How Do We Dispose of Murderers Remains

The news, this week, seemed to be about the controversy of what to do with the body of Boston Marathon bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. 

Robert Healy

On Monday authorities in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Tsarnaev spent his teen years while in the U.S., issued a statement that the city did not want him to be buried there.

A statement issued by Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy read, "I have determined that it is not in the interest of 'peace within the city' to execute a cemetery deed for a plot within the Cambridge Cemetery for the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev."

Shroud

His widow, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, indicated she wanted her husband’s body released to his family.  Those family members have claimed it and prepared it for a Muslim interment but cannot find a cemetery that will accept it for burial.

Protesters in Cambridge

Protesters and picketers marched in Cambridge and Boston, opposing any plans to bury the marathon bomber in their communities.  In fact, the entire state of Massachusetts made it clear they do not want the body buried there. 

Governor Patrick

Russian Consulate

Governor Deval Patrick declined to intervene.  The State Department also refused to get involved and recommended that the Russian Consulate take the lead. But Russian officials did not respond, and now cemeteries across the U.S. are also refusing the burial.

Officials are now facing the question of what to do when no one wants the body?

Private Funeral

But why is there this problem about disposing of the remains of a terrorists/murderer?  We, as a country, have buried many killers, murderers, presidential assassins, and yes,  “domestic terrorists” throughout our history.

According to crime officials, the family of murderers and assassins want to keep the funeral arrangements private, fearing media attention, public protests, and defacing of the grave.

Last December Adam Lanza opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, killing 20 first-graders and six employees. Lanza committed suicide when police arrived on the scene.

His father claimed the body and ‘private arrangements’ were held.  In other words, the family did not want it known if the killer was buried or cremated, nor the location of a possible interment. The funeral home that handled the body requested to remain anonymous.

Alfred P. Murrah Building

On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City killing 168 people and injuring over 800. McVeigh became the first to be called an American terrorist.

Terre Haute Correctional Facility

McVeigh, a veteran, was executed in 2001 at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Thanks to legislation introduced by Senator Arlen Specter and signed by President Bill Clinton, any veteran convicted of capital crimes cannot be buried in any military cemetery.

McVeigh's Attorney

McVeigh was therefore cremated by a Terre Haute funeral home, and the ashes given to his attorney who scattered them at an undisclosed location.

On April 20, 1999 two high school seniors, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.  Within twenty minutes, the pair had killed 12 students and one teacher.  Another two-dozen students were wounded.  Klebold and Harris committed suicide.

Cremation

The bodies were returned to their families.  Klebold’s family had him cremated – fearing that burying him in a public cemetery would lead to desecration to his grave.  Harris’s family will not say if or where he was buried.

Columbia Correctional Institution

In 1994, mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer was beaten to death by another inmate, while serving a life sentence at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin, for murdering 16 men and boys. 

Dahmer's Parents

Dahmer’s divorced parents decided to have him cremated and then divided the ashes between them. It is unknown if either parent buried them.

Stateville Correctional Center

Inside Stateville

In 1991, mass murderer Richard Speck died of a heart attack while incarcerated at the Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, Illinois.  Speck murdered eight student nurses in Chicago in 1966.

After his death, no one claimed his body fearing reprisal and desecration of the grave.  Speck was cremated and the ashes scattered in a location only known to the Will County Corner and three others who witnessed it.

Map Where Bodies Found

Ted Bundy murdered an unknown number of women and girls during the 1970’s.  He confessed to more than 30 killings in seven states.

Cascade Mountains

Bundy was executed in 1989.  His body was taken to a funeral home in Gainesville, Florida where it was cremated.  Bundy had requested his ashes be scattered over the Cascade Mountains in Washington State – the same location as where at least four of his victims had been found.  Reports indicate that his ashes were scattered at an undisclosed location in accordance with his will.

In 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for assassinating President John F. Kennedy.  Two days later, Oswald was gunned down at a Dallas Police Station.

Rose Hill Memorial Cemetery

He was buried at Rose Hill Memorial Cemetery in Fort Worth, Texas.

The body was exhumed in 1981 to verify that it was Oswald and then reinterred shortly afterwards.

Hitler's Bunker

Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator responsible for the Holocaust and millions of deaths during World War II, committed suicide on April 30, 1945 when Soviet forces were closing in on him.

Berlin to Magdeburg

SMERSH

According to Hitler’s instructions, his body was doused in fuel and set on fire outside his bunker.  Two days later, the Soviet’s recovered what was left of the body. They then buried and exhumed it several times, as a way to take it with them as they made their way from Berlin to Magdeburg. The remains were finally buried in a courtyard at the SMERSH counter-intelligence facility in Magdeburg in 1946.  

Biederitz River

But in 1970, the KGB exhumed the remains and had them cremated and pulverized before throwing them into the Biederitz River.  (Another report says the ashes were flushed into the city sewage system.)

John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, also had a hard time staying buried.  Booth was buried in a storage room at the Old Penitentiary in Washington, D.C. after he was killed by Union soldiers.

Booth Family Marker

But two years later the body was moved to a warehouse at the Washington Arsenal.  In 1869, the remains were finally released to his family who buried him in the family plot at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore.

Pick Up of Body

Tsarnaev’s body was finally claimed by his family in the U.S.  and released to a local funeral home earlier this week. But so far, no cemetery in the country has agreed to allow the burial. If a location is not found soon, we may need to act as Tsarnaev’s home country would.

According to Russian law, terrorists killed by government forces should be buried in an undisclosed location and forgotten.  Not even the family is notified where the grave is.

~ Joy

05/10/13 3 P.M. Update:
The body of Tsarnaev has been buried in a  Muslim cemetery in Caroline County, Virginia.  Officials have released a statement indicating that the county was not consulted before the burial and did not provide permission.  However, it is not standard practice for a county, or town, to be consulted before a burial.  

Lincoln’s Phantom Train

Lincoln's Funeral Train

In the spring of the year, you might hear whisperings about a phantom train seen traveling through seven U.S. states.  Legend has it this is the Funeral Train of President Abraham Lincoln, still running its designated route from Washington to Springfield – and still on time.

Abraham Lincoln

Mary Todd Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, was surrounded by odd occurrences and paranormal experiences all of his life.  His wife, Mary Todd Lincoln dabbled in spiritualism, believed in omens, and held séances trying to establish contact with her dead son Willie.

Lincoln's Dream

Lincoln’s death also held mystery. About two weeks before he was killed, Lincoln had a dream that foretold his death.  In the dream, he heard sobbing and followed it to the East Room where he saw soldiers guarding a body.  When Lincoln asked, “Who is dead in the White House?”, a solider answered, “The President.  He was killed by an assassin.”

At Ford's Theatre

Three days after relating his dream to his wife, Mary, and a few close friends, Lincoln was assassinated. It was during the evening of April 14, 1865 at Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C.  Actor John Wilkes Booth burst into the Presidential box and shot the president at point-blank range before escaping.  Lincoln lived only a few hours before dying at 7:22 A.M. on April 15^th.  Flags were immediately lowered to half-mast, bells across the city began to toll, and a shocked nation went into mourning.

Oak Hill Chapel

William (Willie) Lincoln

It had been planned that Lincoln’s young son Willie was eventually to be interred back home in Springfield, Illinois. When Lincoln died, both he and Willie would make the final journey home together.  Willie had died in 1862 at the age of 11 from what was apparently typhoid fever.  Willie’s body was removed from a borrowed vault at Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown so that he could be buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois.

Edwin Stanton

Funeral Train Route

Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton was in charge of overseeing the arrangements for the funeral train.  An order to commandeer the use of the railroads from Washington to Springfield, Illinois was issued. The funeral train would travel 1,654 miles along the same route Lincoln had taken as president-elect in 1861. The only difference was the train would not go through Pittsburgh or Cincinnati.

Funeral Train

Schedule of Route

The train left Washington on April 21^st  and arrived in Springfield, Illinois on May 3^rd , having traveled through seven states, and past 440 communities. The actual funeral route went through Baltimore, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, New York City, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, and Chicago, before arriving at Springfield.

Guard of Honor

The Nine Car Train

The funeral train was called The Lincoln Special. The engine was the known as the Nashville. The train consisted of nine cars with the funeral car being the eighth in line. A Guard of Honor accompanied Lincoln’s body, and his son Robert also rode on the train.

Mourners Line Tracks

Thousands lined the tracks during the 13-day trip.  Regardless of the time of day, or night, entire towns and communities turned out to pay their respects and watch silently as the train bearing their president glided past.

Depot at Springfield, Illinois

Lincoln Home Draped in Mourning

The Lincoln Special reached its destination of Springfield on May 3^rd, 1865.  But, it
apparently still runs the same route each year during the last part of April. At least, a phantom funeral train does...

Hundreds have reported seeing the ghost train traveling through the countryside with the President’s casket aboard.  It has been rumored that clocks and watches stop running when the train passes by. The air on the tracks becomes cool and sharp, while just off to the side, the air remains warm but still. Clouds cover the moon, and a ghostly headlight pierces the night. Suddenly, with a rush of wind, the train passes by, noiselessly, as if running on a carpet.

There are reports that mournful music may be heard coming from the train, while others say that the train goes past without a sound.  Some see smoke belch from the stack, others hear an eerie whistle as the train approaches. There are reports of skeletons dressed in blue, standing at attention by Lincoln’s flag-draped casket.  Flags and streamers attached to the train whip in the wind, but no sound is heard as the train fades from view

Albany, New York

If the phantom train encounters a real train, the sounds are suddenly hushed as the ghost train passes through it and continues on its spectral journey.

Getting Ready in Urbana, Ohio

Communities throughout the seven states still hold watches for the phantom funeral train.  The best known are in Albany, New York on the nights of April 26 and 27, and in Urbana, Ohio, on the night of April 29^th.

To see if a community near you is on the list of places the train passed through, visit the Lincoln Highway National Museum & Archives @ http://www.lincoln-highway-museum.org/WHMC/WHMC-LFTR-01.html

Legend has it that the phantom train never reaches its destination but simply disappears some where along the tracks out on the Illinois prairie.

Lincoln's Funeral Car

The Lincoln funeral car changed hands several times after fulfilling its duty. Unfortunately, in March 1911, the car was destroyed when a fire swept through an area near Minneapolis, Minnesota where it was being stored.

Regardless, you might want to grab a blanket and take a friend with you tonight to a lonely set of tracks where, if you’re lucky, you might get to see Lincoln’s Funeral Train solemnly pass by…yet again.

~ Joy

Attending a Funeral

Today, I went to a cemetery - for the usual reason people go– bidding farewell to someone.  It has been years since I’ve actually been to one without a camera, and I felt a bit odd to be a part of the event, and not a detached watcher across the way.

On a windy hill in a tiny country cemetery, I stood with others under the bright April sunshine as another soul was remembered. 

And I wondered how many people had stood on that tiny hill, remembering someone dear, while clergy and friends try to console but can only offer a partial understanding of the grief, and an allocation of hope.

A Korean veteran, the deceased was given Military Funeral Honors by local American Legion members.  As the detail leader presented the folded U.S. flag to his wife, he explained what each color stood for; “The blue in the flag represents the sea and sky and stands for justice.  The red in the flag represents valor and the blood shed by American heros who sacrified for our freedom.  The white stripes in the flag symbolize our liberty.”  I have seen this presentation of the flag many times on television, but have never attended a veteran’s funeral and heard what words may be said to the family.

The ‘three volley of musketry’ salute to a fallen comrade, an American military custom, was sharp in the morning air – three shots fired in quick succession.  Then the call “Bugler” came, and I knew I wouldn’t make it through with dry eyes.  The haunting sound of Taps was fitting and filled the air with long sweet notes, played by one man, his weathered face slightly raised toward the sun…

Then came the command to ‘Order arms’ and the seven older veterans soldiered their rifles on their shoulders and began their slow walk back across the hill, and into their normal day.

As various scriptures were read, I remembered the first time I had met Bob.  He and his wife, MaryAnn, close friends of one of my dearest friends, Terry, had attended a play we were in.  It was my first venture into theatre and I had landed a lead against a seasoned actress.

As we stood in front of the stage after the performance, meeting and greeting those who had attended, Bob had shaken my hand and said, “You two have a sort of magic up on that stage – You play well off of each other – You can make people laugh.  What a wonderful gift.”

Terry and I have gone on to star opposite each other in numerous shows, and each time Bob and MaryAnn were in attendance, until his health became too bad for them to continue.

But every time, before I step onto that stage in front of an audience, I think of those words… – "You can make people laugh. What a wonderful gift."   Indeed, it is. And what a wonderful, touching compliment for an actor to hear.

As the service drew to a close, a lone bagpiper stood on the crest of the hill, stately in his jacket and kilt.  The plume on his hat swayed in the breeze.  As the final prayer died away, ever so gently, he began to play - Amazing Grace.

With each sonorous note, it seemed as if he were drawing the sound up from the earth, releasing it with the bellows he controlled under his arm. I turned toward him, the only one in the small gathering, to watch. And in that moment, I understood just how important a cemetery really is – It not just as a place to bury our dead, to memorialize them, to go and remember in; it is also a place where we separate and say goodbye, where bonds are broken, where we must let go and release them, in order to grasp the parting of ways.

Lost in the moment, I realized the music had changed; the sound was starting to recede.  When I looked up, the bagpiper was walking away, slowly, toward the sun, head held high, kilt and red plume blowing in the prairie wind. And in that moment, I could picture Bob walking beside him, following the music to see where it would lead.

The bagpiper crested the hill and was lost from view – but the final notes hung on the air for a moment, before being whipped skyward in a mixture of finality, and tumultuous expectation….

~ Joy