Bury me in one of these. My earthly body is going to worm food
You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.
C.S. Lewis
Posted on 04/04/2009 11:20:04 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
ALLENDALE, S.C. — James Hines was a giant - a 6-foot-7, 300-pound preacher and funk musician so big that after he died in 2004, a macabre rumor began circulating in this small town that the undertaker had to cut off his legs to fit him in the coffin.
This week, after years of whispers, Hines' body was exhumed, and the gruesome story appeared to be all too true.
The coroner's office said only that it had found "undesirable evidence," and a criminal investigation has been opened. But Hines' widow said investigators told her that his legs had been cut off between the ankle and calf, and his feet had been placed inside the casket.
"It's just like pulling the scab off an old sore. I was kind of like smoothing things out. But now it's like starting all over again," Ann Hines said Thursday, two days after investigators pulled the casket from the ground, lifted the lid, photographed the contents and returned it to the earth, all without leaving the graveyard.
Under South Carolina law, destroying or desecrating human remains is punishable by one to 10 years in prison.
Reached this week, a man who identified himself as the owner of Cave Funeral Home, which handled the funeral, declined to comment.
The allegations were so startling that funeral directors around the country are talking about the case.
"You hear old wives' tales about this around the turn of the century, but, no, this was a shock to me," said Doggett Whitaker, a past president of the National Funeral Directors Association.
Ann Hines said that she and her family went to the funeral home after her husband's death to make the final arrangements, and she picked out a standard-size casket. At the funeral, only the top half of the lid was open, showing Hines from the chest up, she said. She said nobody ever suggested a bigger box.
Funeral directors sometimes pull up the knees or shift the padding in the coffin to make sure the body fits. But the best solution is usually a longer casket, Whitaker said, adding: "Just being upfront and honest with the family is the best path to take."
He said bodies are usually measured and families told where a corpse's head will rest in the casket. Longer caskets are routinely manufactured, though they cost more than standard ones.
Duffie Stone, the county prosecutor, would not comment on the investigation.
Around town, Hines was an unforgettable figure, and not just because of his size. An albino black man, he performed for decades as a soul and funk guitarist.
His group, J. Hines and the Boys, never hit it big but filled clubs and auditoriums in the Southeast, and small radio stations played some of its recordings, including "Funky Funk" and "Can't Think of Nothing (Blank Mind)."
He gave up what he called his instrument of sin when he found God in the early 1990s. But his pastor had heard Hines' recordings and, convinced that Hines should share his gift, took him to buy a new guitar.
Eventually, Hines became a minister in Allendale, about 75 miles southwest of the capital, Columbia. He played his guitar during services at the church he built and on a nearby Christian radio station until his death from skin cancer at 60.
At his funeral, several people, including one of Hines' five children, said the casket looked too small. Hines was about 79 inches tall in his bare feet, according to his family.
The interior length of a standard coffin is about 80 inches but can vary by a few inches, depending on the padding, the thickness of the walls and other features, said Scott Jones, chief executive of Service Casket Co., a casket distributor in Columbus, Ga.
After the funeral, the rumors began- started, some say, by a former funeral home worker - and it seemed as if all 3,700 people in town were talking about the burial.
Ann Hines said she threatened to sue Cave Funeral Home and the business agreed to settle out of court as long as she did not tell anyone how much she received. She said workers at the funeral home never told her exactly what happened. She said she accepted the deal and tried to forget about the whole thing and stop wondering why nobody even apologized.
Eventually, someone called the South Carolina Board of Funeral Service, and the coroner and an investigator with the agency received the widow's permission to dig up the grave.
Perhaps the family should have purchased a bigger casket?
Guess the coroner saw a photo of the body as it lay on display and decided there was no way an intact body of that bulk could have been positioned that way in that casket. Guy was doubtless chopped before display. That’s cold.
The body would have gone into the standard size casket OK. This was somebody’s idea of a sick “private” joke. I’d call for a public boycott of that undertaker.
Since she gave permission for the grave to be dug up, she should now return the money she received from the funeral home. She can’t have both.
Once you got for a customized casket...you start talking $10k minimum...and probably up to $15k. I’ve been this after-the-fact casket buying episode and I can tell you...it’s the wrong time to be thinking. If the guy’s wife or family doesn’t have alot of cash...then they start wanting to talk about a $10k casket but wanting to pass the hat. Then you get into various discussions where the wife picked a $3k casket and the guy’s sister is upset that they are going so cheap. I knew a guy who went back for a family funeral, and there was intense arguments the night before the funeral because the wife and the guy’s mother both wanted a $15k casket...but they had to get the two brothers of this guy to chip in most of the money...which they refused up until midnight before the funeral.
This was all simple back in the 1970s....and there were only five or six type caskets you could pick from with the local funeral home. I know of some company now that offers a NFL-emblem type casket...like the Packers...and you can go as a dedicated fan....naturally, this cost a fair amount of money.
i hate when that happens....caskets ain’t cheap
Don’t bitck, they could have cut off his head to make him fit!
She only promised not to reveal the amount of the settlement. Bet she wasn’t even aware it was a statutory crime.
They cost an arm and a leg.
How do they think that morticians have put tall people in caskets all these years? It has been common practice to either break the legs or cut them for burial in regular caskets. That isnt much of a secret, and it is not considered desecration of a body, it is mortuary science. This is another emotional display.
Do they explain this to their customers before they buy caksets?
Of course not, why would they? The family is already traumatized with the funeral in most cases, why go cause a stink? They just did their job and consoled the people and went to the next one. There was no reason to have to display mortuary secrets. There were lots of things that go on in the preparation room that doesnt need to be discussed publicly or with the family. It is the nature of the science and that is all that needs to be discussed about it.
My Dad performed many burial services in this time.
Last-minute arrangements were always fraught with complication. His advice to anyone who would listen is to give some thought to your funeral arrangements before you die.
Then get someone outside the immediate family to get those arrangements carried out on their behalf. It is usually better to leave your survivors with more money, not less: $10,000 looks better in your widow’s account than in the Funeral Director’s, so it is OK to write a letter that you keep in your will stipulating that you want the bare minimum spent on your burial/cremation. Or stipulate an amount that you’d feel comfortable spending on yourself. Or better still, prepay. You can have a prepaid funeral arranged by installments while you’re alive that is exactly to your liking and budget. You will not notice whether you are buried in Mahogany or cardboard: every dollar that you put into the ground is money that your survivors cannot access later.
As well, if you are arranging a funeral for someone, don’t be afraid at all to haggle and dicker: many Funeral Directors have hearts made of flint: they know that they have the survivors in a difficult time, and they are not backward in asking top dollar for their services. Treat the funeral exactly the same way you’d treat a car purchase: the sticker price is the starting point of the negotiation. Be courteous but do look past the Funeral Director’s smile: it is there for a reason.
Everything can be negotiated, from the headstone to the service to the plot. The sticker price is what they would really like to have, and if you pay that you are probably giving away money the survivors could use better.
Give consideration to your will, as well. Always have one, to start, because settling an estate without Probate usually follows a formula stipulated by law, and your estate will probably not be divided up the way you’d like it to be.
With your estate it is often possible to have someone act as Executor of your will, and that doesn’t always need to be a lawyer or a professional. Usually the executor is entitled to a fee of between 5% and 15% of the estate — which is a huge whack for doing what is usually a pretty easy job.
There are plenty of self-help books available on acting as an Executor. Do you have a good friend, one that wouldn’t mind doing you one last favor? If your state allows it, buy the self-help book, and ask him/her to be your Executor and to sign a deed waiving the Executor’s fee in exchange for a memento from your estate: a favorite book, or something they’d like and use to remember you by.
The graveside service itself does not need to be done by a clergyman, but it’s usually nice if it is. Others may want to participate in the service too: if you’re a Mason or a Veteran, for example. It’s a good idea to outline this participation in the letter that you keep with your will, too.
I dunno if any of this information is helpful or relevant, but here it is for what it’s worth.
Cheers
*DieHard the Hunter*
Good advice if you don't want to be cut off at the knees.
(grin!)
That’s one way to get reimbursed for a funeral... and a little extra for the Mrs.
Two can keep a secret, if one of them is dead.
How much is a pine box, seriously?
Great advice. A funeral director friend of mine said essentially the same thing. A decent funeral can be had at half the price and even less.
Good post and nice to “see” you.
I was living in Georgia when they caught the mortician that was just dumping bodies anywhere he could. The bible belt was (rightly) furious and wanted to hang him and his family.
You are “not allowed” to just bury someone anymore. More laws to save us from ourselves. We are such children.
The true irony is, as has been posted, this is SOP for the industry. The widow settled privately, why the need for a criminal investigation?
Abortion mills throw babies in the trash after cruelly removing them from their mothers with the intent to kill. Where’s that investigation?
> Good post and nice to “see” you
(grin!) Thanks for that. I hope people find it useful guidance because our Death and burial are times when most of us would want our survivors to be spared as much difficulty and hardship as possible.
Funerals do not have to be expensive: they can still have the same dignity and decorum at less cost, if you are prepared to negotiate the cost and refuse to pay top dollar. Our measure of Love is not how much we spend on our loved one’s funerals, but rather how we treat them when they are alive and remember them when they are gone.
I just want a simple pine box. At that point the spirit is gone. Plus, come the Resurrection I get a new, perfect body. I am all for new and improved, in this case especially.
> I just want a simple pine box. At that point the spirit is gone.
They get simpler yet than Pine. I have seen them use cardboard or particle board — they look nice enough, you can’t really tell. They cover these with either fabric or a thin laminate, and by time they are done they look quite nice.
What’s the cheapest? Do you have a link?
Bury me in one of these. My earthly body is going to worm food
You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.
C.S. Lewis
which head are you talking about?
One size fits all!
Thanks for that link — an interesting story, and actually not too surprising. Like any project — be it a building or a wedding or in this case a funeral — arrangements don’t just magically come together. The Funeral Director is, in many ways, a Project Manager, with the objective of getting the Dearly Departed properly buried / cremated, all legal work done, the survivors satisfied, and a check in the bank.
If people choose to take on parts of these responsibilities themselves, they will save money — but they must do their bit and they must coordinate with the others who are involved.
The lady in the story did none of that, and then wondered why her Dad’s funeral went bung in spectacular function. Duhh.
As with anything, being prepared in advance is a really great idea.
Different subject: on the prices of caskets &tc. My knowledge of all of this is well over 20 years old, and from Canada. I don’t really know where to find current information — I bet Google would know — and my files on funerals would be outdated. The advice given, tho’, is timeless.
Sorry I can’t help with the pricing.
One thing you should be aware of, tho’ — as with many industries there are three or four very large players in the Funeral Home / Cemetery industry, and they own chains and franchises all over the country and even internationally. So while there may be an appearance of competition between funeral homes, there actually isn’t as much as you might think.
And, as with all such industries, you will find product “lines” that you can buy from: as you might expect, there actually are large manufacturers who make coffins the same way other manufacturers make sofas, and then sell them on to various stores. So it is possible to find a coffin you like at one funeral home, and see the exact same one in a different funeral home at a different price. The funeral director will have some leeway in how much margin he wants to take over-and-above the wholesale price, and that margin is what you can negotiate.
Remember it is not necessarily in your best interest to grind down the price to the point where there is little or nothing in it for the Funeral Director. Like all businessmen he needs to make a profit, and he will be disinclined to invest much effort into a funeral in which he is making little or nothing. If you don’t need his services at all, that may be acceptable to you. But if you do, or if you might (as was the case in the story at the link you sent) then best to have left some margin in the deal for him so that he takes some interest.
Hope that helps
*DieHard*
thanks..I will not sleep tonight either. BTW there is a pro-baby ad running on abc7 and it is very good. Maine.
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