2019-02-27 Not only bones are buried on Hart Island in New York, but also human nature

Not only bones are buried on New York’s Hart Island, but also human nature

In July 2018, this magazine introduced New York’s most notorious island, North Brother Island, because of its tragic past , we call it New York’s “forgotten and lonely” place. Also in New York, there is an island similar to North Brother Island. But it is destined not to be forgotten, nor can it be forgotten, because it carries not only a horrific past, but also an unforgivable betrayal and belated family affection...

The island is called "Hart Island". To this day, people have been trying to figure out whether among the millions of bones buried on Hart Island, there are any long-lost relatives.

Mass graves opened by yellow fever

Hart Island is located in the west of Long Island Sound, New York, covering an area of ??131 acres. There have been many theories about the origin of the island’s name. The most widely circulated theory is that in 1775, a British cartographer discovered that the shape of the island resembled a human heart, so he named it "Heart", but the letter "e" was missing when printing. , so it became "Hart".

During the American Civil War, the island was used as a prisoner of war prison. After the war, the island was expropriated by the government. In 1870, a large-scale yellow fever epidemic broke out in New York City, and Hart Island became an isolation area for yellow fever patients. In that era of raging plague, people found that isolation was extremely effective. As a result, the fear of the plague defeated humanitarianism. No matter whether the people in the quarantine area on the island recovered or died, their souls could not return to their homeland and could only be buried on the spot. What's even more cruel is that due to the large number of infected people, these people who are not homeless are humiliated and buried in dug public graves. Each grave can bury the remains of about 150 adults. Or the remains of 1,000 children and infants. All the people buried in the grave pit will not have tombstones or anything to identify their identities. Only a small white sign will be placed on the grave pit to indicate that the place is "full."

From then on, Hart Island began its destiny to become a mass grave in New York and even the entire United States.

At the end of the 19th century, the New York government built a large number of prisons, asylums and even mental hospitals here. Various prisons have appeared here: prisons for young people, or prisons for the elderly, Or a men’s prison. The government also pioneered the idea of ??arranging prisoners to help transport and bury corpses. They were paid 50 cents an hour. Most of the corpses were unclaimed or abandoned after being used for medical purposes. Haha. Teshima has no choice but to become the final destination of these people. Those buried in it are not necessarily homeless or poor. The famous film screenwriter Leo Bilinski of the last century was found dead alone in his apartment. He could only be buried on Hart Island alone. After the death of the female writer Dawn Powell, the executor of her estate refused to take back the body after medical research, and had to be buried here: even the "Peter Pan" in the hearts of the American people in the last century and the winner of the Academy Youth Award When the author Bobby Driscoll overdosed on drugs and died violently in the wilderness, he ended up being buried here because no one recognized him...

Today's Hart Island has It is the largest mass grave in the United States. According to incomplete statistics. Since the earliest burial record in 1881, more than 1 million corpses have been transported to Hart Island for burial, and this number continues to grow to this day.

"Theft" permitted by law

In fact, before 1993, Hart Island was at best an ordinary mass grave containing the bodies of homeless people or criminals. In addition to its horrific scale , it won’t make much of a splash. But it was in 1993 that New York State introduced and passed a Guardian Act. Allow the court to appoint a legal guardian for those who have no one to take care of them and lack the ability to live independently. These legal guardians will be responsible for taking care of the daily life, medical care and funeral of the ward for the rest of their lives. In return, they will receive the guardianship after the ward's death. Guardian's Estate.

When this bill was first introduced, it was highly praised and supported by people, but no one would have imagined that the tragedy of human nature and the system would unfold, and Hart Island would become the place where they are buried.

Constance Mirabelli was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1912. As a bookkeeper, she experienced two marriages, but both ended in failure. Mirabelli had no real estate, only Able to rent an apartment in Manhattan. In 1999, Mirabelli, who was over eighty years old, was questioned by her landlord about her loss of ability to take care of herself, so she applied to the court to appoint a legal guardian for her. In the four years before her death, Mirabelli had changed two legal guardians. The last guardian was named Jo Ann Douglas, a lawyer who was extremely good at profiting from the cases he took over. Before Mirabelli's death in 2003, Douglas swore to the court that he had arranged "appropriate transportation and funeral expenses." Mirabelli did own a Queens cemetery plot during his lifetime, as well as money from his pension. She saved $2,000 for funeral expenses, but in the end, Mirabelli, who had been alone for half her life, was buried in ditch 307 on Hart Island with 137 other strangers. The person who transported her body was the New York morgue. truck.

The above is a true incident from an in-depth investigative report on Hart Island written by The New York Times. In fact, when a New York Times reporter found the legal guardian ten years later, she said she could find no relevant clues or evidence in her old notes, and therefore could not explain why she made the decision she did. , later, the lawyer asked the reporter in an email whether there was any compensation method and whether the old man could be moved back to the cemetery.

Mirabelli’s tragedy is by no means an isolated case. A long time ago, investigations by the government and news media have repeatedly shown that there are many lawyers with profound backgrounds in the guardianship system established in accordance with the act. , they use their network and legal knowledge to take over a large number of guardianship cases and plunder the ward's property. Even if the ward only owns a small amount of personal property, it will be plundered by them after death. As for the careful care and dignified burial promised to the ward during his lifetime, few people can actually fulfill it. Most people are like Mirabelli, and Hart Island has become their final destination.

Human nature buried in Hat Island

If you think that such a tragedy can only happen to elderly people living alone without relatives or relatives, then you might as well take a look at the following real incident.

Ciro Ferrer is from Cuba. As a legal immigrant, he has been living in New York since the 1990s. His workplace is a food market. Ferrer sends back his salary every month. Supports his wife and three children in Cuba. In 2007, Ferrer was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Government workers found him wandering alone near the apartment where he lived alone, so they recorded him as "70 years old, childless, living alone." Soon, Feller entered a nursing home in Queens and was assigned a legal guardian, Nicholas Latus. Latus had to withdraw $400 from Ferrer's monthly social security subsidy of $669, and the rest was used to pay for nursing home expenses. This was the case for five years. Ferrer suffered the same fate as Mirabelli. Later, the New York Times found out during its investigation. At the beginning of the appointment of legal guardian, Ferrer told the evaluator that he still had family members in Cuba. Looking through the files in the guardianship system, it was also found that Ferrer provided the phone number and address of his wife who lived in Havana, while in Latos The legal guardian's report submitted even mentioned plans to buy a phone card for Feller to contact relatives "overseas." However, when a reporter from the New York Times asked Latus about this, the lawyer who had squeezed the last drop of his hard-earned money out of the old man denied it.

Even in the nursing home, Feiler was unable to make any contact with his relatives far away. Latus deliberately prevented them from contacting him even though he knew that the old man had a wife and daughter in order to continue to plunder the old man's property. , even the news of the old man’s death was learned by his children from the news published in the New York Times. They tried to pick up their father’s body through the International Red Cross, but in the end nothing happened. "There is really nothing we can do but let our father sleep alone on a desert island." Feiler's daughter said sadly.

Hope in despair

In April 2018, there was a sudden heavy rain in New York. Washed away by the heavy rain, which dropped more than 7.62 centimeters of rain, part of the remains buried deep on Hart Island were horrifyingly exposed, drawing renewed attention to the island's problems.

Today, on Hart Island, the former prison and asylum have long been abandoned, and the burial of the corpses has long been handed over to the inmates of Rikers Island Prison. The government has tried to ban people from setting foot on Hart Island. Even if a limited number of people go to the observation deck far away from the cemetery to watch, video recording and photography are prohibited.

What’s touching is. Over the past few decades, visual artist Melinda Hunter has founded a non-profit organization called the Hart Island Project, which aims to obtain paper records of Hart Island burials through various methods. files to re-archive and classify the unidentified remains on the island. Further assistance in locating relatives of deceased persons buried on Hart Island. In 2011, more than 60,000 people buried here have been successfully archived, and their data has been uploaded to the "Hart Island Project" website. The website records in detail the year of birth and death of the person, the specific location of the burial, and when they were buried. Information for people to identify and find long-lost loved ones. to date. Many people have found their relatives and successfully moved their bones away from Hart Island, including Americans. There are also foreign immigrants from France, the Netherlands and Poland. There is no doubt that these people are lucky, because so far, more than 1,000 bodies have been transported to the island's cemetery for burial every year, and some of them are still unknown bodies. The "Hart Island Project" still has a long way to go.

Now, the "Hart Island Project" is still developing slowly but surely. The New York City government has also increased the maximum number of visitors allowed per month from 50 to 70, and plans to spend $13 million to rebuild Hart Island in 2019.

I hope these rays of kindness can illuminate the darkness on Hart Island so that human tragedy will never happen again.