Saturday will provide a coda for the victims of one of Birmingham’s most notorious murder cases, as its three victims will finally receive a grave marker at the city’s oldest cemetery.

Emma, May and Irene Hawes have been buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in an unmarked grave since their deaths in 1888.

A special ceremony is planned for this weekend, preceded by a tour of the cemetery. At the end of the tour, participants will be invited to leave a rose at the grave.

The event starts at 10 a.m. Saturday. Tickets can be acquired here.

In December 1888, Emma Hawes was killed by her husband, Richard, who also murdered two of the couple’s three children, Irene, age 6, and May, age 7 or 8. Richard was hanged, and buried in Atlanta.

“Never forgotten,” reads the new marker.

“It was a huge story at the time. It was all across the country,” Terri Hicks, who helped raise $1,000 for the marker, said. “It makes me very happy. I wish we could have done something bigger, because they deserve so much more.”

“The Hawes Horror” was the subject of a book, and is a story retold many times in the more than 135 years since it happened.

It began on Dec. 4, 1888, when two teenagers taking a boat onto an artificial reservoir in East Lake discovered the body of a fully-dressed little girl. It was May Hawes, the daughter of Richard Hawes, a train engineer, and his wife, Emma. She was identified after the little girl’s body was displayed by a funeral home.

The whereabouts of the rest of the family was unknown.

But just as suddenly, word came that Richard Hawes was returning to Birmingham, fresh from being newly married to Mayes Story of Columbus, Miss. He was arrested off the train, still dressed for the nuptials. By Dec. 8, an axe was discovered at the reservoir, and then Emma’s body was found at the bottom of the pond.

By 10 p.m. that night, an estimated crowd of 3,000 angry and inebriated rioters converged on the city jail, aiming to lynch Hawes. A crowd of lawmen opened fire on them, leaving 10 dead and wounding several more.

A day later, Sheriff Joseph Smith and Birmingham Police Chief O.A. Pickard were arrested for their response to the melee. By that time, the body of Irene Hawes had been found in the water.

The following April, Richard Hawes stood trial, accused of killing his wife and daughters in order to marry Story. He was found guilty and eventually executed in 1890, denying a reported jailhouse confession that he had hired an associate to murder his family.

Hicks said money was collected in 1888 to bury the Hawes victims and raise a marker, but no marker was ever installed. Recently, volunteers contributed about $1,000 toward the new gravestone.

Stuart Oates, director of the Oak Hill Memorial Association, said other efforts over the years had tried to put up a monument, but this one was finally successful.

“In 1888, Birmingham was a lot like the wild West,” he said.

“It was remarkable and horrible that a man would abandon his family and do away with them so he could remarry and start a new life. What do we do today when a child is abducted? It’s big news. I think it stirs something within us. Being human, you feel empathy or outrage when you hear a story like this.”

Hicks said she felt an emotional bond with the victims.

“I’ve spent a lot of time researching this particular story, and their genealogies. I’ve really connected with Emma and her girls through all of this. They were almost family to me,” Hicks said.