The Vandalized The Gravesite Of Mike Todd - Elizabeth Taylor's 3rd Husband

Todd was born Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Chaim Goldbogen (an Orthodox rabbi) and Sophia Hellerman, both Polish Jewish immigrants.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Todd

On 22 March 1958, Todd's private plane Lucky Liz crashed near Grants, New Mexico. The plane, a twin-engine Lockheed Lodestar, suffered an engine failure while being flown grossly overloaded in icing conditions at an altitude which was too high to sustain flight with only one working engine under those conditions. The plane went out of control and crashed, killing all four on board.

His son, Mike Jr., wanted his father's body to be cremated after it was identified through dental records and brought to Albuquerque, but Taylor refused, saying he would not want cremation. Todd was buried in Forest Park, Illinois, at Beth Aaron Cemetery in plot 66, which is part of Jewish Waldheim there.

In his autobiography, Eddie Fisher, who considered himself to be Todd's best friend, stated: "There was a closed coffin, but I knew it was more for show than anything else. The plane had exploded on impact and whatever remains were found couldn't be identified....The only items recovered from the wreckage were Mike's wedding ring and a pair of platinum cuff links I'd given him."

The Los Angeles Times reported in 1977 that Fisher's story was false; Todd's remains were indeed recovered and buried in Forest Park, Illinois. The remains were desecrated by robbers, who broke into Todd's coffin looking for a $100,000 diamond ring which, according to rumor, Taylor had placed on her husband's finger prior to his burial. The bag containing Todd's remains was found under a tree near his burial plot; the bag and coffin had been sealed in Albuquerque after Todd's remains were identified following the 1958 crash. Todd's remains were once more identified through dental records and were reburied in a secret location.

http://www.slate.com/id/2091218/
In 1977, "Wise Guy" Anthony Pellicano found the body of Elizabeth Taylor's third husband, Mike Todd, which was stolen from a Chicago cemetary. In front of a camera crew from a local news station, Pellicano walked over to place seventy-five yards south of the excavated grave, reached under some leaves, and revealed a plastic bag of Todd's remains. Pellicano's rivals claimed he'd staged the entire episode for publicity.

Sept. 11, 1993, Los Angeles Times. Times reporters James Bates and Shawn Hubler write: Then there was the matter of producer Michael Todd's bones, which disappeared in 1977 from a Forest Park, Ill., cemetery. Todd had been married to actress Elizabeth Taylor when he died in a 1958 plane crash.

The grave robbery made headlines. Police scoured the cemetery in vain. Then a phone rang in the detective division. Pellicano said he had an informant; he knew where the bones were buried. Police met him at the graveyard. Pellicano had an anchorman in tow.

Todd's remains—a few bones and a melted belt buckle—were right on the cemetery grounds, under a pile of leaves and dirt about 75 yards from the grave. The grave robbers, Pellicano told police, had been after a 10-carat diamond ring, a gift from Taylor that they mistakenly had believed was inside Todd's casket.

A 1983 government sentencing report maintains that a mobster-turned-informant told authorities that two mob figures were the ones who exhumed Todd. But the story making the rounds in Chicago even today is that Pellicano orchestrated the event to gain publicity in hopes of being hired to help find Chicago candy heiress Helen Brach, who disappeared in 1977.

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[colinchick69]

As a resident of Chicago, I clearly remember when this happened. A friend's ex-husband managed Waldheim then. The motive was said tobe expensive jewelry buried with him. The story was false.

[dogstar7]

@colinchick69 Thanks for stopping by, colinchick69. The more I read about Mike Todd, the more this story grows on me. The cemeteries in Forest Park are full of other stories, too. Hope you subscribe for more.

[bette1908]

Mike Todd isn't in this grave. After they recovered his remains, Liz had him buried elsewhere.

[dogstar7]

@bette1908 That is correct, bette.

This is the site of the grave robbing incident in 1977.

Infamous 'Private Eye To The Stars', Anthony Pellicano literally "made his bones" returning Todd's remains to Elizabeth Taylor (who my mother swears they named the street after).

[dogstar7]

@dogstar7 Taylor and Eddie Fisher then arranged to have the remains re-interred in a secret location. Mike's father was an Orthodox Rabbi, and his own Chicago roots ran deep, so it is safe to speculate that he was moved to another Jewish cemetery in the vicinity. Thanks for the comment.

[dabeast714]

which husband??

[dogstar7]

@dabeast714 Michael Todd was her third.

After Micky Hilton and Michael Wilding

"She later called Todd one of the two loves of her life, with Burton."

Pull down the description for the whole story of the grave desecration.

[ashcarl116]

for fact Mike Todd's "around world 80 days" director Michael Anderson was still living last time I looked it up (now 91), as of now Glynis Johns and Shirley Maclaine are the last living of all those very big name actors in that film, eerie, yes 1956 is a while ago.

[colinchick69]

Indeed I have subscribed! It is an historic and old cemetary. The Balaben family theatre owners were once located on the corner of Rooseveldt and 25th ave. there. Mike Todd once drove a cab as a young man, as I myself did in the area, bringing folks from the Rapid Transit line to suburbs farther south.