Teen body snatchers take corpse to party
For a Thanksgiving weekend bash, the teens dressed the body of Elmer Grandin who died in 1933 in a Star Wars' Darth Vader mask.
"I'm shocked," the late actor's great nephew, 88-year-old Manhattanite Edward Grandin, said.
"I don't like to hear about this one bit. I think it stinks. They're foul boys," he said of the grave robbers.
Michael Herz, aged 18, and Michael Sossi, aged 17, are accused of twice breaking into 250-year-old Cedar Central Grove in Patchogue, taking the body of an actor who died in 1938, and two skulls, from a crypt on Long Island in November.
A third teen, Patrick O'Rourke, aged 19, is accused of participating in the second dig-up.
"Herz dressed up the full body with glasses and then they put a Darth Vader mask on him," said Detective Brian McMenemy.
A teacher at Patchogue-Medford High School, where the teenagers attend, apparently overheard talk of the prank and reported it to the police.
Grandin, the actor, who was born in 1861, appeared on Broadway and in some silent movies. He lived in Patchogue, where he served as the town's mayor.
"The family was very proud of him," said his great nephew.
Police say that the bones, which were found dumped beneath a motorway, have now been reinterred at Cedar Grove Cemetery.
