BURR OAK was for many years one of the few cemeteries around Chicago where a black person could be buried -- all of the other cemeteries were for WHITES ONLY. And now they've gone and robbed the graves of at least 300 buried souls, throwing the bodies in a common hole in back of the cemetery in the Chicago suburb Alsip, IL. "They" were not whites, but rather African-Americans.
GRAVE DIGGERS ROBBED HUNDREDS OF GRAVES
There were four altogether -- a ring leader and three grave diggers. They plundered old graves, crushed open the concrete liners and carted the human remains to a dump site. If bones rattled off the dump truck on the way, the bones were left on the side of the cemetery roads, said investigators.
Other graves were double stacked, one body on top of another. It was all so the plots could be resold and the perpetrators could make money -- untraceable cash money. The sheriff says it was more than $300,000 over the last four years; but, they only just the investigatioon.
Yesterday, four cemetery employees were arrested by Cook County Sheriff's officers: former cemetery manager Carolyn Towns, 49; foreman Keith Nicks, 45, dump-truck operator Terrence Nicks, 39 and backhoe operator Maurice Dailey, 59. Each was charged initially with dismembering a human body and each faces 30 years in prison.
Hoards of TV news crews invaded the cemetery to tell the horrific story -- live and all day. Sheriff's officers, state police, and county state's attorney general were all there. The FBI was there with big gear, like a thermal imaging machine to see underground and figure out which graves were robbed and which untouched. When I tuned into CNN, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart was about to give a press conference. But, before the Reverend Jesse Jackson and most of the media mob had arrived, however, something really thoughtful and decent happened.
SHERIFF ASKED CHAPLAINS TO BLESS DUMPED BODIES
Sheriff Dart dispatched the Chaplains from the Cook Co. Sheriff's Office to bless the grounds where the bodies were dumped after their plots were re-sold. I like this sheriff! How many other police officials ever put their egos aside and their desire to talk on CNN live on the back burner to consider the victims and feelings of their loved ones first? Maybe there are more than I assume and we just never hear about it. I pray that it's true.
As I watched, glued to the live TV coverage, a video camerman caught glimpse of an old man in the cemetery and simply followed him with the camera lens. Dressed up in a Sunday suit, the elderly man walked the cemetery. He was holding a Bible in his hand and walking very slowly with a younger man, maybe a nephew or grandson I guessed. He seemed to be looking for the grave of a loved one buried there at Burr Oaks, where many famous black musicians and sports figures are interred.
They walked oh-so slowly, a labored effort for the feeble older man. I wondered who it was that they were trying to find. Could it be his wife, maybe the boy's grandma, they were seeking?
THEY'RE ALL BURIED AT BURR OAK
Maybe he was a jazz man himself. He could have played with James Kokomo Arnold (right).
Maybe he and George "Sonny" Cohn (left) played trumpets together with Count Basie's band.
Maybe he spent many hours of his life, listening to "Queen of the Blues," the marvelous Dinah Washington (right). I know that I have!
He could have laughed listening to Jody Edwards of the comedy duo "Butterbeans and Susie," or watched Inman Jackson shoot hoops as a Harlem Globetrotter, celebrated Ezzard Charles (below) heavyweight boxing champion.
He could have been in the ball stadium and watched Jimmie Crutchfield, Negro League baseball player, hit a homer.
And then there's Emmett Till (left), the brutally-murdered teenager whose death helped galvanize the civil rights movement. Back in 2005, the Emmett Till Memorial Fund was set up for a museum on Burr Oak grounds. It was never built. State's Attorney Anita Alvarez has asked for the public's help in tracking donations to the fund. The money is missing.
All of these people are buried at Burr Oaks, along with many others -- legendary musicians from the Chicago blues era and just plain folks.
LOVED ONES SEARCH FRANTICALLY FOR GRAVES
As I continued to watch the TV coverage of the Burr Oak tragedy, I saw others besides the old man searching the cemetery. They had started arriving, after hearing the news, to look for the graves of their loved ones. Some held hand-drawn maps, which they were frantically trying to follow. All had worried looks on their faces. The cemetery office has no pertinent records of where graves are located because the ring-leader, cemetery manager Carolyn Towns, destroyed and altered records. Investigators will have to map the whole graveyard, somehow.
CEMETERIES ARE UNREGULATED
Sheriff Dart explained that if a person gets a haircut in Chicago, the barber must meet more regulations than a cemetery owner. "There are virtually no regulations whatsoever for cemeteries -- no regulations regarding records where burial plots are located. There's no city, county or state offices where you can compare records that may have been modified or destroyed," he said in frustration.
The sheriff's office has brought in 30 to 40 FBI experts --some who have scoured mass graves in Serbia and other parts of the world, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The process of trying to identify the bodies will be similar to work done at Ground Zero following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Apparently the four arrested suspects were able to successfully keep their actions hidden because bereaved relatives who came to the cemetery office often bought grave sites with cash. The cash was taken and the deeds and other paperwork for the graves were destroyed. Discovery of the grave robberies was made by another cemetery worker who was practicing on a backhoe and dug up some remains, then went to police. Detectives found a pile of bones, above ground and uncovered, in an overgrown, fenced-off area of the cemetery.
CEMETERY MAINTENANCE HAS BEEN NEGLECTED
While I watched video of the family members wandering around, lost in the cemetery, I saw the sad, neglected condition of much of the cemetery. Apparently, the historic resting site for so many prominent African-Americans had been drawing complaints from visitors in recent years. An item in the Chicago Tribune mentioned visitors appalled by the apparent lack of care and upkeep, of the Burr Oak cemetery, including: sunken or tilting gravestones, unmanageable roads, rivers of rainwater and an abundance of uncut weeds. What I saw looked like nothing had changed following the complaints.
With all the national news coverage Burr Oak is receiving, it'll be difficult for Illinois lawmakers and the black community to justify continued disregard or a position of ignorance. Now, everyone knows.
CAN'T BE IGNORED ANY LONGER
At many cemeteries in America, there are no offices or paid personnel. Volunteers in the community take care of mowing the lawn and maintenance. Of course, that's probably when the cemeteries are publicly-owned. But, I've never heard of a privately-owned cemetery refusing permission for family-members who want to pull the weeds around their loved-one's grave, plant some flowers or wash a tombstone. Actually, it seems a nice way to show you remember and care.
I guess I'm worried that after the heat of exposure has cooled with time, people may simply shrug their shoulders and say "There's nothing I can do about it." That is a victim's mentality. And, it's harmful, especially for those who express that feeling.
Pray for all those souls, long buried, but no longer forgotten.
TO READ "BURR OAK CEMETERY OPENS: RELATIVES-ONLY CAN CHECK GRAVES" CLICK HERE.
TO READ "WHERE IS EMMETT TILL'S COFFIN,WHERE ARE THE BABYLAND GRAVES?" CLICK HERE.
TO READ "EMMETT TILL CAN FINALLY REST IN PEACE: COFFIN SAVED FOREVER IN SMITHSONIAN" CLICK HERE.
CLICK AND READ:"BURR OAK CEMETERY, EMMETT TILL'S BURIAL SITE, TO BE SCANNED UNDERGROUND"
CLICK AND READ: "FAMOUS BURIALS AT CHICAGO'S BURR OAK CEMETERY"
By Sharon McEachern
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