July 9, 2009 Officials: Four accused in alleged grave reselling scheme Play video

(NECN: Alsip, Ill.) - Four people have been charged in what authorities are calling a "startling and revolting" scheme at a historic cemetery near Chicago.

Workers at the Burr Oak Cemetery allegedly dug up more than 100 graves, dumped the bodies into unmarked mass graves and resold the plots to unsuspecting members of the public.

Three men and one woman were charged this afternoon with one count each of dismembering a human body.

Burr Oak is the final resting place of many famous African-Americans, including lynching victim Emmett Till, blues singers Willie Dixon, Dinah Washington and Otis Spann, as well as Harlem Globetrotter Inman Jackson.