The Fines
The Fines tells the story of families fighting to have unidentified remains from 9/11—sifted into 360,000-480,000 tons of dust at Fresh Kills landfill—removed from the dump and given a more dignified burial place. Despite a medical examiner's promise to identify all remains and years of activism by families like the Hornings, a judge ruled the unidentifiable mass of dirt had no constitutional protection, leaving the remains at Fresh Kills as the landfill was converted into a park.
Summary
This episode of Revisionist History examines the aftermath of 9/11 and the contentious battle over how to handle unidentified human remains. On September 11, 2001, Chief Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch rushed to Ground Zero and made a promise to families: "We will never rest until all remains are identified." However, the scale of destruction was unprecedented—the Twin Towers were pulverized into dust, making traditional body recovery impossible.
After the recovery operation at Ground Zero ended in May 2002, the city closed the case on finding remains there. However, years later, additional remains were discovered accidentally during construction projects, including on the roof of the Deutsche Bank building. This revealed that the initial search had been incomplete.
During the sorting operation at Fresh Kills landfill—where 1.5 million tons of material from Ground Zero was processed—workers sifted material down to a quarter-inch pieces. Anything smaller was considered "inconsequential dirt and dust" and designated as "the fines." This resulted in a pile of unidentifiable remains estimated between 360,000 and 480,000 tons (about one football field long, piled 200 feet high) left permanently at the landfill.
The Horning family—who lost their son Matthew, a 26-year-old database administrator on the 95th floor of the North Tower—became activists. Led by mother Diane, they formed WTC Families for a Proper Burial and fought for years to have the fines removed from Fresh Kills and placed in a dignified location, either at Ground Zero or Governor's Island. They hired civil rights attorney Norman Siegel and sued the city in 2005, claiming the burial violated their 14th Amendment due process rights and New York burial laws.
Chief Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch acknowledged in a letter that "at least some human tissue is mixed with the dirt at the Staten Island landfill," but proved impossible to identify which specific fragments belonged to which victims. In 2008, the judge ruled that the plaintiffs lacked a constitutionally protected right to "an unidentifiable mass of dirt," stating that all identifiable remains had already been identified. The fines remain at Fresh Kills to this day.
The episode concludes with cultural historian Thomas Lequeur reflecting on why humans care for their dead despite knowing it's scientifically meaningless—describing it as "a magic we can believe in." The Hornings continue wearing pins of the Twin Towers with a heart, vowing daily until their son is "out of the dump."
About this episode
<p>How did some remains of those who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks end up in what was once the world's largest landfill? In this episode: the battle that continues to this day over what some see as a pile of dust, and what others see as the remains of the dead.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>
Key Insights
- Chief Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch promised families that all 9/11 remains would be identified, but this promise became impossible to fulfill because the scale of pulverization into dust meant many remains could never be scientifically matched to individuals.
- The sorting operation at Fresh Kills sifted material only to a quarter-inch pieces, with anything smaller classified as 'inconsequential dirt and dust' despite families' photographs showing larger identifiable material like fire hoses and building fragments left unsifted.
- The city of New York determined in 2004 that the 360,000-480,000 tons of unidentified remains (called 'the fines') would permanently remain at Fresh Kills, treating it as just another landfill product rather than sacred remains.
- In their legal case, the Horning family could not prove that their specific son's remains were in the unidentified mass of dirt, which became the basis for the judge's ruling that plaintiffs lacked constitutional protection for 'an unidentifiable mass.'
- Additional human remains were discovered years after the initial recovery ended, including on the Deutsche Bank building roof and in Con Ed workers' manholes, revealing that the original search at Ground Zero had been incomplete.
- DNA identification technology continued to improve after 9/11, allowing for identifications decades later—as recently as 2025 when three new victims were identified—but this only applied to material that had already been recovered.
- The Hornings spent years being passed between city officials (the coroner's office, Fresh Kills superintendent, emergency management) without receiving clear answers, describing the experience as feeling trapped in a Dickens novel.
- Cultural historian Thomas Lequeur argues that humans act as if remains matter deeply even though scientifically we know a cremated parent's ashes are indistinguishable from fertilizer, calling this 'a magic we can believe in' that defines human civilization.
Topics
Transcript
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