The mystery is being lifted little-by-little around James Jackson, whose tombstone was recently unearthed in Washington Square Park. In under a week it was theorized that Jackson resided at 19 East George Street (the former name of Market Street), and was a watchman and grocer. more ›

Perhaps it would have been nice to have had the mystery of the Washington Square Park tombstone prolonged until Halloween, but the case has seemingly been cracked! In just under a week the unearthed tombstone has been dusted off and, the NY Times reports, belongs to one James Jackson who died in September of 1799. more ›

Yesterday we noted that as renovations continue in Washington Square Park, a tombstone was unearthed by workers. Considering there are about 20,000 dead bodies under there, this is much more mysterious than creepy. more ›

This past Friday, as construction on Washington Square Park's redesign entered Phase II, a tombstone was unearthed. Dun dun dun. An eagle-eyed reader of the WSP Blog wrote in to that website Friday after "he noticed that there was a large hole dug about 6 feet below the surface in the fenced-off construction area" where two people were seen dusting off the tombstone. Creepy! more ›

Former mayor Ed Koch is nothing but prepared: The NY Times and NY Post report how the outgoing octogenarian has his tombstone ready and engraved. He already has a plot at Trinity Church Cemetery in Washington Heights and the tombstone will read: "EDWARD I. KOCH Mayor of the City of New York 1978-1989," plus slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's words before he died, "My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish," a Jewish prayer ("Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One") and the epitaph he wrote—"He was fiercely proud of his Jewish faith. He fiercely defended the City of New York, and he fiercely loved its people. Above all, he loved his country, the United States of America, in whose armed forces he served in World War II." more ›

Working his political connections to score one of the few below-ground burial plots left in Manhattan, former Mayor Ed Koch has announced that he will be buried in Trinity Church Cemetery at Broadway and 155th Street. The 83-year-old New Yorker says, “The idea of leaving Manhattan permanently irritates me.” So when the time comes he’ll be laid to rest in the company of such notables as Jerry Orbach, naturalist John James Audubon, and a slew of Astors. more ›