Last Conspirator In Burr Oak Cemetery Scam Pleads Guilty

By Jim Bochnowski in News on Jul 15, 2015 8:55PM

The last of four individuals involved in a scam to resell plots in historic Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip has formally plead guilty.

The scheme, masterminded by the cemetery's former director, Carolyn Towns, was originally uncovered back in 2009. The four people conspired to dig up hundreds of funeral plots, dump the desecrated bodies in a field, then resell the spaces, according to prosecutors. The cemetery serves as the final resting place for blues singers Dinah Washington and Willie Dixon, heavyweight boxing champion Ezzard Charles and Civil Rights figure Emmett Till, among others.

Four individuals were charged in relation to the crime: Towns, foreman Keith Nicks, his brother and dump-truck operator Terrence Nicks and backhoe operator Maurice Dailey. Towns was sentenced to a 12 year prison sentence in 2011 and the Nicks brothers were sentenced in April.

On Tuesday, after seeing the sentences received by his co-conspirators, Dailey pleaded guilty to the desecration of human remains, removal of human remains and removal of gravestones or markers, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. At the trial of the two Nicks brothers, a seasonal landscaper at the cemetery described Dailey as an "alcoholic who drank Crown Royal whiskey on the job every day" and even joked about being arrested for his crimes while on the job.

Dailey is slated to be formally sentenced on Aug. 28.