KEY WEST — A creeping decay at Key West’s historic city cemetery has residents concerned and demanding answers, as unsecured gravesites are exposed to the elements and broken headstones sit scattered across the grounds.
At least one open grave is covered only by a sheet of plywood and shielded from grave robbers and the general public by a single strand of weathered, sun-beaten, yellow crime scene tape.
But for families concerned about the last resting places of their ancestors the tape raises a bitter pill: Exactly who is committing the crime?
Visitors and neighbors near the 19-acre burial ground and popular tourist attraction off Passover Lane say conditions have deteriorated for years without meaningful intervention.
Some members of prominent Key West families say they have returned to pay their respects only to find grave markers moved behind fences, discarded nearby or, in some cases, new burials placed over family plots without prior notice or permission shrouded in new pours of concrete.
The practice appears to be pervasive.
Gravestones lie strewn haphazardly across plots (uninventoried), some toppled, others separated entirely from the graves they once marked. In one section, a 4x8 sheet of plywood is the only barrier over an open grave — a makeshift fix residents say has gone unaddressed for months.
The Key West Cemetery, established in 1847, holds an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 burials — far outnumbering the island’s living population — including some of the city’s most storied names. Among them: “Sloppy” Joe Russell, the barkeep and fishing companion of Ernest Hemingway who kept Sloppy Joe’s Bar; B.P. “Pearl” Roberts, whose epitaph “I Told You I Was Sick” is the cemetery’s most photographed; roughly two dozen sailors from the USS Maine; and Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos, whose corpse was infamously stolen from her cemetery mausoleum in 1933.
“The conditions are inexcusable,” one concerned Key West citizen with family members in multiple grave sites across several generations told Above the Fold on Monday, describing exposed bones, remains and even teeth scattered throughout parts of the cemetery grounds.
District IV commission candidate Wayne Garcia — who has family in the cemetery and until recently was allowed to do contract work within the fences — is said to be furious.
Sadly, there have even been reports of looters (AKA grave robbers) raiding the historic site for relics due to the shoddy conditions and lack of concern on the city’s behalf. It is unclear whether or not the Key West Police Department is providing security.
The complaint echoes a documented incident from December, when human bones were found exposed near a gravesite after the ground had reportedly been disturbed by a city backhoe, according to Diane Silvia, an archaeologist and director of the Historic Florida Keys Foundation, which runs tours of the site. Silvia noted that Florida law classifies willful disturbance of a tomb, monument or grave containing human remains as a third-degree felony.
City officials have long attributed disrepair to the cemetery’s private-ownership structure — plots belong to individual families responsible for their upkeep, and many of those families have died out or left the island.
Perhaps it is time for that to change.
Key West’s dead helped write the Island City’s legacy. The living now seem content to let it crumble into dust upon the ground.
This is an evolving story. Watch this space.
I’m sorry, I can’t help myself:
- This story really digs deep.
- I’m dying to know how this ends.
- There’s clearly more beneath the surface here.
- The plot thickens. Literally.
One word: “Disgraceful”