Neshoba Murders Case update, 9/13/04

[Yom Kippur is over, so I was catching up on some blogs and saw this at Prometheus 6, which reminded me I meant to put up the following overview of persons who faced federal charges in the 1960s for the murders of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner. This overview is courtesy of the Arkansas Delta Peace and Justice Center. For a companion to piece to Earl's thing at P6 and the overview, below, see Highways to Nowhere by Wallace Roberts.]

Persons who faced federal charges in the 1960s

No one has ever faced state murder charges or any other state charge.

Listed below: name, living or deceased, present residence.

1964
December 4, 1964

•FBI arrests 21 suspects in connection with the murders of the three civil rights workers.

•The 19 men charged with conspiring to deprive the three young men of their constitutional rights are:

Bernard Akin - deceased

Jimmy Arledge - living, Meridian, MS

Horace Doyle Barnette - deceased

Travis Maryn Barnette - deceased

Otha Neal Burkes - deceased

Olen Burrage - living, Philadelphia, MS

James Thomas "Pete" Harris - living, Meridian, MS

Frank Herndon - deceased

James Edward Jordan - deceased

Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen - living, Union, MS

Billy Wayne Posey - living, Meridian, MS

Deputy Cecil Price* - deceased

Sheriff Lawrence Rainey - deceased

Alton Wayne Roberts - deceased

Jerry McGrew Sharpe - deceased

Jimmy Snowden - living, Hickory, MS

Jimmy Lee Townsend - deceased

Herman Tucker - deceased

Oliver Warner - deceased

•The two men arrested on charges of withholding knowledge of a felony are:

Earl Akin - deceased

Tommy Horne - living, Meridian, MS

1965
January, 15, 1965

•FBI arrests 18 in connection with the trio's killings. Original defendants Earl Akin, Burkes, Horne and Warner aren't indicted. Philadelphia Patrolman Richard Willis is added as a suspect.

•Original defendants not indicted are:

Earl Akin - deceased

Otha Neal Burkes - deceased

Tommy Horne - living, Meridian, MS

Oliver Warner - deceased

•Added as a suspect is:

Philadelphia Patrolman Richard Willis - living, Noxapater, MS

1967
Feb. 28, 1967

•A federal grand jury indicts a new group of 19 defendants:

Bernard Akin - deceased

Jimmy Arledge - living, Meridian, MS

Former and future sheriff E.G. "Hop" Barnett - deceased

Horace Doyle Barnette - deceased

Travis Maryn Barnette - deceased

Klan Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers - living, Central MS Correctional Facility

Olen Burrage - living, Philadelphia, MS

James Thomas "Pete" Harris - living, Meridian,MS

Frank Herndon - deceased

James Edward Jordan - deceased

Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen - living, Union, MS

Billy Wayne Posey - living, Meridian, MS

Deputy Cecil Price* - deceased

Sheriff Lawrence Rainey - deceased

Alton Wayne Roberts - deceased

Jerry McGrew Sharpe - deceased

Jimmy Snowden - living, Hickory, MS

Herman Tucker -deceased

Philadelphia Patrolman Richard Willis - living, Noxapater, MS

Oct. 20, 1967

•The jury convicts of conspiracy:

Jimmy Arledge - living, Meridian, MS

Horace Doyle Barnette - deceased

Klan Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers - living, Central MS Correctional Facility

Billy Wayne Posey - living, Meridian, MS

Deputy Cecil Price* - deceased

Alton Wayne Roberts - deceased

Jimmy Snowden - living, Hickory, MS

•The jury acquits:

Bernard Akin - deceased

Travis Maryn Barnette - deceased

Olen Burrage - living, Philadelphia, MS

James Thomas "Pete" Harris - living, Meridian, MS

Frank Herndon - deceased

Sheriff Lawrence Rainey - deceased

Herman Tucker - deceased

Philadelphia Patrolman Richard Willis - living, Noxapater, MS

•Three men receive mistrials:

E.G. "Hop" Barnette - deceased

Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen - living, Union, MS

Jerry McGrew Sharpe - deceased

•Bowers and Roberts receive 10-year sentences; Price and Posey, six years; Arledge, Snowden and Horace Doyle Barnette, three years. By 1970, their appeals exhausted, they go to prison. None serve more than 6 years. Mississippi never charges anyone with murder or with anything else.

2001
May 6, 2001

•Cecil Price, who had begun to cooperate with state authorities investigating the trio's deaths, died of head injuries allegedly suffered in a fall. There were no reported witnesses to the alleged fall.