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- Sep 15, 2008
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A group of Illinois grave diggers were charged Thursday with running a morbid scam in which they exhumed corpses in a historic black cemetery to resell the empty plots, cops said.
Investigators suspect more than 300 bodies were dug up in the suburban Chicago graveyard and discarded in a pit so the ghouls could cash in.
"There should be a special place in hell" for the perpetrators, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said during a press conference at the desecrated grave yard.
The famed Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip is the final resting place of civil rights lynching victim Emmett Till and his mother, as well as jazz legend Dinah Washington, bluesman Willie Dixon and boxing champ Ezzard Charles.
While the graves of the notables were believed to be intact, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said that doesn't lessen the outrage.
"What we found was beyond startling and revolting," Dart said.
Read more: Four nabbed in ghoulish scheme to dig up graves in historic Illinois cemetery
Why was there an all black cemetery in Illinois? I thought segregation was a "Southern" thang!?
Investigators suspect more than 300 bodies were dug up in the suburban Chicago graveyard and discarded in a pit so the ghouls could cash in.
"There should be a special place in hell" for the perpetrators, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said during a press conference at the desecrated grave yard.
The famed Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip is the final resting place of civil rights lynching victim Emmett Till and his mother, as well as jazz legend Dinah Washington, bluesman Willie Dixon and boxing champ Ezzard Charles.
While the graves of the notables were believed to be intact, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said that doesn't lessen the outrage.
"What we found was beyond startling and revolting," Dart said.
Read more: Four nabbed in ghoulish scheme to dig up graves in historic Illinois cemetery
Why was there an all black cemetery in Illinois? I thought segregation was a "Southern" thang!?