Pensacola Ghoul

I’m not sure why, but since living in Pensacola I haven’t taken a morning walk.  However, the weather is perfect for walking (50-60’s in the morning) so I decided to see what is within walking distance.  It turns out one of Pensacola’s oldest cemetery is nearby.  Roberts Cemetery was the beginning of a bizarre story.

 

Back in 1957, someone snuck in and opened up a grave from this cemetery!  A few days later, another body was moved in nearby Whitmire cemetery giving the name Ghoul of Whitmire Cemetery.  In total, graves from four women/girls were opened and their clothes were found disarrayed starting rumors of necrophilia.  One instance was a 14-year-old girl who had been recently buried.  Another was an 11-year-old whose body was taken and found nearby.  The story was kept very low-key (the back page of the paper).  One theory was the perpetrator was related to a prominent citizen who suppressed the story.  However, rumors spread.  Large slabs were lifted that weighed over 1000 pounds, so one rumor was that the ghoul (technically a monster associated with graveyards who eat human flesh) had supernatural strength. No one was ever arrested for the crime. 

The cemetery has stones starting in 1860 and is still used today. 

Fifty-nine of the 800 gravesites have the last name of Nobles.  The cemetery is sometimes listed as Nobles Cemetery.

 

I just liked this grave.  Besides the name Bilbo, I thought the phrase was interesting. “Stop dear friends as you pass by, as you are now so once was I, as I am now so you must be.  Prepare yourself to follow me.  My family’s love I carry with me for I am dead.”