Why Rikers inmates wore hazmat suits to bury one baby in 1985

Baby 1’s Journey from Anonymity to AIDS Symbol

Hart Island holds America’s most heartbreaking AIDS memorial in a simple concrete marker reading “SC-B1 1985.”

In 1985, when AIDS fear peaked, New York’s first infant victim of the disease was buried alone on this remote island.

Funeral homes refused the bodies, so corrections officers in hazmat suits dug graves fourteen feet deep, segregating AIDS victims from other burials.

Thousands more would follow, making Hart Island the largest single AIDS burial ground in America.

The unnamed baby became known as the “Tomb of the Unknown Child,” representing all who died abandoned during our most stigmatized health crisis.

Here’s the full story behind this stark memorial you can visit today.

AIDS Panic Spread Through NYC Funeral Homes

In 1985, AIDS killed about 8,000 people yearly in New York City.

Many funeral homes turned away AIDS victims after the New York State Funeral Directors Association warned them in 1983. Families couldn’t afford private burials costing $5,000-$6,000, plus extra fees for protective gear.

The disease mostly killed IV drug users, their HIV-positive babies, poor people without cemetery plots, and gay men cut off from their families.

The First AIDS Baby Got a Code Instead of a Name

The first baby to die of AIDS in New York City went to Hart Island in 1985. Officials labeled the child “SC-B1” – Special Child, Baby number 1.

Nobody wrote down the baby’s name, age, or when they died. No details exist about how the baby looked or sounded.

This unnamed child came with 16 other AIDS victims, forming the first AIDS burial group on Hart Island after funeral homes started refusing these bodies.

Workers Wore Spacesuits to Bury AIDS Victims

Corrections officers and Rikers inmates put on protective hazmat gear for AIDS burials, throwing away the suits afterward.

Former DOC Captain Ruppert said: “People avoided AIDS patients like the plague.”

Staff acted out of fear, not knowing how AIDS spread. Bodies came in sealed bags and workers wore disposable jumpsuits they tossed after each burial.

Fear Created a Separate Burial Zone

Officials buried the 17 AIDS victims 14 feet deep at Hart Island’s southern tip, the deepest their backhoe could dig.

Unlike other Hart Island mass graves, each AIDS victim got their own plot because people feared catching the disease.

They picked this far-off spot to keep these graves away from the island’s other 800,000+ burials going back to 1869.

A Concrete Marker Stood Alone in the Woods

Workers placed a plain concrete marker reading “SC-B1 1985” with strange-looking letters.

Photographer Joel Sternfeld and artist Melinda Hunt found this marker in 1992, hidden “deep in the wooded area” among weeds and vines.

This became the only single grave on Hart Island with a concrete marker, unlike the unmarked mass trenches used for others.

People called it the “Tomb of the Unknown Child.

Medical Facts Couldn’t Stop the Fear

People knew very little about what caused AIDS or how it spread in 1985, leading to fear-based burial practices.

City news wrongly claimed SC-B1 was the first child to die of AIDS in NYC. Health Department records showed 27 children between 1 and 14 had died of AIDS that year.

Scientists later proved dead bodies couldn’t spread HIV, but the separate burial practice went on for years.

More "Special Cases" Filled the Isolated Section

About 35 “special case” graves sit on Hart Island’s southern tip. White headstones mark each one with codes like “SC-19 1985,” all belonging to adults except SC-B1.

Hart Island burials jumped during the late 1980s and early 1990s as AIDS deaths peaked. By 1985, over half of IV drug users tested positive for HIV, making the crisis worse.

Families Turned Their Backs on AIDS Victims

Many families wanted nothing to do with relatives who had AIDS, leaving them even after death. Shame about HIV, family rejection, and money problems left many dying alone in hospitals or hospices.

Bodies came mostly from hospitals with big AIDS wards:

Bellevue, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt, Harlem Hospital, St. Vincent’s, and St. Clare’s. The Hart Island Project found cases like Shawn Ross, whose mother refused to claim his body.

Death Rates Soared Beyond Capacity

Over 100,000 New Yorkers died of AIDS during the 1980s and 1990s, making up 25% of all AIDS deaths nationwide.

The average age of people buried on Hart Island dropped to 52 in 1990 because of AIDS, far below the national average of 79.

Hart Island became what might be America’s largest single burial ground for AIDS victims, though nobody knows the exact number.

Regular Burials Eventually Resumed

Once officials learned corpses couldn’t spread HIV, they started burying AIDS victims in regular mass graves.

The city ended the segregation policy and included AIDS victims in common burials. The 1985-1986 individual graves dug 14 feet deep remained as evidence.

The island kept receiving AIDS victims but without the extreme isolation measures from the epidemic’s early days.

SC-B1 Became a Symbol for Thousands

Hart Island stayed closed to families until 2014, with many just now learning their relatives were buried there.

Artist Melinda Hunt started the Hart Island Project in 1994 to help families find buried relatives and document the island’s history.

The concrete marker “SC-B1 1985” still stands as a symbol for all unnamed victims of America’s most stigmatized health crisis.

With over one million burials, Hart Island remains the world’s largest tax-funded cemetery.

Visiting Hart Island, New York

You can visit Hart Island through free tours on select Tuesday mornings from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. You need to enter a lottery on the NYC Parks website two weeks before.

The 2.5-hour walking tours include free ferry rides from a restricted dock on City Island in the Bronx. Tours alternate monthly between the northern and southern parts, where you can learn about “Special Case Baby 1.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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