WANTED DEAD THE GRAVEROBBING OF
THE LATE A.T. STEWART
A
TEXT BY GRIFFIN LORD PHOTOS COURTESY OF JOHN ELLIS KORDES
lexander Turney (A.T.) Stewart, founder of Garden City, NY, passed away on April 10, 1876 at the age of 72. At the time of his death, the so-called “Merchant Prince of Manhattan” was America’s third richest man, making much of his then-nearly unheard of $50 million fortune (a little over $1 billion by today’s standards) from his expansive retail empire, which revolutionized the very concept of shopping as we know it today, and helped inspire the modern department store. Stewart’s body was discretely interred in his family’s underground vault at the Episcopalian Church of St. Mark’s in the Bowery in New York City. There, he would lay safe and protected until the completion of Garden City’s Cathedral of the Incarnation, upon which his casket would be exhumed and interred inside a vault Alexander Turney “A.T. Stewart. there. Then A.T. Stewart would rest in peace forever... or so nameplate, all made of silver, people’s imaginations even many believed. had been removed. A sizable more. Various others, howevchunk of its inner lining was er, were indifferent to the theft. A Shocking Crime also torn out. Some even celebrated it, citing On November 7, 1878, over But more important, they Stewart’s reputation as a hearttwo and a half years after Stewfound Stewart’s body missing. less miser who strategically ruart’s death, Francis Parker, an This discovery almost imme- ined competitors and sacrificed assistant sexton at the church, diately sparked what would be- his workers’ well-being and saw that the stone slab covercome one of the biggest stories happiness in the name of profit. ing the Stewart vault had been and media storms of the time. Regardless, a police investitampered with, and ventured Graverobbing wasn’t uncom- gation was promptly launched. into the crypt with the church’s mon then, but robbers usually Initial examination of the crime head sexton, George Hammill, pilfered poorer people’s graves, scene and churchyard produced to investigate. There, the two which were more plentiful and numerous pieces of evidence, discovered Stewart’s coffin lyeasier to access. That this hap- such as a shovel, a lantern, a ing by the stairs, with the outer pened to the tomb of one of women’s stocking, newspaper casket it had been encased in America’s richest, most prom- scraps from an issue of the New unscrewed and opened. They inent men immediately turned York Herald, and a trail of vile then inspected the coffin, and heads, and that the thieves smelling fluid from the vault discovered that its handles and managed to succeed engaged to outside the cemetery that
