300 Bodies Dug Up for Profit, Say Police
Video Courtesy Of CBS Affiliate CBS 2 Chicago
ALSIP, Ill. (AP) Three hundred. That may be the number of bodies that were dug up from a historic black cemetary near Chicago and strewn in a weeded area or reburied with other bodies so that their funeral plots could be resold, authorities said.
Four workers were charged Thursday in an elaborate and ghoulish scheme to profit from others' sorrows that may have gone on for years, say police.
Flanked by angry family members of the deceased, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said there's “a special place in hell” for those accused in the alleged scheme.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said more than a dozen FBI agents would help sort through the evidence and identify bodies at the Burr Oak Cemetery, as distraught families waited to find out if their loved ones were among those whose graves were plundered.
Many notable black Americans were buried at the site, including civil rights lynching victim Emmett Till and blues legend Dinah Washington. Dart said Till's grave was not disturbed, but that he wasn't sure about the graves of Washington and others.
Singer Dinah Washington is buried at Burr Oak Cemetery. It's not clear if her grave was disturbed.
Carolyn Towns, 49, Keith Nicks, 45, and Terrence Nicks, 39 — all of Chicago — and Maurice Dailey, 61, of Robbins, have each been charged with one count of dismembering a human body, a felony.
Bond was set at $250,000 for Towns, the cemetery's manager, and at $200,000 for the other three, who are gravediggers. It was not immediately clear whether they had attorneys.
Authorities said Towns also pocketed donations she elicited for an Emmett Till memorial museum. She has not been charged in connection with those allegations.
The Arizona-based owner of the cemetery, Perpetua Inc., said in a statement Thursday that the company is cooperating with investigators.
“We will make every attempt to insure and maintain the dignity of those that have been entrusted to our care,” the company said.
PREVIOUSLY ON CRIMESIDER
July 9, 2009 - Twisted Plot: Did Cemetery Workers Dump Bodies to Resell Gravesites?
ALSIP, Ill. (AP) Three hundred. That may be the number of bodies that were dug up from a historic black cemetary near Chicago and strewn in a weeded area or reburied with other bodies so that their funeral plots could be resold, authorities said.
Four workers were charged Thursday in an elaborate and ghoulish scheme to profit from others' sorrows that may have gone on for years, say police.
Flanked by angry family members of the deceased, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said there's “a special place in hell” for those accused in the alleged scheme.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said more than a dozen FBI agents would help sort through the evidence and identify bodies at the Burr Oak Cemetery, as distraught families waited to find out if their loved ones were among those whose graves were plundered.
Many notable black Americans were buried at the site, including civil rights lynching victim Emmett Till and blues legend Dinah Washington. Dart said Till's grave was not disturbed, but that he wasn't sure about the graves of Washington and others.
(AP Photo)
Carolyn Towns, 49, Keith Nicks, 45, and Terrence Nicks, 39 — all of Chicago — and Maurice Dailey, 61, of Robbins, have each been charged with one count of dismembering a human body, a felony.
Bond was set at $250,000 for Towns, the cemetery's manager, and at $200,000 for the other three, who are gravediggers. It was not immediately clear whether they had attorneys.
Authorities said Towns also pocketed donations she elicited for an Emmett Till memorial museum. She has not been charged in connection with those allegations.
The Arizona-based owner of the cemetery, Perpetua Inc., said in a statement Thursday that the company is cooperating with investigators.
“We will make every attempt to insure and maintain the dignity of those that have been entrusted to our care,” the company said.
PREVIOUSLY ON CRIMESIDER
July 9, 2009 - Twisted Plot: Did Cemetery Workers Dump Bodies to Resell Gravesites?
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
Is there a website I can go to to get information about the names on the gravesites that have been desecrated?
How did this go on for so long without someone noticing and filing a complaint on the missing grave?
Regardless, these people should spend a very long time in prison. Forget about the hefty fines! If it were my mother, I wouldn't care about the money. This is a heinous, immoral and a disgusting crime!
If people only knew what goes on, they would be disgusted and probably pissed. Old graves that records and headstones have been lost are sold and opened, only to discover an older casket already in place, that casket and the enclosed body are destroyed and mixed with the soil and the new casket is then placed on top. Mausoleums are just as bad, lids taken off of caskets and turned upside down because they wont fit in the slot. Sides and lids bashed in with sledgehammers because the coffin that cost the family a fortune is too big for the slot. Anything of value being removed after the family has left. The Cemetary director and the Funeral home director will tell family that they cannot stay and watch them either fill the grave or close the slot, some will even say it is against the law or against policy.
THIS--- IS, in my opinion, one of those cases!
- by John_Merritt July 9, 2009 4:44 PM EDT
- 'What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul'. No more needs to be said.
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- by rosiepc July 9, 2009 7:06 PM EDT
- Amen, that is the perfect quote for this offense.
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- by stn_sage July 9, 2009 8:01 PM EDT
- Excellent citation, Mr. Merritt! VERY fitting!
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