She was Omaha’s first madam and also one of its generous benefactors. Her partner Dan Allen preceded her in death by more than 20 years, leaving her to design the gravesite.Īnna Wilson, “Queen of the Underworld,” is remembered for two disparate reasons. Anna Wilson put some thought into where she’d be buried. The grave of famed Omaha madam, Anna Wilson, fits in a category of its own: it’s unlike any gravestone I’ve ever seen. Some are simple and chaste in design while others are magnificent and grand. The stones marking each gravesite reflect the lives of the people buried beneath. They can simultaneously be haunting and peaceful, scary and serene. It didn’t take much wandering before I found the gravesite: it’s big.Ĭemeteries are intriguing places. That was all the information I had, other than an awareness of its being adorned with a yellow rose once a year. I thanked him and headed off in the suggested direction, looking for a grave the size of a king bed. “Oh, yeah,” replied the man, who turned out to be a retired judge walking Elsa the dog. “Do you know where Anna Wilson’s grave is? Do you know who that is?” “It’s sacred ground,” I responded, feeling more assured. Plus, crime usually stays out of cemeteries.”

“Are we in North Omaha?” I questioned after some small talk.

I parked my car there and, phone in hand, headed off in the direction of the only other person in the cemetery: a silver-haired man walking his German shepherd. In the center of Omaha’s Prospect Hill Cemetery is a round plot of ground, like a sun whose dirt path beams stretch out through the rest of the uneven ground.

Dirty, Wicked Town by David L. Bristow