Cool stuff and hot links
If you're interested in celebrity graves and related topics (and isn't that why you're here?), here are a few more sites you might enjoy:
Chances are if you found this place, you already know about Find a Death, the fantastic site run by the fantastic Scott Michaels.
You can easily spend hours at Scott's site, reading his detailed reports on hundreds of celebrity deaths, complete with photos of the actual scenes, death certificates, grave photos and great behind-the-scenes information. If you're interested in celebrity death information, if Scott doesn't know about it, it's not worth knowing. And, lucky for us, he shares what he knows.
If you happen to be in the Los Angeles area, do yourself a favor and take Scott's great Dearly Departed Tour. You'll see the sites of famous murders, deaths and various tragedies in the Los Angeles area, and you'll get Scott's unequaled and entertaining behind-the-scenes information. Even if you're not a crime and tragedy fan, you're guaranteed to enjoy this tour, a truly unique L.A. experience.
Scott also runs a special Helter Skelter Tour, which focuses on the horrific Tate and LaBianca murders carried out by the Manson family, complete with visits to the crime scenes and many more related locations, as Scott reconstructs the lives of the killers and the victims, leading up to the horrific crimes and the aftermath.
Find-A-Grave includes information on an incredible 43 million graves around the world. The site includes an extensive and easily searchable listing of celebrity graves, often with photos, and also a searchable database of "non-famous" graves. If they're dead, they're probably here. And they'll show you where to find 'em.
A coroner's office with a gift shop? Only in Los Angeles. The L.A. County Coroner's office operates a gift shop, with proceeds going to the county's Youthful Drunk Driver Visitation Program, which is an alternative sentencing option that focuses on drug-, alcohol- and weapons-related offenses, in addition to driving under the influence and other driving offenses. Sentencing in this program involves a tour of the morgue and witnessing an actual autopsy. (I wonder if they allow non-offenders to sign up for the program, just for fun.) Anyway, the gift shop offers T-shirts, hats, coffee cups, pens, beach towels and dozens of other products -- even toe tags! -- with most featuring the logo of the coroner's office. They're great gifts, and great conversation pieces. Plus, the proceeds go to a good cause.
Looking for great art, wonderful gifts and just generally cool stuff to celebrate the Day of the Dead ... and every other day? Then you've got to check out Frenzy Art for the great hand-painted glassware and art cards, and lots of really cool stuff for the home, kitchen and office. I picked up the coolest salt-and-pepper shaker set, a wonderful wine glass and a shot glass that makes me wish I drank more. All the stuff is wonderfully priced and, if you don't pick up something for yourself, you can always buy more stuff for me.
The City Morgue Gift Shop is a great site to purchase death-related memorabilia, including T-shirts, bumper stickers, jewelry, celebrity death certificates and all sorts of stuff. The site even has a virtual "Celebrity Cemetery," with dozens of photos of celebrity graves (including a few taken by me!).
Want to know how long you've got to live? Check out The Death Clock. You can also find out how a bunch of famous people died, and get some tips on how to prolong your life. (I don't want to tell you how long the "Death Clock" gave me, but it did say I shouldn't buy any green bananas, shouldn't get interested in any two-part movies on television, and if I take anything to the dry cleaners, I should get the same-day service.)
And here are a few great websites run by some of my grave-hunting friends:
Jayne Osborne's The Adipocere Society
Steve Goldstein's Beneath Los Angeles
Lisa Burks' Adventures in Grave Hunting
Allan Ellenberger's Hollywoodland blog
Karie Bible's Hollywood Forever Cemetery Tour
Josh Perry's Gravehunting Guru
Karen McHale's Hollywood Underground
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