Sammy’s Grave was DUG UP 3 Months after his Funeral!
Sammy’s Grave was DUG UP 3 Months after his Funeral!
The Illusion of Hollywood Wealth
To the global public, Sammy Davis Jr. was the epitome of mid-century American cool. As a core member of the legendary Rat Pack alongside Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, he conquered music, television, film, and theater. He lived in a sprawling Beverly Hills mansion, hosted elite celebrity gatherings, and wore custom luxury jewelry. Yet, when the curtains finally closed on May 16, 1990, after his battle with throat cancer, the glamorous illusion shattered. Behind the scenes, the man hailed by Frank Sinatra as “the most talented performer I have ever known” died completely broke, leaving behind a legacy deeply entangled in financial ruin and private eccentricities.
A Midnight Exhumation to Pay the Bills
The most unsettling chapter of the entertainer’s legacy occurred just over two months after his star-studded funeral. Sammy Davis Jr. had been laid to rest at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, wrapped in the luxury that defined his career. He was buried wearing valuable personal items, including a gold Cartier watch that was a prized personal gift from Frank Sinatra.
However, behind the closed doors of his estate, his widow, Altovise Davis, was facing an unprecedented financial catastrophe. The entertainer had accumulated well over $5 million in debt, primarily owed to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), due to a series of disastrous business investments—such as his short-lived nightclub “The Now Grove”—and aggressive tax penalties.
Desperate to appease creditors and avoid legal ruin, the family made an unthinkable decision. Exactly 69 days after the funeral, a formal request for disinterment was filed. For a fee of $415, workers at Forest Lawn dug up the casket under strict conditions demanding absolute privacy and no public witnesses. The coffin was opened, and approximately $70,000 worth of jewelry was physically removed from the body. These items were later auctioned off to help settle the staggering debts hanging over the estate.
The Double Life: Faith, the Occult, and the Painted Nail
The financial scandals surrounding his death were not the only mysteries that emerged from his personal files. Throughout his life, Sammy Davis Jr. navigated a complex and seemingly contradictory spiritual journey. Following a near-fatal 1954 car accident in San Bernardino, where he lost his left eye after slamming into the steering wheel of his Cadillac, he wore a signature eye patch. Prompted by advice from Humphrey Bogart to stop using the patch as a emotional crutch, he adopted a glass eye and shortly after converted to Judaism.
Yet, alongside his 22-year adherence to Jewish theology, he maintained a lifelong fascination with the occult. For years, rumors swirled regarding his involvement with the Church of Satan and its founder, Anton LaVey. While the entertainer publicly downplayed the connection on television talk shows, framing it as a purely intellectual and historical fascination with the unexplained rather than active participation in dark rituals, family testimonies painted a more explicit picture. In a poignant memoir published decades later, his daughter recalled questioning her father about why he kept his pinky fingernail painted permanently red. His frank response to her was that it served as a personal symbol of his involvement in devil worship, a detail that highlighted the deep dichotomies of his private life.
Missing Artifacts and Unmarked Graves
The financial chaos of the estate also triggered a massive insurance investigation. Following his passing, insurance executives attempted to locate hundreds of items that had been claimed under high-value policies, only to find them completely missing from the Beverly Hills home. Among the unaccounted property were 185 pieces of jewelry, five luxury fur coats, an original Andy Warhol soup can painting, and a famous portrait of the entertainer painted by LeRoy Neiman. Intriguingly, some of these missing artifacts, including the Neiman portrait, briefly visible on television broadcast sets, suggesting the family had hidden or distributed assets before the authorities could seize them.
The tragic finality of the family’s financial struggle is permanently etched into the grounds of Forest Lawn. Altovise Davis passed away in March 2009 at the age of 65 after suffering a stroke. Despite sharing her husband’s life of high society and luxury, she was buried directly next to him in an unmarked grave, a stark and somber reminder of the total financial depletion that consumed the family’s final years.
Sammy Davis Jr.’s life was a masterclass in performance, but his post-mortem reality serves as a cautionary tale about the fragile nature of Hollywood stardom. Beneath the applause, the flashbulbs, and the gold Cartier watches lay a complex human being whose final rest was disrupted by the very price of his fame.
