BUSH FUNERALGATE MANAGER FOUND DEAD - "Suicided?"
To fully understand the significance of the following story it is necessary
to have more facts. You can get them by reading two articles from the Rumor
Mill News Forum --
FUNERALGATE - BUSH'S FIRST (OFFICIAL) SCANDAL
http://www.rumormillnews.net/cgi-bin/config.pl?read=16132
FUNERALGATE - THE SKELETON IN BUSH CLOSET IS BACK
http://www.rumormillnews.net/cgi-bin/config.pl?read=16202
From the above articles:
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, 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 as to what his involvement was in quashing an investigation into
Mr. Waltrip's illegal embalming practices, among other things. Here is an
article from the Austin Chronicle about the lawsuit that lead to the
subpeona, and it is completely disturbing. "
From the Austin Chronicle
http://www.auschron.com/issues/vol18/issue30/pols.funeral.html
Looking back on the scene, May believes the meeting "was clearly designed to
intimidate me and to obtain information about what we were doing. They were
unhappy with the fact that I was doing this investigation."
The meeting in Allbaugh's office, held May 18 of last year, is at the heart
of a whistle blower lawsuit filed by May's attorneys on Tuesday in Travis
County District Court. The suit alleges that May, who was fired by the TFSC
on Feb. 8, was let go because she reported on illegal actions taken by the
TFSC, its commissioners, SCI and Waltrip. The suit names the TFSC, Waltrip,
SCI, and SCI Management Corporation as defendants. The suit alleges that
during her stint at the TFSC, May reported violations of 37 different
statutes, including 10 violations of the Texas penal code. It also alleges
that May was fired by the agency because she "repeatedly and in good faith
reported violations of the law and conduct that she reasonably believed to
constitute violations of the law."
And May's lawsuit may show whether Waltrip used his money, and his
connections with the Bush family, to get both the governor and Whitmire to
intervene on his behalf.
RMNews Comment:
And now a manager with this company is found dead - supposed suicide. I think
this story is one that ALL of us should keep and eye on!
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/29/national/29FUNE.html
December 29, 2001
Funeral Company Manager, Upset by Suit, Is Found Dead
By DANA CANEDY
IAMI, Dec. 28 — The manager of four funeral homes in southern Florida whose
owner is being sued over accusations of desecrating remains at its cemeteries
has been found dead in his parents' garage, apparently a suicide, the police
say.
They found the manager, Peter Hartmann, 45, slumped in his car on Wednesday
after his wife told the authorities that he was distraught over the
investigation into his company, Service Corporation International, and its
handling of remains at several cemeteries.
A class-action suit filed this month in Broward Circuit Court accused Service
Corporation, the nation's largest funeral company, of opening burial vaults
and dumping their contents in the woods, crushing vaults to make room for
others, mixing body parts from different people and digging up and reburying
remains in locations other than the plots bought.
Mr. Hartmann did not manage the cemeteries under investigation. But, the
authorities said, he was apparently upset by the investigation, in which the
state attorney general's office has issued subpoenas for all Service
Corporation burial records for Florida.
"He did leave a suicide note, but its contents are not being released," said
Diane Carhart, a spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department.
Mr. Hartmann, found in his company-owned car, is believed to have died of
carbon monoxide poisoning, according to the police report. Days earlier, he
told his wife he was considering suicide, the report said.
"His wife did indicate that approximately two days prior that the topic of
taking his own life came up," the report said. "However he assured her he
would not do it. She explained that he was under a great deal of stress over
the current investigation."
The prosecutor's office began its inquiry last month, after being contacted
by the plaintiffs' lawyers in the civil suit in late September. In one case
cited in the suit, a former gravedigger at a West Palm Beach cemetery said he
had been told to dig up a grave and to throw any remains in the woods in back
of the cemetery. Among the remains found in the woods have been bones, a
burial shroud and a Star of David necklace.
The suit names three plaintiffs. A lawyer working on the case said he had
received inquiries from hundreds of families with relatives buried at one of
five Service Corporation cemeteries, in Deerfield Beach, Fort Lauderdale,
North Miami Beach, Sunrise and West Palm Beach.
The lawyer, Neal Hirschfeld, said that the cemeteries' records were so poor
that it was difficult to tell who was buried in what plot, but that the
records seemed to indicate widespread wrongdoing, with problems affecting up
to 660 spaces at West Palm Beach alone. In most cases, Mr. Hirschfeld said,
plots bought by people who are still alive have already been filled with
remains.
Service Corporation, based in Houston, said in a statement this month that
the accusations in the suit were "completely contrary to our policies and
procedures" and that the company was conducting an internal review.
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