Court Appoints New Director For Scandal-Plagued Burr Oak Cemetery, Class Action Suit Filed

CHICAGO (AP) -- A Cook County judge has appointed a veteran cemetery director to run everyday operations at Burr Oak Cemetery, where an investigation continues into a grave desecration and moneymaking scheme.

Judge Stuart Palmer appointed Roman Szabelski (shah-BELL-skee) of Chicago on Wednesday. Szabelski is executive director of Catholic Cemeteries, which runs about 40 cemeteries in northeastern Illinois. He has 40 years experience.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart petitioned the court Tuesday to hire a trustee because employees of Burr Oak were asking him for direction.

The sheriff's staff and FBI agents are sifting through old cemetery records and surveying the grounds of Burr Oak to identify bodies buried there.

Four former Burr Oak workers are accused of digging up bodies and reselling the plots.

-ASSOCIATED PRESS

Also Wednesday, the daughter of boxing legend Ezzard Charles, who is buried at Burr Oak, joined a class-action lawsuit filed against the cemetery's owner and the four employees charged in the grave desecration scheme, the Tribune reports:

Deborah Charles, 58, of Chicago said that after news broke last week about bodies being dug up at Burr Oak she toured the graves of her father and mother and noticed they had been tampered with.

She said her father's headstone, which had been sunken into the grass since his burial in 1975, had been raised slightly. And she noticed her mother's headstone no longer sat directly beside her father's.

Ezzard Charles became the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world when he beat Joe Louis in 1950. He died of complications from Lou Gehrig's Disease in Chicago in 1975.

See a photo gallery of the Burr Oak story.

Comments

[Bude]

ABC 7 did an expose on some other cemeteries, and it looks like they'll be discussing regulations in Springfield real soon.

[steamboat]

I'm sure we all agree these 4 people are S-I-C-K and belong in prison for a long long time. I'm sure we ALL feel so sad for anybody who has people buried at this cemetery........Having said that, I have questions. And I hope you give me your thoughts.

1. How did this woman (the ring-leader of these 4) get a management job at the cemetery in '01 when she had such a shaky past as far as the IRS, taxes, in debt, etc. is concerned? Don't they do background checks anymore?

2. This cemetery is in Alsip (a white-majority town). And near towns such as Crestwood, Chicago Ridge, Midlothian, Worth, etc., etc. All white-majority towns.....Now I realize a black man from Dallas, TX was owner. And its a company with several cemeteries around the nation.......But why ONLY black employees when whites do live nearby? Same for hispanics? .....What happened to DIVERSITY, FAIRNESS, and EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYMENT?