Blood & Marble

Season 2 Episode 17

Explore the snow-covered grounds of Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois, where Gothic towers stand sentinel over 350 acres of American ambition, tragedy, and memory. Host Kristin guides listeners through Chicago's first private cemetery, founded in 1859 on the city's highest natural elevation, uncovering the lost Victorian tradition of Christmas festivities among the graves and the spirits that linger in the winter twilight.

Featured Historical Figures:

Richard Warren Sears & Aaron Montgomery Ward – The mail-order moguls who revolutionized American commerce now rest as eternal rivals in the Rosehill Mausoleum, where Sears allegedly haunts the marble halls in a top hat, still bitter about his competitor's proximity even in death.

John G. Shedd – The Marshall Field's chairman whose mausoleum chapel features a Tiffany window designed to bathe his crypt in underwater blue light at sunset, complete with seahorse-adorned chairs—a cathedral beneath an imaginary sea.

Bobby Franks – The fourteen-year-old victim of Leopold and Loeb's 1924 "crime of the century," whose quiet grave holds the weight of innocence stolen and a city forever scarred by calculated cruelty.

Charles G. Dawes – The 30th Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate rests among Chicago's political dynasty, including "Long John" Wentworth, whose towering obelisk ensures he rises above his fellow mayors even in death.

Civil War Generals – Sixteen Union generals, including Thomas Ransom, Julius White, and John McArthur, lie beneath Leonard Volk's "Our Heroes" monument—making Rosehill the largest private burial ground of Union veterans in Illinois.

Also Featured:

William W. Boyington's Gothic Revival entrance (mirroring Chicago's Water Tower), the 1899 Horatio N. May Chapel with its winter vault for frozen-ground burials, victims of the 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire and 1915 SS Eastland disaster, three unidentified men from the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, and the glass-encased statues of Frances Pearce Stone and Lulu Fellows—where ghostly mists and phantom cries reportedly linger.

Perfect for: Chicago history enthusiasts, architecture lovers, true crime fans, cemetery tourists, and anyone fascinated by Gothic grandeur, Victorian mourning traditions, and the haunted intersections of capitalism, tragedy, and memory in America's heartland.