The late Enzo Ferrari ’s namesake company may make some of the world ’s fastest car . But perhaps even speedier is the quick wit of Italian investigators determined to protect one of the nation ’s favorite sons .

tec recentlyfoiled an attemptby grave robbers to disinter the stiff of Ferrari , a Formula One forerunner who died in 1988 at the age of 90 . The sureness suspect the crew planned to unearth Ferrari ’s body from his above - ground grave in Modena , Italy , with the end end of extorting money from his family .

While this game did n’t get much adhesive friction , history present a surprising number of attack torob gravesand hold dead bodies , from those of renowned role player to political figures , for ransom .

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Charlie Chaplin

He weary a bowler chapeau , twirl a cane and louse up his way through silent movies , think about hearing in the decades before " talkie " stumble the big sieve . Charlie Chaplin , as Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin was known , became a whizz with the 1921 funniness " The Kid " and the 1925 classic " The Gold Rush . " The British native continue to publish , direct , star in , and bring out silent and peach films for decades , winning two Academy Awards before retiring to an estate of the realm in the Swiss countryside .

Chaplin died on Christmas Day , 1977 , at the historic period of 88 . He was readily entomb in a necropolis near Lake Geneva in Switzerland — untiltwo grave robbersexcavated his coffin , that is .

The grave robbers make a motion his coffin to an unceremonious plot a mil from the Chaplin home , where they buried it until they could collect $ 600,000 in ransom from Chaplin ’s widowOona O’Neill , who was still raising the mates ’s eight children . She reportedly deny their request and cooperated with local law , who tapped her telephone and traced the ransom money call to Roman Wardas and Gantscho Ganev , a couple of down - on - their - fate mechanics and political refugee .

a man points to a spot in a field

Wardas , who was credited with the grievous robbing estimate , was sentenced to four years in prison , while Ganev served a suspended 18 - calendar month term . As for Chaplin ? His body was re - interred in his original plot , and this sentence , his rest position was covered in cementum .

Eva Perón

She did n’t want Argentina to blazon out for her , but Eva Perón probably wanted them to go onward and give her a decent burial . Perón , popularly bonk as Evita , serve as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until cervical Crab terminate her life in 1952 . But she was n’t properly interred for another two decade .

After her death , the government in Argentina was overthrown in a military coup and Perón ’s married man , President Juan Perón , was forced into exile . In 1955,Evita ’s embalmed bodywas rent in the night from a trade union where it had been check over by her workings - family supporters who were part of a political movement known as Peronism .

Most probable , anti - Peronists bolt with her remains , worried she would be used as brainchild to fire an revolt of working course supporters . Her body was moved around , with accounts of it being blot out in an loft , a parked van , behind a movie screenland and even inside the building that housed the water company that supplied Buenos Aires . At some head , her torso was secreted out of the country , where it was buried near Rome for 20 years and mark with the name " Maggi . "

mausoleum of eva peron with tourists looking

Her remains were held for a kind of ransom money that was n’t monetary ; or else , Evita ’s eubstance was used as purchase between political factions until she was eventually render to Buenos Aires . Her clay were placed in a glass coffin and in short put on public presentation . Two million peoplevisited Evita ’s body to pay their regard ; her remains were buried in a crypt 20 understructure ( 6 meters ) deep , which should probably dissuade all but the most set future grave robber .

Tassos Papadopoulos

Tassos Papadopoulos , who served as thepresidentof the Republic of Cyprus from 2003 until his expiry from lung cancer in 2008 , was capable to rest in peace in the Deftera village cemetery , located in the Cypriot working capital Nicosia , for less than a year before grave robber hatched a plan to hold his body for ransom .

On the eve of the first day of remembrance of this death , Papadopoulos ' remains were slip by tomb looter who cut into a tumid hole around the grave and move a 530 Sudanese pound ( 240 kilogram ) marble slab thatcovered his coffin .

The whereabouts of Papadopoulos ' trunk — and a motif for its kidnapping — remained a mystery for months . And after an intensive search it was only a ransom money requirement that turn into a tip from one of the guilty grave robber that revealed the truth .

grave investigation

An Native American national named Sabrjit Singh reached out to Papadopoulos ' family to ask for a ransom . in the beginning , Singh was part of a design by mastermind Antonis Prokopiou Kitas — at the time lock away for the rape and murder of two woman — and his brother to exhume the former President of the United States ’s remains and use them as abargaining chipfor Kitas ' release .

In courtroom , Singh and Kitas told of wielding a pick and a shovel overnight during a deluge to unearth Papadopoulos ' corpse . Singh take to feeling guilty and sound knave by demand money from the dead world ’s family . Singh received an 18 - month prison sentence and the brothers were each sentenced to 20 month .

Papadopoulos ' organic structure was discover buried in a burial ground about three miles ( 5.8 kilometer ) aside , and returned to its original resting place .