Black Angel of Death Statue at Oakland Cemetery, Iowa

Oct 4

At the Oakland Cemetery in Iowa City, Iowa you’ll find an 8-and-a-half-foot tall angel towering over a grave. Compared to the other statues at the cemetery, this one stands out not just because of its unusual black sheen but because the legends say this statue is actively looking to kill.

The Missing Thumb

In the 1980s several students from the University of Iowa heard the legends surrounding the Black Angel statue at the Oakland Cemetery. Believing the stories were just made up to scare kids away from the statue, the teens dared each other to prove it by defacing the statue.

One student agreed to remove a piece of the statue that night and display it to the group the following day. If he appeared without injury and with the piece, it would prove the legends were fake. The following day, the student didn’t show up.

His friends traveled to the statue and discovered one of its thumbs had been broken off but there were no other signs of their friend. Days went by and still, there were no signs of their friend until one day a body was found hundreds of miles away in the Chicago River.

Police determined the student was killed by strangulation but could find no evidence pointing them to a suspect or any leads except, on his neck, there was a deep imprint of what appeared to be a thumb. Hearing the news, the students at the school rushed back to the cemetery, and there, at the base of the statue, was the Black Angel’s missing black thumb.

Origin of the Black Angel

That was just one of the many different legends surrounding the Black Angel of Death but where did the statue come from and why did the original bronze statue, turn black?

In 1877 professional midwife Teresa Dolezal and her 3-year-old son Eduard immigrated from Bohemia to Iowa City. As a single parent, Teresa often took Eduard to her work, and soon he became enamored with the healthcare profession, proclaiming he wanted to be a doctor.

Tragically in 1891 while working at a drugstore, Eduard, who now went by Eddie, contracted meningitis and passed away. Teresa had him buried at the Oakland cemetery where she installed a tree stump statue with an axe to signify a life cut short.

Teresa eventually remarried in Oregon to Nicholas Feldevert and after he passed away in 1911, Teresa decided to commission a statue honoring both her late husband and son. She hired Czech sculptor Mario Korbel and some sources say it was her idea to make the statue out of bronze but that’s unverifiable.

In 1913 the statue was completed and brought to Oakland Cemetery where a shocked Teresa discovered the statue was now black. History gets a bit cloudy here since we’re not sure if Teresa was angry it was black and no longer bronze or if she was well aware it would turn black because of oxidation. It’s hard to believe Mario Korbel, a well-known artist at the time, wouldn’t have known the statue would oxidize and change color.

Other sources say Teresa was angry the statue display didn’t include a place for the tree stump marker for her son. One or both of these issues led to Teresa refusing to pay, eventually landing the case in court where Teresa lost.

We do know that almost immediately after the statue was installed rumors began to swirl on why the statue was black. Most statues in cemeteries aren’t bronze and the sight of one, especially one that had already oxidized, spawned several legends.

Those that didn’t know who placed the statue believed it was placed by a man who cheated on his wife, his adulterous sins caused the statue to turn black. This legend would eventually evolve to claiming Teresa had cheated on her husband or committed other sins that turned the statue black.

There aren’t any records showing that Teresa knew or cared about the rumors while she was alive but after her death in 1924, the legends were free to grow without someone alive to oppose them.

Other Legends

In the following decades, multiple deaths have been attributed to the Black Angel statue. One story claims four college students vandalized the statue by urinating on it and subsequently died in a car accident. I couldn’t find any articles verifying these deaths.

Of course, there are stories that the Black Angle statue will bring bad luck but also the stories say it has a hatred for displays of affection. Anyone who kisses in front of the statue will be marked and suffer some sort of punishment including death within 6 months.

If you attempt to kiss the statue itself, your heart will stop immediately. Supposedly if you touch the statue on Halloween night, you’ll die in 7 years and any pregnant woman who passes by the towering figure will suffer a miscarriage.

There’s no telling where these legends or stories started but it’s pretty clear none of them are true and were simply made up because of the strangeness of a black statue in a cemetery. We know that vandalizing the statue won’t end in your death as there, unfortunately, have been multiple instances of people vandalizing the statue, including breaking off pieces.

Today the statue still stands in Oakland Cemetery with many believing the Black Angel of Death can bring good or bad luck. Others still take the dare to touch or kiss the statue but because of the multiple attempts to vandalize it, the cemetery's caretakers keep a close eye on it.