Funeralgate:
The Skeleton in Bush's closet is back from the dead

UPDATE:  Several of the funeral homes being sued for using the crematory 
where hundreds of desecrated corpses have been found were owned by SCI, the 
company from the original FuneralGate scandal. This scandal from Bush's days 
as governor of Texas resurfaced last December, when a very similar grisly 
discovery was made in Florida:  Bodies that were supposed to have been 
buried were dumped in the woods, buried with strangers, etc.  Read on...

Here's a new chapter in an old scandal involving a Bush contributor and 
longtime family friend, Robert Waltrip. This time it's the desecration of 
dead bodies, and George W. Bush is directly linked to this scandal (as is 
current FEMA director Joe Allbaugh,  GW's Chief of Staff while governor of 
Texas). According to Fox News, Waltrip's company, a cemetery company called 
Service Corporation International (also known as Dignity Memorial) was 
"recycling" graves, removing the bodies that were there originally and 
throwing them in the woods to use the space to house new customers at two 
Jewish cemeteries in Florida.

Bush's connection to the story is that he was subpoenaed in 1999 but refused 
to testify in a lawsuit by an ousted Texas state employee as to what his 
involvement was in halting an investigation into SCI's embalming practices, 
among other things. This was a big Texas scandal for our president at the time, 
but as you will learn from this Washington Post article dated August 31, 1999, 
a Texas judge put everything right for then-governor Bush, just in time to 
campaign for the Presidency.

The state of Texas and SCI settled the lawsuit for $210,000 on November 9, 
2001, weeks before the gruesome discovery made at two cemeteries in Florida 
caught the brief attention of the media.

Had the investigation been allowed to go on unencumbered, the corruption and 
mismanagement that led to the brutal and disgusting story you will see below 
might have been stopped a lot sooner. But while Bush was refusing to 
testify, while his administration was obstructing an investigation, the 
bodies of people's loved ones were being buried with the decomposing bodies 
of strangers, left out in the woods, and who knows what else.

>From Fox News December 20, 2001
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,41298,00.html

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Attorneys suing a cemetery company accused of 
recycling graves showed grisly photos and video footage Thursday of crushed 
burial vaults and human remains discarded in the woods.

They also presented internal documents they say show Menorah Gardens & 
Funeral Chapels in West Palm Beach and its owner, Houston-based Service 
Corporation International, were aware of the grave desecrations. SCI is the 
world's largest cemetery company.


The attorneys represent 10 families who say their loved ones were dug up and 
dumped in the woods, buried in the wrong graves or buried in vaults on top 
of each other instead of side by side as the families had paid
for. More than 1,000 people could become part of the class-action lawsuit, 
they said.

"That body that is placed to rest for eternity is now destroyed, maligned, 
abused," said attorney Ervin A. Gonzalez.

SCI officials did not immediately return a call Thursday but said Wednesday 
that they had no knowledge of any wrongdoing. The state attorney general's 
office is investigating Menorah Gardens and four other South Florida 
cemeteries owned by SCI.

A videotape and photos taken by private investigators showed a leg bone 
beside chunks of a concrete vault, in which coffins are placed. They also 
show Jewish burial shrouds, and a Star of David next to finger bones.

A former cemetery worker led investigators to the remains, attorneys said.

Remarks in the burial book, obtained from former employees, included "no 
room for spouse," "move Mrs. Kolin" and "dig this grave double deep."  
Another handwritten note said: "Where are Lippitis and who are Haskells and 
are they both deceased? Move Haskell marker."

The pages show "there are several hundred people who have purchased graves, 
premium contracts purchased years ago, that do not have a place to be laid 
to rest," said co-counsel Neal Hirschfeld.

Myra Stone of Lake Worth said her parents bought side-by-side graves in 
1982. Her father died in 1994, but another man allegedly was buried next to 
him in her mother's grave.

When her mother died last year, the cemetery's operators dug up the man's 
vault and threw most of his remains in the woods, according to a former 
employee.

"I understand that some of his remains are still in her grave," Stone said. 
"I am just horrified."

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, seeks unspecified damages.

"We've investigated allegations that we thought too heinous to be accurate, 
too horrible to be true, over the last several years," Hirschfeld said.

http://www.hereinreality.com/funeralgate.htm

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Also see: Suicidal Coincidences
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Foley Calls for Federal Probe
Riled families barred from visiting cemetery
http://www.hereinreality.com/funeralgate.htm