Source:Vandals-prowl

From Pittsburgh Streets

"Vandals prowl in church yard: Treasure lures them to desecrate priests' graves in old St. Mary's." Pittsburg Press, June 26, 1905, p. 16. Newspapers.com 141838627.

VANDALS PROWL IN CHURCH YARD
Treasure Lures Them to Desecrate Priests' Graves in Old St. Mary's

St. Mary's Roman Catholic cemetery, Nunnery Hill, Allegheny, has been visited by vandals, who broke into the old chapel of the abandoned graveyard and foully desecrated the bones of three noted Benedictine priests buried there. Robbery is supposed to have been the motive. Descriptions of two men who have been seen loitering in the vicinity of the cemetery are in the hands of the Allegheny police, and it is believed that they committed the deed.

The vandalism is supposed to have been committed some time Saturday night. It was discovered yesterday morning by Joseph Shirlinger, former sexton of the cemetery. The chapel is situated in one of the loneliest spots of the graveyard. When Shirlinger and several neighbors entered the place they found the floor littered with the bones of the priests and broken caskets which had been pried out of one of the crypts underneath the chapel with a heavy iron crowbar.

The graves disturbed were those of the Very Rev. John Stibiel, V. G., the founder of St. Mary's Church, Avery and Liberty streets, Allegheny, and Rev. P. Raphael Kray and Rev. Laurtus Schaier, both former rectors of St. Mary's Church. The depredation is said to have been due to the reports that treasures were buried in the chapel.