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K R U L E W I T C H

February 8th, 2008 by

J.G. was just an average guy. He made his living selling hats and made his death in a mausoleum at krulewitch cemetery. There his body lay in rest until the 76th anniversary of his death in 1997, when an unknown person or persons broke into his crypt  and burned his coffin and remains to oblivion.

2 police officers spotted the smoke that night and their presence apparently scared off whoever committed this crude devilish act, but in many ways it was already decades too late.

Home to more than 30,000 bodies, Krulewitch is a place that was doomed from the onset. The majority of those interned here were either poor or of average means. Few were able to pay for continuance contracts for their plots to be maintained. As the space filled, cutting off the revenue from new burials, the cash to maintain the cemetery dropped. The congregation which owns this cemetery has shrank over the decades. Few attend their services which take place in a building far from the cemetery. Some probably don't even know the cemetery exists. With no space for new burials and no cash from continuance, the cemetery slowly fell into disrepair. Vines grew over the ground, trees sprouted. Decades of neglect created this jungle of the damned. Nature has taken back the land, with lush tress and vines covering just about everything.

It did not help that the area this cemetery is in also slid into decline. We were greeted upon arrival here to the not too distant sound of mid-day gunfire. Such a dangerous area surely has not helped in bringing visitors to this forgotten place.

The conditions here are just plain disturbing. Iron fences are rusted through and knocked over. Headstones, too, have been toppled. Beer cans grow like weeds in some corners, next to a stack of trash bags containing god only knows what. The thick trees and vast land area make it a dangerous place for police to patrol by foot when they dare to enter it at all. A place like this is ripe for crime. Ripe for evil. This place of rest has indeed become the devils playground, and no one has the millions of dollars it would take to restore it to remotely resemble what a cemetery should look like.

This fact doesn't seem to be lost on the dead though. Entire bodies have disappeared. Their mausoleums doors smashed in, the coffins ripped open. It is as if the even the dead are so appalled by this place of sin that they have up and left.

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  • About The Author

    Bad Guy Joe

    Bad Guy Joe
    Bad Guy Joe knows more about the NYC underground than anyone else on or below the surface of this planet. He has spent nearly 30 years sneaking into NYC's more forbidden locations. When not underground, he's probably bitching about politicians or building something digital. 
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