One of the scariest stories told us about Graceland Cemetery. One of the graves contains a statue commemorating a 6-year-old girl named Ines Clark, who was struck and killed by lightning during a family picnic. Her parents, overwhelmed by the tragic loss, ordered a life-size statue of the girl to be placed on her grave. The statue was placed in a glass, transparent box to protect it from destruction.
The statue of Ines is today in almost perfect condition. Ines is sitting on a small stool, wearing her favorite dress and holding an umbrella. Locals say that the ghost of Ines is still haunting Graceland Cemetery.
There are stories of strange sounds and crying emanating from the statue, and some even claim to have seen Ines' statue move. It is said that during a violent thunderstorm, Ines sometimes disappears from her glass box and wanders through the cemetery until the storm is over.
Years ago, a night watchman was making a round during a thunderstorm and found that the glass box was empty. He saw flashes of lightning that illuminated the figure of a young girl in the distance, playing in the rain. On the same night, the night watchman fled the cemetery and never approached him again. Other guards also reported the statue's disappearance on nights when the weather played out, but by morning the girl's statue always returned to its place.
The Graceland Cemetery also contains an unusual bronze statue of a hooded man called "Eternal Silence." The brooding and formidable monument became more widely known as the "Statue of Death".
The figure was once black in color, but over the years the black has worn off, the bronze oxidized from the water, exposing the green, weathered metal under it. It is said that anyone who looks into the face of a statue will see a vision in which his own death will be shown.