Superfans splurge £150k to be buried subsequent to Marilyn Monroe and different useless stars for eternity

Obsessed fans are splurging megabucks on exclusive burial plots next to dead icons like Marilyn Monroe to Rest In Peace with their favourite stars

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Forget rewatching old movies or buying front-row concert tickets – some superfans are taking their celebrity obsessions to the grave. Wealthy devotees are forking out jaw-dropping six-figure sums just to secure burial plots next to Hollywood legends, music icons and cultural greats, transforming America’s most famous cemeteries into the ultimate exclusive gated communities.

One tech investor, 62-year-old Anthony Jabin, splashed out a staggering $195,000 (£148,000) at an auction to secure a single-space mausoleum crypt right next to Marilyn Monroe’s final resting place in Los Angeles.

Jabin’s purchase at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park was made to allow him to rest right beside his ultimate idol.

“I bought the crypt next to Marilyn Monroe because it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend eternity with the most iconic actress of all time – and she’s definitely my favourite blonde,” Jabin told The New York Post.

The dedicated fan, whose future resting place sits one row up and four spaces to the left of the Some Like It Hot star, even admits he sends the late Hollywood starlet flowers on her birthday every year.

And he isn’t alone. At LA’s famous Hollywood Forever Cemetery, which hosts everything from movie screenings to yoga classes, demand to be near dead celebs is through the roof.

Yogu Kanthiah, co-owner of Hollywood Forever, said: “Over the years, many families have told us that being near a celebrity is meaningful because it creates a sense of connection to Hollywood history and culture.”

In the cemetery’s prestigious Garden of Legends, prices start at around $200,000 and can skyrocket past $6 million for custom mausoleums.

Noelle Berman, director of Private Estates at Hollywood Forever, revealed that requests happen “all the time.”

Berman said: “We take a golf cart tour. We see Neil Sedaka, Johnny Ramone, or another star, and the client says, ‘I want a plot near them.'”

The rush for the eternal plots mirrors the cutthroat New York housing market, only these leases never expire. According to Berman, 70 per cent of their sales are made in advance because “once it’s sold, it’s sold.”

Inside the Judy Garland Pavilion, fans can secure a niche, a small compartment for an urn, near the Wizard of Oz star starting at around $8,800.

Artist Geoffrey Dicker, 49, paid over $50,000 for a glass-front niche just steps from Garland.

He said: “The niche cost more than $50,000. It’s like the size of a big shoe box. There is almost no iconic figure bigger than Judy Garland. When you think of Hollywood, you think of Judy Garland. When you think of movies, you think of Judy Garland.”

Deeply connected to the star, Dicker added: “Before I understood what it meant to be gay, I watched Garland play Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. It was always that fantasy land that you could escape to. If you’re going to go big, you can’t get any bigger than that.”

Over on the East Coast, New York’s historic Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx has its own star-studded attraction called “Jazz Corner.”

Fans scramble for plots near legends like Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, where a spot can cost around $76,995.

Marian Pardo, 79, and her husband Michael Toonkel, 85, bought their plots there specifically to be near the musical icons.

Pardo said: “My husband and I don’t always agree about a lot of stuff. But we always agreed about how much we liked jazz.”

Explaining her choice, she added: “There’s an old joke about visiting cemeteries and the woman who was cremated and wanted her ashes spread at Bloomington’s because that way she knew her daughter would come and see her once a week. You know, I want to be someplace where people want to be.”