3) John Dillinger’s Grave
America has always had a fascination with the outlaw. It’s in our nature. Our nation was founded on the principles of rejecting authority. Whether it’s the desperado from the Old West to the modern day “gangsta,” the outlaw remains a romanticized, pop-culture icon. One of the most famous outlaws was John Dillinger, who robbed at least twelve banks and was involved in multiple shootouts with the police and federal agents. Dillinger, who portrayed himself as a modern day Robin Hood, was finally gunned down in Chicago, after seeing Clark Gable’s gangster flick, Manhattan Melodrama. When Dillinger’s body was interred at Mooresville, 5,000 people gathered to attend the funeral. Dillinger was so popular that the crowds began taking flowers and handfuls of dirt as keepsakes of the event. This prompted Dillinger’s family to seal the outlaw’s casket in concrete and iron, to deter any potential grave robbing. People continued to chisel chunks of granite from the simple headstone, as a personal memento. Cemetery officials claim to have gone through at least four headstones, over the years, thanks to these souvenir hunters.
