Posted on 03/08/2005 8:10:03 AM PST by jtminton
FORT WORTH - The name is etched on a pink granite tombstone only inches from the grave of one of the most notorious killers in American history.
"Nick Beef."
The neighboring gravestone, nearly identical, says merely:
"Oswald."
Lee Harvey Oswald was buried Nov. 25, 1963, in east Fort Worth's Rose Hill Cemetery. It was three days after the assassination of President Kennedy in downtown Dallas and one day after Oswald was fatally shot by nightclub owner Jack Ruby.
Oswald's mother, Marguerite, who died Jan. 17, 1981, is buried next to him. The Beef marker is on the other side. It is not clear who placed the Beef tombstone, or exactly when it appeared.
The rectangular tombstones are the same size. Each bears only a name, without the customary inscription of date of birth and death. On holidays, when the cemetery blooms with flowers from loved ones, both plots typically remain barren.
But there is one big difference between the two grave sites:
"Nick Beef's" is empty.
Just about every aspect of Oswald's life and death has been examined and re-examined by reporters, history buffs and conspiracy theorists, all looking for another small clue into what drove him to kill the president.
But the Beef marker, sitting so close to the infamous grave, is virtually unknown to some of the most veteran scholars of the Kennedy assassination.
"I've just never, ever, run across that name," said Gary Mack, curator for the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, where Oswald fired the shots into Kennedy's motorcade.
Deby Alexander, general manager of Shannon Rose Hill Funeral Chapel & Cemetery, said no "interment card" is on file for the Nick Beef plot.
"A burial," she said, "has not been done there."
Alexander said she cannot reveal who owns the plot, for privacy reasons. She has heard the unsubstantiated accounts, many of them circulated on the Internet, that the marker was placed by a comedian with the stage name Nick Beef.
So where's the humor in placing a fake grave site next to a man who killed a president?
"We've scratched our heads about this for a long time," said Barb Junkkarinen, a self-described JFK researcher who lives in Forest Grove, Ore.
Junkkarinen said she first saw the Beef marker in November 1998, when she visited Rose Hill while attending a Dallas event commemorating the assassination.
Another assassination buff, Arthur Snyder, a scientist and researcher for Stanford University, said he also noticed the Beef stone in 1998. It wasn't there a year earlier, Snyder said, when he and his wife visited Oswald's grave.
"We were shocked to see it there," said Snyder, of Palo Alto, Calif.
Snyder and Junkkarinen said they were among a group of JFK/Oswald enthusiasts who sought out Rose Hill workers to find out about the new marker.
Junkkarinen said several of workers told them that "Nick Beef" was the stage name for a comedian from the Northeast who paid $2,000 for the plot.
The comedian bought the plot, the group was told, as part of an act in which he told audiences they could get directions to Oswald's grave by asking Rose Hill employees for the Beef burial site.
The workers are not allowed to divulge the location of Oswald's grave.
"Only thing is, now they won't tell people where Nick Beef's grave is either!" Junkkarinen wrote on a Web site.
Alexander, the general manager at Rose Hill, acknowledged that curiosity-seekers are not told how to find his grave at the sprawling cemetery, out of respect for his relatives.
"The family is very private about it," she said.
If there is any truth to the story that a comedian tried to turn the national tragedy of Kennedy's murder into a comic skit, his show apparently flopped.
Among the veteran journalists, scholars and members of the entertainment world who have studied the assassination, few know about the "Nick Beef" mystery.
It is a piece of an unsolved puzzle that never came up when Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone was doing his research for the 1991 movie JFK.
"He's never heard of this guy's name before," said Rob Wilson, a spokesman for Stone.
Ian Griggs, a retired British police officer and co-founder of the overseas research group the Dealey Plaza UK, said he has studied the Kennedy assassination for more than 30 years and remains baffled by the Beef marker.
Like Snyder and Junkkarinen, Griggs said he noticed the gravestone while attending a Kennedy conference in Dallas. He said he got this response when he questioned a Rose Hill worker: "Mr. Beef is not dead."
Computerized property records suggest only one possibility -- that a "Nick Beef" might have lived in a high-rise apartment complex in New York City during the middle to late 1990s. The spot is in Manhattan's trendy West Village, known for its nightspots -- and comedy clubs.
But there is no phone number for a "Nick Beef," and several residents of the complex said they do not remember a neighbor by such a name.
Only a block from the complex is the Comedy Cellar, one of New York City's most established stage-comedy clubs, whose featured entertainers have included Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock.
But, as with everything else, when it comes to the name "Nick Beef," the trail quickly turns cold.
Estee Adoram, manager and 23-year veteran employee of the Comedy Cellar, said she doubts that a comic has ever tried to make people laugh about the Kennedy assassination.
She added, "I don't think there was a stand-up comedian by this name."
News Researchers Cathy Belcher and Marcia Melton Contributed to This Report.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jack Douglas Jr., (817) 390-7700 jld@star-telegram.com
Andy Kaufman has reserved this plot for when he finally, really, dies.
Ping for post #15.
Semper Fi
The answer is in the article. Apparently he did it as a way to get directions to Oswald's grave for tourists. The cemetery is under court order not to give out directions to Oswald's grave. So he put this marker there so people could ask for directions to "Nick Beef's" grave instead. Perhaps he just got ticked off one day when he went there and was told they couldn't tell him.
Sould like an old funeral joke. After a funeral three people are asked what they would want to be said at their service. One says he would like for them to say that he achieved great works and was well known in his field. Another said he would like for them to say that he was a great father and husband. The third said he would like for them to say "Hey, I think he's moving!"
THAT is funny.
Interesting Ping.
I would like to second, third, and fourth that.
What would really be funny is if some New York comic billing himself as "Nick Beef" bought the plot with hopes of eventually be buried next to Oswald (for whatever weird ulterior motive) but Mr. Beef happened to be inside the World Trade Center on 9-11 and his remains were vaporized by the terrorist planes and his body was never found to be buried, denying his last wish and making his identity a mystery for the rest of time.
I'm wondering who once owned the plot next to the Oswald plots and decided it would be better to sell it rather than be buried next to an infamous assissin? It's a shame the guy probably sold the plot before there was an e-Bay.
Finally, does Mr. Beef plan to put a tombstone next to John Wilkes Booth or Timothy McVeigh?
With floppy hats???
Here's one for ya:
Next to the name of officer J. D. Tippit on line 63, Panel E-9 of the National Law Enforcement Officer's Memorial in Washington, DC, is the name of officer John Kennedy. Officer Kennedy was killed in NYC in 1922.
You're a free beer?
Someone asked me privately about my post 53 and this was my private reply:
________________
"I don't know if it has ever been mentioned in any publication I know of, but I actually noticed it by chance.
About five years ago my older brother was visiting and I was showing him the National Building Museum and the Police Memorial. He mentioned a name of a LEO who had been killed in the line of duty near where he lives in Michigan. I showed him how to look up the name (it's much the same procedure as for the Vietnam War Memorial).
As we were walking toward the panel I was just letting my eyes scan the names on the other panels. For some reason, JD Tippit's name popped out at me. I stopped my brother and said something like, "Look at this." He's not into the JFK thing at all and I had to remind him who he was. Then, I noticed John Kennedy's name right next to Tippits. At first I thought maybe it was an honorary thing because the prez is the chief law enforcer, I guess. We looked him up in the reference book and that is when I realized there is no other reason for that name being there other than by random sequenceing. The memorial didn't begin until about 20 years ago (not sure) and I have no idea how they placed the names of LEOs who had been killed ILD from, I believe, 1900 to the time the memorial was built. Next time I'm down that way I'm going to get the other four or five names on that line to see if I can figure out the methodology they used.
Maybe Paul Harvey could get to the bottom of it and give us the Rest of the Story. LOL."
________________
I post it here just in case someone can solve, for what is to me, a mystery.
Check out leadpenny's post:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1358458/posts?page=53#53
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