Cemetery workers made thousands in grave scheme, claim officials

Four former employees accused of digging up bodies and reselling plots at a historic black cemetery near Chicago made about $300,000 (€215,000) in a scheme believed to have stretched back at least four years, authorities said today.

Three gravediggers and a manager at the Burr Oak Cemetery are accused of unearthing hundreds of corpses and either dumping some in a weeded, desolate area near the cemetery or double-stacking others in graves.