'Mississippi Burning' trial and conviction thread

Heavy security as "Mississippi Burning" trial opens

14 June 2005

PHILADELPHIA : The trial of an 80-year-old alleged member of the racist Klu Klux Klan, charged with killing three civil rights workers in Mississippi 41 years ago, opened on Monday amid tight security.

The deaths of Michael Schwerner, 24, Andy Goodman, 20, and James Chaney, 21, garnered a world audience with the Hollywood movie "Mississippi Burning."

Now the trial of Edgar Ray Killen is shining a fresh spotlight on the southern state's painful past.

Reflecting the emotionally charged nature of the case, roads around the courthouse in the small Mississippi town of Philadelphia were cut off as potential jurors arrived under police surveillance.

After a jury is chosen, opening arguments are expected to start on Wednesday. Lawyers said the trial would last several weeks.

Among those expected to testify are the mothers of Goodman and Chaney and the widow of Schwerner, who had lived for six months in Mississippi before his death.

Killen, once a sawmill operator and part-time Baptist minister, was arrested in January and charged with organising the murders.

He suffered two broken legs in a fall in March and he will have a private room with a bed at the court for use throughout the trial. He was brought to court in a wheelchair and did not speak to reporters.

Killen has pleaded not guilty and has said his "conscience is clear" in interviews about events 40 years ago when he was alleged to be a member of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan organisation.

Attorney General Jim Hood, who is prosecuting the case, said jury selection is going "a little slow," but he expects the trial to last ten or 12 days.

Killen's attorney, James McIntyre, told CNN that the trial marked "a sad day" in state history.

"Mississippi needs to move forward, not backward. This matter was closed some 40 years ago. The state is attempting to open old wounds," McIntyre said.

Ben Chaney, the brother of James Chaney, said: "I'm ready for the truth."

"I hope this process provides an opening for closure, an opening for truth," the victim's brother said as he attended Monday's proceedings.

Chaney, who said a trial was needed for all those who participated in his brother's killing, also called for a probe into the state for potentially hindering prosecutions.

"Freedom Summer" in 1964 drew thousands of activists from northern US states, mostly young whites, to the racially segregated south in an attempt to bring social change by registering blacks to vote.

Schwerner and Goodman were young white men from New York who teamed up with Chaney, a black activist from Mississippi. The three were returning from a black church that had been burned down when they were arrested on June 21 and accused of speeding.

After several hours in Philadelphia's police station they were released in the dead of night. Following a terrifying chase, two carloads of men - Klan members and police - ambushed them.

Their bodies, beaten and riddled with bullets, were dumped under an earth dam and only found 44 days later following an intense FBI manhunt.

Amid hostile silence from locals and under smothering heat, federal agents carried out a dogged investigation, evoked on screen in Alan Parker's 1988 "Mississippi Burning" starring Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe.

Eighteen clan members including Killen were indicted in 1964. Seven were convicted by an all-white jury of violating the dead men's civil rights and sentenced in 1967 to prison terms of three to 10 years.

But Killen was acquitted. A woman on the jury said she could not bring herself to condemn a preacher.

The case was reopened in 2004 and Killen is now accused of orchestrating the murders, but the men suspected of carrying them out, according to witness accounts, are no longer alive.

The Ku Klux Klan says it has told members to stay away from the trial.

"If there's any Klan protest, it won't be any of us," said Richard Greene, Imperial Wizard of the Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. "We don't believe it's appropriate. A man's life is at stake here."

However, a man identified as J.J. Harper handed out business cards identifying himself as imperial wizard of the American White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, greeted Killan and offered words of encouragement outside the courthouse. - AFP/de

Source

Accused Klansman organized 1964 murders-prosecutor
Wed Jun 15, 2005 08:23 PM ET

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. (Reuters) - Mississippi's top law official on Wednesday opened the murder trial of Edgar Ray Killen by saying the suspected Ku Klux Klansman was the driving force behind the slayings of three civil rights workers more than four decades ago.
Reopening a case that helped galvanize the U.S. civil rights movement, state Attorney General Jim Hood said the 80-year-old defendant organized the carloads of Klansmen who abducted and shot Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney outside Philadelphia, Mississippi, on June 21, 1964.

Witnesses will "speak from the grave," said Hood, as he told jurors of the prosecution's plans to admit into evidence testimony from Killen's 1967 federal conspiracy trial.

Four blacks are among the 17 people who will hear the case. Twelve of them will be designated as jurors and the other five will be alternates.

The defense wants to exclude testimony from the 1967 trial and motions on its admissibility were to be heard on Thursday.

Killen, an ordained Baptist minister who has pleaded not guilty, was among a group of men tried for federal civil rights violations in 1967 in connection with the slayings. The case became a rallying point for the civil rights movement and was dramatized in the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning."

Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney, all in their 20s, were killed during the "Freedom Summer" campaign to register Southern blacks to vote.

Seven of Killen's co-defendants in 1967 were convicted and sentenced to prison terms of between three and 10 years but his trial ended in a hung jury after a lone holdout said she could never convict a preacher.

In his opening statement on Wednesday, defense attorney Mitch Moran denied that his client played a part in the murders and urged jurors not to be moved by evidence of Killen's involvement with the Klan.

"The Klan's not on trial here," said Moran, who described the 1964 murders as a terrible act. "When you hear about it, it's awful but we're here to decide if Edgar Killen is guilty of these crimes."

Opening arguments came five months after Killen was arrested near Philadelphia and charged with three counts of murder. He is the first person to be tried by the state for the crime.

State prosecutors did not go after any of the original suspects in the 1960s, perhaps swayed by the realization that no jury in Mississippi had at that time ever convicted whites for killing blacks or civil rights workers.

Killen's arrest followed the reopening of the state's long-dormant investigation into the slayings. His trial is expected to last about three weeks.

{Source}

It's an important trial. I have been following, just too busy to comment before now.

Wow.
That is a horrible story. I do remember hearing something about this before and you are right Reyn. MJ has the spotlight and it is too big to allow news coverage of other, more important stories.

I hate to hear about members of the KKK having been ' let off ' of charges 20-30+ years ago because there wasnt a supposed -SYSTEM- in place.
That is such crap. There was a system in place. White were innocent, Blacks were the free for all targets. Why cant someone just admit that was what was going on instead of making excuses and reasons about laws?
We are over those times now. Noone still has to lie for them or about them.

I learned about this first from the movie (sort of sad, don't you think?) and I am so glad they are finally going to make this man stand trial. If he is innocent (HA!) then he will go free as he should. And if he is guilty, he will get his due.

It's just a terrible reminder of how ingnorant and savage we as a country were only 40 years ago. And it makes me wonder how far we've really come. Racism is still alive, just better guarded.

Edgar - I thought that you would be following it and that might be the case! I'll keep it on my radar and follow-up.

shewolf - It is a horrible story from a very backward time. In some ways, things are better in some areas, but I rather wonder if the deep south has changed much at all. Here in Canada, with increased immigration, we have a growing problem, too, especially with East Indian prejudice. I live in a community with a large population of such.

Bella - Don't feel bad. I'm sure that there are many in the same boat. People of Edgar's and mine generation remember, because we were of a certain age when this happened.

Thanks for everyone taking an interest! I'm going to keep loking for different reactions to this trial from different areas of the country.

I will be posting a mixture of information from various sources for this trial within this thread. The below and the next few posts are local reaction and background to the proceedings. Comments are appreciated.

Killen in 'good condition' in ICU; jury to be free for Father's Day

The Neshoba Democrat
Thursday, June 16, 2005
By DEBBIE BURT MYERS

Edgar Ray Killen was listed in good condition after being taken by ambulance to the Neshoba County General Hospital after leaving the courthouse this morning complaining of discomforts in his chest and a headache, the attending physical said.

Dr. Patrick Eakes, an internal medicine specialist, said the 80-year-old Killen was being monitored in the intensive care unit as a precaution.

Killen's triple murder trial was recessed until 8:30 a.m. Friday after he was taken to the hospital.

Shortly after 1 p.m. Judge Marcus Gordon announced outside the jury's presence that the 80-year-old Killen remained in the hospital and was undergoing a series of tests which had to be completed before his physician could make a prognosis.

Gordon said Killen's physician was to notify him first thing Friday of his condition.

When the jury returned to the courtroom, Gordon told the group they would be in recess because of unexpected developments, which he had no control over.

The judge brought smiles to many of the jurors after informing them that they would be permitted to return home Saturday for the Father's Day weekend.

He said court would recess at noon on Saturday and they would be dismissed to return on Monday.

Killen will stay in ICU overnight and if he does well he will be released in the morning, Eakes said.

Eakes and hospital administrator Lonnie Graeber spoke with reporters about Killen's condition during a 2:30 p.m. press conference in the media center.

Killen's blood pressure was elevated when he was brought into the emergency room, the doctor said.

The doctor said stress could have triggered his condition but noted that Killen has a history of hypertension for which he takes medication.

In treating Killen, Eakes said his age and the injuries he suffered in a logging accident in March must be considered.

Eakes said he would keep any patient overnight who came into the emergency room with the same symptoms.

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Killen taken by ambulance from courthouse; proceedings delayed

The Neshoba Democrat
Thursday, June 16, 2005
By DEBBIE BURT MYERS, JOSH FOREMAN and JIM PRINCE

The triple murder trial of Edgar Ray Killen was interrupted today when he was taken to a hospital by ambulance.

The 80-year-old Killen was suffering from high blood pressure and diffficultly breathing and was taken to Neshoba General Hospital at about 10 a.m., said Neshoba County Sheriff Larry A. Myers.

After Judge Marcus Gordon on Thursday denied a defense motion asking that testimony from a 1967 conspiracy trial not be allowed as part of testimony in Killen's murder trial, Killen apparently fell ill.

One of his attorneys approached the judge and the jury was dismissed before Killen was wheeled out.

After one witness tesified and another was on the stand Gordon interrupted proceedings at about 10 a.m., called attorneys into his chambers, emerged to dismiss the jury and said the trial would have a delay for "some period of time."

"We've had a major development," he said.

Later the jury was brought back in and court was recessed until 1 p.m.

Killen was in the courthouse but not in the courtroom for the testimony.

Killen's departure interrupted testimony from witness Nell Miller, wife of former Meridian police sgt. Wallace Miller.

Rita Bender, the widow of murdered civil rights worker Michael Schwerner, had just finished testifying for the prosecution.

Bender, now a Seattle attorney, recounted the time she and her late husband spent in Mississippi in 1964 registering blacks to vote.

Her late husband felt a "terrible sense of responsibility" after Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Neshoba County was burned to the ground by the Ku Klux Klan on June 16, 1964.

Schwerner had spoken at the church on Memorial Day in his efforts to register blacks to vote and teach them to read and write.

He was very distressed about the church burning, she testified. "They had to go back and see those people," Bender said.

On Wednesday, a jury was impaneled consisting of nine whites and three blacks. The 17 picked, including five alternates, is composed of 13 whites and four blacks. The group includes 11 females and six males.

The identity of the alternates will not be known, even to the jurors, until the end of the trial.

Killen was present during the voir dire ?- or jury selection ?- process in the judge's chambers and, after returning to the courtroom, gave his family a smile and made an OK gesture with his hand.

The only potential juror struck from jury service for cause came from the state because of one of his responses on a jury questionnaire.

The question was "what do you think about the case being prosecuted 41 years after the fact?" to which the man responded "Bull, been too long a time."

According to the questionnaire, this potential juror also knew several people who testified in the 1967 federal trial and either he or a member of his family had at one time or another been in the Klan, an Associated Press reporter present in the judge's chambers said.

"If there ever was anybody who tried to get on a jury, it was this man," she quoted District Attorney Mark Duncan as saying.

Opening statements began after the jury was seated Wednesday.

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood told jurors they would have to rely on their memories when deliberating Killen's guilt or innocence as it was not economically feasible for the state of Mississippi to provide them with transcripts of testimony.

Hood gave a detailed narrative of the events leading up to the murders of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney which he said were orchestrated by Killen.

He told jurors that Goodman sent a postcard to his mother the day before he was murdered to let her know he had arrived in Mississippi.

"Weather great, people are nice," Hood quoted the card as saying.

Witnesses will "speak from the grave" the Attorney General said of testimony the state plans to have read from the 1967 conspiracy trial.

On the night of the murders after the three men were jailed for speeding, Hood said Killen drove to the Long Horn Restaurant in Meridian and organized Klansmen. The group later met Killen at the courthouse and then he showed them the jail where the men were incarcerated, he said.

The state will prove that Killen planned and organized the Klansmen to commit the murders, Hood told the jurors.

Defense attorney Mitch Moran reminded the jury that the Klan was not on trial.

He said Killen has denied he was in the Klan but that it was not the issue.

For the sake of the trial, you can assume he was in the Klan, he said.

Moran said it was common knowledge that the Meridian Klan and Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers organized the murders which he described as a terrible crime.

"When you hear about it, it's awful but we're here to decide if Edgar Killen is guilty of these crimes," he said.

Moran said Killen was not present when the murders occurred and "they will have to admit that."

He said law enforcement pulled the men's car over and the Klan killed them after they were released.

Rita Schwerner Bender is expected to testify for the state on Thursday as is Carolyn Goodman, Andrew Goodman's mother.

After court adjoined, Duncan said the prosecution felt it was important that the jury realize that the three civil rights workers were real people.

"People here don't have a connection with the victims. They don't know them, they don't know their families, they don't go to church with them, work with them or go to the ballpark with them," he said.

"What we want to do is let the jury know that these are real people, with real families and real lives, with brothers and sisters, mothers and daddies who cared for them and loved them just like we do our families."

Defense Attorney James McIntyre said after court adjoined that he did not know that Killen was a member of the Klan until 1967 when testimony from the federal trial said he was.

"The Klan's not on trial today. Mr. Killen is on trial for murder," McIntyre said.

McIntyre said his strategy was to ensure that Killen gets a fair trial. He said there was no better strategy.

The defense plans to prove that Killen had nothing to do with orchestrating the crime, he said.

"He's charged with pulling the trigger ?- he wasn't there," McIntyre said.

Killen is accused in the June 21, 1964, slayings of James Chaney, 21, Michael Schwerner, 24, and Andrew Goodman, 20, in a plot reportedly hatched by the Klan. The trio was in Mississippi registering blacks to vote.

Killen has maintained his innocence and insists he was never part of the Klan.

He was indicted by a Neshoba County grand jury on Jan. 6, 2005.

His trial was first set for March 28 and later postponed to April 18 to give lawyers time to prepare a questionnaire for potential jurors and to give the defense time to examine previously undisclosed records from a tip line.

The trial was postponed until June 13 after Killen was injured in a logging accident on March 10.

He underwent surgery on his legs and is presently confined to a wheelchair, his attorneys have said.

On May 23, Gordon denied a defense motion to have the murder charges dropped on the basis of selective prosecution.

At a pre-trial hearing June 8 Gordon ruled against a defense motion seeking a continuance in the trial because of Killen's health.

But the jurdge odered that a bed and private room be provided in the courthouse for his use during breaks in proceedings.


Accused murderer Edgar Ray Killen peers downward while being rolled away from the Neshoba County Courthouse by his step-son Jerry Edwards after the second day of jury selection in Philadelphia on Tuesday. The jury selection in Killen's trial is slated to be finished this morning. Testimony could start today. with his trial beginning at 2 p.m. Killen is accused of planning the murders of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County in 1964, dramatized in the movie 'Mississippi Burning'.

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It looks like the media will have a field day with this Killen trial. It's attracting a lot of attention. See below.

Media descend for trial

The Neshoba Democrat
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
By JOSH FOREMAN
Staff Reporter

Eight reporters stood in front of defense attorney James McIntyre outside the Neshoba County Courthouse early Monday morning. Two pointed TV cameras at the man; the others stared down at notepads, scribbling shorthand while McIntyre answered questions.

Every few minutes a group of three or four reporters would spot McIntyre talking on the side of the courthouse and jog over with cameras, notepads and microphones. After about 20 minutes of questioning, the attorney was surrounded by 30 reporters, all with their own queries about Killen and the trial.

"How many witnesses do you plan to call?" one said. "Will Mr. Killen testify?" another said. "Is the Klan here?"

Such was the atmosphere Monday as jury selection began for the murder trial of reputed Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen. Dozens of people hung around the courthouse, and most were members of the media.

A list of registered journalists for the trial reads like a who's who list of the world's media outlets ?- The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Associated Press, The London Daily Telegraph.

There were 221 journalists registered from 60 different media organizations, according to the Neshoba County Circuit Clerk.

The trial has been the focus of stories on ABC News Nightline, National Public Radio, in The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post and others.

"The story's got all the elements, right?" said Tim Harper, a reporter for The Toronto Star. "It's a story of justice denied. Everyone in the world has heard this story."

A CNN cameraman said that of all the important stories he's covered, the Neshoba murders were one of the most significant if not the most important because of the complex emotions and the impact the case has had.

On Monday CNN was reporting live from the court square as were several Mississippi television stations.

By Tuesday the Michael Jackson verdict had knocked the Neshoba story off CNN as jury selection continued.

After McIntyre left the group of reporters standing at the courthouse on Monday, they converged on themselves, asking each other questions about what he had said. Soon someone mentioned that the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan had been spotted greeting Killen as he entered the courthouse monday morning. The reporters turned their attention to that latest news, asking what had been said, whether the handshake that took place between Killen and the Klan leader was a "secret handshake."

"This case always has had a pretty prominent role in our history," said Oliver Staley, a reporter for The Commercial Appeal.

His newspaper led the Sunday edition front page with a lengthy article and photo essay that ran for several pages.

Staley said he suspects that the different news outlets covering the trial are covering it for different reasons.

He said his editors at the Memphis-based Commercial Appeal assigned him the story because Memphis has its own checkered Civil Rights Movement-era history. Memphians are interested in the story because many of them lived through the era and are still feeling its effects.

European media groups, of which there are numerous covering the trial, are interested in the story because it is uniquely American, Staley said.

The editor of The Neshoba Democrat, for example, was bombarded by requests from interviews from some European media, namely Ireland and Great Britain.

David Cunningham, an associate professor from Brandeis University of Boston who is attending the trial as part of research for a book, said he has noticed a phenomenon at the Killen trial and similar events. To locals, Cunningham said, the trial is almost a non-story. To the media however, the story is worth flying to Philadelphia from Los Angeles or Berlin and spending a week camped outside the Neshoba County Courthouse.

Cunningham said he attended the trial of some of those connected with the 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham. He walked into the courthouse, he said, and noticed a crowd in the front of the room. No one was sitting in the middle of the courtroom, and only a few were sitting in the back. He said he soon realized that the mass at the front of the courtroom was made up of reporters; The few people sitting in the back were locals who had shown up to watch the trial.

Cunningham said the atmosphere at the Neshoba County Courthouse is similar. "It dawned on me after an hour or so that everyone here is with the media," he said.

The eyes of the world may be on Neshoba County this week thanks to the army of reporters in town, but the media presence has other effects on the community as well.

Susie Hammendorp, who owns The Coffee Bean across the street from the courthouse, said business has been booming since media members began showing up in town. "It's interesting. We're getting a lot of people from out of town here - Canada, California, Europe."

On Sunday Mayor Rayburn Waddell and Police Chief David Edwards welcomed members of the media to Philadelphia.

Waddell told those gathered in the media center that the city planned to do anything necessary to make there time here enjoyable.

When you leave here, we want you to take back with you a good impression of Philadelphia, he said.

Chief Edwards introduced several members of his staff and provided phone numbers for those in need of assistance or information.

Several signed up for a civil rights tour sponsored by the Community Development Partnership.

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You sure are focused on this trial, Reyn. Seems it never reyns but what it pours. I remember those days all to vividly. While i understand the need to pursue this, it is too close to my personal experience of life for me to want to relive it.

Sorry, this article is out of date order.

Testimony could start today in Killen trial

The Neshoba Democrat
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
By DEBBIE MYERS and JOSH FOREMAN

During a break in jury selection on Tuesday in the triple murder trial of Edgar Ray Killen, in the hush of the spacious main courtroom of the Neshoba County Courthouse, the widow of a man he is accused of killing and the brother of another sat rows apart from two Ku Klux Klansman, the wife of the accused and his stepson.

Jury selection in the murder trial of the 80-year-old Killen, accused in one of the most infamous crimes of the civil rights era, was in its second day.

Killen is accused in the June 21, 1964, slayings of James Chaney, 21, Michael Schwerner, 24, and Andrew Goodman, 20, in a plot reportedly hatched by the Klan. The trio was in Mississippi registering blacks to vote.

Killen has maintained his innocence and insists he was never part of the Klan.

There were 76 potential jurors remaining Tuesday - most of whom were white ?- out of a diverse pool of about 300. They were to report to the courthouse at 8:30 a.m., today (Wednesday).

Testimony could start as early as 2 p.m. today and is expected to last at least another week. The trial will continue on Saturday but not Sunday.

The defense is expected to file a motion today seeking to have all the testimony from a 1967 federal conspiracy trial ?- expected to be a large part of the prosecution's case ?- disallowed.

Defense attorney James McIntyre said the 1967 testimony consisted of "a lot of hearsay." He said the defense wanted to wait until a jury was impaneled to file the motion.

By Tuesday afternoon a veritable calm had settled over the courthouse square with much of the excitement from the beginning of the trial giving way to routine as jury selection continued.

The calm was amid the most extraordinary security measures ever undertaken for a trial in Neshoba County: a metal detector in the east hallway, street closures around the courthouse, designated protest areas, one lane of Beacon and Main streets barricaded around the courthouse, and dozens and dozens of law enforcement officers inside and out.

Clerks at the Neshoba County Tax Assessor's Office said though business was slower than normal Monday many residents came in to conduct their business. Very little business was conducted on Tuesday, however.

The authorities have reported no problems, although a prominent player in the case apparently received an indirect death threat, law enforcement officials and others said.

Neshoba County Sheriff Larry A. Myers, however, said he could not comment and referred questions to the state Highway Patrol.

A lone protester appeared Monday without incident in the designated protest area.

The widow, Rita Schwerner-Bender, sat directly behind Killen's wife. Ben Chaney, the brother of James Chaney, sat behind her. Three seats to the right were two out-of-state Klansmen.

Two hundred twenty-one journalists from 60 different media organizations have registered with the Neshoba County Circuit Clerk so far.

CNN was broadcasting live from the court square Monday as were numerous Mississippi television stations.

When testimony gets under way, among the witnesses expected for the defense is former Philadelphia Mayor Harlan Majure, who said this week he recalls speaking to Killen at a funeral home the night of the murders.

"I was with Edgar Ray Killen the night the murders took place," he said.

Majure said he remembers the night because visitation was held for his young niece.

They were at the McClain-Hays funeral home downtown (now The Neshoba Democrat building). Majure said he was surprised to see Killen there. "I looked and I thought, ?'That's Edgar Ray Killen.' Of course I've known him all my life," Majure said.

"I don't remember now what time it was," the former two-term mayor said. "But I remember the conversation very well."

Majure, who was not mayor of the city until years after the murders, said Killen had come to the funeral home that night not to visit Majure's niece, but to visit a friend who had died, Alex Rich, whose visitation was being held simultaneously upstairs.

A list of scheduled witnesses for the defense also includes the Rev. Kermit Sharp, Oscar Kenneth Killen and Kenneth Graham.

Sharp said he is a retired minister and lives near Killen.

Oscar Kenneth Killen is one of Edgar Ray Killen's brothers.

An updated list of witnesses for the trial shows that the prosecution is planning to call one more witness than the seven previously disclosed.

The additional witness, Nell Miller, is the wife of the late Meridian Police Sgt. Wallace Miller.

Sgt. Miller testified in the 1967 federal trial that he had been a member of the Klan and that he and Killen grew up in the same vicinity and were classmates.

Mrs. Miller, now 62, said in an interview with The Clarion-Ledger last year that her family suffered harassment, intimidation and violence because the Klan believed her husband was the informant who told the FBI were the three civil rights workers were buried in 1964.

Other witnesses for the prosecution include Joseph M. Hatcher, Harry Wiggs, and five men who were defendants in the 1967 trial: Billy Wayne Posey, Jimmie Snowden, Jimmy Arledge, Olen Burrage and Pete Harris.

Posey, Snowden and Arledge were convicted in 1967. Burrage and Harris were acquitted.

Out-of-state Klansmen have attended both days of proceedings so far.

"We didn't bring any trouble to anybody," said Charles Denton, a member of the American White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan from Florida who initially gave reporters an alias. "We came up here to support (Killen) and his family in this trial as much as we can."

Defense attorney McIntyre said Monday that he didn't want the Klan at the trial, and that if any members showed up, he would ask to have them removed from the courtroom.

Denton said that he hadn't talked with McIntyre, and didn't care whether he wanted the Klan to be at the trial. "It's a free country," he said.

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I posted something about this on the Mr. Piffka quotes thread yesterday, or the day before.

I used to live in a housing co-op where the floors in one building were C,S and G, for Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman. This case was part of our daily life there in the late 1970's. There were slightly older people living there who'd been in 'the movement' in the states at the times of the murders.

I find this trial quite interesting, and I think it's important that it's covered well. Even though I was only 13 in 1964, I can remember the news coverage.

To my way of thinking, with the amount of time that has passed, it's even more urgent that justice be done. It's no different with some of the Nazi war criminals that have been caught over the past decades. Same kind of idea, so to speak.

By the way, on a personal note, 'Reyn' is pronounced as 'wren', like the bird. Not as 'rain'. :wink:

<accidental duplicate post deleted>

Thanks for your input Beth. Very interesting. I hope you will comment from time to time.

By the way, would love some Canadian comment HERE , if you're interested.

I was just funnin' ya, Boss, havin' a little word play there.

I lived in the South then, and the turmoil was not limited to the areas which grabbed the most headlines. The murder of the mother from Michigan haunted me for years, because i felt she was an innocent who, while living fully up to her ideals, really had no clue what she faced. Many, perhaps most, Southerners saw the justice of the Civil Rights movement, but they were silenced by the hostility of a vocal few with strong political connections. It is a subject which wrenches at many hearts. Although i lived most of my young life in the South, the fact that i had been born in New York was sufficient to be the target of sudden and viciously hateful attacks by kids i'd known all my life. It was a horrible time for all involved, except for the few loonies who made it such a nightmare.

I fully agree, hunt 'em down, lock 'em up, throw away the key.

Background to the murder of the three civil rights workers.

44 DAYS IN 1964

Bodies of missing trio found buried in levee /August 6, 1964

The Neshoba Democrat
Wednesday, June 09, 2004

The bodies of three missing civil rights workers who disappeared here on June 21 were uncovered in a dam of a pond by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday Aug. 4. Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, both white, of New York and James Chaney, Negro, of Meridian, were last seen leaving Philadelphia on June 21 after paying a fine for speeding.

The bodies were found buried about 17 feet under the levee of the pond. It was learned that the dragline was moved into the area sometime Tuesday, thereby leaving the impression that the agents were fairly sure of what they would find.

The bodies of Schwerner and Goodman were positively identified by the FBI, and Chaney is expected to be shortly, it was learned. The FBI Office in Jackson said the intensive search by agents, the Highway Patrol and Sailors from the Naval Air Station in Meridian helped lead to the discovery. The fact that the dam was built only recently caused the agents to concentrate their search at the spot.

As soon as the announcement was made that the bodies had been found, a blockade of FBI agents and Highway Patrol was thrown up around the entire area.

Coroner Fulton Jackson impaneled a jury Wednesday morning and visited the scene, but the bodies by that time had been removed to University Hospital in Jackson for examination. The coroner's jury was composed of Jack Thrash, H. C. Breazeale, E. C. Parker, Jack Weatherford, Joe Coghlan, and S. B. Simmons.

Coroner Jackson said he would not release any information or make any announcement as to the cause of the trio's death until the report from Jackson was furnished his office.

It is believed that the trio was shot, either with a rifle or pistol, and it was learned that bullets were found in each of the three bodies. This information was learned by a very reliable source, who's identity cannot be revealed at this time. The bodies were not mutilated in any way, the source said.

The FBI would not say whether any arrests would be made at this time and would not name any suspects.

The first word of the finding of the bodies was heard over television about 6:45 Tuesday evening, when the regular program at that hour was interrupted.

The farm on which the bodies were found is known as the old John Townsend place, but owned now by Mr. Burrage.

The FBI said an announcement would be made as soon as possible on the exact causes of death, which would come some time after the completion of the autopsy in Jackson.

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Historical context of 1964 civil rights murders

The Neshoba Democrat
Wednesday, April 28, 2004

An observance commemorating the 40th anniversary of the civil rights murders is planned June 20 in Philadelphia. Leading up to that observance the Democrat will reprint selected articles from our coverage in 1964 fitting with the observance theme: Recognition, resolution, redemption: Uniting for justice.

The following provides historical context for the first installment that appeared in the print edition on April 28, 2004.

?- Jim Prince

On June 21, 1964, three civil rights workers were murdered in Neshoba County. The trio had come here to investigate the burning of the Mt. Zion Methodist Church in the Longdale community off of Mississippi 16 east.

The night the church was burned three parishioners were beaten, some severely. The murders of Michael Schwerner, 24, James Chaney, 21, and Andrew Goodman, 20, were part of a plot hatched by the Lauderdale County unit of the Ku Klux Klan and carried out by members of the Neshoba County unit.

The civil rights workers were part of a broader national movement that hoped to begin a voter registration drive in this area, part of the Mississippi Summer Project, what became known as Freedom Summer.

A coalition of civil rights organizations known as COFO (Council of Federated Organizations) conceived of a project in the state with massive numbers of student volunteers who would converge on the state to register black voters and to conduct "freedom schools" which would offer curriculum of black history and arts to children throughout the state.

Chaney, a plasterer, had grown up in Meridian, in nearby Lauderdale County, and even as a young student had been interested in civil rights work. Schwerner, a Jewish New Yorker, came south to Meridian to set up the COFO office because he believed he could help prevent the spread of hate that had resulted in the Holocaust, an event that had taken the lives of some of his family.

Chaney volunteered at the Meridian office, and the two young men began to make visits to Neshoba County to find residents there to sponsor voter registration drives and freedom schools. They made contact with members of Mt. Zion Methodist Church and Mt. Nebo Missionary Baptist Church, as well as other individuals. They made plans for a COFO project in the area.

Tensions were mounting that summer as some of Mississippi's segregationist newspapers propagated the idea of a "pending invasion" of civil rights workers. The state was a powder keg, as the Ku Klux Klan increasingly made its presence known and fears were heightened among both blacks and whites. In April 1964 the Klan burned about a dozen crosses in Neshoba County. The Neshoba Democrat spoke against the cross burnings and the coercion and intimidation employed by the Klan.

The Ku Klux Klan and other groups had become more active in response to increasing civil rights activity, especially since the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision outlawing school segregation. In addition to the Klan's resistance, the state of Mississippi was continuing to monitor activists through the Sovereignty Commission, which worked in conjunction with the White Citizens Council, to use economic intimidation and threats to attempt to keep blacks in subservient positions.

Undertaking such struggles for equality, exemplified by the trio was dangerous and courageous work. The work was so bold that the Klan vowed to stop it, even putting Schwerner on a hit list and giving him a code name "Goatee."

In mid-June, Chaney and Schwerner traveled to Oxford, Ohio, to participate in the Freedom Summer volunteers training session being held there. While they were away, on June 16, Klansman assaulted members of the Mt. Zion church, looking for Chaney and Schwerner. Later in the evening, they burned the church to the ground. Having been alerted of the attack, Chaney and Schwerner, joined by new volunteer Goodman immediately drove south to investigate and offer solace to the church members.

On Sunday afternoon, June 21, Father's Day, the three young men drove to Philadelphia from Meridian and visited members of Mt. Zion. On the way back through town they were pulled over by a sheriff's deputy. Chaney was charged with speeding and Schwerner and Goodman were held on suspicion of burning the Mt. Zion church.

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More background before the bodies of the civil rights workers were found.

Missing auto of trio found by FBI Tuesday (1964)

The Neshoba democrat
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
June 25, 1964

The car driven by three integrationists who disappeared after being arrested last Sunday night here has been found by Federal Bureau of Investigation officers about 13 miles from Philadelphia, in the northeast corner of Neshoba County.

The car, a 1963 or 1964 Ford station wagon, was located in heavy sweetgum growth on Highway 21, about 100 feet from the Bogue Chitto creek and about 100 feet off the highway. The station wagon had been burned.

The whereabouts of the three persons arrested in the car Sunday night, Andy Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24, both white, of New York, and Negro James Chaney, 21, of Meridian, is still unknown. FBI agents, the Mississippi Highway Patrol and the Neshoba County Sheriff's office are continuing the search for the three who were arrested for speeding Sunday night about 6:00 o'clock and fined $20.00. Chaney was driving the car when stopped by [a sheriff's deputy]. The three paid the fine and were released about 10:30 p.m., said [the deputy].

He said they signed a release slip at the county jail and that he followed them to the intersection of Main Street and Highway 19, the route to Meridian, from where the trio had come Sunday. The two New Yorkers and Meridianite said they were here to investigate the burning of the Mt. Zion Negro church last Tuesday night.

The search for the three has been underway since they were reported missing by the Congress of Federated Organizations (COFO) in New York Monday morning. It has not been established yet what caused the church to burn. Three Negroes were reported to have been beaten by about 300 white persons the same night, but no report was made to local law enforcement officers, either about the fire or the beatings. The church is located about 12 miles east of Philadelphia near the Longdale community which is predominantly Negro.

After finding the burned station wagon about 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, the FBI roped off the area and took every clue from the car and area which might give them a clue as to what might have happened to the three occupants. Impressions of footprints near the car were made and the contents of the burned car were carefully collected by the agents. They would not reveal how they found the vehicle or what led them to its location. Rumors were that a passerby found it and reported it to the Meridian office of the FBI. There were other rumors that a helicopter located it and still another was that a resident in the area notified the officers.

At one time there were between 12 and 15 FBI agents investigating the car and immediate area. After they were through scrutinizing the vehicle, about 5:30 p.m., they started a search in the area for the three missing men. However, it was becoming cloudy and rain started to fall and most of them came back to their autos on the highway.

The automobile had a Hinds County tag, number H25503, and was reported to be registered to CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) in Canton.

Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence Rainey was not present when the trio was arrested. He was in Meridian where his wife had undergone an operation a few days before.

Out-of-town and out-of-state newsmen began pouring into Philadelphia Monday and continued through yesterday, (Wednesday). Among them were reporters from the Associated Press, United Press-International, the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Minneapolis Times, Newsweek, Life, CBS and NBC television, WDSU-TV New Orleans and several others.

The two missing white men are both from New York, Goodman from Queens and Schwerner from Brooklyn. Schwerner has been in Meridian for about six months, it was reported, while Goodman is a "student volunteer" who had been in Meridian for only a few days. Chaney is a resident of Meridian. The city of Meridian is one of the centers in the state from which the COFO has headquarters for the summer.

Mississippi Highway patrolmen started pouring into Philadelphia Tuesday afternoon and by Wednesday there was an estimated 200 in the area. Negro James Farmer, national director of CORE, of Washington, D.C., was expected in Meridian Tuesday night, it was reported, to help with the investigation. Just what authority he has or would have was not learned.

The search for the missing trio continues in the county, with the FBI, Highway Patrol and local officers centering their activities Wednesday afternoon in the area where the car was found and between Philadelphia and Meridian on Highway 19.

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