Lilly E. Gray Victim of the Beast 666 – Salt Lake Obscura
I’ve lived in and around Salt Lake city for the majority of my life, and now that it’s 2025, let’s just say that it’s been close to an aeon! There was a time in the late 80’s when I was making my way through Junior High School, when I didn’t know about the mysterious grave in Salt Lake City with the name Lilly E. Gray on it, but from the second I did hear about it, it’s inscription hasn’t allowed me to forget about it. The inscription? “Victim of the Beast 666”. How’s that for an attention grabber?
Lilly E. Gray lived from June 6, 1881, to November 14, 1958. As you can probably guess, with an epitaph like that, we all grew up allowing all of the dark and sinister speculations run rampant in our minds. In fact, we all had a friend whose older sibling knew the exact story, and since it was the time of the Satanic Panic, we were treated to stories of the occult and other dark myths. The fact that there is still so little known about the actual reason the enigmatic engraving was added to the headstone does wonders in fueling the conspiracy theorists stories and suppositions. From the presumption that she was Utah’s First Witch, to the possibility of her being murdered by her husband, for an unknown reason, this is a story quite conducive to conjecture.
What we do know is that Lilly E. Gray was married to a man, considered a scoundrel by her family, named Elmer Gray, who was no stranger to incarceration. He spent time in the Missouri State Prison, the Oklahoma State Prison, the Colorado State Prison, and, for eleven years, in the Utah State Prison. There is a real lack of information about her death, since she wasn’t notable enough in Salt Lake Society to warrant any kind of public records being drafted and being made available.
One popular theory about the inscription suggests that it was chosen by her husband, Elmer L. Gray. Elmer was known to be an eccentric man with strong anti-government sentiments. Some researchers believe that he viewed the government or law enforcement as “the Beast” referenced in the inscription. This interpretation would mean that Lilly was not literally a victim of a supernatural force but rather of some perceived injustice or persecution in Elmer’s eyes. If this theory is true, then the message on the headstone is less of an ominous warning and more of a personal grievance against authority.
Other theories propose a more metaphorical explanation. Some speculate that the phrase could relate to religious beliefs, suggesting that Lilly or her family might have experienced personal hardships that they attributed to evil forces. Given Utah’s strong religious background, particularly in Mormonism, some have suggested that the phrase might have been intended as a symbolic statement rather than a literal one.
Regardless of what my Junior High friends’ older siblings claim, there is no definitive answer to this mystery. To be honest, I wouldn’t want it any other way. Growing up in the shadow of so many local mysteries, Lilly E. Gray’s headstone proved to be a source of many a night’s discussion around the campfire.
Other interesting pieces of Salt Lake City Myths and Lore: