Two more former inmates of Florida's infamous Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys have revealed to Sunshine State News that they have firsthand knowledge of the existence of a long-rumored "white cemetery" on the premises, insisting there are between 30 and 60 bodies buried there.
This was the only cemetery I was aware of, Charles Fudge, 65, of Crystal River, tells SSN. I did not know there was another cemetery over at the black side of campus.
According to the official story, the now-closed state reform school has only ever had one cemetery, named Boot Hill and located in what, back in the days of segregation (1900, when the school was opened, to 1968, when segregation was outlawed), used to be the African-American section of the Marianna campus.
Supposedly, and contrary to prevailing practice at the time elsewhere in America, and especially in the South, the school complex did not have separate cemeteries for blacks and whites. All children who died in the state's custody, whatever their race, were buried on Boot Hill, enjoying in the grave the racial ecumenism they were denied while they were alive.
Charles and his older brother, George Fudge, were inmates at Dozier for about a year, sometime between 1960 and 1962, and lived in the white section of the campus when it was still segregated. The brothers, like most former inmates interviewed by SSN, are fuzzy on the precise chronological details of their incarceration.
Charles insists there were between 30 and 60 gravemarkers tucked away in a clearing in the forest between his cottage, as the school referred to its dormitories, and another residence called Pierce Hall (where all the crazies were kept).
I know that cemetery's there, I can picture it in my mind 30 to 40 grave markers, George, 67, confirms to SSN, saying he only saw the cemetery once, when he stumbled upon the site by accident and was punished for doing so.
Charles, on the other hand, says he walked past the cemetery freely, nearly six times a day, every day, for almost a year. He had greater freedom than his brother George because he was higher-ranked. Inmates received "promotions" and privileges in exchange for good behavior, and Charles eventually became office-boy to to the notorious Troy Tidwell, a one-armed disciplinarian under whom several former inmates -- George among them -- are alleged to have suffered torture.
I got sent, about four times, to the White House, George tells SSN of a campus building that inmates say was a veritable torture chamber. But we used to call that place the 'Ice Cream Factory.'
Charles explains the origins of the dark euphemism.
When you came up out of there, your buttocks looked like raspberry, blackberry, and every other shade of ice-cream, he says, recalling that he was sent to the chamber only once, shortly after he arrived at the premises and got into a brawl with another inmate. After that, I very quickly became a 'Yes, sir; no sir' kind of guy, so I stayed out of trouble.
George was not so temperamentally disposed.
I was [a] smart[-ass], he tells SSN with an uncomfortable chuckle. And I didn't just get hit in the butt; I got beat from head to toe; they beat you wherever they could hit you.
The brothers' testimony reflects that of numerous other witnesses: they were beat upward of 30 times with a leather strap, while lying down on a dirty cot, their faces buried into an equally filthy pillow.
We had to bite into that nasty pillow to keep from screaming, Charles recounts.
Neither of the brothers has spoken to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi or USF chief archaeologist Erin Kimmerle who is leading the ongoing excavations of the now-closed Dozier campus about their experiences or about their having seen an additional cemetery on the premises.
Charles says he's never been asked to share his testimony, and only recently learned that the existence of a white cemetery was even in dispute.
I would love for them to find the children buried there, and what their cause of death was, he tells SSN, saying he hopes Bondi and Kimmerle get to the bottom of the mystery. Its a necessity for the world to know about the corruption that was going on there.
The brothers Fudges' testimony differs significantly from that of fellow former inmate Daniel Holloway, who was at the campus more than 10 years after their release. While the Fudges and Holloway both claim to have seen the white cemetery Charles, like Daniel, claiming to have seen it up to six times a day during the course of his sentence Holloway situates the cemetery almost 2,000 feet away, and says the cemetery was in an area now occupied by some sort of parking lot with a covered carport.
Both sets of witnesses agree that another cemetery existed in addition to the one officially accounted for, and that it was situated in the white part of the campus. It isn't clear whether Holloway and the Fudges are referring to the same second cemetery, or whether there might be a third that's unaccounted for by the state.
Reach Eric Giunta at egiunta@sunshinestatenews.com or at (954) 235-9116.
