Gravedigger says he was quiet too long

ALSIP, Ill. (Winston-Salem Journal) - Willie Esper was just trying to get better at his job as a gravedigger when he unearthed a scandal.

Loose bones kept turning up as he practiced digging holes with a backhoe in a supposedly unused section of Burr Oak Cemetery, a historic black graveyard near Chicago. Esper refused to keep his mouth shut about the grisly things he saw, leading to the arrest of four cemetery workers accused of digging up and dumping hundreds of bodies and reselling their plots.

"I ain't a hero," said Esper, 26, who came to Burr Oak more than a year ago. "I had my mouth closed too long."