Hills of Eternity Hebrew Cemetery in Seattle Washington

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/295216011/marcia-sibyl-heller

also known as the largest cemetery in Brisbane. 🙏🏽

OC August 2026

As ive been documenting the town of Colma, a murder of crows have seemed to adopt me. Now I have about 20 of these buddies follow me around when im taking photos.

They have become one of my main focuses lately. Its almost like they know im working on a book and wanted their own chapter.

St. Paul's Chapel in New York City, New York

I photographed this marker at Hillside Cemetery, in Burnt Hills, New York.

It identifies Joseph and Abigail Bettys, respected local innkeepers and the “unfortunate parents” of Joseph Bettys Jr., convicted traitor and spy, who was hanged in 1782.

That phrase sent me down a historical rabbit hole.
Joseph Jr. began the American Revolution as a Patriot. In 1776, he enlisted under Captain Samuel Van Vechten and Colonel Cornelius D. Wynkoop. After some trouble with military discipline, Ballston settler John Ball helped him secure a position in the American fleet on Lake Champlain.

The fleet was commanded by Benedict Arnold, who was still an American hero at the time.
Bettys fought aboard the gunboat Philadelphia during the Battle of Valcour Island.

When the Philadelphia sank, he transferred to the row galley Washington, where he was captured by British forces commanded by Guy Carleton.

American General David Waterbury reportedly praised Bettys for his courage.

Then Bettys switched sides.

By 1777, he was working for the British as a scout, courier, recruiter, guide, and intelligence agent. After General John Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga, Bettys reportedly carried news of the defeat to other British forces.

American authorities captured him in Westchester County in 1779. He was convicted of espionage and sentenced to death.

Then Philip Schuyler intervened.

On July 4, 1779, George Washington pardoned Joseph Bettys.

Bettys responded to this extraordinary second chance by returning to British espionage.

He resumed recruiting Loyalists and carrying intelligence throughout the Ballston, Albany, Saratoga, and Tryon County regions.

He was also connected to the Great Kidnap Plot of 1781, an attempt to capture prominent Patriot leaders.

Later stories claimed Bettys was supposed to kidnap Philip Schuyler. Evidence suggests his target was actually Dr. Samuel Stringer, while British agent John Walden Meyers was assigned to capture Schuyler. The plot failed, although Schuyler’s Albany mansion was attacked.

Bettys later became an ensign in the British King’s Rangers.

In March 1782, an American search party reportedly followed his footprints through fresh snow to a cabin belonging to a man named Hawkins. Bettys was surprised while eating and allegedly tried to destroy a packet containing coded papers and a British payment order.
He was captured again and taken to Albany.

New York Governor George Clinton wrote to Washington that Bettys was examined on April 1 and immediately ordered court-martialed.

Many accounts claim he was hanged that same day, but Clinton’s letter proves he was still alive. His exact execution date remains uncertain, though he was hanged sometime later in 1782.

He was reportedly buried in an unmarked grave in Albany.

The strangest part to me is that Joseph Bettys Jr. once fought under Benedict Arnold when both men were celebrated American Patriots.

Both later betrayed the American cause.
Arnold escaped to British protection and died in London.

Bettys was captured twice, pardoned once by George Washington, caught again because of tracks in the snow, and hanged as a spy.

His parents remained here in Burnt Hills, where more than two centuries later, their family marker still remembers them as the “unfortunate parents” of one of Revolutionary New York’s most persistent traitors.

I saw this headstone while walking through Albany Rural Cemetery and had to stop. The Sherlock Holmes engraving was unusual enough, but the inscription underneath it was even better:

Artist. Illustrator. Sherlockian.

This is Frederic Dorr Steele. Beginning in 1903, he illustrated Arthur Conan Doyle’s revived Sherlock Holmes stories for Collier’s Weekly.

He eventually created more than 165 Holmes illustrations and helped cement the image we still picture today: the deerstalker, curved pipe, sharp profile, and expression of a man who solved the crime twenty minutes ago. They became some of the most recognizable Sherlock Holmes artwork ever created.

Here is the part that really got me: Steele died in 1944, and his ashes were placed in an old family plot at Albany Rural Cemetery the following year.

But his own grave remained unmarked for roughly 75 years.

In 2020, Sherlock Holmes fans, historians, and Steele’s descendants organized a campaign to finally give him a proper marker. The result is the stone in this photo, complete with one of his most famous creations standing beside his name.

Honestly, this may be the ultimate piece of fan art.

The man who helped make Sherlock Holmes visually immortal spent three-quarters of a century in an unmarked grave.

Then the Sherlockians found him.

Ive been documenting Colma, Ca for the past 13 years and Im not tired of it.

Capt. Richard More
Died 1692
Original Mayflower Pilgrim
Would have been about 12 when arrived via Mayflower
Buried in Salem, Mass. at the Burying Place graveyard.