- No, I want a big headstone.
I want the thing marked.
No, I don't want to be
buried in pet cemetary.
(blues instrumental music)
Most of us would like to be
remembered when we're dead
which is pretty much why we use
gravestones and headstones.
A burial place without a marker
was historically a sign of
poverty or low social status.
So, why then would famous actors,
historical figures or
technological pioneers
be buried in an unmarked grave?
As a co-founder of Apple,
Steve Jobs is a household name.
But, did you know that
when he died in 2011,
he was buried in a secret location?
Well, since then, of course,
bloggers tracked down
the likely site by obtaining
his death certificate
and finding a freshly
covered unmarked plot
in a Palo Alto, California memorial park.
If Jobs' body is there, he is joined
by other well-known
technologists, artists,
scientists and politicians.
Bobby Driscoll was a child actor
who not only starred in
films like Treasure Island,
but also voiced Peter Pan
in the classic Disney animated feature.
As an adult though, Driscoll
turned to drug abuse
and criminal activity, dying
sadly at the young age of 31
from catastrophic heart failure.
Officials couldn't
identify Driscoll's corpse,
so he was buried in an
unmarked pauper's grave.
However, a year later, his
mother identified Driscoll
based on the fingerprints police collected
before the burial.
And just think about that for a second.
His mother identified his dead body
from his fingerprints.
In the 1600s, Mary Dyer, a Quaker,
was an influential advocate
for religious freedoms.
Even though Quakers were banned
from living in Massachusetts at the time,
she returned to Boston to speak
out against this oppression
and was hanged to death.
Some thought Dyer was buried
in an unmarked grave in the city,
but others believe that
her body was brought
back to her family's farm in Rhode Island.
Dyer's execution led to the
Rhode Island Royal Charter
of 1663 which granted
the freedom of religion.
But, regardless, no one knows for sure
where her actual body lies to this day.
Saturday Night Live and
Animal House star John Belushi
died, sadly, in 1982 from a drug overdose,
and was originally
interred in a marked grave
on Martha's Vineyard.
But, his fans liked to
party, and they littered
the site of his tombstone
into utter disrepair.
Totally not cool.
So, Belushi's wife was forced to quietly
have his remains moved
to an unmarked location
within that same cemetery.
Richard Trevithick was
the mechanical engineer
who constructed the very
first steam locomotive.
He died with nothing but
his gold watch in 1833,
and it's thought that
his coworkers even used
his watch to pay for a pauper's funeral
in which they were his pallbearers.
It wasn't until 1902 that a wall plaque
was erected near the site denoting
Trevithick's nearby grave.
For more interesting unmarked graves,
check out our original
article at howstuffworks.com.
But, before you go, won't you let us know
in the comments, what do
you want on your headstone?
And don't forget to
subscribe to this channel
so we can remember you forever
and ever and ever and ever.
- But, she changed the world,
but you'll never hear
about it anywhere but here.
- Well, now--
- [Woman] She's in
an unmarked grave on the Boston Common.
And you know whose grave is marked?
(beep) Jim Morrison.
People fly to Europe to see it
and he wrote horrible music.
