Memorial Service in Alabama For Retirees Who Died Broke Waiting For a Pension Check That Never Came

Press-Register reports:

PRICHARD, Alabama -- During 18 months of frozen pension funds, unresolved mediations and empty promises, 16 Prichard retirees have died.

Many of those who remain gathered Thursday evening for a memorial service at Prichard’s municipal complex in remembrance of those 16.

The last to have passed — 84-year-old retired police lieutenant William Coale — died Feb. 28 of acute organ failure.

"I feel like he was stolen from, that all these retirees have been stolen from," said Coale’s son, William "Woody" Coale Jr. "His life was this town, and it shook him when it went downhill."

The public pension crisis is here even if Rachel Maddow and Michael Moore don't think so.