Wadlow, Robert
The Odd and the Interesting
Age 22
February 22, 1918 - July 15, 1940
Upper Alton Cemetery / Alton / Illinois / USA / North America
Robert Pershing Wadlow, also known as Alton's Gentle Giant and the Giant of Illinois, was an American man who was the tallest person in recorded history for whom there is irrefutable evidence. He was born and raised in Alton, Illi...
Scott, Gordon
Show Business
Age 80
August 3, 1926 - April 30, 2007
Kensico Cemetery / Valhalla / New York / USA / North America
In 1954 Gordon Werschkul was the lifeguard at the Sahara Hotel on the Las Vegas strip when movie producer Sol Lesser struck up a conversation with the handsome, muscle-bound lifeguard. Next thing you know Gordon was on a plane to ...
Tiernan, Mike
Sports
Age 51
January 21, 1867 - November 7, 1918
Gate of Heaven Cemetery / Hawthorne / New York / USA / North America
Mike Tiernan, nicknamed "Silent Mike", was an American professional baseball right fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB), exclusively for the New York Giants, from 1887 to 1899. Tiernan's debut major league game was on...
Bancroft, Anne
Show Business
Age 73
September 17, 1931 - June 6, 2005
Kensico Cemetery / Valhalla / New York / USA / North America
Anne Bancroft was a gifted and talented American actress whose 50+ year career was studded with renowned successes on stage, screen, and television. She won both a Tony Award and an Academy Award for best actress for one of her mo...
Branca, Ralph
Sports
Age 90
January 6, 1926 - November 23, 2016
Gate of Heaven Cemetery / Hawthorne / New York / USA / North America
Ralph Branca was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1944 through 1956. As a college student, Branca played for NYU in the NCAA basketball tournament at Madison Squ...
Kilgallen, Dorothy
Show Business
Age 52
July 3, 1913 - November 8, 1965
Gate of Heaven Cemetery / Hawthorne / New York / USA / North America
Called by famed attorney F. Lee Bailey “A very bright and very good reporter of criminal cases, the best there was,” “One of the greatest women writers in the world,” by Ernest Hemingway, and by the New York Post, “The m...
Lang, Eddie
Music
Age 30
October 25, 1902 - March 26, 1933
Holy Cross Cemetery / Yeadon / Pennsylvania / USA / North America
Born Salvatore Massaro in Philadelphia, PA, in 1920 at age 18 Salvatore legally changed his name to Eddie Lang, exchanged his violin for a banjo, and began working with band leaders Charlie Kerr, Bert Estlow, Vic D’Ippolito, an...
Palermo, Frank
Crime and their Victims
Age 91
January 26, 1905 - May 12, 1996
Holy Cross Cemetery / Yeadon / Pennsylvania / USA / North America
Boxing has a dark history of gangsters, crooked fights and mysterious murders. In the world of boxing at the time, Frank “Blinky” Palermo, a member of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra crime family, was indeed royalty. Along with...
Armstrong, Lil Hardin
Music
Age 73
February 3, 1898 - August 27, 1971
Lincoln Cemetery / Blue Island / Illinois / USA / North America
Lil Hardin Armstrong was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, singer, and bandleader. She was the second wife of Louis Armstrong, with whom she collaborated on many recordings in the 1920s with the Louis Armstrong Hot Fiv...
Allen, Fred
Show Business
Age 61
May 31, 1894 - March 17, 1956
Gate of Heaven Cemetery / Hawthorne / New York / USA / North America
Fred Allen was an American comedian with a talent for ad-lib. His absurdist topically-pointed radio program The Fred Allen Show (1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the Golden Age of Amer...
Schultz, Dutch
Crime and their Victims
Age 34
August 6, 1901 - October 24, 1935
Gate of Heaven Cemetery / Hawthorne / New York / USA / North America
Dutch Schultz was a New York based mobster who made his fortune bootlegging rum during Prohibition, followed by gambling, the numbers racket and the restaurant racket afterwards. Schultz was known for his extreme brutality and the...
Rand, Ayn
Writers and Poets
Age 77
February 2, 1905 - March 6, 1982
Kensico Cemetery / Valhalla / New York / USA / North America
Ayn Rand escaped to the United States, where she would eventually publish four novels and a handful of political screeds encouraging selfishness and a lack of concern for others. After the release of her third novel The Fountainhe...
Sarnoff, David
Business and Finance
Age 80
February 27, 1891 - December 12, 1971
Kensico Cemetery / Valhalla / New York / USA / North America
David Sarnoff was an American businessman and pioneer of American radio and television. Throughout most of his career he led the Radio Corporation of America in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his ...
Mineo, Sal
Show Business
Age 37
January 10, 1939 - February 12, 1976
Gate of Heaven Cemetery / Hawthorne / New York / USA / North America
Sal Mineo was a talented American actor who was best known for his role as John "Plato" Crawford in the drama film Rebel Without a Cause (1955), which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor at age ...
Rosenberg, Julius and Ethel
Crime and their Victims
Age
- June 19, 1953
Wellwood Cemetery / West Babylon / New York / USA / North America
It was a case that mesmerized the country and the world. On June 19, 1953, at the height of the Cold War, New York City–born Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were put to death in the electric chair. Convicted of conspiring to pass ato...