Friday, July 10, 2009


M. SPENCER GREEN / AP

Family members search Thursday for the graves of relatives at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Ill., after graves were discovered dug up Wednesday.

Hundreds of bodies dug up in Chicago grave reselling scheme

By Chicago Tribune

ALSIP, Ill. — Authorities Thursday sharply increased the estimate of the number of bodies disinterred at Burr Oak Cemetery in a suburb of Chicago in a scheme to illegally resell grave sites.

Two hundred to 300 bodies were dug up and dumped into an isolated, weedy area of the cemetery, where many prominent African-Americans are buried, including Emmett Till.

Former cemetery manager Carolyn Towns, 49, foreman Keith Nicks, 45, and dump-truck operator Terrence Nicks, 39, all of Chicago, and backhoe operator Maurice Dailey, 59, of Robbins, Ill., were each charged with one count of dismembering a human body, a Class X felony. They all face up to 30 years in prison.

Authorities are also investigating an Emmett Till Memorial Fund that Towns set up for a museum in the slain teen's memory. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and State's Attorney Anita Alvarez asked for the public's help in tracking donations to the fund, set up in 2005.

The charges against Towns, the alleged scheme's mastermind, allege that "numerous graves were excavated and the human remains were then buried in a rear vacant lot in Burr Oak cemetery, Alsip. ... She then sold the vacant grave sites for her own personal financial gain." Authorities said she earlier had been fired by the cemetery's owners because of theft allegations.

The four were able to successfully carry out the scheme, prosecutors said, because bereaved relatives often came into the cemetery office to buy grave sites with cash. Towns would take the cash and destroy the deeds and other paperwork for the existing graves, they said. Towns would keep the cash and pay off the other defendants by increasing their overtime pay, which she controlled as cemetery general manager.

The scheme was discovered when a cemetery worker practicing on a backhoe dug up some of the remains and went to police.

Detectives found a pile of bones, above ground and uncovered, in an overgrown, fenced-off portion of the cemetery, according to Dart.

In addition, bodies apparently were double-buried in existing plots, Dart said. Dozens of FBI agents are expected in Chicago early next week to help sift through the evidence at the cemetery, Dart said.

"We're going to be here months," Dart said. "There are not going to be quick answers here."

Tom Troutman, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago field office, said investigators have "got to map the whole graveyard."

Agents will use electronic equipment to search for anomalies that might indicate where there are more bodies than there should be, Troutman said.

At the Rev. Jesse Jackson's behest, a woman who said she has had 23 relatives buried at Burr Oak took the microphone briefly during the news conference at the cemetery. Myrtis Palm Dean said families are thinking of a class-action suit.

"I have grave sites that haven't even been used, headstones that are missing," said Dean. "There is no need for this. This is sacred ground."

One of the first predominantly African-American cemeteries in the Chicago area, Burr Oak is the resting place of many historic figures, including civil-rights symbol Till, blues legend Dinah Washington and heavyweight boxing champion Ezzard Charles.

Dart said he was certain Till's remains were not disturbed, but he could not be sure about the others.

Dart said he believes the alleged scheme has been going on for about four years. The disinterred graves appeared to be older, neglected ones, Dart said. "They specifically looked to older graves, where there might not be someone coming out there every week," he said.

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July 10, 2009

BY MARY MITCHELL Sun-Times Columnist

Broken. Rusted. Battered. The image of a glass-covered casket with the body of Emmett Till was shown around the world in the 1950s. But on Thursday, as hundreds of African Americans searched frantically for the graves of love ones, the battered casket of Till was rusting in the back of a shack at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip.

The casket was surrounded by garbage and discarded headstones strewn about like litter.
» Click to enlarge image
The original coffin that had contained Emmett Louis Till (inset) was found at Burr Oak Cemetery Thursday in an old work area. The original casket was supposed to be part of a planned memorial for Till at Burr Oak Cemetery.
(Scott Stewart/Sun-Times, AP)


PHOTO GALLERY

Emmett Till's original casket

RELATED STORIES
Families anguished over dug up graves Video: Sheriff Dart discusses investigation 4 charged with digging up graves Photos: Investigating Burr Oak

"When we opened it up trying to find what we have, a family of possums ran out," said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

Cemetery workers had been cooperative and informed law enforcement officials that it was indeed Till's original casket.

"It sure looks like all of the photos I have ever seen," Dart said. "This is absolutely horrible."

In June 2005, Till's body was exhumed during an investigation of his death. As is customary, he was not reburied in the same casket.

The original casket was supposed to be part of a planned memorial for Till at Burr Oak Cemetery, but the donations for that memorial were allegedly pocketed by a woman who has been charged in this ghoulish scheme.

Till, 14, was kidnapped and murdered after he whistled at a white woman in 1955 in Mississippi. The lynching of the Chicago youth helped spark the civil rights movement. A picture of his severely mutilated face was shown around the world.

His original casket is symbolic of the condition of the battered condition of the cemetery.

Officers raided the cemetery at 4400 W. 127th St. in Alsip on Wednesday morning.

Four people, including Carolyn Towns -- the woman who was supposed to set up the Till memorial -- were charged with one count of dismemberment of a human body.

The other charged employees were Keith Nicks, 45; Terrence Nicks, 39, and Maurice Dailey, 59.

Throughout the day, Cook County sheriff's deputies ferried anxious family members to grave sites in buses ordinarily used to take inmates to Cook County Jail.

The landscape in some sections of the cemetery was dotted with orange utility flags that some people mistakenly thought indicated desecrated graves.

But beyond the grassy areas at Burr Oak, hidden by a wall of high weeds and buried under mounds of dirt, is the nightmare that all of these African Americans were praying they were spared.

The Cook County sheriff's office now estimates that about 300 bodies were dumped in the rear of Burr Oak, in an area that is about the size of three football fields.

Knowing what was out there was a heavy burden etched in the faces of the people who were waiting for answers.

Carolyn Singleton of Chicago sat in a folding chair outside of the cemetery's office building, where people were lined up seeking information about plot locations.

She had arrived at Burr Oak at 11 a.m. It was about 3 p.m., and she was still clutching No. 379.

Singleton told me she was looking for the grave sites of seven family members: her grandmother, two aunts, two uncles, a cousin, and her fiance's mother.

"This is like having a funeral all over again," she said. "My fiance's family is calling from out of town trying to get information. All this is giving me a headache."

I have to give Dart credit for the way he has handled this unprecedented catastrophe.

Although the cemetery's owners said they would attend a news conference at the cemetery, they failed to show. With most of the employees under arrest, the Cook County Sheriff 's Department is essentially running the cemetery.

Sheriff's deputies drove worried families back and forth to sections of the cemetery to look for plots.

Armed detectives took information from distraught people who either could not find their loved one's grave site or discovered something was amiss.

Other employees with the Cook County sheriff's office passed out cold bottled water and even emptied garbage containers.

Although the process for locating plots was indeed slow, people were unbelievably patient, and sheriff's deputies were sensitive.

The Rev. Steve Jones, a chaplain for the sheriff's office and president of the Baptist Pastors Conference, was one of the people driving distressed survivors to grave sites.

Jones was thankful that Dart advised the clergy about the disaster before going public. He believes that decision helped bring an element of dignity to a situation that could have been chaotic.

"It wouldn't have been fair to exclude funeral homes or fair to pastors, not to be prepared for a catastrophe of this magnitude," Jones said.

"The fact is every black person in Chicago has a tie to this cemetery. When they took us to the crime scene, I walked over bones," he said.

"This whole thing makes the bereavement experience fresh. To even think your loved one's remains might not be in place. . . it really breaks my heart."

Whats wrong with people?

Great only proves how mental my state actually is