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As Many As 300 Graves Tampered With At Historic Cemetery
Authorities now say as many as 300 graves may have been tampered with at an historic cemetery where such African Americans as blues singer Willie Dixon and lynching victim Emmitt Till are buried.
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ALSIP, Ill. (July 9, 2009)--Authorities say as many as 300 corpses may have been tampered with in a historic black cemetery near Chicago.
They say hundreds of bodies may have been unearthed.
Some corpses were strewn in a weeded area and others reburied in existing graves.
The Cook County sheriff says it was all part of a scheme to resell the burial plots.
Four cemetery workers have been charged with dismembering a human body.
Burr Oak Cemetery is the burial place of many famous black Americans, including lynching victim Emmett Till and blues legend Dinah Washington.
The sheriff says Till's grave was not disturbed, but he isn't sure about Washington's.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson was there Thursday, along with many angry family members.
He said there's "a special place in hell" for the people accused in the alleged scheme.
More than a dozen FBI agents will be helping sort through the evidence and identify remains.
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