There is a new glimmer of hope that trying Edgar Ray Killen for the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner could lead to a more meaningful pursuit of justice than can be had by focusing only on Killen.
Edgar Ray Killen, accused of collaborating with law officers and others in the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers, boasted a decade later that he had law enforcement support to carry out violence.
The statement is on a tape of a telephone call Killen made June 21, 1974 — exactly 10 years after the Klan's June 21, 1964, slayings of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman.
Legal experts say the tape, discovered by The Clarion-Ledger in an old court file, could be used as evidence against Killen when he goes on trial June 13. . . .
In a 1999 interview with The Clarion-Ledger, Killen said he had a role in the state's 1958 arrest of Clennon King when King tried to become the first known black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. "We had plainclothesmen there," Killen said. "When they pulled back their coats, they had .45s underneath. That's why (King) went berserk."
Records of the state's now defunct segregationist spy agency, the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, show plainclothes officers surrounded King much of the day he was arrested June 5, 1958, after he was refused admission to Ole Miss.
[Don] Cochran said these two statements combined show Killen is saying his relationship was so close with law enforcement officers he could give them orders or conspire with them to carry out violence between 1958 and 1974 — a period that includes the 1964 killings.
Cochran said he believes these statements are admissible — just as was footage prosecutors introduced in the 2002 murder trial of Bobby Cherry for the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four girls.
In that trial, the judge ruled jurors could watch the 1957 footage of Cherry beating the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth after the black preacher tried to enroll his children at an all-white Birmingham school. . . .
With regard to the 1964 killings, the tape of Killen's phone call would provide evidence regarding the plan he reportedly carried out with law enforcement, Cochran said.
Stanley Dearman, a former reporter for The Meridian Star, said Killen's relationship with law enforcement was so close in 1964 he rode in a patrol car and hung out at the Meridian Police Department, where many officers were in the Klan.
(Whole thing, emphasis added.)
Related Articles:
• Preacher refused plea deal in '75
• Statements show Killen's role
• Transcript of 1975 phone conversation
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