Yes, there really is a headstone cartel, at least in New Jersey. The Monument Builders Association of New Jersey are the only ones who can sell, carve, deliver and install headstones.
One might think this is all right (after all, headstones aren’t that creative] but there is at least one church cemetery that would like the right to sell their own headstones to the patrons of their cemeteries. So the Archbishop of Newark took the headstone cartel to court. Liberty & Law explains the issue:
