Most unusual graves are known as such because of their style or shape, or a strange local folklore associated with the site. I mean, how many village churchyards have a ‘vampire’ or ‘pirate’ grave, deemed as such thanks to a rudimentary misunderstanding of a skull motif. The grave of ‘XYZ’ doesn’t exactly fall under the remit of an unusual epitaph, but certainly an unusual moniker.

In December 1899, the Deep River Savings Bank in Connetticut received a tip-off that a robbery was about to take place. Their night watchman, Harry Tyler was armed and on high alert for any attempts at a heist. For several days, he sat inside the bank, waiting.

While Deep River, Conneticut might not be a town known for its immense wealth today, towards the end of the 19th century, it was a veritable boom town thanks to profits of the ivory trade. Local businessman, Deacon Phineas Pratt (a descendant of one of the town’s original settlers) had invented a machine to finely cut ivory, a process that finally threatened to take away trade from the dominant European market.

The ivory trade would remain unregulated for decades longer, making many more millionaires from the death and suffering of endangered animals. In terms of smaller consumer goods (aside from artistic works and hunters’ trophies), combs and piano keys were most widely produced, and Pratt’s device opened this lucrative market to the New World.

Due to this city-wide wealth, the Deep River Savings Bank was believed to hold over $1 million in deposits – the perfect target.

On the 13th December, a gang approached the bank; four would-be bank robbers, ready to empty the safe. Few were described in the press reports that followed, save for one that was described as a hardened criminal with a black moustache.

One member of the gang attempted to gain access by prying open one of the banks long windows, but before he could gain purchase – bang! Harry Tyler raised his sawn-off shotgun and fired at the intruder’s face. The rest of the gang scattered, leaving their friend behind, dead.

The man’s body was never claimed, and therefore never identified. Instead of a funeral and epitaph, he was buried in a plot donated by the city, close to the railway tracks. Before the headstone was placed, the night watchman received a simple handwritten letter, in a ‘woman’s writing’. The deceased should be buried beneath a grave marker reading simply ‘XYZ’. Tyler forwarded the request to the cemetery who eventually fulfilled the anonymous woman’s wish. Firstly, the grave was marked with a small engraved cross, then with a stone with those three simple, bold letters.

What would have remained as a local curiosity for a few years enjoyed far greater longevity in the Deep River community thanks to annual visits from a woman in black. Believed to be the anonymous letter-writer, she was seen walking along the railway tracks, making her way to the cemetery and visiting the grave of XYZ. For over 40 years, local townsfolk claimed to have seen her take this route to the grave, where she would leave a single flower.

Remaining unnamed as ‘XYZ’ would add a certain excitement to the lore of the ill-fated robbery, but the passage of time, and the enquiring minds of new generations has led to the solving of one mystery. Two months after the incident, Mr XYZ was identified by the New Era newspaper as career criminal Frank Howard, a man who lived under several pseudonyms over the space of his career. Detectives traced his former dealings through these names and found that he had shot a police officer in the back and stolen a safe from a hardware store. These reports led to the identification of his accomplices, but little could be done due to a lack of evidence. But as for the identity of the grieving woman in black? We will never know. Besides, the anonymous lives of XYZ and his woman in black was always going to make for a better story.

Local press report that his grave is one of the most visited in the cemetery, where coins and gifts are placed in the hope of avoiding a curse by the deceased criminal. The original bank is long gone, but a new one stands in its place where the gun and shell casings have been preserved in a glass case, being both a tourist draw and a warning.

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Further Reading:

https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/the-legend-of-deep-rivers-xyz-bank-robber

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-grave-of-xyz-deep-river-connecticut

https://random-times.com/2022/05/02/the-curious-story-of-the-grave-of-xyz-of-deep-river-connecticut