Charlie Chaplin died at the age of 88 on Christmas morning, 1977. He was buried in Vevey, Switzerland. On March 2, 1978 his coffin was dug up and stolen. The unopened coffin was recovered eleven weeks later, on May 17, 1978.Ransom demands had started pouring in immediately, but the police only found one claim credible, because it was backed up by photographs of the oak casket. Oona Chaplin, daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill, refused to pay them because “Charlie would have thought it ridiculous.” The police convinced the family to at least play along so they could catch them.
After monitoring about 200 public telephones in the town of Lausanne, Switzerland (where the Chaplins had settled after being denied entrance into the US in 1952 as potential Communist threats – Yeesh!) the police captured two men: Roman Wardas, a Polish mechanic and Gantscho Ganev, a Bulgarian mechanic. The men admitted to robbing Chaplin’s grave to improve their financial situations. The two men were convicted of extortion and disturbing the peace of the dead. Wardas was sentenced to four and a half years hard labor, while Ganev (the muscle) was given an eighteen month suspended sentence.
Oona Chaplin reburied her husband under six feet of concrete. The farmer who owned the plot of land the robbers had buried Chaplin in until their plans were foiled erected a cross where he had been temporarilly interred. When Oona died fourteen years later, she requested her body also be covered by cement to ensure no repeats of the event.
Charlie Chaplin’s Body Stolen – Urban Legends
Charlie Chaplin – Wikipedia
This Day in History – BBC
Today in Odd History
2 comments:
To live to 88, with all the pressure he must have had in his life, is really amazing. He also had children up to his early 70s.
LOL, yes and he also kept marrying (or having affairs with) women younger and younger until he met Oona. Of course, she was only about 35 years younger than he was...
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