Trump’s Mysterious Headstone Traced To 4th Avenue Memorial Company And ‘Hipster’
Donald Trump may not be buried in Central Park, but he has a headstone ready to go in case things change. And it was crafted in our very own Brooklyn neighborhood.
Call it an elaborate hoax, a political statement, or a macabre mocking of the Republican Presidential candidate, a 420-pound piece of Vermont granite appeared in the Sheep Meadow section Central Park on March 27.
The headstone reads “1946 – ” — leaving Trump’s date of death to be determined. At the bottom of the monument, the past tense is in use: “MADE AMERICA HATE AGAIN.”
According to the New York Times, the headstone has been traced back to Supreme Memorials (610 4th Avenue at 17th Street).
In an April 2 interview with Gothamist, an anonymous artist who referred to themselves as “Z” would only say the headstone had been purchased and created somewhere in the New York Metropolitan area. According to Gothamist:
“The project is tentatively called the Legacy Stone, and the timing, Easter Sunday, was apparently intentional. ‘It’s the day Jesus was resurrected, and the point is to have [Trump] remember his legacy,’ X said. ‘There are some poetic ties.'”
The discovery of Supreme Memorials by Officer Sadowy and Sgt. David Cuce came soon after they started visiting businesses that create headstones. According to the New York Times, Sadowy and Cuce chose the place at random. Their random choice happened to be the nail in the coffin of solving the mystery. The NYT reported:
“Frank Cassara, 70, a third-generation monument dealer in South Slope, Brooklyn, saw the headstone on the evening news, and said five words. Four of them were printable: ‘I don’t believe it.'”
“His son, Michael, the fourth generation, said four words, three of which were, ‘What a moron.'”
Michael told the police that he didn’t find it particularly strange when the customer requested a headstone for Trump. “I deal with a lot of these artists; I make a lot of crazy things,” he said. “I do a lot of movie props, props for plays. ‘I want to make a stone for Michael Jackson.’”
After Cassara gave the customer’s name to the police, investigators located that man, who has been identified as Brian A. Whiteley, 33. Whiteley has not been charged with a crime.
The home page of Whiteley’s website shows a clown waving in the middle of a darkened cemetery. Back in 2014, we reported that a reader of South Slope News sent us photos of a creepy clown photographed in Green-Wood Cemetery, which isn’t far away from Supreme Memorials. No connection has been made between that incident and Whiteley.
When Mark Cassara was interviewed, he said he was not familiar with any details about the individual.
“Hipster,” said Cassara, describing that tombstone raider. “He didn’t give us the details until we met a couple times.”
