07/09/2009

Associated Press

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart says workers at historic Burr Ridge Cemetery in the Chicago suburb of Alsip appear to have dug up more than 100 graves, dumped the bodies into unmarked mass graves and resold the plots to unsuspecting members of the public

Dart said at a news conference Wednesday that his office was questioning five cemetery employees who were allegedly involved in the grave selling scheme.

Dart said his office has been investigating the employees for about six weeks and learned of the scheme from Perpetua Holdings of Illinois, Inc., which has owned the cemetery since 2001.

Burr Oak is the final resting place of many famous African-Americans, including lynching victim Emmett Till, blues singers Willie Dixon, Dinah Washington and Otis Spann, as well as Harlem Globetrotter Inman Jackson.