Adventures in Grave Hunting by Lisa Burks

Justice for Rigsby: Why Isn't Media Focusing on the Victim?

Read more at Lisa Burks Online

Desperately Seeking Dee Dee

In early July, I wrote about a Michael Jackson family connection to Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills ~ namely, the grave site of his maternal grandmother, Martha Bridges, who is buried in the Sheltering Hills section.

Avid Jackson fans have since asked about another long-rumored Jackson family connection there, Tito Jackson's ex-wife, Delores "Dee Dee" Jackson. Was she buried there after her 1994 murder, and if so, where?

Dee Dee Jackson (image courtesy Fox Family "The Jacksons")

I checked with the Forest Lawn records department and a very nice young lady there politely apologized when she informed me that no such burial information could be located in their files. No suprises there.

Next I consulted my network of Forest Lawn experts, including "The Godfather of Graving" Roger Sinclair, my friend and grave hunting mentor who has been documenting Los Angeles cemeteries for over 30 years. They each confirmed for me that Dee Dee is indeed buried at FLHH and gave me specific directions to her grave.

As a result, my trusty sidekick Fifi and I easily found the memorial tablet that marks her interment site, nestled in an unassuming garden plot on a terrace in the Court of Liberty. It is situated just yards away from the Hall of Liberty where the Jackson family gathered for Michael's viewing and private ceremony prior to his public memorial at the Staples Center. She is interred with mother, Irma Estevez Martes.

Dee Dee and Irma's shared memorial tablet

Fourth terrace down from the Birth of Liberty mosaic outside the Hall of Liberty

Walking down the steps, her garden plot is on the right-hand side

The garden is walled in and includes a sitting bench

Dee Dee and Tito were married from 1972-1988. Together they had three sons ~ TJ, Taryll and Taj ~ who are also known as the musical trio 3t, a moniker based on her nickname for them, "the three T's." Like her mother-in-law, Katherine Jackson, she was a beloved, loving and supportive maternal presence in their lives.

Tito and Dee Dee (courtesy of Claude Thines)

This summer marked the 15th anniversary of her death at the age of 39.  On August 27, 1994, her body was found at the bottom of the swimming pool at the Ladera Heights home of Los Angeles businessman, Donald Bohana. whom she had recently begun dating.

Bohanan initially told Los Angeles County Sheriff investigators that he had been swimming with Dee Dee around 4 a.m., and that he had briefly left the scene, only to return moments later to find her submerged.  He reportedly called 911 after pulling her body from the water. She was taken by ambulance to nearby Daniel Freeman Hospital in Inglewood where she was pronounced dead.

The case appeared to be an accidental drowning, but subsequent autopsy results suggested that the drowning may have been "assisted." Her cause of death was listed as "asphyxia, due to or as a consequence of drowning, alcohol intake and blunt-force traumatic injuries" that included cuts on her lips, tongue and ears, a bruise on her head and muscle hemorrhages in her neck.

Based on this evidence, the district attorney's office re-opened the case in November 1994. Bohana was not immediately arrested nor was he ruled out as a suspect.  A year later, the case remained open with no one charged with the murder.

Dee Dee and her sons Taryll, Taj and TJ (image © To The Tee)
Screen capture from video shot six months before her death

See full video here courtesy of 3tmemories.

Her frustrated family pursued justice themselves in the name of her sons. They filed their own suit with the state attorney general, alleging that the financially troubled Bohana killed Dee Dee in a fit of rage when she refused to use her Jackson connections to bail him out of bankruptcy.

Their case proved solid, and on November 23, 1998, Bohana was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, where it is believed he remains today. (If anyone has updated information on this, please let me know.)

The price Dee Dee paid for having a famous name was her life, forever and senselessly ripped from the fabric of this family.  But more importantly, I think, she should be remembered for being a cherished human being and individual in her own right.  As her marker states, she was a daughter, mother, sister and friend who was loved and unquestionably missed.

Her son Taj's website at DeeDeesKid.com has long been dedicated to her memory.

See more about Dee Dee in this clip from the 1998 Fox Family Channel program "Famous Families," where she is remembered during the episode "The Jacksons: The First Family of Pop," again, courtesy of 3tmemories:

Her sons continue to make the music she loved. After her death they made a video of the song "Why" with their Uncle Michael. Among its subtle undertones are images of a woman in a swimming pool and the lyrics "Why do we love if love will die?" See it here on the official Michael Jackson YouTube channel.

Rest in peace, Dee Dee.

Postcards from the Crypt...and Beyond

Picture postcards have been used by localities and businesses as advertising tools and souvenirs since the late 19th Century, and that includes cemeteries.  Vintage cards also serve as terrific historical research materials for grave hunters.

Since most old cemetery postcards that I've seen don't have copyright years printed on the back, they're difficult to date unless they were mailed and therefore have a postmark.  One way to figure out a time frame is to do a "then and now" comparison.

Below is an undated, real photo card featuring the Sanctuary of Hope at Inglewood Memorial Park's Mausoleum of the Golden West.  On a visit there last Sunday with graving friends, we located the exact hallway (thanks, eagle-eyed Jayne!) and took photos (thanks, Steve, for standing in as the potted plant!)

The potted plant was no longer there but signs of its one-time existence were clearly evident by the stains and impression on the marble floor in front of the crypt of Bessie B. Creswell (1880-1958) as seen in this next photo.

As you can see in the postcard, none of the crypts in the column in front of the planter were marked at the time that photo was taken.  Now, all but one are.

Rather than write down the information, I took quick snaps of the markers in that column to look at later and use the dates of death to determine some kind of time line for the postcard.

Unlike most all other areas of the mausoleum, these markers and crypt fronts have not aged well, and are very dark.  It turned out that none of my photos were readable, except for Bessie's marker.

Here's where the story takes a strange twist.

Searching the historical Los Angeles Times archive for Bessie's obituary, I discovered that she was an alternate juror in a landmark child molestor/murder case which went to trial here in 1950. 

Back in the day, papers published personal information about jurors, including their address, occupation and photos. Here's a cropped image of Bessie, a retired sales woman who lived at 630 N. Commonwealth Ave., seated in the jury box:

Miss Bessie B. Creswell (Los Angeles Times, 1/5/1950)

I've yet to find her obituary, so this is all we know of her right now.  However, the case she was seated on was that of Fred Stroble who was ultimately convicted of the horrendous molestation and murder of 6-year-old Linda Joyce Glucoft.

This case made headlines in Los Angeles from 1949-1952, covering the murder to the police investigation right on through to Stroble's execution at San Quentin.  It was the catalyst for the implementation of California's earliest laws surrounding the punishment of crimes against children.

This is a perfect example of why I call it "Adventures in Grave Hunting."  A postcard blog post idea turns into an entirely different story, one worth further research and posts, so that folks today will remember important human stories from the past. 

I often truly wonder if we are actually hunting graves, or if the ghosts of those we do visit send us to where we need to go next. 

Little Linda's parents were so grief-strickened that they were unable to attend her funeral and entombment at the Home of Peace mausoleum.  I checked for her crypt information on the most extensive cemetery resource online, Findagrave.com, and found that she wasn't listed.

Next stop, Home of Peace, to remedy that situation ~ courtesy of an old postcard, vintage news clippings and one Miss Bessie B. Creswell. 

Stay tuned.

Update 7/31/2009: Fifi and I visited little Linda today and she now has a Findagrave.com memorial page started. Thank you Luis for calling ahead to get her exact location from the office! :)

Remembering Steven Parent (1951-1969)

The first to die in the horrific Manson Family murder spree that terrorized Los Angeles during the summer of 1969, and the first body discovered after the bloodbath, is often the last to be remembered.

Young Steven Parent, 18-years-old and a recent high school graduate, was neither famous nor wealthy like his fellow victims.  He was by all accounts simply a good kid who happened to be in the wrong place at the very wrong time that fateful night of Aug. 9, 1969.

Steven Earl Parent - Arroyo H.S. Class of 1969

Friends carried Steven's casket out of the Church of the Nativity in El Monte, Calif., after his Catholic funeral held there on Aug. 14, 1969.  "Steven was a credit to his family, to his parish and to his school," eulogized Rev. Paul L. Peterson. (LA Times photo by Ray Graham)

Like most other Los Angeles area grave hunters, I've been to Steven's most famous fellow Tate/LaBianca Murders victim Sharon Tate's grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, which also holds the remains of her unborn son, Paul, and her mother and sister.  It is always well kept and often has flowers and other tokens of affection left behind by those who remember her to this day.

By comparison, this is how I found Steven's grave a few weeks ago at Queen of Heaven Cemetery, in Rowland Heights, Calif.

It was covered in dried mud, his name barely visible except for the shadow of the words Brother and Parent.  This was my first visit to his Steven's final resting place, and it coincided with attending a memorial service with friends to mark a new headstone for Schlitze Surtees.

Among my friends there was Scott Michaels who recently released The Six Degrees of Helter Skelter, a new, intriguing documentary on DVD which chronicles over 40 key locations associated with the murders. So it was only natural that we'd take a few moments to stop by Steven's grave.

With minimal cleaning tools on hand, Scott and CC did their best to shine up the modest headstone and show Steven the respect his grave deserves. Because that's what grave hunters do.

Here are the results of their efforts.  Thanks, you two!

Which came first, the chicken or the grave?

The chicken, most definitely.  And not just any chicken, mind you. I'm talking about Zankou Chicken, the chain of popular rotisserie chicken restaurants here in Los Angeles.

Zankou Chicken in Burbank, Calif.

Zankou Chicken patriarch Vartkes Iskenderian opened the original store back in 1962, in Beirut, Lebanon.  The chicken was, and is, only outdone in flavor by matriarch Marguerite's top-secret recipe garlic paste.

Son Mardiros carried on the tradition after the family immigrated to California, by opening the first of six restaurants in Hollywood in 1984.  By all accounts, he built a well deserved fortune with the businesses and the Iskenderian family became pillars in the Los Angeles area Armenian community.

So what does this have to do with grave hunting?

Well, sadly, this American Dream success story took an unappetizing turn for the worst in January 2003, when shots rang out in the Glendale home where Marguerite was living with her daughter, Dzovig Marjik.

Mardiros drove the short distance to his sister's house, a family fight ensued and Mardiros pulled a gun on Marguerite and Dzovig, killing them instantly, before shooting and killing himself.  The story was chronicled at length in the April 2008 edition of Los Angeles magazine.

After reading the article, which mentioned that the trio were buried at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, my friends Louis and Steve ventured out to hunt for their graves, none of which had yet been recorded on Findagrave.com.

Louis photographs Mardiros Iskenderian's family plot

It was a brutally hot day, so we only stayed long enough to locate Mardiros, who we found thanks to the Information Booth Lady who pointed toward the Court of Reflections several yards away, near the fountain at the front of the park.  (I returned later, on a cooler day, to record Marguerite and Dzovig's locations which are next to Vartkes' back near the Old North Church.)

Separate funerals had been held.  Separate grave sites.  Truly symbolic of a family tragically blasted apart.

Afterwards, on that hot day, we headed to the Burbank Zankou Chicken for lunch and to break pita bread and reflect. The chicken was as delicious as ever, but it had a bittersweet aftertaste.

Louis and Steve honor the Iskenderian's over lunch at their Burbank store

As grave hunters, sometimes the only thing you can do besides recording the names, legends and photos of the resulting headstones for history's sake, is to ease back into the the world outside of cemetery gates where, for instance, we can join legions of loyal Zankou Chicken patrons in doing our part to keep what's left of the Iskenderian's business legacy alive.

For specifics on the locations of the Zankou Chicken family graves, and to pay virtual respects, visit Findagrave.com.