5. Executed For A Crime? Died In Jail? Then You Can’t Be Buried Here

With the large number of people buried here, you wouldn’t think there would be certain criteria a dead person would have t meet in order to be allowed a grave here. But turns out there are. Although the cemetery was never affiliated with a specific church, it strives to remain non-sectarian. But it was generally seen as a Christian burial place for white Anglo-Saxon Protestants of a higher social standing.

But one its main regulations is that nobody who was executed for a crime, or died while incarcerated was allowed to be buried here. Boss Tweed, who died at the Ludlow Street Prison, was able to get around this rule. Additionally, despite the cemetery’s leanings towards Protestants, there are many Irish-born people who helped build the city in the 19th century buried here.