Philadelphia incinerated remains of police bombing victims without telling families

Mayor fires health chief over disposal of remains decades after 1985 Move bombing, which killed 11

The public outcry over the handling of human remains retrieved from the ashes of the deadly 1985 bombing of a Black liberation organization in Philadelphia dramatically escalated on Thursday, with the revelation that the bones of an undisclosed number of Move victims were incinerated and dumped by the city without the knowledge or permission of living relatives.

In a bombshell disclosure, the mayor of Philadelphia, Jim Kenney, announced that he had fired the city's health commissioner, Thomas Farley. The mayor said that Farley had told him earlier this week that several years ago he had become aware that remains of victims of the Move bombing - in which 11 people died - were still in the possession of the city's medical examiner's office.