Page 136 - lake-city-florida-a-sesquicentennial-tribute-(h-morris-williams-kevin-mccarthy)-2009

Lake City, Florida: A Sesquicentennial Tribute (2009) H. Morris Williams, Dr. Kevin M. McCarthy

Like all good legends, this story had many elements of intrigue
and mystery. Here are several of them: Edmund Du Mazuel’s real
name was Edmund Robillard. Through his marriage to Marchiones
Noel Du Mazuel, he acquired her surname plus wealth and royal
status. Du Mazuel turned The Lake City Tombs into a tourist attraction
and built a small empire on the lure of his tombs. One account even

said a Romanian princess came to Lake City to see the Tombs and
gave him many thousands of dollars to improve the site. Some people
who didn’t like Du Mazuel falsely reported that The Tombs were
actually just a cover, that he was really a Nazi German spy who used
a short-wave radio to report to Berlin on any American troop
movements on US 41/441.

Though many
locals considered The
Lake City Tombs to be
a hoax, no less an
authority than Lake City
Reporter owner/editor

Herbert L. Dodd
made an on-site
inspection in 1928 and The site of the Tombs in 1927
wrote, “I am fully
convinced that there is no fake as regards to the genuineness of the
petrified bodies.” Edmund Du Mazuel’s son, John Du Mazuel (CHS
1938), accidentally shot and killed his older brother, Alexander, age
13, with a rifle in 1931. Reportedly Edmund Du Mazuel was so grief
stricken that he carried his son’s body around in his car trunk for
several days, unwilling to bury him, until forced to do so by health
officials. For many years, a writer named Jim Gray has researched
the legend of The Lake City Tombs and the Du Mazuel family and is
writing a book on the topic.

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