Many years ago, I lived in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. As a matter of fact, our side of Austin Boulevard was in Oak Park, but across the street was located in Chicago.  A friend of mine who was a Chicago native made a suggestion on a summer afternoon I found intriguing. She suggested we take a little adventure and drive out to the outlying suburb of Hillside to a place called Mount Carmel Cemetery, the burial place of the famous mobster Al Capone.  

 

To a young and green country girl, as I was at the time, I found that idea super exciting. Everyone in the whole world had heard of Al Capone! I would have a great story to call and tell my family back home. 

 

We arrived at the large and beautifully manicured cemetery. My friend and I made our way around the paths until we located the headstone that read “Alphonse Capone.” Wow. There it was! The final resting place of the undisputed most famous mobster in history.  

 

But I have to tell you; it was the grave of a much less famous person that captivated me so much more. We continued to walk down the pathways and eventually came upon a tomb bearing a statue of a bride standing atop it. Intrigued, I stopped to read an inscription posted at the site under glass. It revealed a tragic yet amazing story of Julia Buccola Petta, known simply as “The Italian Bride,” who died in 1921. 

 

Indeed, Julia’s grave is marked today by a life-sized statue of her in her wedding dress, a stone reproduction of the wedding photo that is mounted on the front of her monument. 

 

Julia was born on June 6, 1891, in Italy and emigrated to the United States with her widowed mother, Filomena, and three siblings, settling in Chicago. 

 

In June 1920, Julia married Matthew Petta at Holy Rosary Church on North Damen Avenue. Julia became pregnant soon after the wedding, but complications occurred, and on March 17, 1921, Julia died while giving birth to her son, Filippo, who also did not survive. Because of the Italian tradition that dying in childbirth made the woman a type of martyr, Julia was buried in white, the martyrs’ color. She was buried in her wedding dress with her dead infant tucked into her arms. 

 

Filomena was inconsolable over her daughter’s death. Shortly after Julia was buried, Filomena began to experience strange and terrifying dreams every night. In these nightmares, she envisioned Julia telling her that she was still alive and needed her help. For the next six years, the dreams plagued Filomena, and she began trying, without success, to have her daughter’s grave opened and her body exhumed. She could not explain why she needed to do this; she only knew that she should. Finally, her request was granted through sheer persistence, and a sympathetic judge passed down an order for Julia’s exhumation. 

The postmortem photograph that was taken of Julia Buccola Petta after her grave was opened — six years after her death. Her body had been completely preserved, and those who touched her skin said it was soft and pliable. 

In 1927, six years after Julia’s death, the casket was removed from the grave. When it was opened, Julia’s body was found not to have decayed at all. It was said that her flesh was still as soft as it had been when she was alive. A photograph was taken at the time of the exhumation and shows Julia’s “incorruptible” body in the casket. Filomena set out to raise money for a more elaborate tombstone. The finished work would be a grandiose tribute to her dead daughter—a life-size sculpture of Julia on her wedding day.

Her mother and other admirers affixed the postmortem photo of Julia on the front of her grave monument. Below the image is the Italian phrase “Presa Dopo 6 Anni Morta,” which roughly translates to “taken six years after death.” A photo of Julia in her bridal gown, presumably the inspiration for the statue, was also fastened to the stone.

The postmortem photograph shows a body that appears to be fresh, with no discoloration of the skin, even after six years. The rotted and decayed appearance of the coffin in the photo, however, bears witness to the fact that it had been underground for some time. Julia appears to be merely sleeping. Her family took the fact that she was found to be so well preserved as a sign from God, and so, after collecting money from other family members and neighbors, they created the impressive monument that stands over her grave today.

What mysterious secret rests at the grave of Julia Petta? How could her body have stayed in perfect condition after lying in the grave for six years?

Many devout Catholics in the neighborhood believed that Julia’s “incorruptibility” meant that she was a saint. Skeptics scoffed at the idea, claiming that the postmortem photo must have been taken before she was originally buried – although this doesn’t explain the condition of the casket or the decomposition of the infant that is nestled in her arms. Another explanation was attributed to adipocere, also known as “corpse wax” — “a waxy substance consisting chiefly of fatty acids and calcium soaps that are formed during the decomposition of dead body fat in moist or wet anaerobic conditions.” In other words, the shape and state of Julia’s body were preserved by a natural process.

But that’s not the end of this strange story. Reports have been told over the years of a ghostly “woman in white” who has been seen wandering at the edge of the cemetery where she rests. Stories claim to have seen her in the daytime and at night, and many who know the story of Julia Petta believe that this is her restless spirit. One eerie tale that was told involved a young boy who was accidentally left behind at the cemetery, not far from Julia’s grave. When they returned to Mount Carmel to look for him, they saw him holding the hand of a dark-haired young woman in a white dress. When the boy ran toward his parents, the woman in white disappeared.

The story of the “Italian Bride” lives on today. It’s the story of a woman who became more famous in death than she ever was in life.