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.
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]
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
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ab"About Us". Westlawn Cemetery and Mausoleum. Retrieved 2 April 2023.