Ga. Crematory Operator Speaks Out

JSOnline ^ | July 26, 2002

[tenderstone jr.]

LAFAYETTE, Ga. - The operator of a crematory where investigators found hundreds of discarded corpses made his first public comments since the bodies were discovered, saying he was aware of the hostility he would face if he were released while awaiting trial.

``We live in the South and I'm a black man,'' Brent Marsh said Thursday, the day Cobb County Superior Court Judge James G. Bodiford set bond for him at $159,200. ``A lot of people don't like me because I am me.''

In February, more than 340 human remains were found on the grounds of the Marsh family's Tri-State Crematory at Noble, a small, northern Georgia town near the Tennessee border. Bodies were found in the woods, stacked in storage buildings, stuffed in burial vaults and buried in pits. So far, 167 bodies have been identified, most of them white.

Marsh is charged with 398 felony counts, including theft by deception and abuse of a body, for allegedly accepting money and never performing the cremations.

Marsh, who has been held since mid-February, was denied bond three times previously.

Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson testified that releasing Marsh could put him and innocent bystanders in danger from lingering community hostility.

Marsh took over the crematory in 1996 from his parents, Ray and Clara Marsh. His parents and a sister, Rhames LaShea Marsh, 32, are charged with misrepresenting themselves as licensed funeral directors by signing death certificates in Georgia. They are free on bond.

Dozens of Tennessee residents have sued Marsh and funeral homes. Records show Tennessee funeral directors sent at least 257 bodies to Tri-State since 1999. Georgia and Alabama funeral homes also contracted with Marsh.

Lisa Cash of East Ridge, Tenn., whose mother's body was among those recovered at the crematory, said Marsh has hurt hundreds of families.

``How can he sit up there and tell the judge he is not hurting anybody?'' Cash said.

[tenderstone jr.]

The man left white corpses in the woods to rot, and now he tries to pull the race card. Unbelievable.

[kaylar]

This proves to me that it wasn't greed that made him commit his despicable acts : He did so out of racial hatred. This thing is beneath contempt.

[TightSqueeze]

Sounds like this guy is plagiarizing lines from Steve Martin’s film The Jerk.

"The Jerk's" - 3 Rules to Live By!!! 1. The lord loves a Working Man 2. See a doctor and get rid of it 3. Don't trust the Whitey

[NC_Libertarian]

Wow, what a jerk. I hope someone kicks his ass when he's let out.

[tenderstone jr.]

I doubt what he did was racially motivated. I suppose it makes sense that most of the bodies would be white. And the article implies that at least a few of the bodies were non-whites.

I still hate the way he tries to use the race card here. Does he really think people wouldn't be mad at him if he was white and pulled the same thing? And just think of what would happen if he was white and a lot of the bodies had been black.

[LouD]

``We live in the South and I'm a black man,'' Brent Marsh said Thursday, the day Cobb County Superior Court Judge James G. Bodiford set bond for him at $159,200. ``A lot of people don't like me because I am me.''

Uh, actually, a lot of people don't like you because you discarded their loved ones like so much refuse. Doesn't matter though - Since OJ taught us that race is an alibi for murder, why not give it a shot on fraud and 340 counts of abuse of a corpse, too?

The man left white corpses in the woods to rot, and now he tries to pull the race card. Unbelievable.

What is the deal on this? The last I heard, the crematory was not operational, and he left all his customers to rot, white or black. Did he discriminate?

[cajungirl]

What a doofus,,but pretty soon we are going to hear that as a result of years of discrimination he developed some sort of dissociative post traumatic disorder and his mean alter left those corpses out to rot. Then he will sue the great State of Georgia and collect millions.

[RippleFire]

BUMP

[PBRSTREETGANG]

When I first heard about this story, I did not know the race of the crematory operator and I thought he was criminally stupid, lazy, and greedy.

Now I know that he's a criminally stupid, lazy, greedy race-baiter with a lot of chutzpah.

[bert]

He is not a black man, he's toast

[Post Toasties]

This Crematorium owner is a crook and a ghoul, but he's clearly not oppressed since all these 'crackers', according to local black parlance, trusted their deceased loved ones to his abuse.

[EggsAckley]

``A lot of people don't like me because I am me.''

No, moron. They don't like you because you desecrated the remains of their loved ones.

[Post Toasties]

Yes. We've now reached the point where white cultural consciousness will not even allow scientific examination of a 10,000 plus year old skeleton because some indigenous Native Americans from a tribe in existence for no more than a few hundred years spews malarkey that one of their supposed ancestors are thereby being desecrated, but an soi-disant 'oppressed' minority member feels perfectly free and easy about taking hundreds of peoples' cremation money and then throwing their loved ancestors' remains out in the woods to be chewed on by raccoons and skunks.

[wrench]

Some of the folks that trusted this scum to handle their loved one's remains may just seek revenge. Some of them are plain, hard working mountain folk. I wouldn't mess with their dog, let alone their dead granny.

It won't take a court, judge, and jury to detirmine if he did the community wrong. Marsh was a whole lot safer in custody. Wonder what the 911 response time is to his address right now????

[B4Ranch]

I'll be surprised if he's alive on Monday. The local LEO's probably had family members corpses abused by this scum. The response time is probably at least 96 hours if the call isn't automatically blocked from the 911 switchboard.

[Consort]

I thought we put this on the back burner.

[Willie Green]

WTF??? That's IT???

No explanation why this happened?

Just: "This is the South and everybody hates me because I'm black"????

Good mother-effin' grief.

[blam]

Lazy, stupid SOB!