Westlawn Cemetery

Jewish cemetery in Cook County, Illinois
41°57′28″N 87°49′38″W / 41.95778°N 87.82722°W / 41.95778; -87.82722[2]TypePublicStyleJewish cemeterySize72 acres (29 ha)No. of interments49,000[1]WebsiteOfficial websiteFind a GraveWestlawn Cemetery

Westlawn Cemetery is a Jewish cemetery located in Norridge, a suburb of Chicago in Illinois. The cemetery covers 72 acres (29 ha) and roughly 46,000 people are buried there.

Notable interments

  • Leonard S. Chess, record company executive[3]
  • Virginia Lee Corbin, actress
  • Sandy Dvore, artist
  • Mike Nussbaum, actor
  • Susan Nussbaum, actress and playwright
  • Richard Elrod, jurist, sheriff, and legislator
  • Jack Ruby, convicted of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, who at the time was under arrest for the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy[4]
    (His conviction was later reversed. He died awaiting a new trial, still legally presumed innocent.)[5][6]
  • Abe Saperstein, creator of the Savoy Big Five, precursor of the Harlem Globetrotters[7]
  • Harry Sawyer, Jewish-American organized crime boss based in the Twin Cities, co-conspirator and protector of the Dillinger and Barker-Karpis Gangs.[8]
  • Shel Silverstein, poet, author, satirist, and cartoonist[9]
  • Gene Siskel, film critic[10]

Vandalism

Westlawn was the site of gravestone desecration in January 2008. At least 57 tombstones were defaced with anti-Semitic slogans. Using white and blue spray paint, the vandal drew swastikas and slurs on tombstones in a western section of the cemetery.

A 21-year-old Polish immigrant male was charged with the crime in February 2008. He has been directly linked by police to a neo-Nazi organization in the Chicago area.[11] He was convicted on two charges of felony vandalism and sentenced to 7 years in prison, the maximum sentence.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b "About Us". Westlawn Cemetery and Mausoleum. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  2. ^ "Westlawn Jewish Cemetery". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  3. ^ Wilson, Scott; Mank, Gregory W. (August 19, 2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons (3rd ed.). McFarland & Co. p. 133, #2289. ISBN 978-0-7864-7992-4.
  4. ^ Wilson and Mank at #11021
  5. ^ "Phil Burleson, 61, Jack Ruby's Lawyer". The New York Times. June 1, 1995. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  6. ^ "This Day In History: November 22". Sky History.[dead link]
  7. ^ Wilson and Mank at #11201
  8. ^ Maccabee, Paul (1995). John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crook's Tour of Crime and Corruption in St. Paul, 1920-1936. Minnesota Historical Society Press. pp. 284–285. ISBN 978-0-8735-1316-6. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  9. ^ Wilson and Mank at #11695
  10. ^ Wilson and Mank at #11741
  11. ^ "Neo-Nazi Convicted Of Vandalizing Jewish Cemetery". CBS Chicago News. 2010-12-03. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  12. ^ "Neo-Nazi Mariusz Wdziekonski Gets Maximum Sentence For Defiling Jewish Graves". Huff Post. 17 December 2010. Retrieved 25 February 2014.

External links

  • Official website
  • Google Maps view of the cemetery