
Dead of AIDS and Forgotten in Potter’s Field - nnx
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/03/nyregion/hart-island-aids-new-york.html
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agoodthrowaway
This is nothing new. Municipalities have been doing this kind of thing for
centuries.

My grandfather was an alcoholic who became homeless. He was also a WW2 vet
that had shell shock from the Battle of the Bulge (likely cause of his
alcoholism). He passed out on a street corner in Chicago and died 48 hours
later from cirrhosis of the liver. For 20 years we did not know what happened
to him. Cook County said that they buried him in a cemetery. We went to the
cemetery on the death certificate and could not find the grave and the
cemetery had no record of his burial. We called about two dozen cemeteries
trying to find him but also nothing. We later found out that there was a
scandal in Cook County at the time where indigent burials were done in a mass
grave in Indiana and the burial money was siphoned off and pocketed. We are
resigned to the fact now that we will never find him.

~~~
ams6110
Sorry to hear this. Sounds like very typically Chicago corruption. It's a
shame people keep reelecting criminals there

~~~
wallace_f
I see comments complaining about this (generally on a national level) on HN
almost daily.

The weekly a highly-upvoted thread, such as the Assange thread yesterday, is
filled with it (most seemed to not be too thrilled with Assange particularly,
but angered by political issues around him)

Well anyways, my point is that I guess the benefactors of all of this
corruption and authoritarianism are thrilled that the best minds are occupied
with demanding jobs.

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jbuzbee
The New York times did a fascinating article about Potter's Field on Hart
Island[1]. One story from the article I recall is of a woman who died in her
multi-million dollar apartment in the Dakota building in Manhattan and how she
ended up in a mass grave full of strangers in Potter's field. Ashes to ashes.
Dust to dust.

[1]
[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/15/nyregion/new-...](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/15/nyregion/new-
york-mass-graves-hart-island.html)

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puzzle
Reminds me of the story of the heroic woman in Arkansas who, during the same
period, helped hundreds of victims living their last days on Earth:
[https://m.arktimes.com/arkansas/ruth-coker-burks-the-
cemeter...](https://m.arktimes.com/arkansas/ruth-coker-burks-the-cemetery-
angel/Content?oid=3602959)

