Michael B. Brown Springfield La, Hit/run

[thebayercave]

Looking for info on when his unsolved mystery was aired or even if anyone knows anything. I went to his gravesite and the carvings are really on the back on the tomb.

[TJ]

I can say with a fair amount of certainity, that they have never done a segment on this. Here's an article:

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10113659&BRD=1423&PAG=461&dept_id=169546&rfi=6

SPRINGFIELD - Gertrude Wilkinson wants to know two things - who and why.

More than 20 years after her 15-year-old son died in a car accident, Wilkinson and her daughter, Mary Anthony, are defending their loved one's memory against fictitious ghost stories that have led many to visit the Springfield Cemetery. They'd like to know who started the stories and why.

"There is no truth to this," Wilkinson said. "I don't believe in ghosts and goblins."

Wilkinson and Anthony met the mayor and local media at Springfield Town Hall Wednesday evening to tell the true story of Michael Brown's death in 1983 and to correct the "mystery" surrounding his tombstone, which has led the town to pass an ordinance restricting loitering in the cemetery between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The truth is that Brown loved to fox hunt, his mother said. The night before he died, he drew a picture of a hunt on a brown paper bag. Soon after he was buried, Wilkinson had the picture engraved on the back of the boy's tombstone.

"It meant so much to him," she said. "It comforted me because it was something that he loved."

A short time elapsed before the picture was actually engraved on the tombstone, and that may have triggered the rumors.

"Whether it brings closure or not, it's the truth," she said.
The most popular story told, one that's even posted on the Internet at www.freakopedia.com, is that Brown was involved in a hit and run accident while hunting. The story names a man called "Wilkerson" as a drunken driver who hit the boy.

The story also states that after Brown's funeral, his mother stayed by his gravesite for about an hour. After a 10 minute break to a nearby store, she returned to find markings on her son's grave that detailed his accident leading readers to assume that Brown's ghost drew the picture.

The family has even heard rumors that the story aired on "Unsolved Mysteries." Anthony called the television show to confirm the rumor, but show officials couldn't come up with anything, she said.

"I didn't know it was this big," Wilkinson said. "It is so heartbreaking that it has come to this."

It has gotten so big that Mayor Charles Martin said Springfield police issue at least 15 to 20 citations a month for people loitering around Brown's grave.

The grave, which sits on a hill in a family plot, is visited often as evidenced by the well-worn path that leads to it, the mayor said. Beer bottles and other trash have been found near the site, and drug arrests have been made there. Other graves near Brown's have also been damaged.

Anthony, who goes to clean the gravesite often, said her family must replace 80 pounds of soil four to five times a year near the grave because of the heavy traffic eroding the ground.

On one occasion, Brown's tombstone was knocked over, Anthony said. She asked the mayor, who was in the cemetery tending to his son's grave nearby, for help. He then asked her about the stories, which she denied.

She's also encountered other people at the cemetery who came to see the grave and ask questions about the stories they've heard. Each time, Anthony dismissed the rumors and told the visitors the truth.

Wilkinson said her son loved people and he would probably be thrilled to know that so many have visited his grave site.
"...he's up there having a ball," she said.