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Looking for clues, feds exhume body |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Thursday, 02 June 2005 |
After 50 years, an accidental civil rights figure begins his final journey
Thursday, June 2, 2005
By Marcus K. Garner
Staff writer
All was quiet early Wednesday morning at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip.
Just before 4 a.m., the resting place of Emmett Louis Till was as peaceful as it had been for the past half a century.
With the stroke of the hour, actions were set in motion that would end eight hours later with Till's remains above ground more than 20 miles away in Chicago.
The tomb of the civil rights figure was unearthed Wednesday in an effort by federal officials to find explanations behind Till's abduction and murder 50 years ago at the hands of racist white men.
The exhumation of the teen's body from the south suburban cemetery is the most dramatic step yet since the investigation of his death was reopened last year.
In three days, forensics experts expect to know once and for all if the body taken from the grave is Till's. The investigation also could yield evidence that could bring the case to justice.
Arthur Everett, FBI special agent in charge, said the exhumation was an integral part of the effort to right an age-old wrong.
"Even though the system of justice sometimes turns very slowly, it still turns," Everett said.
Mississippi's refusal to pursue kidnapping charges against Till's admitted killers, coupled with the courage his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, showed in displaying his mutilated body to the public, galvanized the civil rights movement.
Minute by minute Wednesday, one of the final chapters in a crime steeped in historical significance played out like acts in a stage production.
4 a.m.
Burr Oak was abuzz with a nervous energy just before daybreak as cemetery staff and FBI agents began arriving. They were greeted by a growing media throng and Cook County sheriff's police, who had been guarding the only entrance into the cemetery since the night before.
A court order closed the cemetery, 4400 W. 127th St., until noon to anyone not employed there or involved in the exhumation process.
Police patrolled the surrounding neighborhood hoping to ward off anyone camped out in private yards hoping to catch a glimpse of the activities at the grave.
Weeks before, cemetery director Carolyn Towns said the tight security was ordered to "protect the dignity of (Till's) remains, and of his family, as well as the dignity of everyone interred at this cemetery."
As preparations to dig up Till's grave continued, a hitch surfaced.
"The tent crew was late," Towns said.
A rented white tent didn't arrive at 4:30 a.m. as planned. When it arrived around 5:15 a.m., crews scurried to erect the white tarp that would be large enough to shield a backhoe'smovements from the media cameras that were beginning to circle overhead.
6 a.m.
Till family members Crosby Smith, Simeon Wright and Abe Thomas were led by the Rev. Keith Hayes in a short prayer service before workers began to unearth the grave.
"It was sublime," Everett said of the five-minute ceremony.
In his prayer, Hayes retold the biblical tale of Jesus resurrecting his friend Lazarus from the grave. He said Lazarus' re-emergence from the dead would glorify God.
"What we were doing today was sacred, and eventually would also glorify God," Wright said, recounting the prayer.
Till was kidnapped Aug. 28, 1955, during a family visit to Money, Miss. After whistling at a white woman, his body was found days later floating in the Tallahatchie River with a gunshot wound in his head and a cotton gin fan tied around his neck.
Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, both dead now, were arrested and tried for kidnapping the boy but were acquitted by an all-white jury that deliberated for only an hour. The two later confessed in a national magazine that they pistol-whipped Till and shot him in the head.
No autopsy was ever performed of Till's body.
Wright shared a bed with Till the night the 14-year-old was abducted, and said he was relieved that this saga could be coming to an end.
"Finally, after 50 years, there's a possibility we're going to get something done with those people who were involved and are still alive," he said.
Workers began digging immediately after the ceremony, and after nearly two hours, were able to bring Till's burial vault to the surface.
The tomb of World War I veteran Henry Clay Gilliam was adjacent to Till's and had to be moved to allow workers to lift out Till's remains, a source present at the exhumation said.
8:15 a.m.
Federal authorities had the cemetery closed to the public as an "evidence gathering" measure, a source close to the investigation said.
Police were instructed to turn away anyone whose name wasn't on a special list prepared the previous night by the FBI.
Even U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Chicago), who helped introduce legislation that reopened Till's case, was banned from entering.
"I visited Burr Oak Cemetery today in support of the family, as well as the investigation," Rush said in a statement. "I was told that no one outside of immediate family and those involved directly with the exhumation would be allowed into the cemetery."
Through Rush's insistence, the case was reopened a year ago in Mississippi by U.S. District Attorney Joyce Chiles. The FBI was given authority to assist with the investigation.
Crime scene investigation vehicles surrounded the tent Wednesday as the crane on the rear of a flatbed truck loaded the entire concrete vault into a blue wooden box.
Till's remains were to be taken to the Cook County medical examiner's office in Chicago, where medical examiner Edmund Donoghue would lead a team of county staff, FBI forensics specialists and an expert from the Smithsonian Institution in examining the body, Everett said.
He said all parties present were relieved to find that the concrete vault holding Till's body was still in one piece.
"We didn't know if the vault would be intact," Everett said.
Cemetery director Towns said there was some water in the grave from the area's water tables, but little was in the concrete vault.
"It didn't disintegrate or collapse like some thought," Wright said. "I was a little concerned how it would hold up to 50 years of dampness."
Authorities said a metal coffin inside the vault also may have helped to keep Till's remains in good condition, which would bode well for those doing the examination.
10:37 a.m.
More than a dozen vehicles paraded from the cemetery onto 127th Street, escorting the truck carrying Till's remains. The blue-edged white flatbed truck carried the entire concrete vault encased in a blue wooden box and covered with a blue plastic tarp from the cemetery in Alsip to the medical examiner's office on the city's Near West Side where the remains will be autopsied over the next few days.
Several police and unmarked cars with lights flashing led the truck past officers blocking off the road west toward Interstate 294. A handful of news helicopters followed the procession and disappeared to the northeast.
Around 11:15 a.m., the convoy pulled into the parking lot behind the Stein Institute in Chicago's medical campus. The truck rolled past officers guarding the lot's two driveways and into the rear intake bay of the Cook County medical examiner's office. The entourage arrived from the west, pulling slowly down West Harrison Street, as if processing in a funeral. It turned the corner onto South Leavitt Street and crammed into the lot.
Several people in gray T-shirts emblazoned with "FBI" on the back, others in suits, hovered around the vehicles that also included two giant white vans with red and blue lights on the top. News choppers buzzed intently around in the overhead airspace, drowning out any verbal instruction.
The operation was intensely secret, as Chicago police officers stationed outside warned reporters and photographers against climbing the slopes surrounding the employee parking lot for a better view. Earlier in the day, employee cars normally parked behind a high retaining wall were moved, and the loading area was hosed down in anticipation of the vault's arrival. Blue police barricades blocked part of the driveway, and a large sport utility vehicle was strategically placed to prevent any peeping Toms from witnessing the disembarkment of Till's casket.
Inside the institute, security camera monitors had been reprogrammed to show a single static shot of the parking lot, instead of the regular slide show-type view of the institute's various doors and rooms. The view of the intake door where bodies are typically brought in to be examined could not be seen.
Out back, the crane behind the driver's cab of the flatbed truck slowly lifted the blue cover off the vault and put it back down. In a matter of about 15 minutes, the flurry of activity behind the wall seemed to have moved indoors.
Emmett Till's body had arrived.
11:30 a.m.
With Till's body gone, police slowly trickled away from Burr Oak, and the cemetery returned to a semblance of normalcy. A crew finished disassembling the tent over the grave, and cemetery workers shoveled dirt removed from the tomb into the back of a dump truck.
From her back yard, which abuts Burr Oak, Cathy Rogan watched the entire day unfold with great interest. Rogan, 54, was born and raised in Mississippi, and said she was excited to see history unfold in her back yard.
"Maybe this will spark a change in this country," she said.
Rogan, a white woman and mother of three, noted that even posthumously, Mobley could find peace if the case is resolved.
"A mother would want to know what happened to her son," she said. "I hope they find out who else was involved. Whoever it is that was involved, I don't care how old, they need to be punished."
Rush said he is glad to see the investigation reaching this stage, and said closure can't be far away.
Wright said the FBI's progress was positive, but said there can be no closure without convictions.
"I don't know about bringing closure," he said. "We've got to have a trial to bring closure."
The forensics team examining Till's remains has a limited time to find answers. The court order allowing the exhumation requires the body be returned to the grave.
Donoghue has said the inquest could take three days, but FBI officials won't make any promises.
"It takes as long as it takes," Everett said.
At noon, Burr Oak reopened to allow in the first funeral procession of the day. As a pair of cemetery workers knocked off for lunch, one left with an optimistic salutation to Till's grave.
"See you on Friday, Mr. Till," one worker said.
Contributing: Staff writer Lauren FitzPatrick
Marcus K. Garner may be reached at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or (708) 633-5960.
http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/dsnews/021nd1.htm |
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“Even at our birth, death does but stand aside a little. And every day he looks towards us and muses somewhat to himself whether that day or the next he will draw nigh.” Robert Bolt
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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