Thursday, July 9, 2009
Crime / Life Beware the Greedy Gravedigger
Posted by David Schmader on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 1:36 PM
From NBC Chicago:
Families whose loved ones were buried at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip [Illinois] are flocking to the grounds to find out if their plots are safe after investigators said as many as 300 graves were dug up so they could be resold in a money-making scheme.Four people have been charged in the scheme....all were charged with dismembering bodies—a Class X felony—because graves were dug up with backhoes and the bodies haphazardly discarded. Those charged are: Carolyn Towns, the 49-year-old officer manager who is suspected of being the mastermind of the scheme; and Maurice Dailey, 49, Terrence Nicks, 39, and Keith Nicks, 45, all gravediggers at Burr Oak.
Full story here (including an investigator's premonition that "somebody's going to hell for this one.")
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3
Burr Oak was always "the black cemetery." Considering how many black folks scrimped and saved week after week so they could be buried with dignity, this strikes me as particularly hard.
4
I guess I don't really understand this scheme... even if they were using areas with older graves or that aren't visited often, doesn't the plan immediately unravel the first time someone's like, hey, where's my relative's grave?
Maybe I'm expecting the criminals of being too logical here, since they apparently didn't even make too much of an effort to hide the bodies they'd dug up.
Maybe I'm expecting the criminals of being too logical here, since they apparently didn't even make too much of an effort to hide the bodies they'd dug up.
5
"Maybe I'm expecting the criminals of being too logical here, since they apparently didn't even make too much of an effort to hide the bodies they'd dug up."
Yes, I get the sense an unindicted co-conspirator was meth.
Yes, I get the sense an unindicted co-conspirator was meth.
8
Have we, as a society, learned nothing from the film "Poltergeist?" Ancient Indian or Modern Era, burial grounds are not to be fucked with.
9
What exactly is a "class X" felony?
Class X makes several significant changes in the Illinois criminal justice system, the most prominent of which is the creation of a new category of felony offenses. Such crimes as kidnapping, rape and sexual assault, armed robbery or armed violence, treason, and manufacture or sale of narcotics have been designated Class X felonies (murder retains a separate felony designation), and the prison sentences for these offenses have been significantly increased.
But the most significant change is the abolition of both indeterminate sentencing and parole. Illinois felons will now be sentenced to a specific number of years in prison, and they will serve the entire term less only specifically calculated time for good behavior.
In addition. Class X doubles the normal prison sentence for repeat offenders (those twice convicted of the same Class X felony) and for "heinous" offenders (those whose crime is "accompanied by exceptionally brutal or heinous behavior indicative of wanton cruelty"). Habitual criminals (those convicted of three Class X felonies) receive mandatory life sentences.
Class X makes several significant changes in the Illinois criminal justice system, the most prominent of which is the creation of a new category of felony offenses. Such crimes as kidnapping, rape and sexual assault, armed robbery or armed violence, treason, and manufacture or sale of narcotics have been designated Class X felonies (murder retains a separate felony designation), and the prison sentences for these offenses have been significantly increased.
But the most significant change is the abolition of both indeterminate sentencing and parole. Illinois felons will now be sentenced to a specific number of years in prison, and they will serve the entire term less only specifically calculated time for good behavior.
In addition. Class X doubles the normal prison sentence for repeat offenders (those twice convicted of the same Class X felony) and for "heinous" offenders (those whose crime is "accompanied by exceptionally brutal or heinous behavior indicative of wanton cruelty"). Habitual criminals (those convicted of three Class X felonies) receive mandatory life sentences.
10
@1: Yeah, so we should just randomly plow them up. Fuck treating the bodies of the dead with respect! What are we, elephants?
11
Since we do this to Native American gravesites all the time, I figure this is just karmic payback.
Cremate me and blow my ashes on Fnarf's gaudy memorial when I die (after you spray it with sparkle glue).
Cremate me and blow my ashes on Fnarf's gaudy memorial when I die (after you spray it with sparkle glue).
12
Hey Schmader:
Don't you know it's my job to post about things that happen in Chicago? And how come no trolls are telling you to fuck off and die? Sheesh.
Bill
Don't you know it's my job to post about things that happen in Chicago? And how come no trolls are telling you to fuck off and die? Sheesh.
Bill
13
@4,
Yeah, and old graveyards have plenty of graves that have long been forgotten. They couldn't try to identify those and only dig those up? But I concur with Schmader @5.
Yeah, and old graveyards have plenty of graves that have long been forgotten. They couldn't try to identify those and only dig those up? But I concur with Schmader @5.
14
"Since we do this to Native American gravesites all the time, I figure this is just karmic payback."
"We"? Is Will black? These are African-Americans whose bodies were dug up. Have blacks been digging up Indian graves? Because I don't see the karmic payback.
Further, there was a considerable amount of black-Indian intermarriage over the centuries. The black bones dug up could well be Indian.
"We"? Is Will black? These are African-Americans whose bodies were dug up. Have blacks been digging up Indian graves? Because I don't see the karmic payback.
Further, there was a considerable amount of black-Indian intermarriage over the centuries. The black bones dug up could well be Indian.
15
tiktok, usually it's good form to give source info when you rip something off from teh internetz. I mean, even WIkipedia has footnotes now.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?…
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?…
17
The Graveyard scam was the effect of economic and financial crisis. Probably they really need money, digging up and re-selling the plots is the only way they know just to earn extra money. But for everyone, its wrong. Somebody say’s they should be charged for what they did while some say’s they should be throw in jail. Even the fast cash is not enough to the damage they did to the families who have loved one’s in the cemetery.
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