Relatives of people buried in a historic cemetery in south suburban Alsip have been flocking there to check on the graves of their loved ones.
Relatives of people buried in a historic cemetery in south suburban Alsip have been flocking there to check on the graves of their loved ones. Three gravediggers and a manager at the Burr Oak Cemetery are accused of unearthing hundreds of corpses in an elaborate scheme to resell burial plots. Authorities say some of the corpses were dumped in a weeded area, while others were double-stacked in existing graves. The cemetery is the final resting place of lynching victim Emmett Till, as well as blues singers Willie Dixon and Dinah Washington. Investigators have found Till’s original glass-topped casket rusting in a shack at the cemetery. The 14-year-old was killed in 1955 after reportedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. 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 Cook County Sheriff’s office and other authorities planned to discuss their investigation Friday. ______ Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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