Spend Eternity Next to Marilyn...Or Perhaps Not

Elsie Poncher wanted to sell her late husband Richard’s final resting spot, which is directly above Marilyn Monroe’s crypt, to help pay off her Beverly Hills mortgage. Her starting price on eBay was $500,000.00. Elsie said she decided to move her husband's remains and sell the crypt, located at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, to pay off a $1.6 million mortgage on her Beverly Hills home. The crypt sold...and then the buyer backed out.

Former Beverly Hills resident Richard Poncher rests in the tomb above Marilyn, with a plaque that reads "To the man who gave us everything and more." Elsie hoped that he had just a little more to give. Richard, who died 23 years ago at the age of 81, bought the crypt from Joe DiMaggio during his 1954 divorce from Monroe. The couple was at the Regency Hotel in New York talking to DiMaggio, Elsie said, when the retired ballplayer asked, "You want to buy two crypts?"

Isn’t it amazing to think that Joe DiMaggio, even in spite of how badly the short marriage turned out, actually bought two crypts, one for Marilyn and one for him, in the hopes of spending all eternity with her?

At the time, the Ponchers had no idea what an icon Marilyn Monroe would become in death or that she'd someday be entombed at the Westwood cemetery. When he was dying, Elsie said, her husband approached her with a request. "He said, 'If I croak, if you don't put me upside down over Marilyn, I'll haunt you the rest of my life.'" Right after the funeral, Elsie said, she told the funeral director of her husband's wish. "I was standing right there, and he turned him over," she said. Since then, Richard Poncher has been on top of Marilyn, looking down at her – a tad disrespectful in my opinion. Even in death, Marilyn gets no rest.

Bidding on the crypt opened at $500,000.00, and closed with a bid over $4.6 million that was soon withdrawn. The winner, who was from Japan, reneged from paying the $4,602,100 price, with a rep telling eBay that the client needs to cancel because of paying problems.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Poncher's banker emailed the 11 other bidders who offered at least $4.5 million for the vault, giving them a day to make an offer. If the right offer isn't made, they may try to find another way to sell the crypt.

Jolene Mason, general manager of the cemetery, said there still is one empty crypt in the Corridor of Memories Mausoleum where Monroe and Poncher are buried. It is located two spots above the actress and to the left. It can be yours for $250,000.

Playboy's Hugh Hefner bought the crypt next to the actress in 1992 for $75,000. He said he has many friends buried there, and living close by, it's almost the neighborhood cemetery. "I'm a believer in things symbolic," he said. "Spending eternity next to Marilyn is too sweet to pass up."