One of Kentucky's most haunted and most historic cemeteries, positioned high on a hill overlooking the state capitol. Among its residents:
Daniel Boone - Well, maybe. Not everyone believes that Boone is really buried in this grave, after a DNA test of the remains indicated that its occupant was likely a black male.
Luke Blackburn - Considered by some to be “the father of bioterrorism” because of a failed plot during the Civil War to infect Northern states, and even Abraham Lincoln himself, with Yellow Fever. Somehow, instead of being lynched for attempted mass murder and attempted Presidential assassination, Blackburn went on to become Governor of Kentucky.
William Goebel - Another former Governor of Kentucky, but one who held office for only a few days: he was assassinated on January 30, 1900 after a highly contested election fraught with irregularities.
Paul Sawyier - The well-known impressionist painter led a happy and productive life until the 1914 death of his lover, Mary “Mayme” Bull, who is also interred here. Sawyier lost all will to live after her death, and quickly dissolved into despair and alcoholism until his own demise in 1917. He spent most of his final years camping out in an abandoned church in the Catskills, and was briefly buried in a New York cemetery before being exhumed and moved to Kentucky.
See Weird Kentucky for more information on Frankfort Cemetery's heroes and villains.
1 comment:
Just a note on William Goebel. I was told growing up in Frankfort that someone installed his statues backwards; the statue at Frankfort Cemetery shows him giving a speech, the statue with his head bowed is located in front of the Old Capitol Building.
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