Burial At Cross-Roads, and Other Impolite Ways To Get Rid of Dead Criminals

Unmarked Graves – Unmarked graves are basically just holes with dead people in them, –not the same as an anonymous grave, because those are “marked” though without a name. Usually with a number, instead. An unmarked grave could be anywhere.

Burial At Cross-Roads – Criminals and suicides were traditionally not allowed to be buried in Christian hallowed cemetery ground, at least in medieval times. So the family members would bury the bodies at a cross-roads, which was believed to be the next best thing to sacred ground.

Mass Graves – Mass grave sites don’t always include criminals per se, sometimes those buried were executed during a war, for the mere sake of being nearby. Usually, when criminals are entered in mass graves, it is because they were part of a mass execution, such as by firing squad.

Live Burial – For some executions, it seemed like a waste to first torture, then kill, and then bury the criminal or offender. So it was someone’s bright idea, to wrap this all into one big event. By burying the criminal alive, the individual is first tortured by the realization of what’s happening, then killed eventually by either suffocation, starvation, or dehydration, and is already buried, so there’s no need to go back through the process all over again.

Exhumation – Not actually a form of “sepulture”, it’s actually the opposite. Sometimes criminals were exhumed, dug up, in certain historical instances, just so they could be tortured again, decapitated, or burned at the stake. Some prime examples are when the crimes were particularly heinous, and if the deceased was suspected of witchcraft, or other supernatural life after death powers.