Bill Hughes wrote:
> according to the article, it is the only known cemetery in
> the US with the headstones facing north/south......ALL of the others have
> the headstones facing east/west......am I the only one not to have ever
> noticed this....is this general knowledge, even to us graveyard
> plunderers?  I just had to ask this.
> Any feedback and/or responses would be welcome.

While watching a recent TV documentary about several german POW's who had
murdered another POW, this north/south - east/west orientation was
mentioned. The POW's were hanged at Fort Levenworth Military Prison and
were buried in the prison cemetary with other american military
prisoners(rapists, murders, etc) who were executed and whose bodies ere not
claimed by next of kin. The documentary indicated that these all of these
gravestones were placed facing north/south so that the sun would never
shine directly on their names again. I had never heard of this practice
before and now I have heard of it twice in a couple of weeks. The
explanation of the east/west orientation given in other messages, for
church gravestones would seem logical as would the apparent random or
north/south orientation of civil cemetaries. As always life is interesting.
Carl Fields	
cwfields@csi.com

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