Bones unearthed in search at former Florida reform school

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Bones unearthed in search at former Florida reform school

By Bill Cotterell
MARIANNA, Florida | Sat Aug 31, 2013 5:02pm EDT

(Reuters) - Teams of searchers recovered human bones from the sands of Florida Panhandle woodlands on Saturday in a "boot hill" graveyard where juveniles who disappeared from a notorious Old South reform school more than a half-century ago are believed to have been secretly buried.

"We have found evidence of burial hardware - hinges on coffins," said Dr. Christian Wells, an anthropologist from the University of South Florida, in a briefing about a mile from the closed excavation site near the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys.

"There appear to be a few pieces associated with burial shrouds, and there are pins consistent with the 1920s and 1930s, - based on the style of the pins - and they appear to be brass," he said.

Some "large bone fragments" were found on the first day of digging, Wells said. They were human bones, he added, but it was impossible to know if they came from any of the teenaged boys who were housed at Dozier during its infamous 111-year existence. The school was closed in mid-2011.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/31/us-usa-florida-school-idUSBRE97U03720130831

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Shades of Mel Sembler's Straight Inc...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight,_Incorporated

[Butterbean]

4. Um, holy shit.

My cousin went to Straight in Tampa FL in around the year 1985. I had no idea about any of those things.

[Cooley Hurd]

5. A horrible backstory.

[HooptieWagon]

9. My brother went a few years earlier, in St Pete.

It was a pretty bad program.

[KittyWampus]

2. I posted this a few weeks back and was informed it was a way to get rid of young black men.

"Some former residents of Dozier, now in their 60s and 70s, have told of brutal beatings and boys - mostly black juveniles - disappearing without explanation more than 50 years ago. Blood relatives of some of the boys have given DNA samples, to be matched against evidence taken from the skeletal remains."

[petronius]

10. I remember that earlier thread - incredibly creepy story

Hope these finds at least answer some questions for families, even if no justice for the perpetrators is possible...

[HooptieWagon]

12. Many white boys too.

The common denominator was that they were from poor families, without resources to fight the system.

[kestrel91316]

3. I find it disturbing that this is not being handled as a police matter.

Having anthropologists do it makes it seem like this is merely a cultural curiosity rather than a crime scene.

Let me guess: the dead are probably all black people?

There is no stature of limitations on murder.

[Butterbean]

6. I agree, these should be treated as homicides. n/t

[leftstreet]

7. +1

The school was open until something like 2010-11. It's not like they've uncovered an ancient civilization

[theHandpuppet]

8. Totally agree

If this isn't a police matter, I'd like to know why the hell not.

[kestrel91316]

13. All you need to know is that it's Florida and the dead are black males.

[HooptieWagon]

11. Too many skeletons in the closet.

Literally and figuratively. A lot of high-ups knew what was going on at Dozier, they are being protected.

[gopiscrap]

14. typical southern justice

it's too bad most of the assholes who brutalized these boys are no longer around to prosecute. The state needs to get the shit sued out if it!