Bryan W. Alaspa 1We Don’t Leave You Alone Even After you’re Dead
July 11th 2009 13:48
Chicago has been a city known for corruption from the get-go. Seriously. You just ask any historian who knows anything about cities in the United States and they will tell you that the name Chicago is synonymous with “corruption.” Throughout the history of this city there have been some of the most unique or strange scandals that this country has ever seen.
Take the recent scandal involved with former governor Rod Blagojevich. Now, Rod did his things when he was down there in Springfield being all governor-ish. But Rod was from the Chicago area. So, you know he was trained in being an idiot and corrupt politician in the mean streets of the Windy City. Allegedly.
We have had some of the most notorious killers in history. Even the mafia, out in New York, thought that Al Capone and his people were too nuts and too blood-thirsty to deal with. Richard Speck didn’t just rape and kill one nurse, no, he had to go for eight. John Wayne Gacy held the rather sad, disgusting and horrific record of most kills for a serial killer. It is sad that this is a record that has since been broken.
So, it really shouldn’t be shocking when you find out that one of the oldest cemeteries in the city has been involved in a corruption scandal. See, here in Chicago it isn’t enough that you die. No, we have to desecrate your grave and dig up your body and the re-sell the plot where you’ve been buried.
The cemetery where this has happened is the Burr Oak Cemetery. It is a predominantly African-American cemetery. However, it is a historic place. The major lightning rod for the civil rights movement, Emmett Till, is buried there. Some legendary blues and jazz musicians are also buried there.
The scandals was perpetrated by at least four workers at the cemetery. They would dig up graves, toss the bones aside, and then sell the plots of land to other people. They are saying there could be as many as three hundred bodies that were dug up and tossed aside.
Of course, hundreds of years ago, this was almost a common practice. Back in Shakespeare’s day, for example, you did not stay in the ground where you were buried forever. There just wasn’t land, or so they thought, even back then. No, you were buried until your body turned to bones. Then the bones were dug up and placed into an easy-to-carry container and returned to the family. These bones were often placed in smaller crypts and alcoves that took up much less space than those cemeteries.
These days, though, we believe that once you are placed somewhere you should stay there forever. Is it a waste of space? That isn’t for me to decide. What I do know is there are a lot of very upset families right now. Families that feel like their relatives have died all over again. Families that feel like their trust and their lives have been violated.
But that’s what we do here in Chicago. Even after you’re dead, we still don’t leave you alone. We’ll dig you up and screw you all over again if we can.
Take the recent scandal involved with former governor Rod Blagojevich. Now, Rod did his things when he was down there in Springfield being all governor-ish. But Rod was from the Chicago area. So, you know he was trained in being an idiot and corrupt politician in the mean streets of the Windy City. Allegedly.
We have had some of the most notorious killers in history. Even the mafia, out in New York, thought that Al Capone and his people were too nuts and too blood-thirsty to deal with. Richard Speck didn’t just rape and kill one nurse, no, he had to go for eight. John Wayne Gacy held the rather sad, disgusting and horrific record of most kills for a serial killer. It is sad that this is a record that has since been broken.
So, it really shouldn’t be shocking when you find out that one of the oldest cemeteries in the city has been involved in a corruption scandal. See, here in Chicago it isn’t enough that you die. No, we have to desecrate your grave and dig up your body and the re-sell the plot where you’ve been buried.
The cemetery where this has happened is the Burr Oak Cemetery. It is a predominantly African-American cemetery. However, it is a historic place. The major lightning rod for the civil rights movement, Emmett Till, is buried there. Some legendary blues and jazz musicians are also buried there.
The scandals was perpetrated by at least four workers at the cemetery. They would dig up graves, toss the bones aside, and then sell the plots of land to other people. They are saying there could be as many as three hundred bodies that were dug up and tossed aside.
Of course, hundreds of years ago, this was almost a common practice. Back in Shakespeare’s day, for example, you did not stay in the ground where you were buried forever. There just wasn’t land, or so they thought, even back then. No, you were buried until your body turned to bones. Then the bones were dug up and placed into an easy-to-carry container and returned to the family. These bones were often placed in smaller crypts and alcoves that took up much less space than those cemeteries.
These days, though, we believe that once you are placed somewhere you should stay there forever. Is it a waste of space? That isn’t for me to decide. What I do know is there are a lot of very upset families right now. Families that feel like their relatives have died all over again. Families that feel like their trust and their lives have been violated.
But that’s what we do here in Chicago. Even after you’re dead, we still don’t leave you alone. We’ll dig you up and screw you all over again if we can.
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