An Unusual
Coincidence
Th
They had little in common and much
in common.
Gary No. 1 was a murderer.
The other Gary was a salesman.
Gary No. 1 was born in the Unit-
ed States.
The other was born in Hungary.
Gary No. 1 was cremated and his
ashes dropped from a plane in Utah.
The other is buried at Machpelah.
But both died the same year, un-
der unusual circumstances, and both
had a Jewish connection. And then
there was that name they shared:
Gary Gilmore.
Gary Gilmore No. 1, from Utah,
went on a killing spree in the 1970s
that left several dead. After being con-
victed of first-degree murder and sen-
tenced to death, Gilmore made
headlines when he demanded his
own execution.
"You sentenced me to die," he told
the court. "Unless it's a joke or some-
thing, I want to go ahead and do it."
His parents were Machpelah
Bessie and Frank. In The is the final
Executioner's Song, an ac- resting
count of the case, author place of
Norman Mailer writes more than
that Frank claimed to 14,000
souls.
have had a Jewish father.
He had different names.
Seville and Sullivan and Kaufman and
Coffman and Gilmore and La Foe. Once
he told (Bessie) that his father's name was
Weiss and he was Jewish on that side al-
though he thought of himself as a Catholic
since Fay (his mother) had put him in
Catholic schools and brought him up that
way. Nonetheless, he had a Jewish wife
in Alabama, and wives in other places.
On Jan. 17, 1977, Gary Gilmore of
Utah had coffee with milk and listened
to two of his favorite songs, "Valley of
Tears" and "Walking in the Footsteps
of Your Mind." He then went before a fir-
ing squad at Utah State Prison. His body
was cremated and the ashes, contained
in a plastic bag, dropped outside Provo,
Utah.
The other Gary Gilmore, who lies in
Machpelah Cemetery, was born June 8,
1936, in Hungary. His parents were An-
dor Gergely and Violet Sos.
Gary Gilmore #2 lived on Freda Street
in Dearborn and worked as a salesman.
He married, divorced, and had children,
including a daughter, Judy.
This Gary Gilmore died without pub-
licity, but not without trauma. He was a
patient at Eloise, the hospital for men-
tally disturbed, when he contracted pneu-
monia. On Nov. 19, 1977, he died at 8:37
a.m. after choking on his own vomit. He
was 41 years old.
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Sarah Shwartz, both of whom remained
in their native land. Abraham was born
in 1885.
Abraham Sheintuch was married,
though there.iss no record of his wife's
name — suggesting she may have re-
mained in Russia, waiting for her hus-
band to save enough money to bring her
to the United States.
According to his death certificate, Abra-
ham Sheintuch was a laborer in the iron
business. It's possible he worked in a
foundry, but more likely his job was in a
scrap yard, where many Jews were em-
ployed at the turn of the century.
In Detroit, Sheintuch lived at 253 E.
Columbia (in what is today downtown
Detroit), where he roomed with Aaron
J. Weisman, a peddler.
Abraham Sheintuch was 29 years old
when he died Feb. 4, 1914, of lung disease.
A barber, David Krakovsky, informed au-
thorities of the death, while A. Ackerman
was the undertaker. Wayne County coro-
ner Jacob W. Rothacker signed the death
certificate, which means Sheintuch prob-
ably did not have a personal physician (no
doubt for financial reasons).
Abraham Sheintuch is buried in Lot 1,
Row 1 of Section A at Machpelah.
Ray Bloch attended Northeastern High
School and Wayne State University, then
married his sweetheart, Rhoda. The two
settled in with Raymond's parents at their
Raymond Bloch had an easy smile and a home, 3331 Carter in Detroit. Raymond
passionate commitment to serving his entered the service in November, 1941,
country.
and became a first lieutenant in the U.S.
He is probably best known for the Vet- Army.
erans of Foreign War post named in his
He died at Iwo Jima, an island in the
honor. But he also was part of a terrible North Pacific that became the focus of a
battle that claimed the lives of hundreds fierce battle during World War II. Locat-
of American soldiers.
ed between Saipan and Tokyo, it offered
Raymond Bloch (whose Hebrew name strategic importance to both America and
was Raphael) was born June 8, 1920, in Japan.
Detroit, one of several sons born to
Americans landed at Iwo Jima on Feb.
Jeanette and Leo Bloch. Leo was an im- 19, 1945, but Japanese forces already were
migrant from Hungary whose parents, there and were well prepared. The fight-
Julius and Lana, remained in Europe.
ing lasted for weeks, with one of the worst
battles at Mt. Suribachi, which U.S.
marines took and lost five times before
permanently securing it.
More than 4,500 Americans were killed
at Iwo Jima.
Ray Bloch, who received the Purple
Heart, died April 18, 1945, and originally
was buried abroad. Then in 1949 his body
was returned to the United States and laid
to rest at Machpelah on Aug. 7.
Raymond Bloch is buried in Lot 51, Row
4, Section 1. His father Leo, who died at
Wayne County General Hospital one year
after his son, also rests at Machpelah. His
grave lies close to that of Raymond in
Section 1.
Number One
The year was 1914. World War I broke
out when Archduke Francis Ferdinand,
heir to the Austrian throne, was murdered
in Sarajevo. The most popular film of
the day was Charlie Chaplin's Making
a Living. St. Petersburg, Russia, was
renamed Petrograd, and the U.S.
government established the Federal
Trade Commission.
In Detroit, a new cemetery named
Machpelah had its first burial.
Abraham Sheintuch was a native of
Russia, the son of David Sheintuch and
Chip Off The Old
Bloch
.
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