Eastern Cemetery

I have recently moved into a new home and in the last few days of settling in I have gotten on one of my “documentary kicks.” I am not a huge Amazon Prime Tv user but I do go back to it from time to time, this is one of those times. Often many of the stories I find on there do not necessarily rise to the level of “crime” that you generally see from me here, but they generally are crimes none the less and ones that I find interesting. Aside from this one I have at least two other blogs to research and compile based on documentaries I have watched recently. The documentary that inspired this blog was called “Facing East.” While I obviously watch true crime shows, read true crime books and write this blog, my other passion in life is genealogy and so cemeteries obviously fall into that category.

Both my mother and grandmother were involved in genealogy and there are pictures of me as a small child sitting at the gravestones of ancestors. My genealogy progress is much like my progress here. Many times when I take a break from doing blogs it is because I have moved on into delving into my genealogy and being a large contributor to the Findagrave.com website. My oldest son has picked up that passion at a different level and has created a Facebook page dedicated to telling the stories of famous people throughout history including their burial plots. In fact, during the Fourth of July weekend he had come to visit and we had made a trip to Louisville, among other places, to visit Cave Hill Cemetery specifically to see the graves of Muhammad Ali and for me in particular, Mia Zapata. We were crunched on time as we had gotten a late start and had forgotten in our hour and a half drive that there was a time difference that lost us an hour so we have discussed going back. I definitely plan to then also visit Eastern Cemetery as I learned that it is directly adjacent to Cave Hill, with only a tall red brick wall dividing the two.

Eastern Cemetery was founded in the late 1840's. There seems to be a little conflicting information as to who and how it was initially founded but within less than ten years the cemetery was co-owned by three local Methodist churches, all of which who donated some land which combined came to close to thirty acres of land. At that time it was known as The Methodist Cemetery.

In the 1840's Louisville was not what it is now and was considered to be a rather rural and small town and it was not long before families were moving out west. It is believed that it was around 1858 when some would consider to be the first “criminal” activity began in the cemetery. As is often the case, no matter what century or decade you are dealing with, people have no way of knowing how life will change over time. In 1858 there were not automobiles or paved roads or anything like that so when someone moved far, far, away the odds of them coming back were likely pretty rare. It was said that Shanks would often watch the newspaper as there would be accounts of families moving or even the publication of letters people sent to the newspaper announcing their move and promoting their new area. To Shanks this meant that for those families who had once buried loved ones in Eastern Cemetery, they would no longer be visiting. And, while the thought of someone not having visitors at their grave may sound sad all by itself to some, what Shanks did made things worse. Once he had determined a family had moved away and the gravestone would not longer likely receive visitors he would then re-sell the plot, often simply removing the headstone to appear that it was an empty plot. Apparently this was not discovered until the 1980's, at least at a public level, so obviously nothing was done about it. As time went on and the public became unaware of things, even as the cemetery would change hands as far as ownership, it seemed to be a practice that was passed on from business owner to business owner.

At some point around 1903 a group of African American caretakers had gone to the board that ran Eastern Cemetery and asked to borrow some money to create their own cemetery that would be named Greenwood. The cemetery was apparently further out from the town and between the dirt roads and the flooding issues after several years the original owner could no longer function there. Now, by the time this happened not all roads were simply made of dirt and the owners had tried repeatedly to have the road leading to the cemetery paved, at least in the manner of the times, but it was said that this was fought against, especially by those in charge of Eastern Cemetery, the people who had loaned the group the money and eventually the owners ended up basically abandoning the cemetery. Not only did the owners of Eastern Cemetery gain ownership but it was said that they sued the original owners for the payment of the initial loan. During all of this time not only were the “caretakers” of the cemeteries apparently continuing the practice of Thomas Shanks by re-selling and using graves, they also were not allotting funds as required that would help maintain the cemetery.

At some point a company named Louisville Crematories and Cemetery Company was formed. It appears that this name first comes to light possibly in the 1920's. Eastern Cemetery would have the first, and for a long time the only, crematory in the city. In fact, the University of Louisville often used their services when it came to donated bodies.

By the 1980's the two cemeteries, Eastern in particular can only be described as a “hot mess.” Gravestones were sinking and it was not uncommon to find human bones laying along the 30 acre property. According to one caretaker and maintenance man, Bob Allen any time these, and other issues were brought up to those in charge nothing was done and all were expected to simply do their jobs. “Doing their job” included digging graves and finding the remains of other bodies and covering them with tarp so the family of newly deceased did not see what was underneath. It also included requiring them to pick up any bones they would see or find scattered throughout the area so that visitors, or officials would not see. Finally, in early 1989, Allen had enough and he had gone to the Kentucky Attorney General's office and made a report. The cemetery was still being ran by the company known as Louisville Crematories and Cemetery Company. It is unclear when a man by the name of Clifford Amos began working for the company but from 1980-1986 he was the “acting” executive director and by 1989 was the board President. A man by the name of Charles Alexander Jr had been the executive director since 1986 and a man named Robert Copley was the board Vice President and had worked for the company since 1987.

One thing I found quite interesting while watching the documentary is that the CEO of Cave Hill Cemetery, that is right next to Eastern, was interviewed about several conversations he had with Clifford Amos. He reported that he had asked Amos once how they were still able to have plots available considering that compared to Cave Hill, which is 296 acres of land, Eastern was extremely small and Cave Hill was at 80% capacity. He stated that Amos just shrugged and stated that they find room. The CEO also stated that one day while caretakers were digging a grave in Eastern there were others on the other side of the wall in Cave Hill who witnessed bones being thrown over the brick wall. Many who knew Amos would claim that he was extremely over his head and that while he was a great guy personally he was not a business man and he knew very little about the business that he was in.

So, in 1989 a man named Jim Caldwell, who worked for the Attorney General's office went to start an investigation into Eastern Cemetery. Keep in mind though that throughout the years there had been many complaints against the cemetery and the company but seemingly it those complaints had been “taken care of” or brushed under the carpet. Caldwell soon discovered multiple violations, learning that more often than not when a grave was dug for a funeral another body would be found in the freshly dug grave. He also learned that employees had been told to simply cover the previous remains with a tarp and move forward with entombment. There were many other things that were discovered and in the end the AG filed over 60 counts against Alexander, Copley and Amos that included the reuse of grave plots and the abuse of corpses.

The investigation moved forward and an anthropologist from the University of Louisville was called in to exam other graves and areas. Since word had gotten out to the public about multiple grave sites some families insisted their family member be exhumed and moved to other cemeteries. Phil DiBlasi, the professor of anthropology, helped in one of those exhumations and discovered that aside from the couple in which were to be moved there were ten other bodies in the grave site. DiBlasi learned quickly that it was common practice to find at least three to four bodies in one grave site. He was also able to tell at some level what time period they had been buried. During the time that the Methodist Church owned the area the bodies had been buried “facing east” as it was a common religious practice apparently at the time and that meant the bodies were horizontal at the tombstone as opposed to the now common vertical.

The three men were headed to trial in February of 1990 but then the case completely fell apart. It was not because the evidence was not there, it was. It was blatantly obvious that the crimes that had been alleged had been committed, a few of the men had even given interviews and admitted to some of the practices that had been done. No, the case fell apart because the defense was able to prove that when the investigation had began and the area had been searched, an official search warrant had not been secured. This meant that all of the evidence that had been found had to be thrown out and all charges were dropped against the men.

Louisville Crematories and Cemetery Company was dissolved and despite no charges against the men, the judge in the case ordered that Eastern Cemetery, as well as Greenwood Cemetery were to no longer accept any more burials. The investigation had that while Eastern Cemetery contained the tombstones of 16,000, records (through multiple books) showed there were more than 138,000 bodies in the Cemetery. Based on the rule of law and the acreage available the cemetery should not have had more than 30,000 bodies entombed. Greenwood was much the same.

While Louisville Crematories and Cemetery Company no longer existed or technically owned the cemetery, the Commonwealth of Kentucky also refused to take ownership of the property. Several years later a non-profit group called The Friends of Eastern Cemetery was formed and they explained that they could not, or would not, take ownership of the property because of liability issues. If anyone took ownership of the area they would be liable for any cases brought against them based on the behavior and practices of the previous owners.

Interesting enough several years later a man by the name of Maurice Phillips was put in charge of the care of Eastern, Greenwood and another small local cemetery. Instead of doing that job he basically used the grounds as a dumping grounds, but then also somehow managed to still place bodies in the cemeteries, although they were done in the middle of the night it seems. He was also misappropriating funds that were received. Like the three men in 1989, in the early 1990s Phillips was charged criminally. He died before his case went to trial, so obviously the charges were dropped.

Over the several years proceeding the scandal in 1989 the grounds and area, that was long since abandoned, became victim to vandals. It became an area where local teens would hang out at night. The crematorium had been broken into and it was discovered that several urns of cremated remains were stored inside. After Professor DiBlasi learned that some of the urns had been vandalized he had the remaining urns, that numbered in the hundreds, removed from the area and taken to the anthropology department at the University of Louisville to be kept safe while he helped try to find family members. DeBlasi retired in 2018 and the remaining urns were left under the care of the department.

Speaking of the University of Louisville there was an interesting footnote made in the documentary. When someone donates their body to science or a University for medical research the school is allowed to have that body for one year. At that time the body is to be given to a crematorium, in tact, or I suppose I should say with all the parts so that it can be cremated and returned to the family. While the cemetery was still in operation but the investigation had begun, they had received a shipment from the University. It was said that one of the boxes contained several heads and other body parts all in one box. This was reported but considering the prestige of the University it appears that nothing was done, at least from a legal standpoint.

In 2018 Eastern Cemetery was listed as a historical monument and a plaque was placed outside the entrance. It is unclear just what is being done there today, but, if you do a search you will find some interesting recent information on this case. First, this past summer (2020) during the Coronavirus pandemic some high school students went out to Eastern and had visited the area dubbed Babyland. They began cleaning the area and found the tombstones of several infants that had been buried in the area. It was said that caretakers over the years had begun only burying the bodies of the babies some 10-18 inches below ground since they were easier to bury than other bodies and because they knew every time they dug a fresh, new grave, they found the remains of someone else.

I also found an article that this past year work on Greenwood Cemetery had begun to take place. Both Greenwood and Eastern have been left in disarray due to the lack of caretakers and owners. It is nice to know that there are people out there willing to lend a helping hand to help, in many cases people they have no connection to.

I do plan on my next trip to Cave Hill, sometime next year to at least go and look at Eastern and see what I can discover.