary Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau might grant your wishes. As we navigate the labyrinth of tombs, be mindful of the restless souls searching for their own peace within this eerie burial ground.

Don’t miss this captivating exploration of St. Louis Cemetery #1 on The Grim! Perfect for history buffs and those intrigued by the supernatural, tune in to uncover the secrets and spectral stories that make this cemetery a must-visit in New Orleans!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

We’ll explore how fear of vampires disturbed the peace in coastal New England, leading to a decline in the population during this eerie period. As we stroll through the historic grounds, uncover the chilling stories that make Chestnut Hill Cemetery a significant part of American folklore.

Don’t miss this captivating exploration of Chestnut Hill Cemetery on The Grim! Perfect for history enthusiasts and fans of the supernatural, tune in to learn about the dark legends that continue to haunt this New England cemetery!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Discover the resting places of many notable women who played a pivotal role in securing women's rights in America, as well as renowned poets whose words continue to inspire. As we stroll through the serene grounds, we’ll uncover the stories behind the famous figures interred here and explore the artistic treasures that make Forest Hills a remarkable site.

Don’t miss this enlightening exploration of Forest Hills Cemetery on The Grim! Perfect for history lovers and art enthusiasts alike, tune in to learn about the impactful legacies and artistic beauty found within this historic Boston cemetery!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Stroll beneath the ancient oak trees and learn about the legend of ‘Little Gracie,’ where you can leave a gift in her memory. Listen closely for the sounds of crystal smashing from long-ago parties that once echoed through the grounds. But beware—the ghostly guard dogs may be watching your every move!

Don’t miss this haunting exploration of Bonaventure Cemetery on The Grim! Perfect for fans of history and the supernatural, tune in to uncover the chilling tales and legends that make this cemetery a must-visit destination in Savannah!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

As we stroll through the cemetery, we’ll pay our respects to the innocent victims and uncover the stories that linger among the graves. Discover who might still be haunting the grounds and nearby establishments in the historic Witch City.

Don’t miss this fascinating exploration of Charter Street Cemetery on The Grim! Perfect for history buffs and ghost enthusiasts alike, tune in to learn about the chilling tales and lingering spirits that make Salem a captivating destination!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

We’ll explore how a recently popular poem about a love triangle sparked renewed interest in this burial ground, bringing the stories of these early settlers back to life. As we stroll through the serene grounds, we’ll uncover the fascinating tales behind the tombstones and rediscover the legacy of those who laid the foundation for America.

Don’t miss this enlightening exploration of Myles Standish Burial Ground on The Grim! Perfect for history enthusiasts and fans of early American lore, tune in to learn about the Pilgrims and the captivating stories that make this site a must-visit destination!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

Stay tuned to discover what’s coming next on The Grim. Don’t miss out—subscribe today to receive updates and be part of our eerie explorations! Get ready for spine-tingling stories and unforgettable adventures that will keep you coming back for more!

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia