urban graveyard

near Prospect

graves of the Union dead

what you can see from Lake View

Now, at this time of year (as i have done before) many people travel to Lake View Cemetery to photograph Daffodil Hill.

A few feet away is Jeptha Wade's monument. He was the cemetery's first president and gave land to the city for a park, which now has the Art Museum. On this hill one can see the lake, hence the name 'Lake View'. There, below is an electrical generating plant.

  and this vantage of  'the Angel'

Merlin

 merlin, pigeon hawk

in front of this cross, the bird was visible

Merlin is a falcon. In the Peterson Guide their winter range distribution in the eastern US is mostly coastal, and somewhat deeper from the Gulf Coast, with two isolated pockets. One pocket is extreme southwestern Pennsylvania, and the other extreme northeastern Ohio. Now, sometimes i have noticed that birds are rarer and have been noted to be in a particular spot, continue to be in that spot. But years pass, and a juvenile bird is a juvenile for a year (generally), and the same spot the same species is seen. It must be different individuals, for the bird is not eternal.

Now, i have read that merlins have been spotted, over the years, near a certain particular section of Cleveland Calvary Cemetery. I drove up to a section marker, and parked, stepped out, and saw Merlin on a tree. I took numerous photographs, birdy did not mind. While driving about beforehand, many blue jays were flitting about and cawing.

Merlin is not a bird legal to hunt. In the last few years, two separate harlequin ducks were spotted in parks. They were mentioned on the internet, and people came to view and shoot. Most came with cameras. Both ducks were killed. Duck hunting is legal. It takes a selfish son-of-a-bitch (either stupid, covetous, and/or mean) to take a trophy, or just kill a rare (even if just for the area) individual for shits and giggles. I do not expect this merlin to be shot. But now, i am not eager to pin point the spot; although if i had not read where the spot was, i do not think i would have seen the bird.

a Chinese stone

It has been a cold harsh winter. I have not gone to the graveyards to photograph.

I went for the first time, in late November, to Cleveland West Park Cemetery. I drove through on a cold and rainy day.  I saw this stone in Chinese script. Last century, the Chinese who died in Cleveland had the tendency to eventually have their remains exhumed, and repatriated. I wanted to get this translated, for i am ignorant of Chinese. As of yet, nothing. 

___________________________________

postscriptum: 30 June 2023.  google lens says the vertical reads, "Monument to Soldiers and Civilians Martyred in June 7th". On that day the Japanese army attacked the Marco Polo (Lugou) Bridge, the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) began.

The horizontal might be Mugong Huazhong 1946, postscriptum: 9 July 2023. (according to google), but it isn't. I was informed that it was read in the wrong direction, "Four on base are read right-to-left: zhonghua gongmu (Chinese public cemetery)". The same fellow pointed out, the top two characters are "7 7", so the date IS July 7th. Well, google was mistaken, and since the top two characters are identical, it makes sense they refer to July 7th, and not June 7th, and July 7th is the historical date. Thank you to Bob Vatilla, who informed me.

the Sheppards

Marilyn Reese-Sheppard, her unborn son, and the ashes of her husband are in a Mayfield Hts. mausoleum.

Is there a locale in this country that does not have a famous murder? In the 1930s Cleveland had a serial killer with many similarities with London's 'Jack-the-Ripper', Kingsbury Run, or Torso murderer. Elliot Ness did not have the evidence to arrest the politically connected doctor, who murdered street people. The doctor admitted himself to a mental hospital, in state but well out of town. I would wager that the most interesting is the murder of Marilyn Sheppard, which the political community (both parties) and establishment pinned on her physician husband (peculiarly he was often pointed out to be an osteopath).

She was beaten to death in the early morning of Independence Day 1954, at home in the suburb of Bay Village. Immediately the Cleveland Police, and the editor of the Cleveland Press insisted that her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard was the killer. The story did not stop. The trial was a national media circus. Soon after the verdict of guilty, Dr. Sheppard's mother shot herself, his father died a few days later. Marilyn's father years later would also use a gun for suicide.

Official Cleveland has always maintained (they made a campaign of it) the doctor's guilt. Much of the country did not think so. The remarkable television show, "The Fugitive" (120 episodes, 1963-1967), was partially based on Doctor Sam, though denied. In 1964 it is ruled that the trial was unfair, and he is freed. In 1966 there is a second trial, and he is not found guilty. When i grew up, most people did not like Dr. Sam Sheppard, and considered him guilty. F. Lee Bailey won the argument 8-1 before the Supreme Court,  Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333 (1966), that Sheppard did not receive due process. Many people, here, did not like Bailey.

The tale has more acts. Sam Sheppard marries an in-law of Goebbels, the nazi propagandist. Dr. Sam becomes a professional wrestler, and marries the daughter of his coach and partner.

Years earlier, the family hired a forensic biochemist. Paul Kirk examined blood splatter evidence to prove a man other than Sheppard was the killer. Sheppard was arrested without blood, the killer had to have been bloodied. In 1989 Richard Eberling [click] is found guilty of murdering another woman. The Sheppards' son, Sam Reese Sheppard, found the murderer of his mother. It was Eberling, a serial murderer, thief, interior decorator.

videre:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sheppard/chronology.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2613sheppard.html

masons and catholics in the same building

 32°

 33°

 St. Anthony of Padua and Lisbon

section with several masonic emblems (male and female), many from the 1950s

 after All Saints and All Souls

These crypts have some Catholic dead entombed. Mayfield area has many Italians, and certainly not all are Catholics, but the tendency is there; and for many ethnic Catholics there are grave visits at the beginning of November. In sections of the mausoleum where there are many masonic emblems on the crypt marble, the decorations are absent. 

O Signore, fa' di me uno strumento della tua pace!

O Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

This packet has a picture of Padre Pio, and the beginning of the Prayer of St. Francis in Italian, and a rosary.