As I’ve gotten further into my research of creepy cemetery stories, I’ve been really disappointed in the number of stories that comment upon the vandalism that seems to accompany such stories in a lot of cemeteries that don’t have the kind of protection and security that Lake View Cemetery has. For example, a cemetery I haven’t visited yet but I have read about supposedly has a creepy legend: a woman named Elizabeth is buried in it who was hung at the tree at the back of the cemetery. The ghostly legend states that her tombstone will always migrate to the back of the cemetery by the tree. Unfortunately, the writers who have traveled to the cemetery report that this story has resulted in the desecration of a number of graves, as people attempt to “prove” the ghost story (or at least scare others), by moving tombstones to the back of the cemetery. First, it was tombstones for women named Elizabeth, and now that all the Elizabeths have been moved, other tombstones with other names have been moved to the back of the cemetery as well.
In case it has not been perfectly clear before from my writing, I do not condone any of this behavior. I’m not saying you shouldn’t visit the places I am writing about. I’m not even saying you can’t visit them specifically because they are supposed to be haunted. I think more people should visit cemeteries but cemetery visiting should be limited to posted hours (or with explicit permission, for closed cemeteries) and conducted according to cemetery policies. Visitors should be respectful. Everyone in a cemetery was loved and grieved by someone. Every marker is a symbol of at least one life. If you wouldn’t want someone to do to the resting place of your parent or child or sibling or grandparent or significant other or best friend what you are about to do, then you shouldn’t do it.
A Grave Concern 