How to Find GG Allin's Grave.



Here we have another installment of our "New Hampshire Adventure Series with Dan." This time we were off to Littleton, New Hampshire to find GG Allin's grave. For those of you not familiar with GG Allin, let me give you a little bio.



Kevin Michael "GG" Allin (1956-1993) was born "Jesus Christ Allin" in Lancaster, New Hampshire. As you may have guessed by his given name, his family was a little outside of the norm. His father, Merle Allin, was convinced that Jesus Christ had visited him and told him that his new son would be a great and powerful man. I think he missed the mark a little on this prediction, but GG was probably the most exciting person to come out of Lancaster in awhile.

Growing up, GG's older brother was unable to pronounce "Jesus" and instead called him "JeJe," which seems to be the origin of his stage name. All accounts seem to indicate that GG grew up in a log cabin, without electricity or other niceties, with his religious fanatic father causing all kinds of mayhem. In 1961, GG's mother Arleta (nee Gunther) finally divorced her nutjob husband and moved GG and his brother to Vermont. At this point Arleta renamed GG "Kevin Michael," no doubt hoping GG could have a more normal life with this name. Unfortunately, this was not to be.

GG seems to have been a poor student throughout high school and eventually wound up as a drummer in an amateur punk band after graduation. You can Wikipedia the details for yourself, but to summarize the "GG years" between 1976 and 1993, GG was involved in numerous bands and began a slow decline into ever more graphic and shocking stage performances. These included defecating on stage, mutilating himself and others, and even assaulting his audience. Along with his numerous live performances, GG produced a large discography including many genres. These albums were virtually all panned by critics, and in my opinion for good reason, as they are universally atrocious and unlistenable. Not only are the lyrics specifically designed to offend anyone and everyone, the actual recording/production on many albums is so poor you can barely hear anything but screaming. Despite all this, GG still seems to have gained a large and growing cult following.

By the late 80's GG was addicted to heroin and pretty much any other substance he could get his hands on. GG ended up doing a 15 month stint in prison in 1989 for assault. He put his time in prison to dubious good use by writing the "GG Allin Manifesto." I have never read it, but I can imagine the contents. By 1994, GG's fame arguably peaked with the release of the soundtrack and documentary film "Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies." Unfortunately for GG, by this time he had already died of a heroin overdose in a friend's apartment in Manhattan. Thus ends the saga of GG Allin, or so it would seem. Apparently, a trip to his grave is seen as somewhat of a pilgrimage to fans of the genre. He grave is routinely fouled with cigarette butts, alcohol and human excrement. Having researched a little about GG, I can only say he would probably approve.



At any rate, Dan and I were off to far-away Littleton NH, which more than two hours away. If anyone feels inclined to follow in our footsteps, the narrative below will help you immensely in your search for the gravesite. The grave itself is located in a cemetery right off of Rt 93. If you are coming from the south you can visit the "Old Man in the Mountain" remnants on the way up (see pics below) and hit two attractions in one day.

After our two hour drive through the wilderness (expect to see a lot of trees and mountains on this trek as you are going through miles of sparsely populated territory) we arrived in Littleton. The cemetery itself is called "St. Rose of Lima" and is right off of Main Street. St. Rose's is conjoined with a larger cemetery called "Glenwood Cemetery." When we got there we realized that neither cemetery had a sign indicating which cemetery was what. After a little while searching we finally found a small sign on a stone wall indicated which cemetery was "St Rose" and which was "Glenwood." Despite this revelation, we still could not find GG's grave. First, we drove around for about 30 minutes, then we went parked and went through a systematic search of all the grave sites on foot. The locals were no help either, the convenience store clerk (in a store directly across the street), didn't even know the name of either cemetery let alone who was buried where. We also asked a couple people taking a walk through the cemetery. Similarly they didn't know the name of the cemetery nor had even heard of GG Allin. This was shocking to us. We thought GG would be somewhat of a celebrity in this town of less than 5,000 people. At this point, we saw the flaw in our plan of not researching thoroughly. I suppose we sorta figured we could follow the trail of beer cans to his grave that would be prominently displayed. This was not the case at all. We were definitely becoming the victims of our laziness as the daylight was waning and we entered the second hour of our search.





Eventually we resorted to scanning through internet photos fans had taken of his tombstone and tried to reconstruct (via the visible backgrounds) where exactly his grave was located. We are seeing trees, we are seeing bushes, we are seeing a couple gravestones with stone crosses on top. Eventually, all the clues came together and we triangulated on the place where GG's grave should be. Then came the biggest surprise of the trip.



SOMEONE HAD STOLEN GG's HEADSTONE!!





Yes, a close inspection of the remaining pedestal revealed this was indeed GG's final resting place; but no headstone. Looking at all the other fan photos and comparing that to where Dan is standing (below), I think you will agree we found the right spot.



At any rate, to ensure future GG fans do not have to go through this laborious search. I have included a couple helpful tips (below). Included you will find a map with the approximately location of his grave marked with a red "X." Be careful that you are in St. Rose and not Glenwood, as they are not well marked. GG's gravestone was in the front row and faced the street, NOT the internal road within the cemetery. Basically, find the two houses in the picture and he is right next to "Tremblay" who has a cross-shaped tombstone (see red arrow). I also have included a video to give you some extra visual clues. If we had this information before, we could have saved a couple hours.



At any rate, thus concluded our trip to GG Allin's grave. As promised we have also included the picture of the now defunct, "Man in the Mountain" (below) thus concluding our trip to see two New Hampshire landmarks, neither of which is actually there. If anyone knows what happened to GG's headstone, please email me. We are dying to know.

