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Coming off the most violent year in Baltimore's recent history, funeral director John Williams has buried more bodies_many of them young black men, many gunned down on the city's west side — than ever before.

In a normal month, he might do three funerals, he said. Since May he's been doing two a week.

Williams says "you can't be soft in the hood. You can't be soft as an undertaker either."

As of Nov. 19, 308 people have been killed in Baltimore this year, making 2015 the bloodiest year since 1999.

In a city that routinely leads the country in violent crime, Baltimore's murder toll has proved harrowing, even to those in the death business.