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The skull of an eccentric and noted builder who died 81 years ago has been stolen from one
of Tallahassee's most unusual mausoleums.
Tallahassee Police Investigator Mike Maurer said the grave robbing occurred sometime
Monday night or early Tuesday at the onion-domed interment site of Calvin C. Phillips in the
Oakland Cemetery.
Investigators have not ruled out occult activity in the case, which one historian called "as bizarre as
it gets."
"I have no idea why anybody would do such a thing," Maurer said, "other than occult-type activity.
This definitely isn't your run-of-the-mill case."
Police believe one or more people broke into the crypt and stole the skull from a metal casket. A
cemetery caretaker discovered the desecrated crypt about 9 a.m. and called police.
Some remains were left in the casket, but police are unsure if more body parts were stolen beyond
the skull.
"This guy had been dead for 81 years," he said, "so it's difficult to be able to tell exactly what was
taken, besides the obvious."
Maurer said police have leads in the case and recovered some physical evidence from the scene,
but he declined to elaborate.
It's been tried before
Transients and teen-agers are known to frequent the graveyard on West Brevard Street, which is
open during daylight hours. The mausoleum itself also has attracted a number of people since
Phillips died, according to police.
"They have defaced it and attempted to break into it over a span of many years," Maurer said, "but
according to the caretaker, this is the first time someone actually entered the structure."
Police also are trying to determine whether Phillips, who reportedly designed buildings for the 1890
World's Fair in Paris, has any relatives nearby. Jonathan Lammers, who recently moved to San Francisco, worked for a number of years as a historian for the Florida Division of Historical Resources. He became somewhat fascinated by Phillips after hearing about a home and clock tower he built around 1910 on South Macomb Street. The clock tower, which stretched some 30 feet high, was a local curiosity for years until it was torn down in the late 1970s after a failed preservation effort, according to Lammers. Phillips built his own mausoleum in a mishmash of architectural elements that borrowed from Greek, eastern European and Japanese styles. There are a number of legends surrounding Phillips, including a story about him napping inside the mausoleum one day and startling a passer-by who thought he was dead. Some even claim the spot is haunted. "Anybody who builds a big clock tower in Tallahassee in 1910 is bound to have some rumors about him," Lammers said. "There have always been strange rumors about this man, who was anything but your typical good old boy for early Tallahassee." Lammers said he hopes the skull of Phillips will be found and returned to the aging mausoleum. "Grave robbers are pretty low on the human charisma scale," he said. "I just hope some freshman didn't take it back to his dorm room so he can put a candle in it. (Phillips) was a truly legendary character from the city's past who deserves better."
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