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This Day in History Class as a production of I Heart

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Radio.

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Hello and welcome to This Day

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in History Class, a show that

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digs through history one day in

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a time. I'm Gabe Lousier,

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and in this episode we're talking about

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one of the most famous cases of body

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snatching and recent memory, the

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time when desperate criminals stole

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the mortal remains of a silent film

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star and then demanded his widow

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pay a fortune to get them back.

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The day was March one, eight.

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Shortly before midnight, two men

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dug up the grave of silent film legend

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Charlie Chaplin and stole his

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body. The criminals then

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contacted the actor's widow, Una

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O'Neil Applin, and demanded

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the equivalent of six hundred thousand

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dollars for the return of her husband's

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corpse. Imagine they're

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shock when Una flat out

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refused to pay. After

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all, as she told them quote, Charlie

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would have thought it rather ridiculous if

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she did. Sir Charles

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Chaplin was a British comedic actor

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and filmmaker who rose to fame

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during Hollywood's Silent film era, and

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most of his best known films, including

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The gold Rush, City Lights and

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Modern times, Chaplin played

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a character known simply as the Tramp.

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He was a bumbling but kind hearted

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vagrant who often behaved more like a

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gentleman than those of higher social

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standing. Near the end of his

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career in the early nineteen fifties,

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Chaplin and his family relocated

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to Switzerland after the FBI

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began investigating him on suspicion

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of being a communist. Chaplin

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had heard the news while attending the

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mirror of his latest film in London. The

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U S Government said the actor would

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have to submit to an interview about his

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political beliefs and moral behavior

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in order to gain re entry to the country.

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It was at that point that Chaplin decided

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to part ways with the USA. He

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later said of the decision, quote, whether

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I re entered that unhappy country

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or not was of little consequence to

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me. I would like to have told

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them that the sooner I was rid of that

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hate beleaguered atmosphere, the

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better that I was fed up

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with America's insults and moral

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pomposity. Chaplin

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continued to work in Europe until a

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series of strokes in the late nineteen

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sixties put an end to his future film

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plans. The actor's health

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steadily declined for the next decade,

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and on Christmas Day in nineteen seventy

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seven, Charlie Chaplin passed

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away at the age of eighty eight.

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He was buried two days later in

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a cemetery in the Swiss village

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of Corsier Serverveis on

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the hills overlooking Lake Geneva.

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About two months later, just before

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midnight on March first, nineteen seventy

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eight, Chaplain's body went

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missing. Una Chaplin

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heard the news the following day when

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the local police called to tell her that her

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husband's grave had been robbed.

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She and her eight children were disturbed

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and confused, feelings

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that were shared by pretty much everyone

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in the village. Some suggested

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the Chaplain's fans may have stolen

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his remains as gruesome keepsakes,

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while others thought it was the work of anti

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Semites who perhaps objected to the

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Jewish actor being laid to rest in

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a Christian burial ground. The

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truth, however, came to light later

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that day when Una received an

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anonymous phone call demanding

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money for the return of her husband's

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body, but Una wasn't

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having it. She essentially told

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the thieves they could keep the body because,

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as she put it quote, my

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husband is in heaven and in my

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heart. She told the police

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about the call, and they began monitoring

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her phone. It's a good thing too,

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because the calls continued, not just

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to Una, but to the family lawyer

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as well. Over the next

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two months, they received a total

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of twenty seven phone calls demanding

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money. Although Una kept refusing

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to pay, the criminals seemed desperate

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enough to negotiate. After all, they

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had already gone to the trouble of digging up a corpse.

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What else were they going to do with it. However,

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when Una refused even a small

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ransom, the thieves changed tactics

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and began threatening violence against

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Chaplain's two youngest children. Things

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were getting serious, and the police knew

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it was time to make their move. What

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the criminals didn't realize was that

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Una truly had no intention

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of ever paying the ransom.

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She was just buying the police time to close

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in on the culprits. By early

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May, they had traced the calls to a

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series of public pay phones in the region,

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but they still didn't know which phone the

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thieves would use on any given day.

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Left with no other options, the police

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decided to monitor every phone

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Kiosk in the area, all two

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hundred of them. They had

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una arranged a certain time for

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the criminals to call on May sixteenth,

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at which point police would be waiting

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at each phone in the area to

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see who turned up to use it. The

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unlucky caller turned out to be Roman

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Wardas, a twenty four year old

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Polish refugee and car mechanic,

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who was arrested in a phone booth that afternoon.

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His accomplice was arrested later that day

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and revealed to be Goncho Gaynev,

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a fellow mechanic and refugee,

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this time from Bulgaria.

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The next day, the two men led

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police to Chaplain's body, which

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they had buried in apply out Cornfield,

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only about a mile from the actor's home

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in Coursier. They

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claimed they had never actually

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intended to steal the body. The

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original plan was to remove

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the coffin, dig the grave deeper,

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and then put the coffin back, but

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hidden beneath a layer of dirt. This

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would have made it seem like the body had been stolen,

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but then once the ransom had been paid,

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they would have revealed that it was actually still

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there the whole time. However,

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that plan went awry when it started

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raining the night that they were digging up Chaplain.

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The dirt got too heavy to keep going.

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At that point, the criminals were forced to improvise,

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and what they came up with was loading

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the coffin in their truck and then reburying

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it in a nearby field once the

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soil had dried. As

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for why the pair decided to desecrate

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the grave of a revered actor, they

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were actually inspired by a similar

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crime they had read about in an Italian

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newspaper. As political

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refugees, they were desperate for

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money, and things got so bad

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that grave robbing somehow seemed

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like their only option. Later

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that year, Wardos and Gayev

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were convicted of grave robbing and

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attempted extortion. Gaynev

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was given an eighteen months suspended

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sentence, as he had only helped transport

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and rebury the body. Wardos,

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on the other hand, had come up with the whole

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scheme and had been the threatening voice

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on the other end of Una Chaplin's phone

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line. In light of this, he

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was sentenced to four and a half years

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of hard labor. It's worth

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noting, though, that after the pair was convicted,

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they sent Una letters apologizing

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for their crime, and according to

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her son Eugene, she did forgive

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them eventually. As

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for Charlie himself, his body

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was reburied in his original plot,

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but this time his family poured

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a layer of concrete over the grave

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to discourage any future robbers.

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It seems to have worked too. No

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one has disturbed Charlie Chaplin's grave

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in nearly forty years, at

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least as far as we know. I'm

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Gabe Lousier and hopefully you

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now know a little more about history today

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or you can write to us directly at this

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Day at I heart media dot com.

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Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show,

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and thank you for listening. I'll see

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you back here again tomorrow for another

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Day in History class. For

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