Vandals Attack Historic Richmond Cemetery

Vandals Cut Path of Destruction Across Richmond Cemetery
(Archived article @ Newsbank)
Bill Robinson ~ The Richmond Register ~ 4/6/2010

Mike Rice, Richmond Cemetery's Grounds Director, looks at Victorian-era tombstone destroyed by vandals. (Photo: Bill Robinson)

RICHMOND - During the darkness Friday night or Saturday morning, vandals wreaked a path of destruction from one side of the Richmond Cemetery to the other.

About 140 markers and monuments, one more than 160 years old, were toppled. Some were broken. A few were shattered.

The trail of wreckage was reminiscent of the path a tornado cut across Madison County almost 11 months ago.

Monuments dating to the Victorian Age when soft granite material and fragile ornamentation were popular suffered greater damage than more sturdy monuments of recent times, said Mike Rice, the cemetery’s director of grounds.

Relatives arriving Saturday morning to decorate loved ones graves for Easter discovered the damage, Rice said.

The vandalism was the work of at least two to four men, Rice believes, because most of the monuments were too sturdy and heavy to be pushed over by one man, he said.

Because most of the wrecked markers were more than 110 years old, the vandalism was a crime against the county’s history as well as against the dead whose graves were disturbed, said Thomas J. Smith III, chair of the cemetery trustees.

The Richmond Police collected evidence connected to the damage, including two half-empty whiskey bottles, and continue to investigate, Smith said.

The cemetery board is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of anyone involved with the vandalism, Smith said.

Vandals last struck the historic cemetery on Halloween around three years ago when about 40 head stones were toppled, he said. This weekend’s damage was more severe and widespread, however.

The severity was reminiscent of damage that occurred when large trees felled by the 2009 ice storm crashed into some historic markers.

Securing an area as large as the Richmond Cemetery is difficult, Smith said, but it would be easier if Eastern Kentucky University would fulfill its part of a bargain made more than one year ago to replace the fence on the property’s south side.

The cemetery agreed to lease a narrow strip of land that borders EKU’s property in exchange for the university’s promise to replace the fence that contains holes "big enough to drive a truck through," Smith said. However, the promise has not been kept, despite repeated prodding from the cemetery, he said.

Another vulnerable area on the cemetery’s perimeter is the fence south of its Summit Street entrance, Smith said.

Although the fence along the cemetery’s western boundary is no more than four feet tall and could easily be jumped, Smith said he believes the Baker Court residences that back up to the boundary offer some measure of security.

"Vandals are less likely to go through somebody’s backyard and enter the cemetery illegally if they fear being seen by a resident of those homes," he said.

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 624-6622.