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The Grim: Haunted Cemeteries & Graveyard Tales — Places & Travel
The Grim: Haunted Cemeteries & Graveyard Tales

Welcome to The Grim, where host Kristin Lopes guides you through the world’s most haunted cemeteries and forgotten burial grounds.

Each week, we explore ghost stories, historical mysteries, and the art carved into centuries-old stones—from New England witch trials to European ossuaries, Victorian mourning customs to modern hauntings. Through vivid storytelling and deep research, we uncover the lives, legends, and restless spirits that refuse to stay buried.

Perfect for lovers of:

Haunted cemeteries & graveyard folklore

Paranormal encounters & ghost stories

Dark history, true crime & forgotten tales

Cemetery tourism & historical exploration

Whether you’re planning a graveyard visit or simply drawn to the shadows, The Grim blends atmosphere with meticulous research—bringing you stories that linger long after the episode ends.

So pour yourself a warm cup of coffee, cozy up with the whispers of the past, and step beyond the veil.

“Step carefully—it’s time to descend into the hauntings of history.”

With over 267,000 listens, The Grim has become a beloved companion for cemetery enthusiasts and paranormal lovers worldwide.

🎧 New episodes weekly. Subscribe and join us where the past refuses to rest.

Copyright: © 2024 The Grim: A Spine-Chilling Podcast Exploring Haunted Cemeteries and Graveyard Tales

Latest Episodes:

Killer in the Crypt May 06, 2025

Show notes

The Grim is opening the gate and entering Pine Grove Cemetery located in Truro, it might seem just another quiet New England burial ground—modest in size, overlooked by tourists, and far from the summer crowds drawn to nearby beaches. But appearances deceive. Since its establishment in 1799, this two-acre plot has become a repository for some of Massachusetts' darkest mysteries and most gruesome crimes.
We begin with the haunting tale of the Commerce, a fishing vessel that drifted into Truro harbor one September Sunday in 1844, perfectly intact but eerily empty. Captain Solomon Lombard and his nine crew members had vanished without explanation, only to wash ashore days later along a 30-mile stretch of coastline. These experienced sailors, strong swimmers all, somehow drowned on a calm sea within sight of land. Seven now rest in Pine Grove, their broken headstones still whispering "drowned in Cape Cod Bay" to those who know where to look. What happened to these men in their final moments? The sea has kept this secret for nearly two centuries.
More than a hundred years later, Pine Grove Cemetery became the backdrop for unimaginable horror when the woods behind its granite-posted fence became the hunting ground of Anton "Tony" Costa. Behind his clean-cut appearance and helpful demeanor lurked a monster who lured young women to their deaths. The 1969 discovery of four victims—Patricia Walsh, Marianne Wysocki, Sydney Monzon, and Susan Perry—buried behind the cemetery shocked the Cape Cod community to its core. Costa's connections to other disappearances and deaths across multiple states, combined with his interest in the occult, transformed Pine Grove from a place of peaceful rest to a site of nightmares.
Whether you're fascinated by maritime mysteries, true crime, or the paranormal phenomena reported within Pine Grove's boundaries, this episode unearths the secrets that lie just beneath the surface of this seemingly ordinary place. Listen now and discover why some say the woods beyond the headstones still feel heavy with unresolved tragedy—and why Pine Grove Cemetery continues to be a place where the past refuses to rest in peace.

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When the Vultures Circled Apr 29, 2025

Show notes

The Grim is opening the gate and entering Georgiana Cemetery located on Merritt Island in Florida. Step away from the tourist crowds at Cape Canaveral and walk with us along a crooked mile, where sunlight filters through Spanish moss and century-old secrets whisper on the salt breeze. Georgiana Cemetery on Merritt Island might not make the Florida travel guides, but beneath its quiet exterior lies a tapestry of tragedy, mystery, and lingering spirits that refuse to be forgotten.
Discover the heartbreaking fate of the Smith sisters—Myrtle, Mary, and Martha—who perished together on June 14, 1916, when a family outing across the Banana River turned deadly during an unexpected storm. Their shared tombstone tells only part of the story, while local legend claims their childish laughter still carries on the wind during stormy evenings, echoing across decades of grief.
We'll unravel the brutal unsolved murder of 19-year-old Ethel Allen, whose mutilated body was discovered in 1934 near the riverbank. The prime suspect vanished without a trace, leaving behind a mystery that haunts Merritt Island to this day. From Ashley's Restaurant, where staff report encounters with a woman in 1930s attire, to the roadside where foggy nights sometimes reveal a young woman searching endlessly for home, Ethel's presence lingers far beyond her modest grave marker.
While rockets launch toward distant worlds at nearby Kennedy Space Center, Georgiana Cemetery anchors us to a different kind of mystery—one rooted in human tragedy rather than cosmic exploration. The spirits here don't reach for the stars; they reach for resolution, recognition, and perhaps a moment of connection with those brave enough to listen.
Join us as we close the gate on Georgiana Cemetery, where not everything that reaches for you comes from above, and where some things refuse to stay buried beneath the Florida sand and sunshine. For those fascinated by history's darker corners and the thin veil between worlds, subscribe today and never miss an episode of The Grim.

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Liberty's Shot Apr 22, 2025

Show notes

The Grim is opening the gate and entering Old Hill Burying Ground, where time doesn't just slow—it folds back on itself days after the 250th anniversary of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. The weathered stones rising from the modest 1.16 acres in located Concord, Massachusetts don't merely commemorate the dead; they mark the resting places of those who shaped a nation's violent, necessary birth.

The cemetery feels deceptively small until you understand its weight. Nearly 500 gravestones remain, some adorned with winged skulls and soul effigies—Puritan reminders of mortality's constant presence. The oldest visible marker belongs to Joseph Merrim who died in 1677, but countless others lie beneath unmarked earth, their names surrendered to time and weather. What makes this ground hallowed isn't just its age but who rests here: fifteen veterans of the American Revolution who transformed this quiet corner of Massachusetts into the cradle of independence.
Most significant among them is Major John Buttrick, whose command to "Fire, fellow soldiers, for God's sake, fire!" sent the first colonial bullets into British ranks at North Bridge on April 19, 1775. That moment—immortalized as "the shot heard round the world"—changed everything. The soil of this burial ground cradles others who stood firm that pivotal morning: Colonel James Barrett, whose farm was the British target; Captain David Brown, who led Concord's minute company; and Reverend William Emerson, who stoked the fires of resistance from his pulpit. From these gates, you can almost see North Bridge, where blood once mingled with river water and revolution took its first breath.
Some visitors describe a strange hush when walking among these stones—a feeling that the past doesn't rest here but continues to breathe alongside us. Perhaps they're right. When you trace your fingers across these weather-worn epitaphs, you're touching more than slate and memory; you're connecting with the very foundation of American liberty. Subscribe today to join us next time when we open the gate on another hidden historical treasure where the past refuses to remain silent.

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The Eternal Tetsuya Apr 15, 2025

Show notes

The Grim is opening the gate deep in the forested mountains of Wakayama Prefecture lies a sacred realm suspended between worlds. Entering Okunoin Cemetery located at Mount Koya isn't merely Japan's most hallowed burial ground—it's a living testament to 1,200 years of unbroken spiritual devotion where the boundary between life and death seems remarkably thin.
The journey begins where modern Japan recedes. After a bullet train and local railway, visitors ascend 800 meters by funicular into what feels like another dimension. Crossing the First Bridge marks your departure from the realm of the living as you enter a two-kilometer path winding beneath towering cedars past over 200,000 graves and memorials.
What makes Okunoin transcendent isn't just its scale but its remarkable intersection of history and belief. Here lies Kukai (Kobo Daishi), the founder of Shingon Buddhism who never "died" but entered eternal meditation in 835 CE. Two lanterns have reportedly burned without pause for 900 years in the Torodo (Hall of Lanterns) before his mausoleum, where monks still bring meals twice daily.
The cemetery reads like a physical timeline of Japanese history. Feudal rivals Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin face each other in eternal standoff. The three great unifiers—Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu—rest among poets like Matsuo Basho. Five-ringed stone towers represent Buddhist cosmology, while Jizō statues wearing red bibs watch over departed children.
Strangely, modernity has crept into this ancient sanctuary. Corporate memorials stand alongside monuments to termites and even a replica Saturn V rocket. Local legends add another layer of mysticism—venomous snakes sealed by Kukai, a well that predicts your death if your reflection is absent, and stone steps that promise rebirth if climbed without falling.
Have you ever wandered among the dead and felt more alive? Subscribe to join us next time as we open another gate on the Grimm and explore history's most fascinating burial grounds.

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The Redcoat Skeleton Apr 08, 2025

Show notes

The Grim is opening the gate and entering Bennington Centre Cemetery located in Bennington Vermont. Like bones catching the last light after sundown, the white marble gravestones gleam with an otherworldly brightness. Founded in 1762 beside Vermont's Old First Church, this extraordinary burial ground transcends its purpose to become something far more profound – a cathedral of carved mortality where American history, art, and memory converge in breathtaking ways.
What separates Bennington from other historic cemeteries is the remarkable collection of funerary artistry etched into its stones. Master carvers like Zerubbabel Collins, Ebenezer Soule, and Josiah Manning left behind over 40 distinct works featuring winged skulls, soul effigies, and haunting faces that stare across centuries. These weren't mere markers but sermons in stone, created by artisans whose family dynasties spanned generations and whose chisels shaped American memorial traditions.
The cemetery breathes with revolutionary significance. Just 15 years after its founding, the Battle of Bennington saw local militias led by General John Stark defeat British forces in a pivotal moment that weakened Burgoyne's campaign and helped secure American victory at Saratoga. Today, 75 soldiers from that conflict – American, British, and Hessian – share the same quiet ground, their divisions dissolved by death's democracy.
Perhaps most poignant is the modest slab marking Robert Frost's final resting place, bearing his immortal epitaph: "I had a lover's quarrel with the world." The celebrated poet, who buried his wife and four children and whose deceptively simple verse concealed profound meditations on isolation and mortality, found his perfect resting place among these colonial dead and carved masterpieces. Nearby lies David Redding, a loyalist spy whose skeleton wandered nearly 200 years before finally receiving proper burial in 1976, a reminder that some stories refuse easy conclusions.
Subscribe now to join us on our next journey through fascinating and forgotten graveyards or cemeteries, where history isn't just remembered – it's revealed.

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Ghosts in the Asylum Apr 01, 2025

Show notes

The Grim is opening the gate and entering Medfield State Hospital Cemetery located in Medfield Massachusetts. Revealing a haunting landscape where 841 former psychiatric patients lie buried beneath small numbered markers – their identities erased even in death. What began as the "Medfield Insane Asylum" in 1892 evolved into a sprawling mental health facility that operated for over a century before finally closing its doors in 2003, leaving behind a legacy of isolation, mistreatment, and forgotten lives.
Beyond its troubling history as a psychiatric institution, many visitors recognize these grounds from popular films like Shutter Island, Knives Out, and X-Men: New Mutants. Yet few realize they're walking across the same soil where patients lived, suffered, and died – their stories silenced by stigma and institutional neglect. When the devastating Spanish Flu swept through in 1918, claiming 55 patients and 5 staff members, the hospital established its own cemetery rather than continue burying their dead in the town's Vine Lake Cemetery.
For decades, these graves remained anonymous, marked only by cold metal numbers driven into the earth. It wasn't until a determined Boy Scout from Troop 89 undertook the painstaking work of matching numbers to names that these forgotten souls began to reclaim their identities. Today, a memorial stone stands at the entrance with the poignant inscription: "Remember those buried at Medfield State Hospital, for they too have lived, loved and laughed."
As the only abandoned psychiatric hospital in America where visitors can freely roam the grounds, Medfield offers a unique window into our troubled approach to mental health care. Film crews report unexplained phenomena, with one director noting "literally every single person on my crew had weird things happen." Whether you're drawn by historical curiosity, cinematic connections, or paranormal possibilities, this Massachusetts landmark invites reflection on how we remember – or fail to remember – those society once chose to forget. Listen as we dig deep into the stories beneath our feet and restore dignity to those who were numbered rather than named.

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Beneath Southern Stone: Atlanta's Haunted Soul Mar 25, 2025

Show notes

The Grim is opening the gate and entering Oakland Cemetery. Atlanta’s sprawling 48-acre Victorian garden of stone, where the South’s layered past lies buried beneath twisting paths and timeworn monuments.

Founded in 1850, Oakland holds more than the remains of the dead—it preserves the social orders, injustices, and triumphs of a changing city. In the Original Six Acres, you’ll find the cemetery’s oldest graves, including that of Dr. James Nissen. The Jewish sections reflect a quiet tension between German and Russian traditions. The Confederate Burial Grounds stretch wide, with nearly 7,000 soldiers lying in ordered rows beneath a towering granite obelisk.

Yet some of Oakland’s most powerful stories are of those who resisted erasure: the displaced African-American graves, moved and scattered; Carrie Steele Logan, once enslaved, who rose to create the nation’s oldest Black orphanage; and Maynard Jackson, Atlanta’s first Black mayor, whose grave reminds us how far the city has come and how far it has yet to go.

Among the marble angels and shaded crypts lie icons like Gone With the Wind author Margaret Mitchell, golf legend Bobby Jones, and Dr. Joseph Jacobs, the man behind the pharmacy where Coca-Cola was first served.

Join The Grim as we walk the silent corridors of Atlanta’s most haunted history. Because here, in Oakland Cemetery, this isn’t just a cemetery—it’s a mirror held up to the South’s haunted soul.

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Meet Me at the Gravediggers Mar 18, 2025

Show notes

The Grim is opening the gate and entering Glasnevin Cemetery located in Dublin, Ireland. Beyond the green beer and shamrocks of St. Patrick's Day lies the true soul of Ireland – a complex tapestry of triumph and tragedy woven through centuries of struggle. There's no better place to uncover this authentic history than Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin's sprawling necropolis where 1.5 million souls now outnumber the city's living population.
Walking through Glasnevin's gates is like stepping into Ireland's living memory. Founded in 1832 as a revolutionary burial ground open to all faiths during an era of religious discrimination, its very existence represents a victory against oppression. The cemetery houses Ireland's greatest heroes and everyday Dubliners alike, each grave telling a story of the nation's complex journey.
Beneath the iconic round tower lies Daniel O'Connell, "The Liberator," who fought tirelessly for Catholic emancipation. Not far away rests Michael Collins, the charismatic revolutionary leader whose grave continues to receive fresh flowers from admirers. The Countess Constance Markievicz, one of the first women in the world to hold a cabinet position, and folk singer Luke Kelly of The Dubliners lie among political giants like Éamon de Valera and Charles Stuart Parnell. Their proximity in death – sometimes friends turned enemies during the Civil War – reflects the passionate divisions that shaped modern Ireland.
But Glasnevin's most powerful stories may be in its unmarked spaces: mass graves holding nearly 800,000 famine victims, the Angels' Plot for stillborn children, and the resting places of countless unnamed souls who lived and died under oppression. From ghostly tales of a loyal Newfoundland dog who starved at his master's grave to the bizarre story of Maria Higgins who holds the record of being "buried twice," Glasnevin offers glimpses into Ireland's soul far more authentic than any St. Patrick's Day parade.
Whether you're tracing Irish ancestry, seeking understanding of a complex nation, or simply drawn to powerful human stories, join us as we uncover the history etched in stone and earth at Dublin's remarkable City of the Dead.

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Marble, Myths & Mourning Mar 11, 2025

Show notes

The Grim is opening the gate and entering Green Mount Cemetery located in Montpelier, Vermont—a historic burial ground rich with stunning gravestone art, mysterious legends, and intriguing stories from the past.

Nestled in Vermont’s picturesque capital, Green Mount Cemetery is more than just a final resting place; it’s a 19th-century rural garden cemetery featuring breathtaking Vermont marble, Gothic-style architecture, and legendary memorials that capture the imagination. From the chilling Black Agnes statue, rumored to bring misfortune, to the controversial legacy of John Hubbard, whose grand monument stands as a haunting testament to scandal and redemption, this cemetery holds secrets waiting to be uncovered.

Listeners will hear about unique gravestones, including the mysterious stone staircase to nowhere, and the poignant tale of Little Margaret Pitkin, whose lifelike statue was the center of an unexpected artistic dispute. We also uncover the stories of Civil War heroes, abolitionists, and even a beloved dog memorialized in stone.

Whether you’re a taphophile, history buff, or true crime enthusiast, this episode is packed with eerie insights into Vermont’s most famous cemetery. Grab your coffee, get cozy, and take a deep dive into the haunted history of Green Mount Cemetery.

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Where the Crosses Were Mar 04, 2025

Show notes

The Grim is opening the gate and entering El Campo Santo Cemetery located in San Diego, California. Known for its eerie atmosphere and fascinating past, this cemetery tells the story of a city that paved over its dead in the name of progress. From ghostly sightings to forgotten graves, El Campo Santo offers a glimpse into San Diego's darker side.

The Grim is taking listeners on a journey through the cemetery's complex history, founded in 1849 as a Catholic burial ground. Despite its humble beginnings, El Campo Santo became the final resting place for notable figures, such as José Antonio Aguirre, María Victoria Domínguez Estudillo, and Cave Johnson Couts. However, with the growth of San Diego, the cemetery was nearly forgotten as roads and modern infrastructure were built over it, disturbing the graves of hundreds. Today, only a small section of the original cemetery remains, surrounded by unmarked graves and brass markers embedded in the pavement to remind us of what’s buried beneath.

Through gripping storytelling, The Grim highlights some of the cemetery’s most infamous residents, including the notorious 'Yankee' Jim Robinson, whose ghostly presence still haunts the nearby Whaley House. She also covers the tragic tale of William Marshall and Juan Verdugo, two men executed during the Garra Revolt, whose lives ended in injustice and are now forever tied to the cemetery’s dark history.

This episode explores themes of historical erasure, respect for the dead, and the paranormal energy that lingers at El Campo Santo. With its ghostly tales, buried secrets, and tragic past, El Campo Santo Cemetery stands as a haunting reminder of San Diego's complex history.

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Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
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