Victim of the Beast 666 -Lilly E. Gray

Lilly E. Gray has been dead for more than half a century, yet precisely who she was, and the weird inscription on her grave, continues to baffle researchers to this day. Interred in the Salt Lake City Cemetery, Lillian “Lilly” E. Gray has become an enduring local mystery, and something of an urban legend to generations of Utah teenagers.
She is said to have been born in Canada on June 6, 1881, but even that’s up for dispute. Nevertheless, when the elderly woman died from natural causes on November 14, 1958, her grave was marked by a simple stone inscribed with the ominous words: ‘Victim of the Beast 666’. Creepy, certainly. But why?
Several theories have sought to answer this question, though none have completely managed to put the mystery to bed. One of the more plausible hypotheses comes from Richelle Hawks, whose examination of Lilly’s husband, Elmer L. Gray, reveals an eccentric character with a colourful – and oddly mysterious – past.
Hawks found that, after Elmer had been arrested for stealing an umbrella, a Utah State Board of Pardons document notes him requesting that his parole be terminated. When asked by the Board of Pardons for the full name under which he was serving, Gray wrote “Woodrowe Lamb, a bum”.
For the address of his parents, Elmer responded: “Booth dead. Died of grief when kidnapers murdered my Wife.” He then referred to police and prison officials as “Democrat officials” and “kidnapers.”
The ‘wife’ he referred to was his first wife, who died – apparently – before Elmer Gray married Lilly. But as Hawks points out in her article: “…whatever the real circumstances concerning these family deaths, it can be concluded that Elmer Gray blamed the law for the death of his previous wife and clearly considered her a victim.”
She added: “Elmer Gray’s view of the government and law is clear – a criminal, evil organization hell-bent on kidnapping, imprisoning and murdering innocent citizens without cause or provocation.
“With all the conspiracy, anti-government, sentiments of victimization within, it is difficult and perhaps foolish not to come to one conclusion – that Elmer L. Gray was responsible for placing the outrageous phrase, “Victim of the Beast 666″ on his second wife Lilly’s gravestone…”
It’s certainly a compelling mystery, and Hawks’ theory, according to Olivia Ochoa-Anderson writing for the Salt Lake Free Press, offers the most plausible explanation to date. Even so, there’s no getting away from the chilling visions of satanic ritual and demonic possession that such a foreboding inscription inevitably conjures.
Until we know for sure, Lilly E. Gray, and the precise meaning of the inscription on her grave – Victim of the Beast 666 – will remain an enigma