55 dead bodies = no trials and no arrests-Florida school for boys

This week, the remains of fifty-five bodies were found in unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Florida School for Boys, in the panhandle town of Marianna. The reformatory school, which was operated by the state of Florida, and which closed in 2011, was notorious for its mistreatment of its students.

55 bodies=no trials and no arrests-Florida school for boys
Link:
www.newyorker.com...

Looks like we have a real life Dexter in Florida. But it looks to be the state itself.

This state run school was entrusted with the safety of these young boys and though well documented for mistreating many of them....who would have thought that it was more like a Nazi prison camp complete with pits full of dead bodies.

It makes me sick to think what horrors these boys went through and sicker still that it was at the hands of the state of Florida.


How can there not be trials and arrests made?

Very interesting. Seems like they knew about half the bodies their, strange.

Nice find.

Infinitis
The link seems to be down.

added a new one....thanks for the heads up

reply to post by UxoriousMagnus


Well it does sound horrible but considering.

The institution for wayward youth, which the state opened in 1900 and closed in 2011,

Their deaths could have been from any number of things including polio outbreaks and such. We are talking about 111 years.

The first thing to do would be identifying cause of death, date of death, and who they are.

Oh and your link wasn't so good this one is better.

I am sure there is some wrong doing going on but you can't make arrests until they have the evidence to do so.

reply to post by UxoriousMagnus


Your link fails to activate any opening of a new tab, or indeed access to any information what so ever.

Here is a link...

www.latimes.com...

Is this the one you mean?

What they must mean, is that so decayed are the remains, and so long ago were the crimes, that all evidence which remains, which might indicate the identity of the killers, will be circumstantial and by word of mouth. Also, the perps may all be dead by now.

Grimpachi
reply to post by UxoriousMagnus

 

Well it does sound horrible but considering.

The institution for wayward youth, which the state opened in 1900 and closed in 2011,

Their deaths could have been from any number of things including polio outbreaks and such. We are talking about 111 years.

The first thing to do would be identifying cause of death, date of death, and who they are.

Oh and your link wasn't so good this one is better.

I am sure there is some wrong doing going on but you can't make arrests until they have the evidence to do so.

edit on 31-1-2014 by Grimpachi because: (no reason given)

totally agree with you but should they not have had decent burials? Should they not have gotten marked graves. Seems like they had this in New York on that little island too....something similar?

reply to post by Grimpachi



Poor little kids
Hope they solve it.

reply to post by UxoriousMagnus


Oh yeah I absolutely agree that the way they simply disposed of the bodies was horrendous. What I am not sure about is if there are any legal repercussions that can come from it though. Florida laws have changed over the years, and you can't prosecute someone for a law that wasn't a law at that time.

I have a feeling that making cases against any singular person is going to be very hard especially reading the state of their records. I would be willing to bet money that murderers will escape prosecution due to lack of evidence.

It is a sad affair.

reply to post by UxoriousMagnus


The "state" didn't do this . People who are abusive to children did. The state didn't raise a finger to these kids. Someone with fingers did. Don't marginalize this by blaming bureaucracy. There were real people not check signers that killed them. There have been a lot of examples of institutional abuse of children. But it's not the institution or the state it's sickos tasked with caring for these children who preform these atrocious acts. We have better screenings these days but still we know that the abusers still get near the children anyway. Orphanages are a thing of the past here for the most part. They have been replaced with foster care placement rather than institutional placement and even this process cannot guarantee that a child will be safe. Many kids have been abused in foster care too.

There shouldn't be anything like children's jail anyway. Who's insane idea was that that putting kids in kiddy jail would make them better kids. It doesn't. It just groups kids with problems together so they wind up sharing bad behavior and increasing the problems. When it is determined that a kid is a problem the first step should be to educate the parents about raising children improve parenting skills will empty the kiddy jails.

Grimpachi
reply to post by UxoriousMagnus

 

Well it does sound horrible but considering.

The institution for wayward youth, which the state opened in 1900 and closed in 2011,

Their deaths could have been from any number of things including polio outbreaks and such. We are talking about 111 years.

The first thing to do would be identifying cause of death, date of death, and who they are.

Oh and your link wasn't so good this one is better.

I am sure there is some wrong doing going on but you can't make arrests until they have the evidence to do so.

edit on 31-1-2014 by Grimpachi because: (no reason given)

If their deaths were by easily explainable reasons then I doubt they would be in unmarked graves.
Sounds like a case of paedophiles up to their old killing kids tricks again. Im sure it will be quickly covered up though, just like Haute De La Garenne.

AutumnWitch657
reply to post by UxoriousMagnus

 

The "state" didn't do this . People who are abusive to children did. The state didn't raise a finger to these kids. Someone with fingers did. Don't marginalize this by blaming bureaucracy. There were real people not check signers that killed them. There have been a lot of examples of institutional abuse of children. But it's not the institution or the state it's sickos tasked with caring for these children who preform these atrocious acts. We have better screenings these days but still we know that the abusers still get near the children anyway. Orphanages are a thing of the past here for the most part. They have been replaced with foster care placement rather than institutional placement and even this process cannot guarantee that a child will be safe. Many kids have been abused in foster care too.

you make a very good point....but the state "inspectors" etc are or were supposed to be checking up on such things.

but you point is taken

reply to post by UxoriousMagnus


Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Obviously, Florida needs to open a criminal investigation. Something more needs to be done.

Some of the children died natural deaths, but the sheer number of bodies suggests that there may have been many killings, a possibility buttressed by eyewitness accounts. Yet Florida’s prosecutors have yet to file a single criminal charge, or even open a criminal investigation. To pass over crimes of this magnitude without investigation seems the very definition of injustice.

There is no statute of limitations for murder and other crimes causing death, which means that there is no legal bar to bringing charges. In Florida, all capital cases have long had no statute of limitations, and when these crimes were allegedly committed forcible rape was punishable by death. But there are challenges to prosecuting old crimes: given how much time has passed, it may be difficult to determine who was responsible for the killings, and many of the suspects, meanwhile, have already died, including the school’s longtime superintendent, Lenox Williams, who died in 2010. Some are still alive, including Troy Tidwell, an instructor at the school, who was accused of abuse in a class-action lawsuit filed by more than two hundred former students in 2009. (Tidwell denies the accusations, and the case was dismissed after a judge ruled that the statute of limitations on the charges had run out.)

In spite of these difficulties, a prosecutor still has many options in a case like this one. Scenes of mass death, like those caused by fires at night clubs in which the exits are blocked, are often prosecuted as cases of involuntary manslaughter. If the wantonly negligent operation of the school led to many deaths, the Florida School of Boys was like a deadly fire in slow motion. In addition, some of the school’s surviving employees and managers could potentially be prosecuted for felony murder—Florida law includes special provisions for deaths that occur during the abuse of minors—or, alternatively, members of the staff could be prosecuted as members of a conspiracy. There may also be fresher claims of obstruction of justice. A law student could probably find more options, let alone a dedicated prosecutor.

S&F&

reply to post by soficrow


my thoughts exactly...
even if, as other posters mentioned, that many were because of disease or that the perps are now dead....bringing the suffering and wrongful death of even one of these kids to light is our duty....is it not?

One death, on average, every couple of years?--for how many inmates?
How many died during the influenza outbreak?
For 50 of those years, there were no vaccines and no antibiotics.
Gonna need more info or we'll just be jumping at conclusions.

reply to post by UxoriousMagnus


Yes - as the article says, the sheer number of bodies AND eyewitness accounts suggest there may have been many killings. There should be a criminal investigation. Obviously. NOTE: The mass graves uncovered are not in the cemetary (which is where the epidemic victims are buried).

Some of the children died natural deaths, but the sheer number of bodies suggests that there may have been many killings, a possibility buttressed by eyewitness accounts.

Tusks
One death, on average, every couple of years?--for how many inmates? How many died during the influenza outbreak?
For 50 of those years, there were no vaccines and no antibiotics. Gonna need more info or we'll just be jumping at conclusions.

I don't know why people are trying to pass this off as somehow a case of un-vaccinated children being buried in unmarked graves.

Did you read the article? Way back in 1968 the governor of Florida said the place should have been exposed due to the incessant allegations of beatings, torture, and sexual abuse.
www.newyorker.com...

In 1968, Florida’s governor at the time, Claude Kirk, said of the school, “Somebody should have blown the whistle a long time ago.” There have long been allegations of beatings, torture, and sexual abuse there; it now appears that some students were killed.

Do you have any sort of supporting evidence as to why we should consider polio or influenza as a possible explanation for discovering unmarked graves on the premise of an operation which had been accused of murders and abuse for decades?

-FBB

Grimpachi
Florida laws have changed over the years, and you can't prosecute someone for a law that wasn't a law at that time.

You can prosecute them in Florida.
The article you linked to even confirms this.
www.newyorker.com...

There is no statute of limitations for murder and other crimes causing death, which means that there is no legal bar to bringing charges. In Florida, all capital cases have long had no statute of limitations, and when these crimes were allegedly committed forcible rape was punishable by death. But there are challenges to prosecuting old crimes: given how much time has passed, it may be difficult to determine who was responsible for the killings, and many of the suspects, meanwhile, have already died, including the school’s longtime superintendent, Lenox Williams, who died in 2010. Some are still alive, including Troy Tidwell, an instructor at the school, who was accused of abuse in a class-action lawsuit filed by more than two hundred former students in 2009. (Tidwell denies the accusations, and the case was dismissed after a judge ruled that the statute of limitations on the charges had run out.)

-FBB

reply to post by soficrow


Reminds me of that Kevin Bacon movie (Sleepers) ....the writer says it is based off of true story but in New York. Kids get thrown into "kids prison" and are abused almost to death....if I remember correctly...some even "disappeared"...

makes one wonder just how widespread the atrocities where back in the day in our countries "facilities"

reply to post by Tusks

Gonna need more info or we'll just be jumping at conclusions.

Come on now. A mass grave? Or mass graves?
Human beings deserve more respect than the type of burial
that implys foul play and cover-up. I don't wear rose colored
glasses. I doubt if we're even hearing the truth about the details even now.
There are people at state levels involved because the state should be
noticing people drop out of existance.
SnF

Just as a side note, here is another thread on it for anything that may have been missed on this one..and I think there is another thread on it as well somewhere here.

www.abovetopsecret.com...