Cemetery workers made $300K in gravedigging scheme

[Kat - Administrator]

Cemetery workers made $300K in gravedigging scheme
By DON BABWIN, Associated Press Writer Don Babwin, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 33 mins ago

ALSIP, Ill. – Four former employees accused of digging up bodies and reselling plots at a historic black cemetery near Chicago made about $300,000 in a scheme believed to have stretched back at least four years, authorities said Friday.

Three gravediggers and a manager at the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip are accused of unearthing hundreds of corpses and either dumping some in a weeded, desolate area near the cemetery or double-stacking others in graves. The cemetery is the burial place of civil rights-era lynching victim Emmett Till and blues singers Willie Dixon and Dinah Washington.

While Till's grave site was not disturbed, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said investigators found his original iconic glass-topped casket rusting in a shack at the cemetery.

The 14-year-old Chicagoan was killed in 1955 after reportedly whistling at a white woman during a visit to his uncle's house in Mississippi. Nearly 100,000 people visited the casket during a four-day public viewing in Chicago, and images of his battered body helped spark the civil rights movement.

When Till was exhumed in 2005 during an investigation of his death, he was reburied in a new casket. The original casket was supposed to be kept for a planned memorial to Till.

Thousands of families have come to the cemetery since Thursday looking for answers about their loved ones, authorities said. Hundreds of relatives, some clutching maps of the 150-acre site, were seen at the cemetery Friday.

Dart said officials have assisted the families in locating relatives' plots, and family members have reported at least 30 cases of disturbed graves and missing headstones.

The sheriff said two burials planned for Thursday also have gone wrong — with one person initially buried in the wrong plot and another whose plot was already occupied by someone else's body.

"This is a heartless act, these graveyard robbers," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Friday. Jackson called on the cemetery's Arizona-based owner, Perpetua Inc., to answer for the conditions.

The Illinois official who regulates cemeteries said Friday that the process of revoking the cemetery's license has been started. Comptroller Daniel Hynes also said Friday his office is investigating whether the money that families paid for future cemetery needs is still safely held in a trust.

The cemetery is owned by Perpetua Holdings of Illinois. Hynes said the company is cooperating with authorities, but the horrible problems at Burr Oak justify revoking the license.

Perpetua started the investigation by calling Cook County authorities to report alleged financial wrongdoing and issued a statement Thursday that the company is cooperating with investigators.

The suspects, all of whom are black, were identified as Carolyn Towns, 49, Keith Nicks, 45, and Terrence Nicks, 39 — all of Chicago — and Maurice Dailey, 61, of Robbins. They each have 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.

Authorities said Towns also pocketed donations she elicited for a Till memorial museum. She has not been charged in connection with those allegations. Court documents show she was fired from the cemetery in late May amid allegations of financial wrongdoing.

A spokeswoman for the Cook County state's attorney's office said Towns is being represented by a private attorney, but she did not know the attorney's name. The Cook County public defender's office said it had not yet assigned attorneys to the other three cases.

[Tkay - Moderator]

How sad and so very wrong.

[AUTMAN]

Hi kat
I heard that on my XM radio, and it is so sad that they destroyed all the records.
They may never be able to identify there loved ones.
One thing you can bet on is if there is a hell these cemetery workers have earned a one way ticket.
Sad story !

Autman

[AUTMAN]

This is one of the sickest things I have ever seen.
Here are some more pics from the scene.
To me graves are sacred,and when you violate this you have committed a ultimate sin.
http://video.ap.org/?t=By%20Section/U.S.&p=&f=ORBEN&g=0...
The grave of Emmet Till.

[Cam winters]

Well really they do look like the type to this, but to their own race? I thought african americans were to honorable to this.

[Seraphina_Starfire]

How can people do this to each other? They did this to their own kind, with no respect for history or the challenges African-Americans have overcome in the past to gain their rights. I hope the criminals get locked up for a good while for this, and shamed, shunned by their community, I don't know if they deserve to go to hell but they must have a hardened or no conscience do to this for money. bah, love of money is the root of all evil, people will do anything for it!

[Seraphina_Starfire]

I have a question about Emmet Till. I heard a few years back that his murderers were finally arrested and brought to trial. They were really old and I think they received prison sentences, but I don't remember what happened clearly. Could anyone provide me with information about Emmet Till's lynching and whether his murderers were ever punished by law? If the lynchers are dead than I imagined they would be punished by the Ultimate Judge, God, who'd send them to hell.

[Kat - Administrator]

Naw...they are more than likely earthbound and playing baseball or something...LOL

[Kat - Administrator]

You can read the whole story of Emmit Till by accessing this link below....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till

The two men Milam and Bryant were both aqquited on the charges.

[Jane]

reselling plots and dumping the bodies? this is truly horrendous. I hate to say it, but I hope the people they disturbed and desecrated will haunt them til their dying day.

[Cam winters]

sometimes it seems easier to scatter in the wind

[Jane]

defintely - that's what I want

[Kathy Riera]

THANKYOU...................... OVER A BEAUTIFUL RIVER OR THE BEACH.